Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 1, Verse 10: Arjuna to Krishna — Arjuna-Viṣāda-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Duryodhana's anxious arithmetic — *aparyāptam* (immeasurable, inexhaustible) our force guarded by Bhīṣma, *paryāptam* (limited, exhaustible) theirs guarded by Bhīma — operates entirely within *vyavahāra* (conventional transactional appearance), the domain where *avidyā* (ignorance) projects multiplicity onto the one undivided *ātman*. The two armies, the two commanders, the asymmetry of strength: all are *adhyāsa* (superimposition), distinctions held in place by the same ignorance that makes Duryodhana count *asmākam* (ours) against *eteṣām* (theirs). From the standpoint of *paramārtha* (ultimate reality), there is no Bhīṣma-protected force and no Bhīma-protected force; there is only *brahman*, appearing as this battlefield pageant through *māyā*. The verse is thus itself a compressed exhibit of *saṃsāric* cognition: the calculating mind that sees two sides, measures them, and fears — a mind that has not yet heard *tat tvam asi*.

  divergence: The verse admits two readings of *aparyāptam* / *paryāptam* — 'immeasurable / limited' (Duryodhana boasting) or 'insufficient / sufficient' (Duryodhana expressing anxiety). The advaita reading is indifferent to which Duryodhana means, since both readings keep the discourse wholly within *vyavahāra*; either way, the cognition of opposing, quantifiable *bala* (force) is *māyā*-generated multiplicity.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Rāmānuja's commentary reads Duryodhana's strategic report as the first dramatic disclosure of his inner condition: having surveyed both the Pāṇḍava forces secured by Bhīma and his own forces secured by Bhīṣma, Duryodhana reports to his ācārya and then falls inwardly into viṣāda (dejection) — not yet the noble viṣāda of Arjuna, but a tactical despair born of comparing finite bala (armies, power). From the Viśiṣṭādvaita view, all bala ultimately belongs to Bhagavān as antaryāmin (inner ruler); the commander who calculates only military parity has not yet understood that the real kainkarya (service) is to surrender the outcome to the Lord of all three worlds (trailokya), whose charioteer-form is already present on the field.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'duryodhanaḥ svayameva... ātmīyasya balasya tad-vijaye cāparyāptatām ācāryāya nivedya antare viṣaṇṇaḥ abhavat' — Duryodhana, having personally surveyed both forces and perceived sufficiency on the Pāṇḍava side and insufficiency on his own for victory, reported to his ācārya and became inwardly despondent.

• Madhvadvaita

  Madhvācārya's bhāṣya on 1.10 is absent from the supplied panel. From first principles of Dvaita, however, the verse presents a precise illustration of svātantrya (independent agency) versus paratantrya (dependent existence): Duryodhana commits the fundamental Dvaita error of treating his army's bala as self-sufficient power, forgetting that jīvas (individual souls) and their capacities are entirely paratantra — real, not illusory, but wholly dependent on Hari's sanction. The contrast between 'aparyāptam' (insufficient) and 'paryāptam' (sufficient) maps not onto military arithmetic but onto the theological question of which side carries Viṣṇu's anugraha (grace).

  divergence: Absent — Madhvācārya's bhāṣya not supplied for this verse. Rendering is principled inference from Dvaita siddhānta.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha's joint commentary on verses 1.2–1.11 sees Duryodhana's strategic calculation — seeing Bhīma-protected Pāṇḍava forces as sufficient and Bhīṣma-protected Kaurava forces as insufficient — as a moment within Kṛṣṇa's own līlā (divine play). In Puṣṭi-mārga, no bala is one's own; every army, every hero, every protective formation is a vibhava (manifestation) of Kṛṣṇa's inexhaustible śakti (power). Duryodhana's dejection at perceiving asymmetry is itself prasāda in reverse: the Lord withholding the illusion of self-sufficiency so that the soul might recognize its complete dependence on Kṛṣṇa's grace alone.

  divergence: Vallabha (on 1.2–1.11): 'duryodhano'pi vṛkodarādibhī rakṣitaṃ pāṇḍavānāṃ balaṃ bhīṣmābhirakṣitaṃ svīyaṃ ca balaṃ vilokya ātmajāvijaye tadbalaśya paryāptatāṃ ātmabalasya tad-vijaye'paryāptatāṃ ca ācārye nivedyāntareva viṣaṇṇo'bhūt.' Note: Vallabha comments on verses 1.2–1.11 together; no isolated reading of 1.10 is given.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara Svāmī isolates the precise strategic logic in Duryodhana's anxiety: Bhīṣma is ubhayapakṣapātin (partial to both sides), and therefore even though the Kaurava army is numerically superior and protected by a great hero, it appears aparyāpta — unequal to the contest with the Pāṇḍavas. Bhīma, by contrast, is ekapakṣapātin (partisan to one side only), and so the smaller Pāṇḍava army protected by him appears paryāpta — fully capable. The bhakti teaching embedded here is that the quality of the guardian matters more than the quantity of the guarded: a half-hearted protector, however great, weakens the whole; single-pointed devotion (ekapakṣapāta toward the Lord) makes even a smaller force formidable.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'bhīṣmasya ubhayapakṣapātitvāt asmad-balaṃ pāṇḍavasainyaṃ pratyasamartham. bhīmasya ekapakṣapātitvāt' — because Bhīṣma is sympathetic to both parties, our army appears unequal against the Pāṇḍava force; because Bhīma is wholly partisan, the Pāṇḍava force appears capable.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana Sarasvatī presents two readings in deliberate tension. The first (straightforward): Duryodhana claims his eleven-akṣauhiṇī force, protected by the renowned Bhīṣma with subtle strategic intelligence, is 'aparyāptam' — boundless, inexhaustible — while the Pāṇḍava seven-akṣauhiṇī force protected by the impetuous Bhīma is 'paryāptam' — finite, limited; Duryodhana therefore expects victory. The second reading (ironic reversal): 'aparyāptam' means insufficient — Duryodhana secretly knows the Kaurava force cannot overcome the Pāṇḍavas — and 'paryāptam' means the Pāṇḍava force is fully adequate to defeat him. The jñāna-bhakti synthesis surfaces here: from the plane of Advaita, both readings collapse into the same truth — all distinctions of sufficient and insufficient, self and other, dissolve in the Brahman that is Kṛṣṇa, the sarvotprekṣaṇaśīla (all-surveying) presence standing at the center of both armies.

  divergence: Madhusūdana (first reading): 'aparyāptam anantam ekādaśākṣauhiṇīparimitaṃ bhīṣmeṇa ca prathitamahimnā sūkṣmabuddhinābitaḥ sarvato rakṣitam tat... eteṣāṃ pāṇḍavānāṃ balaṃ tu paryāptaṃ parimitam saptākṣauhiṇīmātrātmakatvāt.' Second reading: 'tad-pāṇḍavānāṃ balam aparyāptaṃ nālam asmābhyam... idam punar asmadīyaṃ balam eteṣāṃ pāṇḍavānāṃ paryāptaṃ paribhave samartham.'