Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 1, Verse 24: Arjuna to Krishna — Arjuna-Viṣāda-Yoga
Addressed by Arjuna, Krishna drove the finest chariot to the open ground between both armies and held it there.
Bhāṣyakāra purports
- Śaṅkaraadvaita
Śaṅkarācārya's bhāṣya on this verse is absent — his commentary opens at 2.10, treating chapters 1 and the first nine verses of chapter 2 as narrative preamble rather than doctrinal text requiring exposition. The verse stands on its own mūla: Hṛṣīkeśa (the lord of the senses — hṛṣīka, "sense-organ," plus īśa, "master") placed the finest chariot between both armies, enacting the first silent demonstration that the ātman is already the true driver, the indriya-saṃyamin (one who has mastered the senses), even before a single word of the Gītā is spoken. The entire apparatus of war is a stage set by the one who controls all indriyas (sense-organs), and the disciple Arjuna — Guḍākeśa ("master of Guḍākā," i.e., of sleep or torpor) — has done no more than ask.
- Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra: the moment Arjuna spoke, Hṛṣīkeśa — Bhagavān in his role as charioteer-servant (sārathi) — obeyed instantly, without hesitation, placing the ratha (chariot) precisely as commanded, in full sight of Bhīṣma, Droṇa, and all the assembled kings. Rāmānuja reads this instant compliance as the paradigm of kainkarya (loving service): Bhagavān himself models the stance of the perfect bhakta — yathācoditam akarot, "he did exactly as directed" — demonstrating that even the supreme Bhagavān inhabits the mode of śeṣa (dependent subordination) when love calls for it. Sañjaya also signals the ultimate outcome of the Pāṇḍava cause — "such is the victorious situation of yours" — assuring Dhṛtarāṣṭra that Bhagavān's presence with Arjuna is itself the guarantee of vijaya (victory).
- Madhvadvaita
Madhva's bhāṣya on this verse is absent from the supplied panel. From the Dvaita standpoint, the mūla is read as an act of sovereign will: Hṛṣīkeśa — Hari, the eternally independent lord — placed the ratha between the armies not because Arjuna's command compelled him, but because Hari's own intention (svecchā) expressed itself through the form of obedience. Guḍākeśa's instruction is an occasion, not a cause; the jīva (Arjuna, eternally distinct from Brahman) can request but cannot constrain. The placement of the chariot between both armies — ubhayor madhye — signals Hari's omniscient vantage: he alone sees both sides without confusion or attachment.
- Vallabhaśuddhādvaita
Bhagavān Vāsudeva — the full and self-complete lord of Puṣṭi-mārga — showed everything exactly as Arjuna asked, placing himself and the chariot in front of Bhīṣma and all the great ones: this is pure līlā (divine play), and within it, prasāda (grace unearned). Vallabha's bhāṣya (covering 1.24–1.25 together) emphasizes yathoktaṃ darśayan cakāra — "he caused the showing as spoken" — where the chariot's placement is not mere logistics but an act of divine darśana (auspicious vision), a gift of the field of battle as sacred spectacle. The devotee who watches Bhagavān obey Arjuna with such immediacy receives the teaching that Kṛṣṇa's servitude itself overflows with grace: even the role of sārathi (charioteer) is an ornament of his vibhūti (divine self-manifestation).
- Śrīdharabhakti
Sañjaya, responding to the implied question "what happened next?", explains: Arjuna who is called Guḍākeśa — the master of Guḍākā (sleep), meaning the one who has conquered torpor and inertia — gave the command, and Hṛṣīkeśa placed the supreme ratha (rathottamam, the foremost of chariots) in the midst of both armies. Śrīdhara's gloss on Guḍākeśa — guḍākā nidrā tasyāḥ īśena jitanidreṇa, "one who has mastered Guḍākā, i.e., sleep" — signals that Arjuna is no ordinary seeker: he asks with a wakeful, alert mind, not from confusion. Yet the very next moment his wakeful clarity will give way to the grief that opens the Gītā's teaching, making the epithet quietly ironic: a master of sleep who is about to be overtaken by another form of delusion.
- Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti
Madhusūdana reads the entire narrative frame — Sañjaya addressing Dhṛtarāṣṭra as "Bhārata" — as itself a moral intervention: Sañjaya uses the honorific of lineage (bharatavaṃśamaryādā, the dignity of the Bharata line) to urge Dhṛtarāṣṭra silently to abandon treachery toward his kinsmen. Bhagavān, though assigned the role of charioteer by Arjuna, did not take offense (na akupyat) and did not deflect the command — he placed the rathottamam (the divinely gifted, fire-born chariot, adhiṣṭhita by Bhagavān himself as sārathi) facing Bhīṣma and Droṇa before all the assembled kings, omnisciently aware (sarveṣāṃ nigūḍhābhiprājñaḥ) that Arjuna's śoka (grief) and moha (delusion) were already approaching. The address "Pārtha" in the next verse — Pṛthā's son — Madhusūdana reads as a gentle taunt: Pṛthā's womanly susceptibility to grief is being mirrored in her son, and Bhagavān names it even as he positions the chariot.