Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 1, Verse 25: Arjuna to Krishna — Arjuna-Viṣāda-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Kṛṣṇa stations the chariot before Bhīṣma, Droṇa, and all the assembled kings — *mahīkṣitām* (lords of the earth) — and calls out: *pārtha paśyaitān samavetān kurūn* — 'Pārtha, behold these gathered Kurus.' The address 'Pārtha,' son of Pṛthā, binds Arjuna to *mātr̥*-lineage and embodied identity, the very station from which *avidyā* (nescience) will erupt into *viṣāda* (despondency). The scene is *arthavāda* — narrative ground, not yet *upadeśa* (philosophical instruction). *Saṃsāra* (the round of conditioned becoming) stages itself here: the armies arrayed, the teacher present, the student still lost in the identification of *ātman* (the self) with body, clan, and the prospect of their destruction. What follows in Arjuna's collapse is the lived exhibition of *adhyāsa* (superimposition) — the confusion of the non-self with the self — which makes the entire *upadeśa* of chapters two onward both possible and necessary. Kṛṣṇa's command to 'behold' is not yet liberating *darśana* (vision); it is the precipitating look that deepens *moha* (delusion) before *jñāna* (knowledge) can dissolve it.

  divergence: Śaṅkara's bhāṣya opens at 2.10; BG 1 is treated as *arthavāda*, contextual narrative below the threshold of philosophical *upadeśa*. The advaita reading here is reconstructed from his stated hermeneutic — specifically his *adhyāsa-bhāṣya* and the framing verses of his Gītā introduction — applied directly to the mūla.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Rāmānuja's commentary notes that the moment Arjuna gave the instruction, Kṛṣṇa carried it out without hesitation — 'tatkṣaṇād eva' (that very instant) — positioning the chariot so that Bhīṣma, Droṇa, and all the assembled kings became fully visible. This instantaneous obedience is not servility; it is the supreme sovereign's demonstration that kainkarya (devoted service) flows downward from Bhagavān to the devotee as a model: the Lord serves his bhakta precisely to show how the bhakta ought to serve the Lord. Kṛṣṇa then announced, as if narrating a victory already settled, that this is the condition of their forces — a quiet declaration that the Pāṇḍava cause stands intact.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'sa ca tena coditaḥ tatkṣaṇād eva bhīṣmadroṇādīnāṃ sarveṣām eva mahīkṣitāṃ paśyatāṃ yathācoditam akarot. īdṛśī bhavadīyānāṃ vijayasthitiḥ iti ca avocat.'

• Madhvadvaita

  Madhvācārya's commentary is not present in the supplied panel for this verse. In his Gītā-Tātparya-Nirṇaya (the doctrinal gloss he wrote alongside the bhāṣya), Madhva consistently treats Kṛṣṇa's smallest acts as manifestations of His uttama-svātantrya (absolute independent sovereignty), never conditioned by the jīva's request. The command 'paśya etān' would carry for Madhva the force of Hari's direct epistemic grant: Arjuna is permitted to see, and the seeing is itself grace. The soldiers before him are instruments of Hari's will; their distinctness from one another and from Hari is real and eternal — bhedas (differences) that no vision of battle can collapse.

  divergence: ABSENT — Madhva bhāṣya not supplied for BG 1.25. This rendering reconstructs his voice from the doctrinal norms of Dvaita as stated in his Gītā-bhāṣya preamble and Tātparya-Nirṇaya.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha's joint gloss on 1.24–1.25 fixes on a single word: 'yathoktam' — Kṛṣṇa did exactly as was said. In Puṣṭi-mārga this is not mere compliance; it is Bhagavān entering into the līlā (divine play) on Arjuna's terms, allowing His own sevaka (devotee-servant) to script the stage. The positioning of the chariot, the naming of Bhīṣma and Droṇa, the display of the assembled kings — all of this is Kṛṣṇa's prasāda (grace-gift) wearing the costume of a charioteer following orders. Arjuna believes he has issued a command; Vallabha sees Kṛṣṇa choreographing the exact vision that will break Arjuna open so that the Gītā-upadeśa (the discourse's instruction) may enter.

  divergence: Vallabha (on 1.24–1.25): 'evam uktaḥ sa bhagavān vāsudevaḥ sarveṣāṃ bhīṣmādīnāṃ pramukhataś ca yathoktaṃ darśayan cakāra.'

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara Svāmī is crisp and philological: Kṛṣṇa positioned the chariot in front of — in the direct sight-line of — the grandfathers, Droṇa, and the assembled kings, and then said to Arjuna, 'Pārtha, behold these Kurus.' The use of 'pramukha' (foremost, in front of) is precise: the chariot does not merely stand between the armies, it is placed so that the most eminent commanders become unavoidable objects of Arjuna's gaze. Śrīdhara reads no dramaturgy beyond the text; the verse is the hinge-pin on which the vision of kinsmen turns.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'mahīkṣitāṃ pitāmahadroṇarājñāṃ ca pramukhataḥ saṃmukhe rathaṃ sthāpayitvā he pārtha etān kurūn paśya ity uvāca.' [HTML artifacts stripped; Sanskrit content only used.]

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana Sarasvatī reads the entire scene as Kṛṣṇa's purposive orchestration: Saṃjaya informs Dhṛtarāṣṭra that Kṛṣṇa, who is Hṛṣīkeśa (master of all senses, sarveṣāṃ nigūḍhābhiprāyajña — knower of all hidden intentions), already foresaw Arjuna's approaching śoka-moha (grief-delusion) and arranged the vision accordingly. The address 'Pārtha' is a deliberate sting: Pṛthā is a woman, and the word quietly implies that Arjuna is about to behave with the emotionalism of his maternal lineage — a goad that will later shame him into heroism. The chariot, called 'rathottama' (the supreme chariot, fire-gifted and divine), placed before Bhīṣma and Droṇa separately named to mark their supreme pre-eminence, is not positioned randomly; it is the precision instrument of the Lord's pedagogical design.

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'sarvesāṃ nigūḍhābhiprāyajño bhagavān arjunasya śokamohaāv upasthitāv iti vijñāya sopahāsam arjunam uvāca. he pārtha pṛthāyāḥ strīsvabhāvena śokamohagrastatayā… hṛṣīkeśatvam ātmano darśayati.'