Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 10, Verse 36: Krishna to Arjuna — Vibhūti-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Among those who practice deception (chala), I am the dyūta (dice-play), whose nature is the game of chance (akṣadevana). Among the radiant ones (tejasvī), I am their tejas (luminous power). Among the victorious I am jaya (victory); among the resolute I am vyavasāya (determined effort); and among those possessing sattva I am their very sattva. In each domain the Lord names himself not the agent but the essential quality — the Brahman-principle that makes each activity what it is, not the activity as such.

  divergence: Śaṅkara glosses dyūtam as 'akṣadevana-ādi-lakṣaṇam' (characterized by dice and the like) among 'chalasya kartṛṇām' (those who perform deception); he reads each item as the essential quality residing in its class — no moral evaluation is offered, the list is an exhaustive ontological mapping.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Among those for whom deception is the very ground of their play, I am the dyūta — the game itself in its highest form. Among victors I am jaya; among workers I am vyavasāya; and among the great-souled I am sattva, which here is mahāmanastvaṃ (greatness or magnanimity of spirit). Every capacity, even morally ambiguous ones, exists only because Bhagavān is their innermost reality (antaryāmin); nothing operates outside his supporting presence.

  divergence: Rāmānuja glosses sattva as 'mahāmanastvaṃ' — an unusual reading emphasizing nobility of character rather than the guṇa-sattva; his phrase 'chalāspadeṣu akṣa-ādi-lakṣaṇam' confines dyūta to its role as the exemplar within the domain of games-of-chance.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Dyūtam* (gambling) among the deceitful, *tejas* (brilliance) among the brilliant, *jaya* (victory), *vyavasāya* (determined resolve), and *sattva* (the quality of clarity and strength) among those who possess it — Kṛṣṇa declares himself to be each of these. In the dvaita reading, every vibhūti enumerated here is *Hari's* own *śakti* (power) operating through *paratantra* *jīvas* (eternally dependent individual selves). The *jīva* who wins does not possess victory; *jaya* is Hari's alone, and the *jīva* participates in it only by *parādhīna-śakti* (power contingent on the Lord). The sattva of the *sattvavatām* is not the *jīva*'s native quality but Hari's *sattva* communicated downward through the *taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy). Even *dyūtam chalayatām* — gambling among cheaters — names Hari as the *antarātman* (inner self) of that activity: no domain of action, however morally ambiguous, falls outside *Hari-sārvabhauma* (Hari's universal lordship). The *pañca-bheda* (five-fold real distinction) between Lord, *jīva*, and matter is not dissolved in this identification; rather, Hari's *vibhūti* pervades the *paratantra* order while remaining utterly *svatantra* (self-sufficient, independently real). *Vyavasāya* — the resolute striving of an agent — belongs to Hari as its source and sustainer; the striving *jīva* is an instrument, not an originator.

  divergence: No verse-level bhāṣya from Madhvācārya or Jayatīrtha is extant for BG 10.36. The reading is voiced directly from dvaita siddhānta primitives — *svatantra*/*paratantra*, *pañca-bheda*, *taratamya*, *parādhīna-śakti* — applied to the mūla.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  The dyūta Kṛṣṇa claims is specifically dharma-dyūta — the kind of righteous gambling that Yudhiṣṭhira represents, where dice become instruments of bhagavat-sevā (service to the Lord); yet even ordinary dice-play is a vibhūti. The tejas among the proud is ahaṃkāra-rūpa-tejas — the ego-fire that belongs to Kṛṣṇa. The jaya Kṛṣṇa claims is exemplified by Balarāma's truthful verdict in the dice-assembly (akṣa-goṣṭhī, Bhāgavata 10) — satya-vāk jaya, the victory of true speech. All worldly striving and excellence are Kṛṣṇa's own līlā-rasa flowing through finite forms.

  divergence: Vallabha explicitly links dyūta to yudhiṣṭhira's gambling as bhagavat-sevā-upayogi-krīḍā; he glosses jaya with the Balarāma-Rukmi episode (Bhāgavata 10) as satya-vāk-udita jaya; tejas is read as ahaṃkāra-rūpa.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Among the deceivers who live by mutual betrayal (anyonya-vañcana-para), I am their dyūta. Among the radiant (prabhāvavat), I am their tejas, their very prabhāva. Among victors I am jaya; among the industrious (udyamavat) I am vyavasāya, which is udyama (energetic effort). Among the sāttvika I am sattva itself. The verse maps Kṛṣṇa onto the summit of every human striving — even where that striving is morally questionable — because the divine ground sustains all.

  divergence: Śrīdhara glosses tejas as prabhāva (luminous influence/authority), vyavasāya as udyama (energetic industry), sattva as sāttvika-dharma; his gloss on dyūta adds 'anyonya-vañcana-parāṇāṃ' — those dedicated to mutual deception — giving the verse a psychologically honest edge.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Among those who strip others of everything through deception (sarvasva-apahāra-kāraṇam), I am the dyūta — the total-loss game. Among the intensely radiant (atyugra-prabhāva), I am tejas as apratihata-ājñatvaṃ — the condition of whose authority nothing can obstruct. Among victors I am jaya as utkārṣa (the excellence of the winner over the defeated). Among workers I am vyavasāya as phala-avyabhicāri-udyama — effort that invariably reaches its result. And among the sāttvika I am sattva as the fourfold sattvic fruit: dharma, jñāna, vairāgya, and aiśvarya.

  divergence: Madhusūdana provides the richest glosses: tejas = apratihata-ājñatvaṃ; vyavasāya = phala-avyabhicāri-udyama; sattva = dharma-jñāna-vairāgya-aiśvarya-lakṣaṇaṃ sattva-kāryam — not the guṇa but its fourfold functional expression.