Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 10, Verse 4: Krishna to Arjuna — Vibhūti-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Śaṅkara enumerates twenty qualities — buddhi (the inner organ's capacity to discern subtle objects), jñāna (direct apprehension of ātman and other realities), asaṃmoha (discriminative action amid present obligations), kṣamā (unperturbed mind even when struck or abused), satya (speech that conveys one's own experience exactly as heard or seen, for the benefit of another's understanding), dama (restraint of the outer senses), śama (quieting of the inner organ), sukha (elation), duḥkha (affliction), bhava (arising), abhāva (its opposite), bhaya (terror), and abhaya (its opposite) — all proceeding from the Lord alone. The point is not that these states are virtues to cultivate but that they arise from a single sovereign source; the seeker who sees this source directly transcends the oscillation between them.

  divergence: Śaṅkara's gloss: buddhi = 'sūkṣmādyarthāvabodhanasāmarthyam' (capacity to apprehend subtle objects); jñāna = 'ātmādapadārthānāmavabodhaḥ' (apprehension of ātman and other referents); asaṃmoha = 'vivekpūrvikā pravṛttiḥ' (action preceded by discrimination); kṣamā = 'āvikṛtacittatā' (unmodified mind-state); satya = speech uttered exactly as experienced to cross over into another's understanding.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Rāmānuja reads the verse as Bhagavān's declaration that every psychic disposition sustaining creation arises from His saṃkalpa (sovereign will). Buddhi is the mind's power of determination; jñāna is definite cognition of the distinction between cit and acit; asaṃmoha is the cessation of false category-transfer (mistaking shell for silver); bhaya is the suffering born of perceiving the cause of future pain; abhaya is its removal. Crucially, Rāmānuja adds that the entire verse concerns manovṛtti (mental dispositions), situating both outer acts (tapas, dāna) and inner states (tuṣṭi, samatā) within the Lord's orchestration of his body — the universe of conscious and material reals — so that each state is simultaneously a description of cosmological order and an invitation to surrender the will into Bhagavān's.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'evamādyāḥ sarvēṣāṃ bhūtānāṃ bhāvāḥ pravṛttinivṛttihētavo manovṛttayo matta eva matsaṃkalpāyattāḥ bhavanti' — all dispositions causing activity and cessation in every being arise from Me alone, governed by My will.

• Madhvadvaita

  Madhva sharpens the definitions polemically: buddhi is decisional cognition of what should and should not be done (kāryākāryaviniścaya), distinct from jñāna which is mere apprehension (pratīti) — he cites an authoritative lexical rule distinguishing them. Dama is restraint of the senses; śama, critically, is not mere mind-quieting but niṣṭhā in Paramātman — citational support from the Bhāgavata ('śamo mannniṣṭhatā buddher'). The verse thus enumerates qualities that are distinct real attributes of distinct real jīvas, each ultimately dependent on Hari, never collapsible into identity with the source from which they proceed.

  divergence: Madhva's lexical rule: 'jñānaṃ pratītirbuddhistu kāryākāryaviniścayaḥ'; śama defined as 'paramātmani niṣṭhā' (establishment in Paramātman), citing Bhāgavata 11.17.36.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha's gloss spans 10.4–5 and reads the enumeration as Kṛṣṇa's acintya-aiśvarya (inconceivable sovereign power) manifesting through the three paths. Buddhi is the form of tattva-adhyavasāya (decisive ascertainment of reality); jñāna is upadeśa-born knowledge; all twenty states — including sorrow and fear — proceed from Kṛṣṇa because He is the primary agent (mukhyaṃ kartṛtvaṃ) and the ultimate cause (sarvakāraṇatvaṃ), while prakṛti and other factors are merely instrumental. This is not theodicy but praśaṃsā: that even duḥkha and bhaya descend as prasāda means the devotee receives the full range of experience as Kṛṣṇa's līlā-gift, suited to each adhikārin's path.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'mārgatrayādhiṣṭhātāhaṃ yathāmārgānusaraṇaṃ tattadadhikṛtāya tathaiva duḥkhaṃ sukhaṃ prayacchāmīti bhāvaḥ' — I am the overseer of the three paths and give joy and sorrow exactly as each path requires.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara Svāmī frames the verse as the Lord's explicit demonstration of His status as loka-maheśvara (sovereign lord of the worlds). Buddhi is 'sārāsāravivekanaipaṇyam' (skill in discriminating the essential from the non-essential); jñāna is specifically ātma-viṣaya (directed toward the self); asaṃmoha is the absence of confusion (vyākulatvābhāvaḥ); kṣamā is forbearance; satya is yathārtha-bhāṣaṇam (speech in accordance with reality). The verse carries its meaning in the next verse's connection: all these arise from Me alone — locating devotion as the natural response to recognizing that every capacity one possesses, including the capacity for bhakti itself, is a bestowal.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'lokamahēśvaratāmeva sphuṭayati — buddhiriti tribhiḥ' — the Lord makes His sovereignty over all worlds manifest in these three verses.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana synthesizes by situating the enumeration within the Lord's loka-maheśvaratva (sovereignty), while giving the definitions Advaita precision and a bhakti coloration. Buddhi is 'sūkṣmārthavivekasāmarthyam' (capacity for discrimination of subtle objects); jñāna is apprehension of all objects from ātman outward; asaṃmoha is action in present obligations without confusion, by discrimination; sukha is experience caused by dharma as its extraordinary cause (dharmāsādhāraṇakāraṇam), and duḥkha conversely by adharma. The two final instances of 'ca' (eva ca / ca) signal: first, summation of what has been listed; second, inclusion of what has not been listed — the entire universe of psychic states. For Madhusūdana, recognizing Kṛṣṇa as the origin of both joy and suffering does not cancel devotion but grounds it: the bhakta's love rests on a fact, not a sentiment.

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'evaṃ ca ekacakāra uktasamuccayārthaḥ, aparo'nuktābuddhyajñānādisamuccayārthaḥ' — one 'ca' gathers what has been said, the other gathers all that has not been said.