Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 10, Verse 9: Krishna to Arjuna — Vibhūti-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Those whose citta (mind-stuff) is wholly deposited in Me have drawn even their prāṇas (sense-faculties) inward into Me, having retracted every instrument of cognition. Meeting one another, they cause mutual awakening — illuminating the qualities of knowledge, power, and heroism that characterize Me — and in that shared illumination they find paritosa (inner satiation) and rati (delight), as one finds delight only in the company of the beloved.

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'maci upasaṃhṛtakaraṇāḥ ity arthaḥ' — all instruments retracted into Me; 'jñānabala-vīryādi-dharmaiḥ viśiṣṭaṃ mām' — the qualities that characterize Me are what they communicate to one another.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Those whose manas (mind) has entered Me, who cannot sustain the ātman (self) without Me — their prāṇa (life-breath) having gone forth toward Me alone — share with one another the guṇas (qualities) of Bhagavān they have personally tasted, and recount His divinely beautiful karmas (actions). The speaker of such kathā (sacred narrative) finds tuṣṭi (contentment) from the very act of telling; the listener finds a rama (delight) that is boundless and has no ceiling.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'mayā vinā ātmadhāraṇam alabhamānāḥ' — literally incapable of holding the self together without Him; 'vaktāraḥ tad-vacanena ananya-prayojanena tuṣyanti, śrotāraś ca tac-chravanena anavadhi-kātiśaya-priyeṇa ramate' — speaker and hearer receive qualitatively distinct satisfactions.

• Madhvadvaita

  Some among those who know Me as the source of all do indeed worship — they are described here. Their citta (mind) and prāṇa (vital force) are fixed on Hari alone, for the jīva (individual soul) is eternally distinct and dependent; devotion is the only valid mode of relation. They mutually illuminate one another regarding Hari's supremacy and delight in that devotion with the contentment proper to dependent beings.

  divergence: Madhva's comment spans 10.8–10.10 together: 'santi ca bhajantaḥ kecid ity āha' — some indeed worship, which he takes as the opening of a description of authentic bhaktas who have properly understood the verse 10.8 teaching of Kṛṣṇa's absolute sovereignty.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  The bhaktas who have ripened through knowledge of vibhūti (divine glories) surrender body, senses, prāṇas, and antaḥkaraṇa (inner faculty) entirely to Kṛṣṇa — this is the brahma-sambandha (bond with Brahman). They serve through sevā-mārga (the path of service), not through the pomp of pūjā ritual. Their kathā (conversation) is perpetual — nityam, not merely occasional — and in that kathā and sevā they find mannotsava (festive joy of the mind) and līlā-anukāraṇa (playful re-enactment of His sports). This is the nirguna-mukti (liberation beyond qualities) that Puṣṭi-mārga points toward.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'maci cittan madan-arpitn-antaḥkaraṇāḥ... samarpitadehāḥ ātmanā vā bhagavati satatam yuktāḥ ayam eva brahma-sambandhaḥ' — total surrender of all instruments is itself the bond; 'na pūjā-ḍambarena' — explicitly not ritual pomp.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara reads this as prīti-pūrvaka-bhajana (worship preceded by love): those whose citta is in Me alone, whose prāṇas — understood as the sense-faculties — have reached Me or, alternatively, whose entire jīvana (livelihood) is surrendered to Me. Meeting as the wise (budhāḥ), they illuminate one another through nyāya (reasoning) and śruti-ādi-pramāṇas (scriptural evidence), and through that shared illumination arrive at tuṣṭi (contentment) through anumodana (mutual rejoicing) and nirvṛtti (final rest).

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'nyāyopetaiḥ śruty-ādi-pramāṇaiḥ bodhayantas... anumodanena tuṣṭiṃ yānti, nirvṛttiṃ yānti' — the means of mutual illumination are explicitly pramāṇa-bound, not merely emotional.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana opens with prema-pūrvaka-bhajana (worship born of love) as the integrating frame. The devotee's citta is placed in the Bhagavān; their prāṇas — the cakṣus and other sense-organs — are oriented toward Him, or all outer instruments retracted; or the prāṇa means that the very purpose of their living is His bhajana alone, nothing besides. In the vidvad-goṣṭhī (assembly of the learned) they illuminate one another through śruti and yukti (scriptural reasoning and inference); to their own disciples they teach. This fourfold surrender — citta, outer instruments, jīvana, upadeśa — is itself the bhajana, and from it alone they receive tuṣṭi as described by Patañjali: 'santoṣād anuttamaḥ sukha-lābhaḥ' (from contentment, the supreme gain of happiness).

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'maci cittārpaṇam tathā bāhya-karaṇārpaṇam tathā jīvanārpaṇam evaṃ samānām anyonyaṃ mad-bodhanaṃ sva-nyūnebhyaś ca mad-upadeśanam' — four-layer surrender explicitly enumerated; cites Patañjali Yoga-Sūtra on contentment.