Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 11, Verse 2: Krishna to Arjuna — Viśvarūpa-Darśana-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The arising (bhava) and dissolution (apyaya) of all beings have been heard from you in detail — not in brief summary. O lotus-petal-eyed one (kamalapatrākṣa), the māhātmya (sovereign greatness) of the great Self, being avyaya (imperishable, without diminution), has likewise been heard. For Śaṅkara, both cosmological processes proceed from the one undivided Brahman; the bhāṣya glosses avyaya strictly as akṣaya (inexhaustible), underlining that no expenditure of power occurs in creation or dissolution — the absolute remains untouched.

  divergence: bhavaḥ utpattiḥ apyayaḥ pralayaḥ — bhāṣya explicit. avyayam = akṣayam — bhāṣya explicit. mahātmanaḥ bhāvo māhātmyam — bhāṣya explicit.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  From chapters seven through ten, Arjuna has heard in detail that the arising (utpatti) and dissolution (pralaya) of all beings distinct from Paramātman proceed from that Paramātman alone. Beyond this, the inexhaustible māhātmya heard includes: Bhagavān's lordship over all sentient and insentient existence (sarva-cetanācetana-vastu-śeṣitva), his unsurpassed supremacy through attributes such as jñāna (knowledge) and bala (strength), his being the sole support of all (sarvādhāratva), and his governance of every impulse — even the blinking of an eye — in all beings. The particle hi signals that what has been heard now impels the desire to see (didrīkṣā).

  divergence: sarva-cetanācetana-vastu-śeṣitva, jñānabala-kalyāṇaguṇagaṇa, sarvādhāratva, cintitanimiṣitādi-sarvaprāvṛtti-pravartayitṛtva — all enumerated in Rāmānuja's bhāṣya. hi-śabda = vakṣyamāna-didrīkṣā-dyotanārthaḥ — bhāṣya explicit.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Bhavāpyayau* (arising and dissolution) of all *bhūtāni* (beings) have been heard in full from Kṛṣṇa, *kamala-patrākṣa* (lotus-petal-eyed one) — and his *avyaya māhātmya* (imperishable greatness) likewise. That Arjuna has heard both together is doctrinally precise: the coming-into-being and passing-away of *jīvas* belong wholly to Hari's *svatantra* (independently real, self-sufficient) will, never to any capacity residing in the *jīva* itself. The *jīva* is *paratantra* (eternally dependent) in its very arising; it neither originates itself nor dissolves by its own power. *Avyaya* applied to Hari's *māhātmya* names the asymmetry at the center of *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction): the Lord's greatness is self-complete, untouched by the birth-and-death cycles that belong entirely to the dependent order. No movement of *bhūtāni* adds to or diminishes what is *avyaya*; the very capacity to hear that greatness is itself a gift from the *svatantra* Hari.

  divergence: No bhāṣya from Madhva or Jayatīrtha exists for this verse. The reading is voiced directly from Dvaita *siddhānta* primitives — *svatantra*/*paratantra* asymmetry, *pañca-bheda*, and the *avyaya* character of Hari's sovereignty — as applied to the mūla.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  The world's causality (jagat-kāraṇatva) — both its arising and its withdrawal — has been heard as yours, and all the māhātmya heard is likewise entirely yours in the mode of your own vibhūti (glorious self-manifestation). For Vallabha the terse bhāṣya phrasing — tava mayeti — is decisive: creation and dissolution are not external acts upon an independent world but Kṛṣṇa's own self-expression through his svarūpa-śakti; the universe is the splendor of his form, not an object he produces.

  divergence: jagat-kāraṇatvaṃ tava mayā śrutam; māhātmyam api ca sarvaṃ tad idaṃ vibhūtirūpaṃ tava — Vallabha bhāṣya explicit.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  The creation and dissolution (sṛṣṭi-pralaya) of beings proceed from you alone — as was heard in the expansive prior teaching 'ahaṃ kṛtsnasya jagataḥ prabhavaḥ pralayas tathā.' O lotus-petal-eyed one, whose eyes are as wide and serene as lotus petals, the imperishable māhātmya heard includes: authorship of universal creation even without incurring vikāra (modification), governance of auspicious and inauspicious karma without vaișamya (partiality), conferral of varied fruits including bondage and liberation without saṅga (attachment) — all of this infinite greatness. Because jīvas depend entirely on you, the moha (delusion) that 'I am the doer' has departed.

  divergence: ahaṃ kṛtsnasya jagataḥ prabhavaḥ — cited as śruti basis in Śrīdhara's bhāṣya. viśvasṛṣṭy-ādi-kartṛtve'py avikāritva, śubhāśubha-karma-kārayitṛtve'py avaișamya, bandha-mokṣādi-vicitra-phaladātṛtve'py asaṅgaudāsīnya — bhāṣya explicit. moho vigata iti bhāvaḥ — bhāṣya explicit.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  From chapter seven through ten — teachings whose primary purpose was the determination of the meaning of the tat-pada — Arjuna has heard in detail (not merely once in brief) that the arising and dissolution of beings proceed from Kṛṣṇa alone. The mention of kamalapatrākṣa (lotus-petal-eyed) marks an overflow of preman (love): the description of those long, reddened, supremely beautiful eyes is not incidental ornament but the expression of devotional excess (premātiśayāt). The avyaya māhātmya heard spans both sopadhi (qualified) and nirupādhi (unqualified) dimensions — limitless sovereignty, freedom from modification despite being the cause of all, impartiality amid reward-differentiation, non-attachment amid universal governance — all of which are akṣaya (inexhaustible).

  divergence: tat-padārtha-nirṇaya-pradhānam api bhagavato vacanaṃ — Madhusūdana explicit. premātiśayāt (atisaundarya-atiśayollekha) — bhāṣya explicit. sopadhika and nirupādhika māhātmya — bhāṣya explicit. avyayam = akṣayam — confirmed.