Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 11, Verse 42: Krishna to Arjuna — Viśvarūpa-Darśana-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  In sport, in the shared activities of wandering (vihāra), resting (śayyā), sitting (āsana), and eating (bhojana) — when alone or openly in company — you, O Acyuta (the immovable one), were made small by me through mockery and irreverence. All those offenses, comprising the entire aggregate of transgressions, I now beg forgiveness for from you who are aprameya (beyond the reach of any measure or proof). Śaṅkara notes the precise grammar: each activity is defined — vihāra as exercise of the feet, śayyā as the act of lying, āsana as the posture of staying, bhojana as eating — and tac-śabdaḥ (the pronoun 'that') functions as a kriyāviśeṣaṇa (adverb of action), marking both private and public disrespect as a single accumulated guilt now offered up.

  divergence: Śaṅkara bhāṣya present; renders 'aprameya' as 'pramāṇātīta' (beyond all instruments of knowledge) — the ultimate irony: Arjuna dared to jest with what surpasses all measure.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Not knowing your mahimā (greatness) — your anantavīryatva (infinite heroic power), amitavikramatva (boundless valor), sarvāntarātmatva (indwelling of all beings), and sraṣṭṛtva (creatorship) — I addressed you as 'Kṛṣṇa,' 'Yādava,' 'Sakhā' out of pranayas (long intimacy), treating you as a mere companion of equal standing. Whether in solitude or publicly before those who laughed with me, you — who are ever worthy of satkāra (honor) — were dishonored in the shared activities of wandering, rest, seat, and meal. All of that, O Aprameya, I now beg you to forgive. Rāmānuja frames the error as epistemic: ajānatayā (out of not-knowing), not malice — which makes the transgression forgivable within bhakti's economy of grace.

  divergence: Rāmānuja bhāṣya present; uniquely emphasizes 'sarvadā eva satkārārhaḥ tvam' (you who are always worthy of honor) — the dishonor is amplified precisely because the honor-worthiness was total and constant.

• Madhvadvaita

  You alone, Hari, are the one kārayitā (sole cause-agent) — no other truly acts. Even so, in the games of wandering, rest, seat, and meal, I who am eternally other than you, a dependent jīva (individual soul), transgressed by treating you as a peer rather than as the sovereign Lord. The apology is not merely personal courtesy but an ontological realignment: the jīva acknowledging it had usurped the bhāva (disposition) proper only to Hari's equals, which no jīva possesses. Madhva's gloss is terse: 'ekas tvam eva kārayitā, nānyo'sti' — you alone are the doer, there is no other — making even the offense itself something Hari permitted, which makes begging forgiveness the only coherent response.

  divergence: Madhva bhāṣya present but highly compressed (single line); the rendering extrapolates from Madhva's 'ekas tvam eva kārayitā' within his established theology of jīva-Hari absolute difference.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads through the lens of līlā-prasāda (gracious divine play): Arjuna had previously seen Kṛṣṇa participating in tāmasic activities — the hunt, sport, and the like — and mistook this for tamoguṇa (the quality of darkness) rather than recognizing Kṛṣṇa's deliberate concealment within human play. In that delusion, he dishonored; now, having received the grace of the cosmic vision, he alone (eka) seeks forgiveness. The word 'sampratam' (now, at this very moment) in Vallabha's commentary marks the transformation: grace has struck and the devotee's awe now replaces his former intimacy. Forgiveness is not negotiated but received as prasāda — poured out freely from the Lord whose every action is līlā.

  divergence: Vallabha bhāṣya present; uniquely glosses 'vihārādi' as 'tāmasakarma' such as 'mṛgayāvihāra' (hunting sport), interpreting Arjuna's prior disrespect as arising from misreading divine concealedness as personal limitation.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  O Acyuta — the one who never slips — in the midst of play and games you were disparaged: whether Arjuna was alone (eka, meaning: apart from the other companions, in private), or whether it was done in full view of those same mocking friends (tat-samakṣam), the dishonor stands. All of that aggregate of offenses (aparādhajāta) is now offered to you whose power is beyond imagination (aprameya, acintya-prabhāva). Śrīdhara holds the double reading of 'eka' cleanly: either Arjuna alone committed it in private, or Kṛṣṇa was singled out even publicly — both readings deepen the guilt and therefore deepen the surrender.

  divergence: Śrīdhara bhāṣya present; commentary is free of HTML artifacts; 'acintya-prabhāva' gloss on 'aprameya' anticipates Madhusūdana's fuller treatment.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana carefully enumerates the four spheres of dishonor — vihāra (sport or physical exercise), śayyā (the special spread of cotton and such for resting), āsana (throne or seat of dignity), bhojana (dining in communal row-feast) — and holds both readings of 'eka': Kṛṣṇa singled out privately, or Kṛṣṇa targeted publicly before laughing friends. The key theological move is in Madhusūdana's gloss on 'Acyuta': sarvadā nirvikāra (forever without modification) — Kṛṣṇa could not be hurt by the offense, yet Arjuna, 'tvān-māhātmya-anabhijñasya mama' (of me, ignorant of your greatness), must beg pardon precisely because the Lord's paramakāruṇikatva (supreme compassion) and acintya-prabhāva (unthinkable power) make forgiveness not a negotiation but an overflow of grace. The synthesis: jñāna knows there is no real offense to an immutable Absolute; bhakti demands the apology anyway, and both are true.

  divergence: Madhusūdana bhāṣya present; the synthesis hinges on holding 'nirvikāra' (no modification in the Lord) alongside the full weight of 'aparādhajāta' (offense-aggregate) — a dialectic that only the advaita-bhakti position can sustain without collapsing either term.