Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 11, Verse 55: Krishna to Arjuna — Viśvarūpa-Darśana-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  One who performs action for the Lord alone (mat-karma-kṛt) — not for self-benefit, just as a servant carries out the master's work yet does not take the master's ultimate station as his own destination — and who holds Me as the supreme goal (mat-paramaḥ), worships Me with every capacity and wholly (mad-bhaktaḥ), is stripped of attachment to wealth, sons, friends, spouse, kin (saṅga-varjitaḥ), and is utterly free from enmity toward all beings even those who cause extreme harm (nirvairaḥ sarva-bhūteṣu): such a one comes to Me — and there is no other destination for him. This verse, O Pāṇḍava, is the teaching I have wished to impart.

  divergence: Śaṅkara's bhāṣya prose on mat-karma-kṛt distinguishes servant-labor for the master (no self-ownership of the fruit) from ordinary self-interested action; mat-paramaḥ = 'I alone am the supreme destination'; nirvairaḥ extends even to those actively causing harm — zero enmity as a structural requirement, not merely a sentiment.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  He who performs all actions — including Vedic study and the rest — as worship of Bhagavān (mat-karma-kṛt, mat-paramaḥ: I am the supreme object of every undertaking); who, burning with love for Me, cannot sustain himself without constant chanting, praising, meditating, worshipping, and prostrating (mad-bhaktaḥ); who cannot endure association with anything other than Me (saṅga-varjitaḥ); and who bears no enmity toward any being — because his own suffering arises from his own faults, because every being is utterly dependent on the Supreme Person, and because union and separation from Me are the sole causes of his joy and grief (nirvairaḥ sarva-bhūteṣu) — that one attains Me as I truly am: freed from the vestige of nescience, he becomes one whose sole experience is of Me.

  divergence: Rāmānuja's bhāṣya supplies three distinct grounds for nirvairaḥ: (1) one's own fault is the root of one's suffering, (2) all beings are paratantra to Paramapuruṣa, (3) joy and sorrow arise only from union/separation with the Lord — these together eliminate the logical basis for enmity rather than merely suppressing the emotion.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Mat-karma-kṛt* (one who performs all action as service to Me alone), *mat-paramaḥ* (one who holds Me as the supreme, the *svatantra* (the independently real, self-sufficient) Lord utterly beyond all *paratantra* (eternally dependent) *jīva*s), *mad-bhaktaḥ* (one whose *bhakti* (devotion) is rooted in the knowledge of *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction: Lord–jīva, Lord–matter, jīva–jīva, jīva–matter, matter–matter)), *saṅga-varjitaḥ* (free of attachment to anything other than Hari) — such a one is also *nirvairaḥ sarva-bhūteṣu* (without enmity toward any being), recognizing that every *jīva* stands in the same *paratantra* relation to Hari, differentiated only by *taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy). That one — *sa mām eti* — arrives at Me, attaining *mukti* not as dissolution of his distinct self but as real presence before Hari, the *bheda* between worshipper and Lord abiding forever, the *jīva* complete in its own grade of the *taratamya* order.

  divergence: Madhva and Jayatīrtha are both silent on this verse. The reading is voiced directly from Dvaita *siddhānta*: *mat-karma-kṛt* as *kainkarya* (dependent service), *mat-paramaḥ* as recognition of Hari's *svatantra* supremacy, and *mām eti* as real arrival without identity-collapse — *bheda* between *jīva* and Brahman persisting in liberation.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Even though you have had the cosmic vision, O Pāṇḍava, one who is sustained by the Lord's grace within the ordinances of His dispensation (mat-karma-kṛt) — one who understands that performing action in service of Bhagavān is the Lord's own will, and that even this understanding is given by Bhagavān and not independently arrived at — and who holds Me as the supreme purpose (mat-paramaḥ, mad-bhaktaḥ), free of other attachments and enmities: that one attains Puruṣottama. The very resolve to perform such service is Bhagavān's own gift; even among devotees, the determination to act is not uniformly present — it rests with Him.

  divergence: Vallabha's bhāṣya explicitly states that the resolve (nirdhāraṇa) to perform mat-karma is Bhagavān-dependent (bhagavad-adhīnaḥ); hence even among devotees the rule about this determination is not uniform. This is the Puṣṭi-mārga distinctive: grace precedes and produces even the will to act, unlike the effort-first models of other schools.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Hear the supreme secret that is the essence of all śāstra: one who performs action for the Lord's sake alone (mat-karma-kṛt), for whom I am the highest puruṣārtha (mat-paramaḥ), who is devoted exclusively to Me and takes refuge in Me alone (mad-bhaktaḥ), who is free of attachment to son and the rest (saṅga-varjitaḥ), and who is free of enmity toward all beings (nirvairaḥ) — such a one attains Me; no other does.

  divergence: Śrīdhara frames this verse explicitly as 'sarva-śāstra-sāra' — the supreme secret essence of all scripture — and introduces it with 'hear' (śṛṇu), marking it as the culminating disclosure of the entire teaching. His gloss is concise and philologically clean: mat-karma-kṛt = one who does action for My sake; mat-paramaḥ = I am the supreme puruṣārtha for him; mad-bhaktaḥ = devoted to Me, taking refuge in Me.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Now the essence of the entire Gītā-śāstra is being gathered and declared for those seeking the highest good (niḥśreyasa). One who performs Veda-enjoined action for the Lord's sake (mat-karma-kṛt) — not with desire for svarga or other ends, because I alone am the certain goal (mat-paramaḥ) — and who therefore engages in bhajana of Me in every way (mad-bhaktaḥ), free of craving for external things (saṅga-varjitaḥ), and free of enmity even toward those who harm him (nirvairaḥ sarva-bhūteṣu): that one comes to Me, attains identity with Me (abheda). O Pāṇḍava, this is the meaning you wished to know; it has been declared by Me; there is nothing further to be done.

  divergence: Madhusūdana explicitly opens with 'the essence of the entire Gītā-śāstra' (sarvagītāśāstrasāra) and uses the term abheda for the mode of 'attaining Me' — identity, not mere proximity — which is the Advaita terminus. His counter-questions (kathamevaṃ syāt? — 'how could this be so given attachment to sons?') followed by negation ('neti') are a dialectical micro-bhāṣya that individually removes each obstacle: attachment, desire for svarga, enmity.