Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 12, Verse 3: Krishna to Arjuna — Bhakti-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Those who worship the aksara (imperishable) — which cannot be pointed to by any word because it is avyakta (unmanifest), not reachable by any means of knowledge — they meditate on it as Sankara prescribes: a sustained, unbroken flow of identical cognition, like an uninterrupted stream of oil. The aksara is sarvatra-ga (all-pervading) like space itself, acintya (unthinkable) because it lies beyond all sense-organs and hence beyond mind, kutastha (the witness-base) in the sense that it stands as the substratum beneath the kuta — the deceiving superimposition that is maya and her effects. Being utterly without modification it is acala (motionless) and therefore dhruva (eternal).

  divergence: Sankara: 'tailadharavat samanpratyayapravahena dirghakaalam yad asanam tat upasanam' — the unbroken oil-stream simile for nidhidhyasana; kutastha explained as 'the base on which the deceptive kuta of maya rests.'

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Those who worship the aksara — the pratyag-atman (inner self), distinct from body and its species-markers, hence anirdesya (unspecifiable by names like 'deva' or 'human') — they meditate on what is truly sarvatra-ga, present in all bodies of gods and men, yet utterly of a different species from each of them and so acintya (unthinkable) in any particular form. It is kutastha because it bears no relationship to the specific contours of any individual body; it does not swerve from its own essential form and is therefore acala and dhruva. Such meditators, equalizing their vision across all beings (sarvatra samabuddhayah) and delighting in universal welfare (sarvabhuta-hite ratah), attain Me — they reach the atman in its form resembling Mine, free from samsara.

  divergence: Ramanuja: 'pratyag-atma-svarupam anirdesyam... tad-visajatiyataya ten tena rupena cintayitum anaryham' — the jiva is unthinkable in any of its bodily shapes precisely because it transcends each of them.

• Madhvadvaita

  Those who worship the aksara — which Madhva reads here as prakriti (primal matter), supported by Bhagavata citations: 'apratarkyad anirddesyad' — are worshipping the cosmic matrix that is unthinkable, unspecifiable, beginningless darkness (tamas). The Mokshadharma passage confirms: this aksara is the eternal tamas that is the source of all worlds, all-pervading (sarvaga), motionless (niscala), the womb of existence. BG 15.16 will call the kuta-stha 'aksara' — yet the Uttama Purusa is explicitly other than it. These worshippers of the aksara do reach a result, but it is subordinate to those who worship Bhagavan directly.

  divergence: Madhva cites Mokshadharma: 'Narayanagunas'rayad... aksarad amurtitah' and Manu 1.5 to establish aksara as primordial tamas/prakriti distinct from Hari.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads this verse as Krsna himself drawing the contrast between the aksara and himself. The aksara is the antarya-min aspect — unmanifest, immeasurable bliss-mass, all-pervading, unthinkable, kutastha as the universal substratum, motionless, eternal. 'But I,' says Krsna implicitly, 'am the opposite at every point: manifest by my own will, accessible only to bhaktas, playful and moving from place to place, not some impersonal base but the Lord who dwells within that base.' Worshippers of the aksara do reach Me — but they reach Me as the brahmananda-filled Sri, the eternal sovereign dwelling in that very aksara-ground.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'Aksharo'vyaktah, aham tu vyaktah; so'nirdesyah, aham tu svecchaya'laukikanirdesyarhah' — six-fold antithesis between aksara and Krsna's svarupa that Vallabha makes explicit.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara reads the verse simply and devotionally: those who meditate on the aksara — which is anirdesya because no word can reach it, avyakta because it is without form, sarvatra-ga as all-pervading, acintya because it is unmanifest, kutastha as the substratum standing in the maya-world (kutastha = 'stationed in the kuta as its ground'), acala as without vibration, and dhruva as eternal — they too attain Me. The verse thus assures the nirguna-upasaka that their path is not futile; but the contrast with verse 12.2 implies it is the harder path.

  divergence: Sridhara: 'kute mayaprapance sthitam adhisthanatven' — kutastha means the ground-consciousness standing beneath the play of maya; anchor for the bhakti school's affirmation that even the difficult path reaches the Lord.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana Sarasvati takes the fullest view: the aksara is nirvisesha-Brahman as proclaimed in the Vachaknavi-Brahmana (Brhadaranyaka 3.8). Seven epithets are glossed rigorously — anirdesya because it lacks jati, guna, or kriya (the only three routes by which a word can attach to a referent); avyakta for the same reason; sarvatra-ga (cause of all, hence featureless since only a limited effect can have species); acintya because even mind, being finite, cannot contain it. Kutastha is analysed as 'that which stands in the kuta — the maya-world that appears real but is mithya — as its adhishthana (substratum), the way a false coin (kuta-karshapana) is called kuta.' Being unchanging it is acala; being acala it is dhruva. Such nirguna-brahma-upasaka, practising sravana, manana, and nidhidhyasana with full renunciation (sarva-bhuta-abhayam datva), attain Me — and since they were already of my form, they simply remain so once avidya is removed.

  divergence: Madhusudana: 'kuta-karshapanah kuta-saksitvam ityadi loke — analogies from everyday usage of kuta as 'counterfeit/deceptive' anchor his technical reading of kutastha; and 'brahmaiva san brahmaivapyeti' Upanishad citations close the loop.