Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 13, Verse 10: Krishna to Arjuna — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Undeviating devotion to the Lord is enumerated here as a constituent of knowledge (jnana) because it prepares the mind for the direct inquiry into Brahman. Shankaracharya distinguishes two levels of attachment: sakti (ordinary fondness for objects) and abhishvanga (the deeper identification where one says 'when my son suffers, I myself suffer') — both must be relinquished as obstacles to Self-knowledge. Equanimity (samacittatva) in the face of desired and undesired events is not indifference but the natural stability of a mind no longer turbulent enough to obscure the atman.

  divergence: Advaita alone frames bhakti here instrumentally — it is jnana because it purifies for jnana, not an end in itself.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Unwavering devotion (avyabhicharini bhakti) directed exclusively toward Bhagavan as sarvesvara — the Lord of all — is itself the culmination and essence of knowledge, not merely its preparation. Ramanuja reads the verse as describing the bhakta who dwells in solitary places free of crowds (janavarjita-desavasa) precisely to intensify the unbroken remembrance of the Lord, since the jiva's essential nature is as a mode (prakara) of Ishvara who is its inner self. Disaffection for the assembly of people (jana-samsadi apritih) follows naturally when Bhagavan alone satisfies.

  divergence: Unlike Advaita, Ramanuja does not subordinate bhakti to jnana; here bhakti is the knowledge itself, and the jiva remains permanently distinct from yet within Ishvara.

• Madhvadvaita

  Attachment (sakti) is affection (sneha); when that affection matures to the extreme it becomes abhishvanga, which binds the eternally distinct jiva to samsara. Madhva's terse gloss marks an ontological precision: the jiva is never identical with others even in the depth of familial love, so abhishvanga is not merely psychologically harmful but metaphysically false — it attributes to the jiva a fusion that reality never permits. Devotion to Hari alone is the one attachment that does not bind, because Hari is the independent reality (svatantra) upon whom all dependent jivas (paratantra) properly rest.

  divergence: Madhva alone insists on the ontological falsity of abhishvanga; Advaita and Vishishtadvaita frame it as psychological obstruction, not metaphysical error about the jiva's independence.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Asakti here is the complete detachment from the enjoyments of the other world (amutra bhoga-viraga) — not ascetic suppression but the natural falling-away of lesser pleasures when the sweetness of Krishna's lila-prasada has been tasted. In Pushti-marga, solitude is not sought by the devotee's effort but granted by Krishna's grace as the condition in which He can be undistractedly enjoyed. The verse is not a discipline list but a description of the soul already suffused with Krishna's rasa, for whom all other gatherings (jana-samsad) have become pale.

  divergence: Vallabha's gloss is the shortest in the panel and the most radically reorienting: 'other world' (amutra) rather than 'this world' objects, making the renunciation eschatological not merely domestic.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara systematically unpacks the three qualities: asakti is the abandonment of fondness (priti-tyaga) for sons and other loved objects; anabhishvanga is the absence of the excessive superimposition (adhyasa-atirekabhava) by which one identifies so deeply with a son's joy or sorrow as to say 'I myself am happy or suffering'; and nitya-samacittatva is the constant equanimity in the arrival of desired and undesired events alike — a mind that neither exults nor grieves. All three converge in preparing the field (kshetra) to become transparent to the knower (kshetrajna).

  divergence: Unlike the Advaita reading, Sridhara does not privilege jnana over bhakti; unlike Ramanuja, he does not frame sarvesvara as the theological center. His voice is synoptic and pedagogical.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudan draws the sharpest conceptual line in the panel: sakti is 'this is mine' — a simple possessive fondness; abhishvanga is 'I myself am this' — the deeper non-dual identification with another by which one collapses into their joy and grief. Both must be surrendered in sons, wives, house, servants, and all objects of affection. The fruit is samacittatva — a mind perpetually empty of both exultation (harsha) and dejection (vishada), whether desired or undesired things arrive. For Madhusudan, this equanimity is simultaneously jnana and the ground of unobstructed bhakti toward Krishna.

  divergence: Madhusudan alone makes the logical structure of the two attachments fully explicit as differing degrees of self-other identification, bridging Shankara's precision with the devotional warmth absent in strict Advaita.