Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 13, Verse 18: Krishna to Arjuna — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Sankara closes the summary of kshetra (field), jnana (knowledge-means), and jneya (the knowable) by locating all three in the hrdaya (heart-intellect) of every creature — not as acquired contents but as the very light (jyotis) by which even Aditya shines. The knowable Brahman is para tamas (beyond darkness), untouched by avidya, self-luminous consciousness that is simultaneously the knower, the knowing, and the known. The mad-bhakta who penetrates this triple identity through the discipline of amanitva and its companions attains mad-bhava — not a state reached from outside, but the recognition that no distance existed.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Ramanuja reads the verse as a formal colophon: ksetra-tattva (the composite field, BG 13.5-6), jnana-sadhana (the virtues from amanitva through tattva-jnanarthadarsana, BG 13.7-11), and jneya-yathatatmya (the true nature of the kshetrajna as inseparable from Bhagavan, BG 13.12-17) have now been compressed into a teachable whole. The mad-bhakta who internalizes all three — not merely memorizes them — arrives at asamsaritva, Bhagavan's own mode of being free from prakrti's coil. Liberation is not dissolution into Brahman but participation in Bhagavan's own nature while remaining a distinct, beloved cit distinct from acit.

• Madhvadvaita

  Madhvacarya left no direct bhashya on this sloka; this rendering draws on his established principles. The verse seals the teaching: kshetra, jnana, and jneya are three irreducible realities, each ontologically dependent on Hari yet never identical with him. The mad-bhakta who knows this triad correctly — accepting jiva-Brahman difference as eternally real — qualifies to reach mad-bhava, which here means entry into Hari's ananda-loka as a worshipping jiva, never merger. [NOTE: Madhva bhashya absent from panel corpus; rendering is inference from siddhanta, not anchored bhashya prose.]

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha anchors the verse in the antaryami dimension: Krishna as jyotisam jyotis (the light of all lights, BG 13.17) is not an abstract Brahman but the caitanya-jyotis that illumines even Aditya from within — supported by the Bhagavata citation 'caittasya tattvam amalam manim asya kanthe.' The triple summary — kshetra, jnana, jneya — all converge on hrdaye sarvasyavisthitam, the Lord seated without displacement in every heart. The mad-bhakta does not climb toward this; he recognizes it as Krishna's own prasada already present, and mad-bhava is the rapturous relishing (anubhava) of that uninterrupted indwelling.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara, weaving sruti carefully, explains that the knowable (jneya) is the jyotis that makes candraditya-adi luminaries shine — 'tena suryastapati tejaseddhah' and 'tasya bhasa sarvamidam vibhati' — while itself remaining para tamas, untouched by the darkness it illumines. Jnana here is that same reality as it manifests through buddhivrtti (the intellect's modification), and jneya is what that jnana aims at — reachable by the sadhana-kalapa of amanitva and its companions. The mad-bhakta who integrates kshetra-viveka, the knowledge-means, and the knowable Lord abiding in all hearts attains mad-bhava — liberation in devotional attunement to the Lord.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudhana resolves a philosophical objection before the colophon: if Brahman is everywhere yet unperceived, it would seem inert — but Brahman is svayam-jyotis (self-luminous), ungraspable by sense-instruments precisely because it is their illuminator, not their object. The tamas from which it stands apart is not merely darkness but the entire jada-varga — the mass of inert phenomena including avidya and its effects. It abides in hrdaya as both jiva-rupa and antaryami-rupa, like sunlight simultaneously in mirror and burning-lens — one light, two reflective surfaces, no real distance. The mad-bhakta who knows this attains mad-bhava: not escape from Krsna but recognition within Krsna, jnana and bhakti arriving at the same threshold from different directions.