Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 13, Verse 21: Krishna to Arjuna — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Prakrti (primal nature) is the cause of all action and its instruments — body, organs, and the modifications of pleasure-pain-delusion; purusha (the witnessing self) is only the apparent experiencer of these products. Shankara insists that without the erroneous conjunction (avidya-rupa samyoga) between inert prakrti and the luminous purusha, samsara cannot arise. The root of bondage is thus not action itself but the false identity that makes the jiva (individual soul) believe it is the doer and enjoyer of what prakrti alone produces.

  divergence: Shankara: 'karyakarana-kartrtve hetuh... prakrtir ucyate; purushasya ca sukha-duhkhanam bhoktrtve... hetuh ucyate' — nature is cause for the production of body-organs; purusha is cause for their experience.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Purusha, whose inherent nature is self-luminous bliss, becomes entangled with prakrti and thereby experiences the gunas (qualities) — sattva, rajas, tamas — and their products such as pleasure and pain. Ramanuja emphasizes that this entanglement is beginningless but not permanent: attachment to the guna-products drives the jiva into good and bad wombs (sat-asat-yoni), perpetuating karma, until the soul turns toward amanitvadi (humility and the qualities listed in BG 13.7-11) as the means to self-realization. Guna-sanga (attachment to qualities) is the proximate cause; liberation comes when the jiva recognizes itself as the body (sharira) of Bhagavan.

  divergence: Ramanuja: 'punyapapa-karmasu pravartate... sat-asat-yonisu jayate... yavad amanitvadin na sevate tavad eva samsarati' — until the soul cultivates the virtues of knowledge, it transmigrates.

• Madhvadvaita

  The Bhagavata (Srimad Bhagavatam 3.26.8) is cited by Madhva: 'karyakarana-kartrtve karanam prakrtim viduh; bhoktrtve sukha-duhkhanam purusham prakrteh param' — for the production of body and organs, know prakrti as cause; for the experience of pleasure and pain, know purusha as transcendent to prakrti. The jiva is eternally distinct from both Hari and from prakrti; its bondage is real, its experience of gunas is real, and liberation is entry into Hari's service as a dependent (paratantra) self, never merger.

  divergence: Madhva cites Bhagavata 3.26.8 verbatim: 'bhoktrtve sukha-duhkhanam purusham prakrteh param' — the purusha who experiences is beyond yet really distinct from prakrti.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads both the causal role of prakrti and the experiential role of purusha as expressions of Krsna's own will: the kshetra (field) has its modifications culminating in bondage and liberation, while the purusha as inner witness (antah-cetayitr) presides over it in accordance with Brahma-Sutra 2.3.33. Pleasure and pain are real modifications of the kshetra, but the purusha's identification with them is the hinge of samsara. In Pusti-marga, Krsna himself pervades this interplay as lila; the practitioner's path is to recognize the body's realm as lila-bhoomi (the field of divine play) rather than self-willed action.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'karyam bandha-moksharupam... purushasya tu tad-antash-cetayitrtva-meva... kshetradhishthana-prayatna-hetutva-meva purushasyakartrtam' — purusha's 'authorship' is only its superintending presence within the field.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara Svami explains that although inert prakrti cannot be an agent on its own, and although the immutable purusha cannot literally undergo change, each performs its proper role through mutual proximity: prakrti acts because it is superintended by the purusha's presence (purusha-sannidhana), and the purusha 'experiences' because consciousness alone can be the locus of pleasure and pain (sukha-duhkha-samvedana). The bhakti application: understanding this clearly frees the devotee from falsely claiming authorship of karma, turning all action into an offering rooted in detachment.

  divergence: Sridhara: 'purusha-sannidhana-t prakrteh kartrtva-mucyate... bhoktrtva-m ca sukha-duhkha-samvedanam tat-chetana-dharma eva-iti sannidhana-t purushasy bhoktrtva-mucyate' — both agency and experiencership are explained through proximity, not identity.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana Sarasvati follows Shankara's structural analysis — prakrti is cause of body-organ-production, purusha is cause of experience via vrtti-uparakta-upalambha (consciousness coloured by mental modifications) — but frames this for the bhakta: the jiva as 'para prakrti' (higher nature, BG 7.5) is not ultimately the experiencer; its apparent experiencership is due to the reflection of awareness (chidabhasa) in the modifications of the mind. The bhakta who sees Krsna as the true purushottama (BG 15) finds that both prakrti and purusha are held within that supreme, dissolving the illusion of separate doership in the warmth of devotion.

  divergence: Madhusudana: 'purushah... sukha-duhkhanam... bhoktrtve vrtty-uparakto-palambhe hetuh ucyate' — experiencership is located in consciousness coloured by mental modes, not in an absolute subject.