Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 13, Verse 23: Krishna to Arjuna — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  He who knows the purusha (pure witness) and prakrti (material nature) together with her gunas (qualities) — that knowing one is the upadrastr (proximate seer): stationed near the body-mind complex yet utterly uninvolved, like the ritual overseer who watches priest and patron perform the yajna (sacrifice) without himself being engaged in its action. Shankara: the atman is not merely a distant observer but the innermost of all inner witnesses (antartama), the very light by which buddhi (intellect) illumines its own contents of pleasure, pain, and delusion. Such a one, however bound the body appears to be in its worldly modes, does not take birth again — because what was never truly bound requires no liberation.

  divergence: Shankara on upadrastr: 'yajnavidhyakushalatvat rtvigajamana-vyaparagunados anam ikshita' — the witness who, by his proximity and competence, sees every quality and defect of activity yet participates in none of it.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  One who truly knows — viveka (discriminative clarity) — both the purusha of the described nature and prakrti together with the sattvadi gunas (qualities beginning with sattva) does not take birth again in any mode, however severely distressed, in any body from deva (divine being) to manushya (human). At the falling of that body, Ramanuja insists, such a jiva (individual self) attains the atman in its full, unpinched nature — aparicchinna-jnana-lakshana (characterized by unbounded knowledge) and apahata-papma (free from sin). The liberation here is not dissolution but the jiva's arrival at its own pristine fullness as a mode of Bhagavan.

  divergence: Ramanuja: 'aparicchinna-jnana-lakshanam apahata-papmanam atmanam taddehavasana-samaye apnoti' — at body-end the jiva reaches its own untrimmed self.

• Madhvadvaita

  The purusha spoken of as the 'knower of joys and sorrows' is the jiva (individual self); the purusha spoken of alongside prakrti is the Ishvara (sovereign Lord Hari) — and to collapse these two into one is mahatatparya-virodha (contradiction of the supreme purport) of scripture. Madhva: anumanta does not mean mere non-interference; it means Vishnu's specific, active characterization (visheshatah nirupakata) of every moment of the jiva's experience. One who knows this distinction — the eternal, subordinate jiva and the eternally supreme Hari — no longer re-enters samsara (cycle of rebirth), because correct darsana (vision) of the hierarchy itself is the liberating act.

  divergence: Madhva: 'anumanta anvanutah visheshatah nirupakatah' — the Lord is not a passive witness but the specific determinant of each jiva-experience; conflation with jiva is abhasa (mere appearance), refuted by Saukara-yana-shruti and Mokshadharma.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  The two birds of the Mundaka shruti (sacred text) — one tasting the fruit, one only shining — are both present in this deha-vriksha (body-tree): the jiva bound by the gunas and the Parameshvara (supreme sovereign) who is upadrastr (overseer), anumanta (sanctioner), and mukhya-bhoktr (primary enjoyer) in the sense that he scents all through his six divine excellences. Vallabha: the knower who realizes both — the aksharaprabhava (power of the Imperishable) in the purusha and prakrti running in the current of gunas — is not caught again in the guna-flow of samsara. This is not jnana alone but the grace-recognition of Krsna's own presence as antaryamin (inner controller) in every field.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'shadguneshano jighrati' — the Lord as the six-excellenced one inhales (experiences) all; the jiva-bhoktr (experiencer-self) is liptah (smeared/involved) while the Parameshvara is nirlepah (unstained) because he does not eat (anashanat).

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara reads the verse as a direct statement of the purusha's svarupa (own-nature): though present in this body as effect of prakrti, the purusha is para (distinct), untouched by the gunas, because he is upadrastr — stationed nearby yet seeing from outside, as shruti (scripture) declares: 'sakshi cheta kevalo nirgunash cha.' As bhartr (sustainer) he upholds body-mind by his proximity; as bhokt (experiencer) he illumines buddhi's states; as Maheshvara he governs brahma and other beings. Sridhara does not speculate beyond shruti-citation; knowledge of this two-fold reality — pure purusha and guna-laden prakrti — suffices to end rebirth.

  divergence: Sridhara: 'sannidhimatrenaanugrahakah — sakshi cheta kevalo nirgunash cha' — the Upanishadic witness-formula is cited as the sole ground for the purusha's non-implication in guna-activity.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana opens with the framing purpose: samsara arises from mithyatadatmya (false identification) of purusha with prakrti — not from the purusha's svarupa itself. The present verse gives that svarupa directly. The purusha, though appearing as jiva in the body, is para (transcendent) — not commingled with prakrti's gunas in paramartha (ultimate reality). As upadrastr he is like the yajna-overseer: body, eye, manas (mind), and buddhi are all 'seers' of their objects, but the innermost, with no intermediary, is the pratyagatman (inward self) — upadrashtr by virtue of upa meaning avyavadhaana (no gap). As anumanta he does not intervene in any activity of body-sense-mind yet is the sannidhimatra (mere presence) that makes them feel sanctioned. Knowing this, one who moves through all conditions does not take birth again.

  divergence: Madhusudana: 'upadrashr-yadyad sannidhimatrena tad-anukulatvat anumanta — asango hyayam purushah iti shruteh' — the pratyagatman is the non-entangled witness of Brhadaranyaka; its 'proximity without involvement' is non-dual identity disclosed through bhakti's lens.