Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 13, Verse 24: Krishna to Arjuna — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Śaṅkara reads this verse as listing the upāyas (means) by which the ātman is directly seen — dhyāna (meditation), sāṃkhya-yoga (discriminative knowledge), and karma-yoga — each fitting a different adhikārin (qualified seeker). The one who truly knows puruṣa as 'I am this' and sees prakṛti-with-guṇas as the mithyā superimposition destroyed by vidyā is the one who does not return to birth (na bhūyo'bhijāyate). For Śaṅkara the 'seeing' here is not gradual cultivation but the fruit of prior jñāna; the three paths are merely preparatory gradations before that single non-dual recognition fires.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Rāmānuja distinguishes three classes of seekers: those in whom yoga is already accomplished (niṣpanna-yogā) who see the ātman dwelling in the body (śarīre) through bhakti-yoga directly; those not yet accomplished (aniṣpanna-yogā) who first render the mind fit through sāṃkhya-yoga (jñāna-yoga) and thereby see; and those unqualified for both yoga paths who, through karma-yoga with embedded jñāna, make the mind yoga-worthy and then see. The ātman seen is always the individual jīva as the viśeṣaṇa (qualifier) of Bhagavān, never dissolved into undifferentiated Brahman — the seeing is real relation, not cancellation of the seer.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Dhyāna* (meditative absorption), *sāṃkhya-yoga* (the path of discriminative knowledge), and *karma-yoga* (the path of dedicated action) are three distinct modes by which the *paratantra* (eternally dependent) *jīva* (the individual self) may come to perceive the *ātman* within the self by the self — *dhyānenātmani paśyanti kecid ātmānam ātmanā*. In each case, what is perceived is not an undifferentiated identity with Brahman but the *jīva*'s own constitution as wholly contingent on *svatantra* (the independently real, self-sufficient) Hari. The seeing — *paśyanti* — is itself dependent: *bheda* (real distinction) between the seer and Hari is never dissolved, and the capacity to perceive at all is sustained only by Hari's *anugraha* (grace). The three paths name three gradations within *taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy): each *jīva* approaches according to qualification, yet all three converge on the recognition that *jīva*-hood is irreducibly *paratantra*. *Bhakti* (devotion) — ontological subordination to Hari — is the animating core of all three; *dhyāna*, *sāṃkhya*, and *karma* are its vehicles, not independent liberating means.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  *Dhyāna* (meditative vision) here names the spontaneous *smaraṇa* (remembrance) that arises only when Kṛṣṇa himself illumines his own form in the devotee's *antaḥkaraṇa* (inner instrument). The mūla's threefold scheme — *dhyāna*, *sāṃkhya-yoga*, *karma-yoga* — maps directly onto the *puṣṭi-mārga* (path of grace) distinction between *puṣṭi-jīvas* (those sustained entirely by Kṛṣṇa's *prasāda*) and *maryādā-mārga* practitioners who rely on their own *sādhana* (disciplined effort). *Sāṃkhyena yogena* and *karma-yogena* belong to *maryādā*: effort-dependent, bounded, available to those who draw on their own capacity. The *dhyāna* of *ātmānam ātmanā* stands apart — not deliberate concentration but the *sevā*-born (devotional service–born) vision in which Brahman, fully real and self-manifesting, is seen within by Brahman's own light. In *śuddhādvaita*, the world is no *māyā*-projection but a real manifestation of Kṛṣṇa; the *antaḥkaraṇa* of the *puṣṭi-jīva* is itself a vehicle of *brahma-sambandha* (the bond of Brahman), and when Kṛṣṇa wills, that bond becomes the very organ of vision named in *paśyanti*. The *kecid* — 'some' — are therefore not arbitrarily distinguished seekers but those whom Kṛṣṇa selects for *puṣṭi*, granting the spontaneous *darśana* that no quantity of *sāṃkhya* or *karma* can produce.

  divergence: The three paths are not co-equal alternatives. *Dhyāna* as spontaneous *prasāda*-born *smaraṇa* is categorically above *maryādā*-mārga effort; this vertical ordering is the *puṣṭi-mārga* reading of *kecid … anye … apare*.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara Svāmī focuses on the liberating fruit of prakṛti-puruṣa-viveka (discriminative knowledge): the one who knows puruṣa in its upādraṣṭṛ (witness) form and knows prakṛti together with its guṇas and their modifications (sukha-duḥkhādi-pariṇāma) — even if that person lives in apparent transgression of conventional norms (vidhim atilaṅghya vartamāno'pi) — does not take birth again (punar nābhijāyate). The three means of seeing — dhyāna, sāṃkhya, karma-yoga — are the verse's practical gift: multiple gates into the same recognition, accommodating different temperaments without privileging any single school's exclusive route.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana Sarasvatī synthesises: the one who directly realises puruṣa as 'I am this very one' (ayam aham asmi) and simultaneously cognises prakṛti-as-avidyā — with all its modifications — as mithyā, negated by ātma-vidyā, does not return to birth even if, under the force of prārabdha-karma, he lives like Indra transgressing injunctions (indravad vidhim atikramya vartamāno'pi). Madhusūdana cites the Nyāya that prior and subsequent karmas are respectively shed and not accumulated at the dawn of knowledge (tad-adhigama uttara-pūrvāghayoḥ aśleṣa-vināśau). The verse's three upāyas — dhyāna, sāṃkhya, karma-yoga — are thus graduated preparations for bhakti-suffused jñāna, the ānanda of non-dual recognition coloured by love of Kṛṣṇa.