Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 13, Verse 28: Krishna to Arjuna — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Shankara reads 'samam pashyan' (seeing equally) as the recognition that the one undivided Ishvara (the Lord) stands unchanging in all beings from Brahma down to the immovable — while beings perish, the Parameshvara remains absolutely distinct, nirvishesha (without difference) and eka (one). The one who sees thus truly sees; all others, like a man with cataracts seeing multiple moons, see inverted multiplicity where only non-dual awareness exists. This samyag-darshana (right seeing) destroys the self-injury of avidya (ignorance) and conducts the seer to the supreme state — liberation is the fruit of this vision alone, not of ritual or emotion.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Ramanuja reads the verse as the jiva recognizing Ishvara as the antaryamin (inner controller) dwelling as the shesha (support and sustainer) of all bodies — from gods downward — with identical jnana-ekakarata (pure cognition form), while those bodies bear varied and unequal forms. Seeing thus, the jiva does not harm itself but is rescued — the bhava-jala-dhi (ocean of samsara) releases it. The 'para gati' (supreme goal) is reaching the jiva's own yathavad-avasthita (properly established) nature, not a mergence but a realization of Ishvara as the universal controller whose glory the equal-seeing soul now serves fully.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Samaṃ paśyan hi sarvatra samavasthitam īśvaram* — the *jīva* (individual self) who sees *Īśvara* as equally present and steadily established in all beings sees rightly, without collapsing the *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction: Lord–jīva, Lord–matter, jīva–jīva, jīva–matter, matter–matter). *Na hinasty ātmanātmānam*: such a seer does not harm the self by the self — that is, does not injure the *jīva* through *adhyāsa* (superimposition) of identity between *jīva* and *Īśvara*, or between one *jīva* and another. The equality of vision (*samaṃ paśyan*) is not identity of essence but recognition of Hari as *antaryāmin* (inner controller), the *svatantra* (independently real, self-sufficient) Lord who pervades all *paratantra* (eternally dependent) *jīvas* and matter without becoming them. *Tato yāti parāṃ gatim*: from that right seeing, the *jīva* attains the *parā gati* — *mokṣa* understood as real, unbroken arrival in Vaikuṇṭha, a state of eternal *dāsa-bhāva* (servitude) to Hari, preserving *bheda* (real distinction) in its fullness. The *taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy) among *jīvas* is not negated by equal vision; the equality is Hari's undivided sovereignty, not an erasure of the distinctions Hari himself constitutes.

  divergence: Both Madhva and Jayatīrtha are silent on this verse. The reading is reconstructed directly from Dvaita *siddhānta* primitives applied to the *mūla*: *pañca-bheda* preserved under *samaṃ paśyan*, *parā gati* as Vaikuṇṭha-*sāyujya* without *abheda*, and the harm of *ātmanātmānam* glossed as the error of identity-superimposition rather than any ethical or physical self-injury.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads three forms of the Atman here — the antaryami (inner dweller), the Purusha, and the Avyakta (unmanifest) — and focuses on the first: one who sees the Paramatman as antaryamin standing equally in all beings, even in bodies subject to the vinashah (destruction) that is the nature of sat-prakriti-karya (effects of real Prakrti), that person sees truly. This is the sugrahana (easy grasp) of Atma-darshana: Krsna's own form permeates all becoming as its very ground, and the devotee who sees this is not injured by the flux of lila but rests in prasada (grace-given vision).

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Shridhara reads the verse as the corrective to avidya-born samsara: the paramAtman standing sama (equally, without distinction) as sat-rupa (being-nature) in all sthavara-jangama (stationary and moving) beings, and simultaneously avinaashyanta (imperishable) within those very vinaShyat (perishing) forms — this double seeing is samyag-darshana (right vision). The one who sees both the sameness and the imperishability truly sees; others do not. This vision, born of viveka (discernment), is both the devotional path's ground and its fruit — the 'para gati' is the divine state that follows naturally from seeing Bhagavan's equal presence everywhere.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana reads the verse as the unfolding of 'ya evam vetti' from the earlier verse — who truly knows the Purusha. The jagat appears vishameShu (unequal), chanchaleShu (unstable), badhya-badhaka (mutually obstructing), like gandharva-nagara (a city of gandharvas, a mirage city) — yet the Parameshvara stands sama (equally), eka-rupa (one form), aparinAmamana (unchanging), in every body. The one who sees thus with shastra-chakshuSha (the eye of scripture) sees as a waking man dissolves a dream — the ajnani sees a serpent where only rope exists. From this seeing follows the destruction of avidya and its kArya-samsAra (causal samsara); the supreme state is not separate from this vision.