Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 13, Verse 34: Krishna to Arjuna — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga
Just as one sun lights the whole world, the single knower of the field lights the entire field, Arjuna, yet is no more stained by it than the sun is stained by what it shines on.
Bhāṣyakāra purports
- Śaṅkaraadvaita
As one sun illuminates this entire world, so the single kṣetrajña (field-knower) illuminates the whole kṣetra (field) from the great elements down to steadiness. The ātman (self) is like the sun in a dual sense: singular across all fields and untouched (alepa) by what it illuminates. This closing verse of the chapter summarizes the entire teaching: the one Paramātman (supreme self) is the sole witness, ever uncontaminated by the field's attributes.
divergence: Shankara explicitly draws the double ravi-drishanta: 'ravivadasarva-kshetreshu eka eva atma, alepakashca' — one self in all fields, and untouched. He frames the verse as chapter-colophon summarizing the kṣetra-kṣetrajña-vibhāga.
- Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita
As one āditya (sun) illuminates the entire world with its own luminosity, so the kṣetrajña illuminates the field completely — from foot to crown, inside and outside — by its own intrinsic jñāna (knowledge). The jīva (individual self) thereby stands absolutely distinct (atyanta-vilakṣaṇa) from the kṣetra just as the illuminating sun stands distinct from the illuminated world. This distinction is not dissolution into a featureless absolute but the ground for the self's relational identity as vettṛ (knower) before the known field.
divergence: Ramanuja specifies 'bahirantahca apadatala-mastakam svakiyena jnanena prakashayati' — complete illumination head to toe, inside and out, by the self's own knowledge — and concludes with 'atyanta-vilakshana' for the distinctness of ātman from kṣetra.
- Madhvadvaita
*Yathā prakāśayaty ekaḥ kṛtsnaṃ lokam imaṃ raviḥ* — as the single sun illumines this entire world — *kṣetrī tathā kṛtsnaṃ kṣetraṃ prakāśayati* — so the *kṣetrajña* illumines the entire *kṣetra* (field). In Dvaita *siddhānta*, the verse names two distinct orders of *kṣetrajña*: the *paratantra* (eternally dependent) *jīva*, whose cognizing light is borrowed and bounded, and the *svatantra* (independently real, self-sufficient) Paramātman, whose light is original and unbounded. The sun-image makes the *bheda* (real distinction) precise: the sun illumines from without, remaining untouched by what it lights. So too the *jīva* illumines its own *kṣetra* through Hari's *anugraha* (grace), never merging with nor equaling the supreme *Kṣetrajña*. *Pañca-bheda* — the five-fold real distinction — holds intact: the Lord's illumining sovereignty is not shared upward by the *jīva*, nor diluted downward into *kṣetra*. The *taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy) is preserved across all three terms: Paramātman, *jīva*, and *prakṛti* (matter). Dissolution of these distinctions is precisely what the sun-analogy refuses.
divergence: No Madhva or Jayatīrtha bhāṣya on this verse; siddhānta voiced directly from the mūla.
- Vallabhaśuddhādvaita
Caitanya (consciousness) is the ātman's own dharma (essential nature), not a product of prakṛti (nature). As the sun, by virtue of its prakāśa-dharma (nature of luminosity), illuminates everything, so the kṣetrī illuminates the field by its own consciousness-nature. The verse further teaches that true kṣetrajñatva (field-knowership) only becomes fully realized through tattvajñāna (knowledge of reality) that apprehends Bhagavān's qualities as the essence — the self's knowing is ultimately the Lord's own luminosity shining within his own manifestation.
divergence: Vallabha states 'caitanyam jñanarupa-atmanah dharma na prakrita iti' and concludes that kṣetrajñatva is fully constituted only when bhagavad-guṇa-saratva (Bhagavan's qualities as the essence) is apprehended.
- Śrīdharabhakti
The preceding verse established the self's non-attachment via the ākāśa (space) analogy — hence no contamination. This verse adds the ravi (sun) analogy to show why the self, as illuminator, cannot be qualified by the properties of what it illuminates. The meaning is straightforward (spaṣṭārtha): the kṣetrajña illuminates the entire kṣetra yet remains as untouched by the field's dharmas as the sun is untouched by what it lights.
divergence: Sridhara explicitly pairs this verse with the previous akasha-drishanta, notes the ravi-drishanta completes the argument for alepa (non-contamination), and declares 'spashtarthah' — clear in meaning.
- Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti
Not only because the ātman is by nature asanga (unattached) does it remain unlipyate (uncontaminated), but also because it is the illuminator: the illuminator is never stained by the properties of what it illuminates, nor is it divided by the plurality of illuminated objects. The singular kṣetrajña illuminates the entire kṣetra yet is neither marked by its modifications nor fragmented into many selves by the many bodies. The Kaṭha-śruti anchor 'suryo yatha sarvalokasya cakṣuh na lipyate cakṣushair bahya-doṣaih' seals this: the self is the eye of all worlds, touching none of their afflictions.
divergence: Madhusudana gives a double argument — asanga-svabhava AND prakashakatva — and cites Katha Upanishad 'suryo yatha sarvalokasya cakshuh' to close the chapter. He explicitly states the self is neither contaminated by field-properties nor divided by field-multiplicity.