Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 13, Verse 8: Krishna to Arjuna — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Vairagya (dispassion) toward sense-objects arises when one sees them as inert modifications of the three gunas, bearing no relation to the atman; clinging to them is simply the error of superimposing value on what is anatman. Anahankara (non-egoism) means ceasing to identify the witnessing consciousness with the body-mind aggregate — Shankara specifies this as the knot of the karyakarana-sangha, which must be restrained and turned exclusively toward the liberation-path. Janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi (birth-death-old-age-disease) are not occasional misfortunes but the unavoidable structural conditions of embodiment, whose constant contemplation strips the world of its false consolations and qualifies the seeker for jnana.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Vairagya here is active cognitive work: one repeatedly examines sense-objects through the lens of their inherent defectiveness (sadosata-anusandhana) until revulsion rather than craving arises — this is Ramanuja's own phrasing in the bhashya. Anahankara is twofold: freedom from the delusion that the body is the self, and equally from the delusion that what is not one's own is one's own — Ramanuja flags this second meaning as 'also intended' (api-vivakshita). The contemplation of birth-death-old-age-disease-suffering is not pessimism but soteriological realism: as long as one is embodied (sashariratve) these defects are unavoidable (avarianiiyatva), and seeing this clearly motivates the turn toward Bhagavan.

• Madhvadvaita

  For Madhva, these qualities are introduced as the 'means to the knowledge of kshetrajnas nature and power' — the verse is explicitly instrumental toward tattva-jnana of the Lord. Dambha (ostentation) is precisely defined: knowing one's own smallness (atmalpatvam) yet displaying greatness — a moral failure that blocks recognition of one's utter dependence on Hari. Arjava (straightforwardness) is the non-contradiction of mind, speech, and action — Madhva's compact formulation manogakkayakarmanam-avaiparityam leaves no room for the 'inner sincerity but outer performance' evasion that other schools permit.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha frames the entire list (amanitva and its companions) as jnana-gunas, qualities that belong to the kshetra understood as the domain of self-knowledge — they are grace-given dispositions within Krishna's own field of lila, not autonomous human achievements. The bhashya is intentionally terse (noting only that these are the jnana-gunas 'stated in four-and-a-half verses'), which in Pushtimarga reading signals that elaboration belongs to the devotee's own relational experience with Krishna rather than to doctrinal parsing. Vairagya and anahankara here are not effortful renunciations but signs of prasada: when Krishna's grace flows in, attachment naturally recedes and the ego's claims loosen.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Shridhara reads amanitva as absence of self-praise regarding one's own qualities (svaguna-shllagha-rahityam), and adambhitva as freedom from pretension, making the two closely paired anti-inflation virtues that clear the ground for genuine guru-seva. He gives the verse's full five-member exposition: outer shaucha (ritual purity via earth and water) and inner shaucha (removal of raga-dirt through cultivating the opposite mental state), citing a smriti verse to confirm the twofold scheme. Sthairya is not mere stubbornness but single-pointed commitment to the good path (sanmarge pravrttasya tad-eka-nishthata), and atma-vinigrahah is bodily restraint — together they constitute the stable ground from which the kshetrajnna can be known as distinct from the kshetra.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudhana opens by locating the verse's function precisely: having described the kshetra, Krishna now gives the sadhanas for qualification (yogyatva) to know the kshetrajna, the witnessing consciousness distinct from the field. He distinguishes two modes of manitva: self-praise based on qualities that actually exist and self-praise based on qualities that do not — both are blocked by amanitva, making this a more complete analysis than Shankara's. Sthairya receives Madhusudhana's fullest gloss: it is not mere persistence but the quality of redoubling effort repeatedly (punaah-punar-yatnadhikyam) each time an obstacle arises on the liberation-path — the devotional synthesis appears in that this steady effort is ultimately in service of Bhagavan-realization, not impersonal brahma-jnana alone.