Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 14, Verse 11: Krishna to Arjuna — Guṇatraya-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  When the inner faculty (antahkarana) projects its modification through all the gates of perception — the ears and other sense-organs (shrotra-adi), which are the doors of the self's apprehension — that very cognitive luminosity is what is called knowledge (jnana). Recognize this light as the sign (linga) that sattva has risen dominant in the body. The light is not the self; it is the index of sattva's increase, useful as a diagnostic, not as an object of attachment.

  divergence: Shankara identifies 'all gates' as the sense-organs as instruments of the self's apprehension (upalabdhi-dvarani); the light is the vritti (modification) of buddhi, not an independent phenomenon. He reads 'uta' as 'also,' implying happiness and other signs equally confirm sattva.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  When through all the sense-gates — eyes, ears, and the rest — genuine luminous knowledge (jnana) arises that illuminates the true nature of things (vastu-yathatmya-prakasha), one should understand that sattva has grown predominant in this body. Such knowledge is Bhagavan's own light shining through the purified instrument; it is a grace that reveals reality, not mere cognitive function.

  divergence: Ramanuja specifies 'vastu-yathatmya-prakasha' — knowledge of the actual nature of things — distinguishing this from mere sense-data processing. The devotional implication is that clarity of perception tracks proximity to Bhagavan.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Sarva-dvāreṣu dehe 'smin prakāśa upajāyate jñānaṃ yadā* — when *prakāśa* (luminous clarity) arises at every gate of this body and *jñāna* (cognition) floods the sense-apertures, one should know *sattva* has grown predominant. In Dvaita reckoning, *sattva* is a *paratantra* (eternally dependent) *guṇa* of *prakṛti*, and the *jīva* (the individual self) who experiences this brightening is himself *paratantra*, never *svatantra* (the independently real, self-sufficient) — that status belongs to Hari alone. The illumination is not self-originated in the *jīva*; it is Hari's superintendence through *antaryāmitva* that permits *sattva* to rise and cognition to sharpen. *Bheda* (real distinction) between Lord, *jīva*, and *guṇa* holds even at the peak of *sāttvik* clarity: the light in the gates registers the *jīva*'s fitness, not an identity with its source. Recognizing *vivṛddhaṃ sattvam* correctly is itself an act of discernment within the *taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy) — it positions the *jīva* for *bhakti* (devotion) as ontological subordination to Hari, the one in whom *prakāśa* is *svataḥsiddha* (self-established) rather than borrowed.

  divergence: Madhva and Jayatīrtha are silent on this verse. The reading is reconstructed from Dvaita *siddhānta*: *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction: Lord–jīva, Lord–matter, jīva–jīva, jīva–matter, matter–matter) governs the analysis of *guṇa*-states; *sāttvik* clarity is a datum of dependent cognition, not a mark of non-dual absorption.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  In this body which is the seat of experience (bhogayana), when through the ears and other gates the light that is knowledge of sound and other sense-objects (shabda-adi-jnana-atmaka prakasha) arises, and when that knowledge is accompanied by sukha (delight), one should recognize sattva as fully risen. Vallabha reads 'uta' as 'and also' — happiness is a co-sign with light, and together they signal a state ripe for Krsna's prasada to flow through the prepared vessel.

  divergence: Vallabha's bhashya explicitly ties 'uta' to 'sukham' as an additional linga alongside prakasha, and frames the body as 'bhogayana' (seat of enjoyment), consistent with his Pushti framing of embodiment as Krsna's gift for relishing.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Here begins the three-verse sequence announcing the signs of the *guṇa*s in their risen state — *tribuḥ* (by three). In *asmin ātmano bhogāyatane dehe* (this body, the seat of the self's experience), through all the gates, *sarveṣv api dvāreṣu śrotrādiṣu* (all the openings, beginning with hearing), when *śabdādi-jñānātmakaḥ prakāśaḥ* (the light consisting in knowledge of sound and other objects) *upajāyate* (arises), one should know by this sign of light — *anena prakāśa-liṅgena* — that *sattva* is risen, *vivṛddham*. The word *uta* signals that by the sign of *sukha* and the rest — *sukhādi-liṅgenāpi* — one should know the same: *jānīyāt*.

  divergence: Śrīdhara marks *uta* as carrying *sukhādi-liṅgena api jānīyāt* — happiness confirms the same conclusion as *prakāśa*, a second independent sign rather than a subordinate gloss.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  In this body which is the seat of the self's enjoyment, when through all the gates — the sense-instruments of apprehension such as shrotra and the rest — arises that luminosity which is a specific modification of buddhi (buddhi-parinama-vishesha), taking the form of its object and opposing that object's concealing veil like a lamp, that very cognitive light directed at sound and other objects is what is called knowledge (jnana). Recognize by this sign that sattva is risen and unfolded; and by the additional sign of happiness and the rest, know the same.

  divergence: Madhusudan's extended gloss specifies the light as 'buddhi-parinama-vishesha vishaya-akara' (a specific transformation of buddhi taking the object's form) that opposes concealment 'like a lamp' (dipavat) — an Advaita epistemological precision. He also confirms 'uta' as pointing to sukha-adi as supplementary linga.