Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 14, Verse 21: Krishna to Arjuna — Guṇatraya-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Arjuna asks: by what marks (lingaih, signs) does one recognize a person who has transcended (atitah, crossed beyond) these three gunas, O Lord (Prabho)? And what is his conduct (kim-acarah, what behavior does he exhibit)? And by what means (katham, how) does he go beyond (ativartate) all three gunas? Shankara reads this as a double question — laksana-prashna (question of marks) and upaya-prashna (question of means) — signaling that the entire following answer addresses both recognizing the jivanmukta and the jnana-path by which gunatita-state is attained.

  divergence: Shankara explicitly parses kim-acarah as 'ko asya acarah' and katham as 'kena ca prakarena,' holding that Arjuna frames two distinct inquiries whose answers Bhagavan will supply sequentially.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Arjuna's question is framed in Ramanuja's reading as a request for svarupa-avagati (knowledge of the true nature) of the gunatita — what outward marks (laksanaih) identify such a soul, and what conduct (acarah) flows from that nature as its visible expression? The gunatita is not a contentless abstraction but a devotee whose realized svarupa manifests in discernible behavior. The upaya question ('katham ativartate') points toward bhakti-yoga as the operative means, whose elaboration Bhagavan will supply.

  divergence: Ramanuja glosses laksanaih as 'kenacara-yukto asau, svarupavagates lingabhutacarah kidrsah' — the conduct IS the laksana, not separate from it, collapsing the marks-question and the conduct-question into one.

• Madhvadvaita

  Arjuna's question — *kair liṅgais* (by what marks), *kim-ācāraḥ* (what is his conduct), *kathaṃ ca ativartate* (and how does he cross beyond) — is threefold, pressing for signs, behaviour, and the very mechanics of transcendence. In *dvaita* the answer turns on *svatantra* (the independently real, self-sufficient) Hari and the *paratantra* (eternally dependent) *jīva* (the individual self). The three *guṇas* are Hari's own instruments of cosmic administration; the *jīva* does not exit them by its own power but is drawn beyond them by Hari's *anugraha* (grace), which alone breaks the *guṇa*-bind. The one who has crossed — *atīto bhavati* — bears recognisable *liṅgas* (marks): absence of self-attributed *kartṛtva* (agency), unbroken orientation toward Hari, and conduct that is pure *nimitta* (instrument) of the Lord's will. *Bheda* (real distinction) between *jīva* and Hari is never dissolved in this crossing; the *jīva* does not merge into Hari but arrives at a state of total ontological subordination, the apex of *bhakti* (devotion) as the *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction: Lord–jīva, Lord–matter, jīva–jīva, jīva–matter, matter–matter) remains real throughout. Arjuna's question thus anticipates an answer that names both the signs of *guṇātīta* status and the irreplaceable role of Hari's sovereignty in producing it.

  divergence: Both Madhva and Jayatīrtha are silent on this verse. The reading is voiced directly from *dvaita* *siddhānta* primitives applied to the *mūla*: *svatantra*/*paratantra* asymmetry, *anugraha* as the operative cause of *guṇa*-transcendence, and the persistence of *pañca-bheda* even in the *guṇātīta* state.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha's tika frames Arjuna's question as a jijnasa (earnest desire to know) about three interconnected things: laksana (what are the marks?), acara (what is the conduct?), and hetu (what is the cause or means — 'heturupena va'). The gunatita in Pushti-marga is one who lives in Krishna's lila-prasada, no longer bound by the gunas that constitute maya's web. The question opens the teaching on how grace (pushti) rather than personal striving is the operative upaya, and the 'marks' will be signs of that grace already at work.

  divergence: Vallabha's tika explicitly notes 'heturupena va' — the katham-question is about the cause/means understood as prasada, not as volitional effort, differentiating his reading from Advaita's jnana-upaya.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Shridhara reads the verse as Arjuna's samyag-bubhutsana (thorough desire to understand) upon hearing in 14.20 that the gunatita 'attains amrita (immortality).' The laksana-prashna asks: what signs arise within the person (atmany utpannais cihnair) that identify the gunatita? The acara-prashna asks what conduct flows outwardly. And the upaya-prashna asks by what means (kenopayena) all three gunas are crossed. Shridhara's bhakti lens anticipates that the answer will describe a devotee whose inner freedom manifests as spontaneous, selfless engagement rather than withdrawal.

  divergence: Shridhara explicitly reads atmany utpannais cihnaih (marks arising within the self) as the content of the laksana-question, emphasizing the interior-to-exterior direction of the gunatita's marks.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudhana structures the verse as three distinct prashnas (questions), a precision the other commentators do not make explicit. First prashna: by what marks (lingaih) is the gunatita distinguished — how can he be known? Second prashna: kim-acarah — is his conduct self-directed (yathesta-cestah) or regulated (niyantritah)? Third prashna: katham ativartate — by what means does the crossing happen? The address 'Prabho' is read by Madhusudhana as Arjuna signaling that as Bhagavan (master), Krishna is obligated by sovereignty to remove the servant's confusion — a subtle bhakti inflection within the Advaita architecture.

  divergence: Madhusudhana's triple-prashna analysis ('ekah prashnah... dvitiyah... tritiyah') is unique to his tika and becomes the organizing grid for the answer in 14.22-25.