Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 14, Verse 23: Krishna to Arjuna — Guṇatraya-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The one who abides as a mere witness (sakshi), seated like an indifferent bystander (udasinavat), is the knower of the Self (atmavit) who has attained the vantage of viveka-darsana (discriminative seeing) — from that station no guna-produced fluctuation of pleasure, pain, or agitation dislodges him. He does not side with any party, as Shankara writes: 'na kasyacit paksham bhajate' — he takes no side. He remains in svarupa, his own essential nature, recognising that the gunas (the three strands of prakrti) move only among themselves in the forms of instrument, object, and transformation — none of it touches the Self.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Satisfied by the direct vision of the Self as categorically distinct from the gunas (guna-vyatiriktatatma-avalokana-trptya), the devotee dwells in equanimity toward all else — like one who is utterly indifferent (udasinavat). Ramanuja specifies that dvesha (aversion) and akanksha (longing) are the two channels through which the gunas try to dislodge one: this aspirant is moved by neither. Silently he abides, knowing 'the gunas operate in their own provinces of illumination and so on' — his fidelity belongs entirely to Bhagavan, not to any guna-product.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Udāsīnavad āsīnaḥ* — seated as if indifferent — names the *paratantra* *jīva*'s natural posture when established in its real relation to *svatantra* Hari. The *jīva* is not moved (*na vicālyate*) by *tamas*, *rajas*, or *sattva*, because *bheda* (real distinction) between the *jīva* and *prakṛti*'s *guṇas* is permanent and ontologically fixed; the *jīva* cannot be identical with what moves it. *Guṇā vartanta ity eva* — 'the *guṇas* alone move among themselves' — is recognized precisely from within this *bheda*: the *jīva* witnesses *prakṛti*'s self-contained motion without absorbing it as self-generated, because no *guṇa*-activity belongs to the *jīva* by its own *svabhāva*. To remain unmoved (*neṅgate*) is not indifference born of dissolution into Brahman but the stable subordination of a *paratantra* being whose every inclination is governed by Hari's will. The five-fold *pañca-bheda* — Lord from *jīva*, Lord from matter, *jīva* from *jīva*, *jīva* from matter, matter from matter — holds intact even when the *jīva* abides in this highest equipoise. *Taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy) is not collapsed by such abiding; the *jīva* neither rises into Hari nor dissolves into *prakṛti* but rests, unmoved, in its own grade of dependent being.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha's commentary closely parallels Ramanuja's language here: fullness from the vision of the Self beyond the gunas (gunatirikata-atma-avalokana-trptatvat) produces natural udasinata (equanimity) toward non-Self objects. But in Pushti-marga the deeper resonance is prasada: the bhakta is not striving to be unmoved — Krishna's grace (pushti) itself holds him still. The gunas perform their functions (svakaryeshu prakashadishu) without the devotee's svarupa being entangled; he does not act in conformity with the gunas (na gunanuguna svAtmanA chestate) because his entire self-motion has been surrendered into Krsna's lila.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara frames this verse as the answer to the second question — 'how does the guna-atita conduct himself outwardly?' (kim-acara). Seated as pure witness-consciousness (sakshitaya asina), he is not displaced from his svarupa by any guna-product — by pleasure, pain, or any form of sukha-duhkha. The decisive inner knowledge is: 'the gunas move in their own affairs — there is simply no relation between them and me' (etair mama sambandha eva nasti). That viveka-jnana produces outer stillness: he does not stir (na inglate), does not waver.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana synthesizes Shankara's metaphysics with devotional interiority: the atma-vit is free from raga and dvesha and therefore seated in svarupa itself. The gunas — transformed into the forms of body, senses, and objects — move only among each other (parasparasmin vartante); 'just as for the self-luminous, the illuminated world has no binding relation — like a dream, this entire manifested display is inert and Maya-only (svapnavan mayamatras ca ayam bhasyaprapa-ncah jadah).' The person who thus settles into svarupa neither acts in line with guna-movements nor is touched by them — he is the self-luminous (svayamjyotih svabhavah), the absolutely real (paramarthasatya), the undivided.