Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 15, Verse 13: Krishna to Arjuna — Puruṣottama-Yoga
I enter the earth and hold all beings together by my power; becoming Soma, the essence of taste, I nourish every plant and herb.
Bhāṣyakāra purports
- Śaṅkaraadvaita
The Lord as Brahman — whose power (ojas) is utterly free of desire (kāma) and attachment (rāga) — enters (āviśya) the earth (gā) not as a personal agent but as the very ground of its cohesion; the Taittirīya-mantra 'yeṇa dyaur ugrā pṛthivī ca dṛḍhā' is cited by Śaṅkara as the Vedic witness for this upholding. Entering as Soma — whose essential nature (svabhāva) is the totality of all tastes (sarvarasa) — It causes all grains and herbs (oṣadhīs) to be nourished, infusing its own rasa into them. The Paramātman here is the impersonal force behind cosmic regularity, not a responding devotee-lord; the appearance of agency is upādhika (conditioned by adjunct) and should not be read as implying a personal Īśvara distinct from Brahman.
- Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita
Bhagavān, whose power (sāmarthya) is never obstructed (apratihata), enters the earth as its inner controller (antaryāmin) and bears all beings — this upholding is an act of his sovereign omnipotence, not a mere natural force. He then becomes Soma filled with the amṛta-rasa (nectar-essence) and nourishes all the oṣadhīs — his universal body includes earth and plant-life as real modes (viśeṣaṇas), not illusory appearances. Rāmānuja's two-line bhāṣya is deliberately compact here: both acts — holding the earth and nourishing herbs — are presented as direct personal kainkarya (service-acts) of Bhagavān on behalf of all jīvas who dwell within his body.
- Madhvadvaita
Madhva reads this verse (bundled with 15.12–14) as a concrete elaboration of the jñāna declared in the prior verse: 'gā' means bhūmi (earth), and the Lord's entry into it and upholding of beings is an expression of his absolutely independent (svatantra) sovereignty — a sovereignty no jīva ever shares. The nourishing of oṣadhīs by Soma-form is likewise the Lord's direct activity, not mediated by any secondary principle; the jīva is utterly dependent (paratantra), witnessing Hari's action but never the agent of it. Dvaita's characteristic insistence is that the distinction between the upholding Brahman and the upheld world is eternal and real, not sublatable.
- Vallabhaśuddhādvaita
Vallabha sees here the same divine śakti (power) that was disclosed in the Sun-passage now shown in earth and plant-life: the holding-power (dhāraṇa-śakti) and the nourishing-power (poṣaṇa-śakti) are both 'madīya' — portions of Kṛṣṇa's own tejas (radiance). The Soma who nourishes is described as rasa-ātmaka and amṛtamaya — Kṛṣṇa as the very substance of delight (ānanda-rasa); this is not cosmic management but the overflow of his līlā-prasāda. Vallabha elsewhere roots Soma in the primordial sṛṣṭi-account, and his parenthetical 'idam ca somōtpattau nirūpitam' signals that the nourishing Soma is the same Kṛṣṇa whose genesis as cosmic delight-essence has already been established in his own corpus.
- Śrīdharabhakti
Śrīdhara renders the verse with devotional directness: 'I alone (aham eva), having taken up my station in the earth (ojas = bala = adhiṣṭhāna), uphold all moving and unmoving beings (carācara).' The second hemistich is equally personal — 'I alone, becoming the rasa-filled Soma, cause all grains and herbs to grow (saṃvardhayāmi).' The word 'saṃvardhayāmi' (he nourishes to fullness) slightly exceeds Śaṅkara's 'puṣṇāmi' in its developmental sense, consistent with his bhakti-inflected reading where Bhagavān is not merely a substrate-force but a nurturing presence. Śrīdhara's commentary is clean of philosophical technicality: the import is that every harvest, every grains-weight, is the Lord's direct gift.
- Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti
Madhusūdana brings both registers to bear: philosophically, the Lord enters earth as pṛthivī-devatā-rūpa (the form of the earth-deity) and, by his own sovereign ojas, compacts what would otherwise — as Madhusūdana vividly puts it — crumble like a fistful of sand (sikatāmuṣṭivad viśīryeta) or sink downward. The Taittirīya-mantra and Hiraṇyagarbha-identification are invoked to show that it is Bhagavān himself who is the cosmogonic cohesive force. Yet the second act — becoming the rasa-ātmaka Soma to make all herbs nourishing (puṣṭimatīḥ) and flavourful (svādumatīḥ) — is described with the warmth of a personal gift: Bhagavān not only upholds but sweetens, which for Madhusūdana is the Kṛṣṇa-bhakta's experience of grace concealed within natural abundance.