Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 15, Verse 6: Krishna to Arjuna — Puruṣottama-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  That supreme abode (parama-dhāma) — which is Viṣṇu's own luminous nature — is not illumined by the sun, moon, or fire, for it is self-luminous (svayam-prakāśa) and the very ground of all light. Śaṅkara insists the apparent paradox — 'all departures return, so how can this departure be final?' — is resolved precisely because this dhāma is not a destination within saṃsāra but identity with Brahman itself. Having 'gone' there, the jīva does not return because there is no second place from which return is possible; the self recognizes it never left.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Rāmānuja reads this dhāma as the supreme luminosity (parama-jyotis) that is Bhagavān's own ātman, of which the liberated jīva is an inseparable mode (viśeṣaṇa). Sun, moon, and fire illumine only by removing the obstruction of darkness from sense-objects; the ātman-light, by contrast, is constitutive of all awareness and cannot be 'illumined' from outside. Entry into this dhāma is not dissolution but the jīva's full actualization as Bhagavān's aṃśa (portion) in eternal kainkarya (service), rendered possible only through bhagavat-prapatti (surrender to the Lord).

• Madhvadvaita

  Madhva opens with a single sūtra: *svarūpaṃ kathayati — na tad ityādinā* — 'He declares His own nature by the words beginning *na tad*.' Jayatīrtha draws out the connective logic (*uttaravākyānāṃ saṅgatyaprātītes tāṃ sūcayan*): the question arising from the preceding verses is *kīdṛśaṃ tat padaṃ yat prāptiḥ puruṣārthaḥ* — 'what kind of *pada* (abode) is it whose attainment is the *puruṣārtha* (the supreme human end)?' This verse answers that question. Further, Jayatīrtha notes that by the single word *svarūpam*, Madhva simultaneously glosses both *padam* (already stated) and *dhāma* (about to be stated), since the two — mere location (*sthāna*) and mere light (*tejas*) — do not fit: *sthānatejasorasaṅgatvāt*. *Dhāma* therefore names neither a place nor a luminosity but the *svarūpa* of Hari Himself — *svatantra* (independently real, self-sufficient), illumined by no *sūrya*, *śaśāṅka*, or *pāvaka* because its light is its own being. The *jīva* (*paratantra*, eternally dependent) that reaches this *dhāma* does not return (*na nivartante*): *bheda* (real distinction) between Hari and *jīva* abides, yet the *jīva* rests permanently in Hari's presence by His grace.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha identifies the dhāma with Viṣṇu's supreme abode as attested in the Ṛgveda (tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṃ padam) and the Bhāgavata, characterizing it as the very ground of adhyātma-jñāna (inner knowledge) where māyā does not reach. Sun and moon are loka-prasiddha (conventionally known) luminaries; but Kṛṣṇa's dhāma is sarvaprakāśaka — the illuminator of all illuminators — and is Kṛṣṇa's own anantamahimā (boundless glory). For the puṣṭi-mārgin, 'going there' is not earned by sādhana but granted as Kṛṣṇa's own prasāda; the yogi who receives it does not return because he has been drawn into Kṛṣṇa's own līlā-space.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara reads the verse as a precise characterization of the goal already announced: that dhāma is Bhagavān's own svarūpa (essential nature), not merely a place. By specifying that sun, moon, and fire do not illumine it, the text implicitly removes all accusations of jaḍatva (inertness), śīta (coldness), and uṣṇa (heat) from that supreme reality — it transcends all material qualities. Yogis who reach it do not return because the dhāma is pure consciousness-light, with no shadow of matter to drive rebirth; the verse thus prepares the ground for the subsequent 'portion-of-Myself' teaching.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana marshals the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad witness (na tatra sūryo bhāti...) to close the debate: sun, moon, and fire successively fail as back-up illuminators; all three negations converge on the same truth — this dhāma is svayam-aparokṣa (immediately self-evident) precisely because it is the illuminator of every jaḍa-jyotis (material light). He then resolves a Vedāntic puzzle: the dhāma is neither a knowable object (which would require a separate knower, re-introducing duality) nor an unknown void (which would make liberation purposeless); it is self-luminous consciousness known only as itself. This allows Madhusūdana to honor both Śaṅkara's non-dual identity and Kṛṣṇa-bhakti's personal Lord — the dhāma is Viṣṇu's own svarūpa and at the same time pure awareness with no outside.