Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 16, Verse 1: Krishna to Arjuna — Daivāsura-Sampad-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Abhayam (fearlessness) arises when the antahkarana (inner instrument) is purged of deceit, illusion and falsehood in all dealings — this is sattva-samsuddhi (purification of sattva). Jnana (knowledge of atman and other padarthas from sastra and acarya) joined with yoga (one-pointed self-abidance through withdrawal of the senses) — steadiness in both together is the pre-eminent daivi sampat (divine endowment). Dana (proportionate sharing of food etc.), dama (restraint of the external sense-organs), yajna (Vedic rites such as agnihotra), svadhyaya (Vedic recitation for unseen merit), tapas (physical austerity to be detailed later), and arjava (perpetual straightforwardness) complete the enumeration for those in whom sattvic nature has arisen.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Abhayam (fearlessness) here is the cessation of the suffering born of perceiving the causes of loss and gain — it is tranquility rooted in Bhagavan's sovereignty over all outcomes. Sattva-samsuddhi (purification of the inner instrument) means freedom from the touch of rajas and tamas; jnana-yoga-vyavasthiti is firm grounding in the discrimination of the atman as genuinely distinct from prakrti. Yajna (sacrifice) is the performance of mahayajna and the like as aradhana (worship) of Bhagavan entirely without desire for fruit; svadhyaya is devoted study of the entire Veda understood as revealing Bhagavan together with His vibhutis and the mode of His worship — each virtue here is a facet of kainkarya (dedicated service) to Isvara.

• Madhvadvaita

  Bhagavan opens Chapter 16 to show what obstructs the supreme purusartha (highest human end). Tapas (austerity) here encompasses brahmacarya (celibacy) and related disciplines — the commentary explicitly glosses 'tapas' as brahmacaryadika (beginning with celibacy). The daivi sampat enumerated is the set of positive conditions that remove obstacles to dependent worship of Hari; each quality named is the jiva's expression of its essential subordination to Bhagavan, not autonomous virtue.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Bhagavan speaks these three verses to divide humanity into two: those who know Him as Purusottama (Supreme Person) per the previous chapter are of daivi (divine) nature; all others incline toward asuri (demonic) nature. The daivi sampat is not a personal moral achievement but the endowment (sampat) proper to a jiva born into Bhagavan's obedient servants (deva = one who follows Bhagavan's word-dharma). These twenty-six qualities are the very srishti (creation, or equipment) Bhagavan bestows on souls aligned with His nigama-dharma (revealed law); to possess them is to participate in Krsna's lila as an instrument of the divine disposition.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Chapter 16 begins precisely to resolve who is qualified for the tattva-jnana spoken at the chapter's end — the adhikari question requires distinguishing those fit from those unfit. Abhayam (absence of fear), sattva-samsuddhi (brightness of the citta), jnana-yoga-vyavasthiti (firm establishment in the means of atma-jnana), dana (appropriate sharing of food etc.), dama (restraint of the external indriyas), yajna (the sacrifices proper to one's adhikara such as darsapurnamasa), svadhyaya (Brahma-yajna, japa-yajna), tapas (physical austerity to be elaborated in Chapter 17), and arjava (non-crookedness) — these together constitute the daivi sampat that marks out the adhikari who will benefit from the teaching.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  The daivi sampat takes two readings depending on the adhikari: for paramahamsas (renunciates), abhayam is the fearlessness of one who has abandoned all possessions and wonders 'how shall I live?' — a fruit of jivan-mukti, not a sadhana; for grhastha and others, it is a means. Sattva-samsuddhi is the inner instrument's purity — fitness to receive the sphurti (flash) of Bhagavan's tattva — achieved only through Bhagavan-bhakti as Bhagavan declares in Chapter 9 ('mahatmanas tu mam partha daivim prakrtim asritah'). Bhakti is therefore the root of all these virtues and is listed separately from them precisely because of its supreme excellence — each quality named, from abhayam through arjava, is the natural efflorescence of a heart that has surrendered to Krsna.