Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 16, Verse 21: Krishna to Arjuna — Daivāsura-Sampad-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  These three — desire (kama), anger (krodha), and greed (lobha) — are the triple gateway to hell, destroyers of the self (atman). The one who enters through any of these gates becomes unfit for any purusha-artha, cut off from liberation. Therefore abandon all three without remainder — this verse is, in Shankara's own words, a 'praise of renunciation' (tyaga-stutih).

  divergence: Shankara: 'yat dvaram pravishan-neva nashyati atma kashmachit purusharthaya yogyo na bhavati' — the atman becomes unfit for any purpose whatsoever.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Kama, krodha, and lobha are the three gates leading into the asura-nature that is itself narakasya — the hellish condition. These three are the causes (hetu) of the most terrible hell, and must be abandoned from afar (duratah parityajet). The soul's real nature as Bhagavan's body demands distance from that which ruptures the kainkarya relationship.

  divergence: Ramanuja: 'asya asura-svabhava-rupasya narakasya etat trividham dvaram ... duratah parityajet' — abandon them from a great distance.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Kāma* (desire), *krodha* (anger), and *lobha* (greed) — these three are the triple gate of *naraka* (hell), the destruction of the *ātman*. Therefore all three are to be abandoned. Each of the three is a mode of *svatantra-abhimāna* (the delusion of independent selfhood): *kāma* posits the *jīva* as a self-originating enjoyer; *krodha* asserts it as a sovereign power thwarted; *lobha* treats Hari's dispensation as something the *jīva* may seize on its own terms. All three thus sever the *paratantra* (eternally dependent) *jīva* from its proper subordination to *svatantra* Hari. The verse's *nāśanam ātmanaḥ* — destruction of the self — names not annihilation but the *jīva*'s fall from its ordained rank within *taratamya* (the graded ontological hierarchy), binding it to repeated descent rather than ascent toward *bhakti* (devotion as ontological subordination to Hari). *Tyajet* — let him abandon — is an injunction addressed to the *paratantra* will that retains the capacity to orient itself toward or away from Hari; the abandonment is itself made possible only by Hari's grace, consistent with *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction between Lord, *jīva*, and matter). The triple abandonment is the threshold condition for re-entering the *daivī* (divine) mode catalogued across the preceding verses.

  divergence: No Madhva or Jayatīrtha bhāṣya on this verse survives or is recorded. The reading is voiced directly from Dvaita siddhānta primitives applied to the mūla.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads this verse as identifying the root cause (mula hetu) of the asura-bhava that destroys the soul: desire, greed, and anger in threefold form constitute the gateway to the hellish condition. His commentary adds a tantra-antara citation, showing the instruction to abandon the three echoes across shastra — this is not merely ethical advice but the protective imperative of Pushti.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'tad-eka-arthayati kamah krodhastatha lobhah ... hitopadeshah' — this is beneficent instruction confirmed across traditions.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Among all the asura-faults enumerated in this chapter, these three are the root (sakala-dosha-mula) — they generate every other fault, and are therefore to be abandoned in all ways (sarva-atmana tyajet). The triple gate leads to low births (nicha-yoni-prapaka), degrading the soul step by step.

  divergence: Sridhara: 'sakala-dosha-mulabhutam dosha-trayam sarvatha varjaniyam' — the three are the root of all faults and must be abandoned in every way.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana opens with a purvapaksha: the asuri-sampat has infinite varieties — how can one exhausted human lifetime ever abandon it all? He resolves this by compression: all asuri-sampat has its root in this triple gate. Abandon kama, krodha, lobha through viveka (discrimination) — first preventing their active expression, then preventing their arising — and the entire demonic endowment falls away at once.

  divergence: Madhusudana: 'etrat-traya-tyagashcha utpannasya vivekena karya-pratibandhas tatah param chanuttpatir iti drashtavyam' — blocking effects first, then non-arising.