Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 16, Verse 23: Krishna to Arjuna — Daivāsura-Sampad-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  One who abandons the injunction of shastra (scripture — the Veda's vidhi-nishedha, the prescriptive-prohibitive apparatus that produces knowledge of what is to be done and not done) and acts from kama-karata (desire-driven self-will) forfeits siddhi — fitness for the highest purushartha. Shankara specifies a triple privation: no siddhi (purushartha-yogyata, the inner qualification for liberation), no sukha even in this world, and no para gati — whether svarga or moksha. The argument is strict: shastric discipline is the sole means of producing the antahkarana-shuddhi without which jnana cannot arise; its abandonment is therefore not ethical laxity but epistemological self-destruction.

  divergence: Shankara: 'na sah siddhim purushartha-yogyatam avapnoti; na api asmin loke sukham; na api param prakristam gatim svargam moksham va' — the three negations are sequential rungs, each foreclosing the next.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Shastra here is Veda — explicitly glossed by Ramanuja as 'mad-anushasanam', the Lord's own disciplinary command. One who abandons it and follows svacchanda-anugama-marga (the path of self-chosen inclination) receives no amsushmikim siddhi (other-worldly attainment), no aihikam sukha (this-worldly happiness), and no para gati. Ramanuja's distinctive move is the identification of Vedic vidhi with Bhagavan's personal ordinance: to discard shastra is to refuse the Lord's own address, not merely to break an abstract rule. The triple deprivation thus mirrors a relational failure — one has turned away from Bhagavan's sustaining guidance and cannot reach Him.

  divergence: Ramanuja: 'vedam mad-anushasanam utsrijya yah kamakartah svacchanda-anugana-margena vartate — na kam api amushmikam siddhim avapnoti; na saukhyam aihikam api; na ca param gatim.'

• Madhvadvaita

  *Śāstra-vidhi* (the binding scriptural ordinance) is Hari's own will made accessible to the *paratantra* *jīva* (eternally dependent individual self). The one who, driven by *kāma-kārataḥ* (self-willed desire, acting from one's own impulse alone), abandons that ordinance — *utsṛjya* — has severed the very conduit through which *svatantra* (the independently real, self-sufficient) Hari extends *prasāda* downward through the *taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy). The triple privation the verse names is not arbitrary: *siddhi* (spiritual accomplishment), *sukha* (genuine happiness), and *parā gatiḥ* (the highest destination) are each wholly dependent on Hari's will, and none accrues to the *jīva* through its own autonomous exertion. The *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction) between Lord, *jīva*, and matter is not dissolved by transgression — the *jīva* remains what it is — but *bhakti* as ontological subordination to Hari requires the *śāstra* as its outer form; without that form, the *jīva* wanders, dependent still, yet cut off from the source of all three goods it seeks.

  divergence: No Madhva or Jayatīrtha bhāṣya extant for this verse. Reading reconstructed from Madhva's consistent dvaita siddhānta: śāstra-vidhi is Hari's ordinance binding on all paratantra jīvas, and its transgression through kāma-kārata interrupts the prasāda-channel established across BG 3.35 and 16.1–3.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha frames the verse as a prerequisite argument: renunciation of kama and other daivi-sampat qualities is impossible without adhering to shastra-uktam sva-dharma-acharanam (the practice of one's own dharma as shastra ordains it). His gloss carries an unusual theological anchor: 'sarve brahma-adayah tu avayavah Purushottamasya' — all beings from Brahma downward are limbs of Purushottama, and Hari has eternally ordained deva-yajana. One who abandons this — acting from ashastriya-svacchanda-shraddha (faith that is self-willed and outside shastra) — attains neither tattva-jnana nor any amushmikam siddhi, neither aihikam sukha nor para gati. The Pushti-marga accent is on the Lord's own shasana as the form of grace; bypassing it is bypassing Krsna's lila-prasada itself.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'sarve brahma-adayah tu avayavah Purushottamasya iti ajnaya deva-yajanam Harina sada uktam iti shastra-vidhim utsrijya kama-karatah ashastriya-svacchanda-shraddhatah vartate — na ca siddhim kam api tattva-jnana-apti-rupam...avapnoti.'

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara gives the tightest mapping: shastra-vidhi = veda-vihitam dharmam, and the one who abandons it and acts as he pleases (yathechham) fails to obtain siddhi glossed as tattva-jnanam, sukha glossed as upashamam (inner quiet), and para gati as muktim. The triple privation is thus mapped onto three distinct registers of the spiritual economy — knowledge, affective peace, and ultimate release. Sridhara's voice is balanced and cumulative: each deprivation is irreducibly its own loss, not merely a logical consequence of the preceding one. The verse functions as a precise diagnostic of the three registers that kama-driven action destroys.

  divergence: Sridhara: 'shastra-vidhim veda-vihitam dharmam utsrijya yah kamakartah yathiccham vartate sah siddhim tattva-jnanam na prapnoti; na ca sukham upashamam; na ca param gatim muktim prapnoti.'

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana opens with an epistemological claim: shubha-acharana (good action) and ashubha-acharana (bad action) are both shastra-ekagamya — knowable only through shastra, since the apurva-artha (the result that exceeds present perception) is precisely what shastra alone reveals. One who abandons shastra-vidhi — which he expands to include not only Vedic vidhi-nishedha but also the Brahma-pratipادakam shastra (Upanishads, which disclose Brahman) — acts by sveccha-matren (mere self-will alone), neither performs what is enjoined nor avoids what is prohibited. Such a person fails to obtain samsiddhi defined as antahkarana-shuddhi (purification of the inner faculty), without which even karma performed is fruitless; and fails also at aihika sukha and at para gati whether svarga or moksha. The synthesis lies in the double scope of 'shastra-vidhi': it covers both the karmic injunction-track and the jnana-revelation-track — deserting it destroys both bhakti's purifying discipline and Advaita's cognitive access.

  divergence: Madhusudana: 'ashreyo-acharanasya shreyo-acharanasya na shastram eva nimittam tayor shastra-eika-gamyatvat... kama-karatah sveccha-matrena vartate... samsiddhim purushartha-prapti-yogyam antahkarana-shuddhim karmani kurvan api na apnoti.'