Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 16, Verse 24: Krishna to Arjuna — Daivāsura-Sampad-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Shankara reads this verse as a functional boundary-marker for those still in the karmabhumi (the ground of action): shastram (shastra) is pramana (authority) precisely because the aspirant cannot yet trust svabhava (one's own nature) uncorrected by repeated wrong action born of desire. The verse does not exalt shastra as final — it exalts shastra as the corrective instrument appropriate to the karma-adhikara-bhumi (the domain where one holds authority to act). Knowing what shastra prescribes and forbids, one acts so that karma purifies the antahkarana (inner instrument) until jnana (knowledge) can arise — shastra is the scaffold, not the building.

  divergence: Shankara: 'iha iti karmaadhikarabhumiprashanaartham' — 'here' marks the domain of karma-adhikara; shastra is pramana within that domain, not beyond it.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Ramanuja reads shastra not as a corrective for impure aspirants but as the luminous body of testimony that reveals Purushottama (the Supreme Person) and the karma that pleases him. The Vedas upheld by dharmashastra, itihasa and Purana together disclose both the nature of Bhagavan and the actions that constitute kainkarya (loving service) to him. Knowing the tattva (truth) and the karma precisely — neither deficient nor in excess — one becomes fit to take up exactly that action: shastra here is not bare prohibition-and-permission but an act of love from the Lord disclosing himself and the way to him.

  divergence: Ramanuja: 'Purushottamakhyam param tattvam tatprinanarUpam tatprapyupayabhuutam cha karma avabodhayanti' — shastra reveals the Supreme Person, the action that delights him, and the means of reaching him.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Tasmāc chāstraṃ pramāṇaṃ te kāryākārya-vyavasthitau* — therefore *śāstra* (scripture) is your *pramāṇa* (valid epistemic authority) in determining what is to be done and what is to be left undone. *Jñātvā śāstra-vidhānoktaṃ karma kartum ihārhasi* — having known what the scriptural injunction prescribes, you are fit to act accordingly here. Śāstra is *pramāṇa* because Hari alone is *svatantra* (the independently real, self-sufficient). Every *jīva* (individual self) is *paratantra* (eternally dependent), incapable of determining right action from within itself. The *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction: Lord–jīva, Lord–matter, jīva–jīva, jīva–matter, matter–matter) is not merely categorical — it is ontologically operative in every act. Action whose scope and form the *jīva* sets by private judgment alone oversteps the *bheda* (real distinction) and collapses into the asuric posture this chapter has catalogued. Vedic injunction is the formal channel through which Hari's sovereign will reaches the bound soul. Obedience to *śāstra* is therefore not legalism but *paratantra*'s proper acknowledgment: the *jīva* acting within the order Hari has disclosed. *Bhakti* (devotion) toward Hari and adherence to *śāstra-vidhāna* are not separable; the injunction structures the very acts through which ontological subordination is expressed and confirmed.

  divergence: Madhva and Jayatīrtha are silent on this verse. Reading voiced directly from dvaita siddhānta primitives applied to the mūla.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha closes the chapter with a distillation: shastra-authority culminates in the single command 'act in battle, which is your svadharma (own duty), with your mind given to me.' The scripture's final meaning is not rule-compliance but reorientation of the kartri (agent) toward Krishna as the one for whom all action occurs. Vallabha's closing verse-seal distinguishes the daivi sampat (divine endowment — karma performed in seva-mode, svadharma-vritti) from the asura tendency (abandonment of svadharma for desire-driven action) — the distinction between the two that the entire sixteenth chapter has elaborated.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'tasmaanmayi dattachittah karma yuddhakhyam shaastravidhaanoktam svadharmam karttumarhasi' — 'therefore, with mind given to me, perform the battle-action that is your svadharma as shastra prescribes.'

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Shridhara holds the verse as the phala-vakhya (statement of fruit) of the entire chapter: now that the distinction between daivi and asuri sampat has been established, the practical upshot is that shruti, smriti and Purana form the unified pramana-body for determining what is karya (to be done) and akarya (not to be done). One who stands in the karma-adhikara — holding eligibility to act — should understand shastra and act according to one's adhikara (qualification). Shridhara adds the causal chain: shastra as pramana is what makes sattva-shuddhi (purity of being), samyag-jnana (right knowledge) and mukti (liberation) possible, since these are rooted in shastra-guided action.

  divergence: Shridhara: 'tanmuulatvaat sattvashuddhisamyagjnaanamuktiinaaam' — because sattva-shuddhi, samyag-jnana and mukti are rooted in shastra-guided action.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana synthesizes both registers: the chapter's argument is that turning away from shastra (shastra-vimukhata) in favor of kama-governed action makes one unfit for all purusharthas — worldly or transcendent. Therefore shastra — defined precisely as Veda plus the smriti and Purana that depend on it, not mere personal speculation or Buddhist-style reasoning — is the single authoritative pramana for karya and akarya. For Arjuna still in the karma-adhikara-bhumi, this means: abandon the prohibited (nisiddha), perform the prescribed (vihita) — specifically the kshatriya's battle-duty — until sattva-shuddhi is achieved, the Advaita ground is prepared, and bhakti's own flame can be lit unobstructed.

  divergence: Madhusudana: 'shastram vedatadupajivismritiPuranaadikameva bodhakam pramanam naanyat svotpreksha-buddha-vaakyadiiti' — shastra alone is pramana, not personal speculation or external reasoning-systems.