Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 16, Verse 3: Krishna to Arjuna — Daivāsura-Sampad-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Teja (vigour) here is prāgalbhya (boldness of spirit), not skin-deep radiance — Śaṅkara is careful to say this quality belongs to the antaḥkaraṇa (inner instrument), not the body. Kṣamā (forbearance) differs from akrodha (non-anger): kṣamā is the inner change not arising at all when struck or abused; akrodha is the subsiding of a change that has already arisen. Dhṛti is the specific vṛtti (modification) of the antaḥkaraṇa that props up failing body and senses so they do not sink — these twenty-six qualities together belong to one born (abhijāta) destined for daivī sampat (divine endowment), the welfare that awaits the deva-worthy.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Teja (vigour) for Rāmānuja is dauntlessness before the wicked — the quality of being unovercome by the unrighteous; kṣamā is the absence of mental disturbance even while experiencing pain caused by another, and dhṛti is the firm apprehension of what duty requires even in great adversity. Śauca (purity) is the śāstrīya (scripture-grounded) fitness of both outer and inner organs for their proper task; adroha is non-interference with others' self-directed activity, the refusal to obstruct their freedom. These qualities constitute the sampat (wealth) of those who are born oriented toward the devas — meaning born to enact Bhagavān's command (bhagavadājñānuvṛtti), since that obedience is itself daivī sampat.

• Madhvadvaita

  Madhva singles out kṣamā (forbearance) for precise doctrinal definition: it is the absence of retaliation toward one who has wronged you, combined with the absence of anger — citing his own canonical statement 'one endowed with forbearance toward the fault-doer and toward hardship is called kṣamāvān.' The bhāṣya for 16.3 is concise; Madhva's broader reading of the daivī sampat is that every virtue here is a form of anukūlya (favourable submission) to Hari, since only Hari-dependent souls can sustain such dharmas; the listing of virtues is also an implicit polemic against the claim that sādhana belongs to the jīva independently.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads BG 16.1–16.3 as a single unit flowing from the statement of BG 15.19 — one who knows Kṛṣṇa as Puruṣottama without delusion (asammūḍha) inherits the twenty-six daivī qualities; all other jīvas tend toward āsura-svabhāva (demonic nature). The twenty-six are described as sāmagrī (the equipment) and sṛṣṭi (the very constitution) of the daiva-jīva — they are not achievements but prasāda, Bhagavān's own constitution expressed through Bhagavad-vacana-dharma (conduct aligned with divine utterance). Their presence signals that the jīva already belongs to the divine category; Puṣṭi-mārga therefore reads the list not as a programme of self-improvement but as a recognition of what Kṛṣṇa has already given.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara Svāmī gives teja (vigour) as prāgalbhya, kṣamā as the blocking of anger at insults (paribhavādiṣu krodhapratibandha), and dhṛti as the stabilising of a mind sinking under sorrow — close to Śaṅkara in language but without his dialectical sharpness on the kṣamā–akrodha distinction. Śauca encompasses both outer and inner purity; adroha is the absence of jighāṃsā (wish to harm); nātimānitā is the absence of the conceit that one is supremely worthy of honour. These twenty-six constitute the daivī sampat born oriented toward sattva-yoga, and Śrīdhara frames them as the natural inheritance of one whose birth is already tending toward kalyāṇa (future liberation) — a devotionally warm reading without explicit bhakti polemic.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana distinguishes the first trio (teja, kṣamā, dhṛti) as specifically kṣatriya (warrior-class) virtues, śauca and adroha as distinctively vaiśya, and nātimānitā as the special dharma of the śūdra — the list encodes a varṇāśrama reading in miniature. His śauca is explicitly only āntara (inner): the absence of māyā and falsehood in transactions, not water-and-clay bodily cleanliness, because only vāsanā-purification (cleansing of latent impressions) shapes the daivī or āsurī constitution; the daivī sampat is itself a stream of sattva-vāsanā activated by past puṇya-karma. The closing address 'he Bhārata' signals to Arjuna that his lineage already makes him fit for these dharmas — Madhusūdana's synthesis of Advaita metaphysics with intimate Kṛṣṇa-address is audible in this final gloss.