Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 17, Verse 12: Krishna to Arjuna — Śraddhātraya-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Sacrifice performed with the eye fixed on fruit (phala, result) or staged for ostentation (dambha, display of piety) is declared rajasic and therefore obstructs the purification of the inner organ (antahkarana-shuddhi) that alone opens the path to jnana (liberating knowledge). Shankara's gloss is terse: 'abhisandhaya' means 'uddiśya' — intending, targeting — and the two motives (fruit-desire and show) are jointly disqualifying because both install an object in the will where objectless clarity must stand. Such sacrifice binds rather than releases; the wise man recognizes it as an obstacle to be abandoned.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Ramanuja identifies two corruptions compounded in rajasic sacrifice: phala-abhisandhi (being yoked to desired fruit) and dambha-garbha (ostentation carried within like a concealed seed), with yashah-phala (fame as the real harvest) as its distinguishing mark. For Vishishtadvaita, action becomes kainkarya (loving service) only when the agent surrenders fruit to Bhagavan; the moment personal fruit or public prestige enters the intention, the sacrificial act turns on itself and feeds the ego-self rather than the Lord. This is not merely impure worship but a structural inversion: the devotee replaces Ishvara with himself as the terminal beneficiary.

• Madhvadvaita

  *abhisaṃdhāya tu phalaṃ dambhārtham api caiva yat | ijyate bharata-śreṣṭha taṃ yajñaṃ viddhi rājasam* — sacrifice performed with eye fixed on personal fruit (*phala*) and for the sake of ostentation (*dambha*) is *rājasa*. In the Dvaita reading, the *jīva* (the individual self) is *paratantra* (eternally dependent), wholly subordinate to *svatantra* Hari, who alone disposes of all fruits. To sacrifice *abhisaṃdhāya phalam* — grasping the result as one's own entitlement — is to assert a false self-sufficiency that directly violates *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction), specifically the Lord–*jīva* distinction: it positions the *jīva* as an independent agent capable of securing its own reward rather than as one whose every fruit flows from Hari's sovereignty. *Dambha* compounds the error: the sacrifice is directed toward the adulation of other *jīvas*, not toward Hari as the sole proper object of *bhakti* (devotion). A sacrifice thus doubled in misdirection — fruit-seeking and display-seeking — cannot constitute genuine worship of the *svatantra* Lord. Kṛṣṇa's instruction to Arjuna (*bharata-śreṣṭha*) is to recognize (*viddhi*) this as *rājasa* and thereby to understand what true *sāttvika* sacrifice demands: complete subordination of fruit and ego to Hari alone.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  *Abhisaṃdhāya tu phalaṃ dambhārtham api caiva yat | ijyate bharata-śreṣṭha taṃ yajñaṃ viddhi rājasam* — sacrifice performed by fixing the mind on fruit (*phala*) or on display (*dambha*, vainglory) is *rājasa*. In *śuddhādvaita*, Brahman alone is real and the world is His genuine, joy-full self-manifestation — no shadow-doctrine of *māyā* intervenes. Sacrifice belongs within that real world; its quality turns on the disposition of the offering. The *rājasa* yajña is not illusory, but its practitioner orients toward personal yield or social prestige rather than toward Kṛṣṇa's own *ānanda* (bliss). On the *puṣṭi-mārga* (the path of grace), the Lord's grace (*puṣṭi*) alone sustains and elevates action; a sacrifice driven by fruit-desire or ostentation withholds itself from that grace-current. The *jīva* here operates on its own contracted initiative — *sva-śakti* (self-powered striving) — rather than releasing the act as *sevā* (loving service) into the Lord's līlā. *Brahma-sambandha* (the consecrated relationship in which all things are surrendered to Kṛṣṇa as His own) has not been engaged; the offering circles back to the offerer. Thus it is *rājasa* — neither dissolved into Kṛṣṇa's joy nor yet rooted in the pure *sattva* that would prepare the ground for *puṣṭi*.

  divergence: No Vallabhācārya bhāṣya on 17.12 is extant; reading voiced directly from *śuddhādvaita* siddhānta — real-world manifestation, *puṣṭi-mārga*, *sevā*, *brahma-sambandha* — applied to the mūla.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara Svami reads dambha sharply as 'sva-mahattva-khyapana-artham' — performed for the purpose of proclaiming one's own greatness — which he pairs with phala-abhisandhi (intent upon fruit) as the twin engines of rajasic sacrifice. The sacrifice is outwardly correct in form yet inwardly hollowed by self-promotion: it wears the garb of dharmic observance while harvesting social capital. From a bhakti-philological reading, such sacrifice is the antithesis of para (other-directed) offering; it is an exercise in self-inflation disguised as worship.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana Sarasvati offers the panel's richest analysis, identifying three distinct sub-cases signalled by 'api ca eva': (1) otherworldly fruit alone (svarga-adi) intended, without any concern for antahkarana-shuddhi; (2) dambha (appearing dharmic before the world) alone as the motive, with no otherworldly intent whatsoever; (3) both motives simultaneously — visible piety compounded with karmic accumulation. The particle 'tu' marks the contrast with nitya-karma (obligatory action done for inner purification); all three rajasic modes miss antahkarana-shuddhi and are therefore to be discarded ('hanaya'). The address 'Bharata-shreshtha' signals that Arjuna is fit to discern these distinctions.