Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 17, Verse 14: Krishna to Arjuna — Śraddhātraya-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Veneration of the devas (gods), dvijas (twice-born), gurus, and the prajna (wise ones) constitutes the first element of sharira tapas (bodily austerity). To these are joined shauca (purity), arjava (straightforwardness), brahmacharya (continence), and ahimsa (non-injury). Shankara notes this austerity is accomplished through all the karana (instruments) of action, body and agent together, not by the body alone — a point he signals by invoking BG 18.15 in anticipation.

  divergence: Shankara's gloss: 'shariranirvartyam shariram sharirapadhanai sarvaireva karyakaranai kartradibhih sadhyam' — bodily austerity is accomplished by all body-instruments and agents, not the body exclusively.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Worship of devas, dvijas, gurus, and the prajna is the heart of sharira tapas. Ramanuja specifies shauca as tirtha-snana (pilgrimage bathing) and related acts; arjava as conduct that harmonizes vak (speech), manas (mind), and body; brahmacharya as the complete absence of the gaze or thought that treats women as objects of bhoga (enjoyment). Ahimsa is aprani-pida — the non-injuring of sentient beings. These five together constitute what is called sharira tapas.

  divergence: Ramanuja's specification of brahmacharya: 'yositsu bhogyata-buddhi-yuktekshanadiravitatvam' — freedom from even the gaze informed by the thought of enjoyment toward women.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Deva-dvija-guru-prājña-pūjanaṃ śaucam ārjavam | brahmacaryam ahiṃsā ca śārīraṃ tapa ucyate.* Bodily *tapas* (austerity) is constituted by worship of the devas, the twice-born *dvija*s, the *guru*, and the wise *prājña*; by *śauca* (purity, internal and external); by *ārjava* (straightness of conduct); by *brahmacarya* (continence); and by *ahiṃsā* (non-injury). Each member of this list falls under *paratantra* (eternally dependent) discipline: the *jīva* disciplines the body it does not own, since the body belongs to *svatantra* (the independently real, self-sufficient) Hari as His *paratantra* possession. Worship of devas and *dvija*s is not polytheistic deference but veneration of Viṣṇu's *taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy) — devas and *guru*s occupy their stations by His will, and to honor them in their rank is to honor Him. *Śauca* and *ārjava* purify the instrument Hari inhabits; *brahmacarya* conserves energy He has lent; *ahiṃsā* respects the *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction: Lord–*jīva*, Lord–matter, *jīva*–*jīva*, *jīva*–matter, matter–matter) by refusing violence against any *jīva* or material body that is equally His possession. Bodily austerity thus is not self-cultivation but an enacted acknowledgment of *bheda* (real distinction) — the body's discipline is *bhakti* as ontological subordination, the *jīva* returning Hari's instrument to its proper use.

  divergence: Madhva and Jayatīrtha are silent on this verse. The reading is voiced from dvaita *siddhānta* directly off the *mūla*, without bhāṣya support.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha opens the tapas section by distinguishing sharira from the other two types (vachika, manasa) as a preparatory schema. These three verses together form a seamless 'devi-iti' unit — beginning with deva-worship and concluding with manasa tapas. All such disciplines are not self-willed efforts but gifts of Shri Krishna's anugraha (grace); the disciplined body is Krishna's own instrument responding to his prasada, not the jiva's conquest of itself.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'tapasah sattvikadibhedam darshayitum prathamam tavacchariraadibhedam aha tribhih' — to show the sattvika-etc. distinctions of tapas, he first explains the sharira-etc. distinctions across three verses.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara explains that Krishna introduces the sharira-vachika-manasa threefold scheme first, before the sattvika-rajasa-tamasa scheme. The prajna are explicitly those tattva-vids (knowers of truth) who are distinct from the guru — widening the circle of veneration beyond the merely instructional to the broadly wise. Worship of devas and brahmanas and the rest, together with shauca and the remaining disciplines, constitutes sharira tapas because it is the body (sharira) that executes these acts.

  divergence: Sridhara: 'prajna guruvyatirikta anyepi tattvavidah' — the prajna are tattva-knowers who are distinct from, and additional to, the guru.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana provides the most detailed enumeration: devas are Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Surya, Agni, Durga and their kin; dvijas are brahmanas; gurus are father, mother, and acharya; prajna are those who have mastered the Vedas and their auxiliaries. He further subdivides arjava: at the sharira level it is consistency between what is enjoined and what one does or refrains from, distinct from the mental arjava to be described later. Brahmacharya is abstention from prohibited sexual union; ahimsa is the absence of injury to living beings not sanctioned by shastra. The 'cha' (and) absorbs asteya and aparigraha as implied companions.

  divergence: Madhusudana: 'shariram tu arjavam vihitapratiudhdhayorekasvarupapravrittinivrittiShalitvam' — bodily arjava is consistent engagement with the enjoined and withdrawal from the prohibited, which differs from mental arjava.