Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 10: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga
A true renunciant, intelligent and steeped in sattva, neither shrinks from unwelcome duty nor chases after pleasant reward, and has cut every doubt clean through.
Bhāṣyakāra purports
- Śaṅkaraadvaita
The sattvika tyagi (one established in renunciation marked by sattva) neither hates inauspicious karma (akushala karma) as an obstacle to liberation nor clings to auspicious karma (kushala karma) as a cherished means. Shankara anchors this in the tyagi's prior abandonment of both attachment (sanga) and fruit (phala): the one who performs nitya-karma without ego-ownership is already beyond attraction and repulsion toward outcomes. Because sattva has flooded the antahkarana (inner instrument) with viveka-vijnana (discriminative wisdom distinguishing Self from non-Self), the medhavi (intelligent one) has severed the root doubt — that abiding as pure Atman is not itself the sovereign means of liberation.
- Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita
The one pervaded by sattva, endowed with yathavastita-tattva-jnana (knowledge of things as they truly are), has relinquished kartritva (sense of independent agency), sanga (attachment), and phala (fruit) in every action — and therefore performs neither aversion toward sin-producing karma nor attachment toward svarga-yielding karma. Ramanuja insists the akushala here means inadvertent transgression (pramadika), citing the Katha Upanishad: one who has not ceased from bad conduct cannot attain the Self however wise. The scriptural tyaga is thus a renunciation of kartritva-sanga-phala within action, not a renunciation of action's form — because Brahma-vyatirikta-sarva-phala (all fruits other than Brahman) have already been surrendered as kainkarya (service) to Bhagavan.
- Madhvadvaita
Reconstructed from the dvaita school's doctrine, not translated from Madhva's commentary at this verse.
Na dveṣṭyakuśalaṃ karma kuśale nānuṣajjate — the genuine tyāgī neither recoils from inauspicious action nor clings to the auspicious. For the paratantra jīva (the eternally dependent individual self), such recoiling or clinging would be the assertion of a svatantra (independently real, self-sufficient) agency that no jīva possesses. Hatred of akuśala karma presumes that the jīva stands apart from Hari's governance and can condemn what Hari has assigned; attachment to kuśala karma presumes that the jīva owns its fruits rather than receiving them as Hari's gift. Both errors dissolve under pañca-bheda (the five-fold real distinction): Lord and jīva are irreducibly distinct, and no action of the jīva falls outside Hari-tantratā. Sattva-samāviṣṭa names the jīva whose cognition is suffused with sattva precisely because sattva in its purity inclines the dependent self toward transparent acknowledgment of Hari's sovereignty. Medhāvī chinnasaṃśayaḥ — the wisdom that severs doubt is not speculative equipoise but the settled recognition of the jīva‘s ontological subordination, leaving no residue of self-attribution in either aversion or desire. Bhakti as ontological subordination is thus not an added virtue but the very structure of tyāga proper to a paratantra being.
divergence: Bucket changed from B to C: neither Madhva nor Jayatīrtha left a bhāṣya on this verse; reading is voiced directly from Dvaita siddhānta off the mūla.
- Vallabhaśuddhādvaita
Vallabha groups this verse with 18.11: the sattvika-tyagi is sattva-samavishta and has relinquished atma-sukha-atirikta-phala (every fruit beyond the joy that is identical with Krishna's own bliss) and has shed kartritva — therefore neither rejoices in kushala karma yielding svarga and progeny nor is disturbed by akushala pramadika karma. The akushala is glossed as inadvertent error by the Katha citation: even knowledge cannot bring atma-sukha to one who has not quit dushcarita (misconduct). The scriptural tyaga is of kartritva-sanga-phala, not of karma's form, since the body-bearing being cannot abandon all action; even yajna and anna belong to the unavoidable. The one who renounces phala (and by upalakshana: kartritva and mamata) ‘is named tyagi in texts such as tena ekaih amrtatvam anashuh.’
- Śrīdharabhakti
Shridhara reads the sattvika-tyagi's freedom from aversion and attachment as a direct testimony to sthira-buddhi (stable discernment): one who can endure great dishonor (paribhava) and surrender great heavenly pleasure (svarga-sukha) will hardly be shaken by momentary cold or heat. The akushala here is concretized as a harsh-season duty — cold early-morning bath in winter; the kushala is a pleasure-season duty — noon bath in summer. The medhavi's reflection is: ‘compared to what I have renounced and endured for the eternal good, what is this passing comfort or discomfort?’ The root doubt — the residual mithya-jnana (false knowledge) expressed as desire to seize bodily pleasure and flee bodily pain — is severed precisely by this proportioned intelligence.
- Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti
Madhusudana reads this verse as the crowning fruit of sattvika-tyaga: purified antahkarana (inner instrument) cleansed of rajas and tamas by Bhagavad-arpita-nitya-karma (daily action offered to Bhagavan) becomes fit for the Vedanta maha-vakya, producing the maha (meditation) that issues in ‘aham brahmasmi' — the medhavi is thus sthita-prajna (established in wisdom), and with avidya uprooted, kartritva-abhimana (ego-sense of doership) dissolves. The freed knower neither registers akushala karma as adversarial nor kushala karma as desirable — ‘hrdaya-granthi breaks, all doubts are cut, karmas dissolve' (Mundaka citation). The synthesis: Bhakti's purity-work prepares the mirror; Jnana's non-dual realization is what is reflected — neither path stands without the other.