Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 11: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The one who carries the body (dehabhrta) is the ajnani, the ignorant one bound by the false identification ‘I am the body.’ Such a person cannot abandon all action without remainder, for Shankara holds that only the paramarthadarshi, the seer of ultimate reality who is free from body-identification, can perform complete renunciation (asheshakarmasannyasa). The ajnani who remains engaged in obligatory actions while relinquishing only the desire for fruits (karmaphalabhisandhi-sannyasa) is called a tyagi in a secondary, laudatory sense. This fruit-relinquisher is praised precisely because for the body-bound person, this phalatyaga is the available approximation of the real renunciation that belongs only to the jnanin.

  divergence: Shankara: ‘ashesha-karma-sannyasah shakhyate kartum paramarthadarshitvaenaiva adehabhrata' — complete renunciation is possible only for one who is not body-identified.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Ramanuja holds that the embodied one cannot abandon all karmas because actions sustaining the body, eating and drinking and their extensions, are unavoidable (avarjaniyatva), and the mahayajnas performed for those purposes are equally unavoidable. Among these unavoidable karmas the one who gives up the fruit, and Ramanuja clarifies this means also giving up the sense of kartrtva (doership) and sanga (attachment), is the true tyagi as the shruti declares, ‘through tyaga alone some have attained immortality' (tyagenaike amrtatvam anashuh). The verse thus confirms that karma cannot be physically abandoned but is transformed into kainkarya, service to Bhagavan, when stripped of its fruit-orientation.

  divergence: Ramanuja: ‘phalakartrtvakarmasangananam tyagi — trividhah samprakirtitah' — the triple renunciation of fruit, doership, and attachment is the verse's intent.

• Madhvadvaita

  Anyastyāgārtho na yukta iti āha — na hi iti: the alternative meaning of tyāga (renunciation) — sarvakarmparityāgalakṣaṇas tyāgārthas tyāgaśabdārthaḥ, the sense that tyāga denotes the total relinquishment of all action — is not tenable, and na hi dehabhṛtā śakyaṃ tyaktuṃ karmāṇyaśeṣataḥ is adduced precisely to foreclose that pūrvapakṣa. Jayatīrtha specifies that the verse's purpose is pūrvapakṣabījanirāsārtha: it uproots the very seed of the opposing position. The dehabhṛt (the jīva bearing a body), being paratantra (eternally dependent on Hari), cannot accomplish the complete (aśeṣataḥ) abandonment of action; thus sarvakarmparityāga as the content of tyāga is ruled out. What remains — yastu karmaphalatyāgī sa tyāgītyabhidhīyate — names the true tyāgī: one who relinquishes the fruit (karmaphala) of action. In the dvaita reading, this fruit-relinquishment is grounded in the jīva‘s ontological subordination to Hari, registered in the Bhagavān‘s own svasiddhānta niṣṭhāṅkita at 18.6, and points toward bhakti as dependent worship rather than any dissolution of bheda (real distinction).

  divergence: Madhva: anyastyāgārtho na yukta iti āha — na hi iti — the alternative ground for tyāga (total action-abandonment) is rejected; Jayatīrtha names the verse's function explicitly as pūrvapakṣabījanirāsārtha, the removal of the root of the opposing thesis.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha, commenting jointly on 18.10-11, reads the sattvic tyagi as one who is sattvsamavishta (immersed in sattva), who neither hates the inauspicious action nor clings to the auspicious, having renounced self-enjoyment beyond what belongs to the Lord. Body-sustained karmas, eating, drinking, and the mahayajnas performed for them, are unavoidable, and the triple relinquishment of fruit, kartrtva (doership), and mamata (possessiveness) is the real tyaga. This triple tyaga is the hallmark of Pushti-marga: actions continue but are offered as lila-prasada, the grace-play of Krishna, so no personal fruit-claim remains.

  divergence: Vallabha: ‘karmani kartrtvasangaphalanam tyagah shastriyah, na tu svarupatah tyaga iti' — renunciation is of kartrtva, sanga, and phala, not of action as such.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara addresses a likely objection: would it not be better to renounce all karmas outright so that, free of karmic distraction, jnananishttha comes easily? He answers that one who holds body-identity (dehatmabhimana) simply cannot renounce all action without remainder, as BG 3.5 confirms (‘not for a moment can anyone remain actionless'). Therefore the one who continues performing karmas while renouncing their fruits is to be called the foremost (mukhya) tyagi. Sridhara's reading is devotionally inflected: the fruit-relinquisher is praised because phalatyaga purifies the heart (sattvashuddhi) and makes it fit for bhakti.

  divergence: Sridhara: ‘yah karmanukurvaneva karmaphalatyagi sa eva mukhyatyagityabhidhiyate' — the fruit-relinquisher while acting is the primary tyagi.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana synthesizes both streams: the jnanin who has truly seen the paramarthasatya can perform asheshakarmasannyasa because raga and dvesha, the causes of karmic engagement, are absent in him. But the ajnani, still convinced ‘I am this body, this brahmana, this householder,’ is held by anadi-avidya-vasana (beginningless ignorance-impression) and cannot abandon actions entirely. Such a person who, by Bhagavan's grace (bhagavadanukampa), relinquishes the fruit of actions at the time they are performed is secondarily called a tyagi in a laudatory (guna-vrtti) sense. The primary meaning of tyagi still belongs to the jnanin, but Madhusudana is warm: even the secondary tyagi is rare (tusha-shabda durablata-dyotanarthah) and deserving of honour.

  divergence: Madhusudana: ‘yah bhagavadanukampaya tatkalaphalatyagi sa tyagityabhidhiyate gaunaya vrttya stutyartham' — bhakti's grace enables even the ajnani to approximate true renunciation.