Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 23: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Action is sattvic when it is niyata (prescribed duty), sanga-rahita (stripped of attachment to doing), and performed without the impulsion of raga (attraction) or dvesha (aversion). Shankara isolates the term aphala-prepsuna precisely: fala-prepsu is one gripped by thirst for results; the sattvic agent is the exact inversion of that thirst. Such karma purifies the inner organ and qualifies the agent for jnana — it is not liberating in itself but clears the field.

  divergence: Shankara's interest is epistemological purity, not devotional dedication — the fruit relinquished here prepares the mind for non-dual recognition, not for service to Ishvara.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Sattvic karma is that which is niyata as ordained by one's own varna and ashrama, performed without kartritva-abhimana (the conceit 'I am the doer'), free from the raga of seeking praise (kirti) and the dvesha of fearing infamy (akirti), and executed with no ulterior fruit-intention. Ramanuja grounds sanga-rahita in the specific social location of the agent: detachment does not float above caste-duty but is exercised precisely within it.

  divergence: Where Shankara aims at jnana-preparation, Ramanuja aims at kainkarya (service-disposition) — the same detachment is bhakti-yoga infrastructure, not merely cognitive purification.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Niyatam* (enjoined, obligatory) karma performed *saṅgarahitam* (free of attachment) and *arāgadveṣataḥ* (without passion or aversion), by one who is *aphalaprepsū* (desiring no fruit) — such action is called *sāttvika*. In Dvaita reading, the *niyata* character of the act is grounded in scriptural injunction proceeding ultimately from *svatantra* (the independently real, self-sufficient) Hari, whose will structures the entire order of duty. The *jīva* (the individual self), as *paratantra* (eternally dependent), acts without seizing fruit precisely because fruit belongs to Hari's dispensation, not to the agent's own sovereignty. *Saṅgarahita* does not signal motivational emptiness; it signals the removal of *jīva*-centered appropriation. *Arāgadveṣataḥ* names the extinction of personal passion and aversion that would otherwise bind action to *saṃsāra* through the *jīva*–matter axis of *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction: Lord–jīva, Lord–matter, jīva–jīva, jīva–matter, matter–matter). What remains after that extinction is positive subordination — *bhakti* (devotion) as ontological orientation toward Hari. *Sāttvikatva* (the quality of being sāttvika) here is not a psychological grade alone but registers the *jīva*'s proper station in *taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy): acting within one's enjoined sphere, without usurping the fruit that belongs to the Lord.

  divergence: Dvaita insists that *aphalaprepsutā* is not mere negation of desire but the positive redirection of action toward Hari's will; detachment from personal fruit and dedication to Viṣṇu are the same movement. The *sāttvika* tag therefore carries ontological weight — it marks action consonant with *bheda* (real distinction) correctly honoured, not dissolved.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha identifies the field of sattvic karma as what shruti ordains for one's own varna and ashrama, with kartritva-adi sanga wholly abandoned. The raga and dvesha eliminated here are specifically those directed at kirti (fame) and akirti (ill-repute); the further requirement is mamata-parityaga (relinquishment of possessiveness) before the act of not desiring results. For Vallabha the Pushti-marga soul goes even beyond this: grace dissolves the very distinction between act and actor.

  divergence: Shuddhadvaita treats this sattva as the floor of the cosmic order maintained by Krishna's lila-prasada; for the pushti-marga devotee, Krishna's grace lifts one beyond even this floor without the agent's striving.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara reads niyata as 'eternally ordained' (nityataya vihitam) — a stronger reading than mere social prescription. Sanga-rahita means free of abhinivesha (obsessive investment); the araga eliminates action done from priti for son or family, and the advesha eliminates action driven by hatred of an enemy. The sattvic agent is nishkama — desire-free, not desire-suppressed.

  divergence: Sridhara's bhakti register means nishkama-karma is implicitly oriented toward Bhagavan even if not stated — the 'eternal ordainment' carries devotional charge absent in pure Advaita readings.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana arrives at this verse after placing it in a triad: sattvic karma parallels sattvic jnana (non-dual Atman-vision). Niyata means karma that is nitya — obligatory to the very end of the capacity to perform it. Sanga here is rajasic ahankara in its specific form: the conceit 'I am the great performer of yajna' (aham eva mahayajniko). He distinguishes the sattvic agent's unavoidable kartritva-ahankara (which persists until jnana) from the rajasic social-ego, insisting the sattvic agent is not yet free from doership-sense but is free from social vanity. Raga is decoded as 'I will gain honour through this'; dvesha as 'I will defeat my enemy through this.'

  divergence: The synthesis move: even this sattvic karma is ultimately within avidya for the non-knower, yet it is the vehicle through which Krsna-bhakti ripens — making nishtadvaita and bhakti structurally co-dependent, not competing.