Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 26: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The sattvik agent is one from whom all attachment (sanga) has been entirely shed — not merely reduced but severed — so that no residue of craving clings to action or its fruit. He carries no identity-assertion (ahankara-vada): he does not narrate himself as the doer, knowing that kartritva belongs to the gunas operating through prakrti, not to the witnessing Self. Grounded in scriptural authority (shastra-pramana) alone — not in desire for results — he moves through success (siddhi) and failure (asiddhi) with a mind that does not ripple, because the outcome was never his to begin with.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  The sattvik karta is released from attachment to fruit (phala-sanga-rahita) because his action is already understood as kainkarya — devoted service to Bhagavan who is the inner Self of all. He disclaims authorship (kartritva-abhimana-rahita) not by intellectual negation but because he knows the Lord alone acts through him as his body. He sustains dharishya — the steadfast endurance of all discomfort encountered mid-action until the work reaches completion — paired with enthusiasm (utsaha) born of loving eagerness; and when war or service brings success or failure, his mind remains unperturbed because his only measure of success is the quality of offering.

• Madhvadvaita

  The sattvik agent acts as a servant (dasa) whose will is entirely subordinated to Hari's will: sanga is released because the jiva, forever distinct from Brahman, possesses nothing of its own to attach to. The denial of ahankara-vada is not Advaita negation of the agent but the jiva's honest acknowledgment that its agency is always derivative and dependent. Steadfastness and energy (dhriti and utsaha) are the jiva's proper qualities when employed in Hari's service; indifference to siddhi and asiddhi follows naturally for the agent who knows the outcome belongs entirely to the Lord's sovereign will.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads the sattvik karta through the lens of lila-prasada: mukta-sanga means the soul has been freed from fruit-attachment by Krishna's grace — freedom is not won by effort but received. Anaham-vadi points beyond mere absence of pride to the state of the soul that has surrendered its kartritva back into Krishna as an act of love; the soul acts but knows the action is Krishna's own lila flowing through it. Siddhi and asiddhi become irrelevant categories once the agent has grasped that the Lord himself is simultaneously the actor, the action, and the outcome — the Bhagavan here instructs Arjuna to become exactly such an instrument.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara defines mukta-sanga as tyakta-abhinivesha — released from the deep possessive clinging (abhinivesha) that makes results feel existentially necessary, not merely preferred. Anaham-vadi is garva-ukti-rahita: the agent is free of boastful speech, the outward sign of interior pride about one's doership. Dhriti is dhairya — the inner fortitude that keeps effort steady through obstacles — while utsaha is udyama — the active momentum that propels work forward; both are needed and neither alone suffices. Absence of vikara (nirvikarah) means harsha and vishada — elation and dejection — have both been quieted, leaving the agent equally composed whether the work succeeds or fails.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana distinguishes mukta-sanga as tyakta-phala-abhisandhi — released from the prior resolve to obtain a particular fruit — and anaham-vadi as freedom from self-praise (sva-guna-shlagha-vihina), going beyond Shankara's cognitive negation to include the devotional disposition of not advertising one's own goodness. He gives the finest analysis of dhriti: it is the antahkarana-vrtti (inner mental state) that keeps the undertaken task from being abandoned even when obstacles arise — a specific quality of the inner instrument, not mere willpower — while utsaha is the firm resolve 'I will certainly do this,' which serves as dhriti's cause. Success and failure produce no facial brightening or withering in the sattvik agent because he acts from shastra-pramana, not from the pull of phala-raga.