Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 29: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  This verse is a sutra-upanyasa (introductory thesis-statement): hear now the threefold distinction (bheda) of buddhi (intellect) and dhrti (resolute steadiness), differentiated according to the three gunas (sattva, rajas, tamas). The teaching will be given asheshena (without remainder, completely) and prthaktvena (with discrimination, not conflated). The address ‘Dhananjaya' recalls Arjuna's conquest of vast wealth — Shankara uses the etymology to rouse the student: the one who has subdued external wealth must now discern inner distinctions just as sharply.

  divergence: Shankara: ‘buddher bhedam dhrtesh caiva bhedam gunatas sattvadigunatah trividham shrnu iti sutropa-nyasah. procyamanam kathyamanam asheshena niravaSheshatah yathavat prthaktvena vivekatas Dhananjaya.’

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Buddhi here is the faculty of viveka-purvaka (discrimination-preceded) nishcaya (firm resolve-as-knowing); dhrti is the capacity to sustain an initiated action even when vighnopanipati (obstacles descend upon it). Both buddhi and dhrti have a threefold differentiation according to the three gunas. Krishna enjoins: hear this bheda prthaktvena (severally, without confusion) and yathavat (as it truly is). For Ramanuja, knowing these distinctions is itself service: the soul that discriminates correctly is fit to perform kainkarya (devoted action) to Bhagavan without the contamination of tamas or rajas.

  divergence: Ramanuja: ‘buddhir vivekaporvakam nishcayarupam jnanam; dhrtir arabdhayah kriyayah vighnopanipatim api vidhrana-samarthyam; tayoh sattvadi gunatas trividham bheda prthaktvena procyamanam yathavat shrnu.’

• Madhvadvaita

  Reconstructed from the dvaita school's doctrine, not translated from Madhva's commentary at this verse.

  Buddhi (discerning intelligence) and dhṛti (resolute holding) each split into three grades according to guṇa (the three strands of prakṛti: luminosity, passion, inertia) — so Kṛṣṇa instructs Arjuna: śṛṇu, hear them declared fully and separately. Within the Dvaita order, this tripartite division is not merely psychological; it maps onto taratamya (graded ontological hierarchy) among jīvas. The tāmasika buddhi belongs to those bound in the deepest paratantra (eternally dependent) dependence on tamas, incapable of discriminating dharma from adharma; the rājasika buddhi belongs to those whose jīva-nature is entangled in action-for-fruit; the sāttvika buddhi belongs to the jīva who correctly perceives pravṛtti and nivṛtti, binding itself to Hari through bhakti (devotion) as ontological subordination to svatantra (the independently real, self-sufficient) Hari. Dhṛti follows the same grading: sāttvika dhṛti is the steadfast holding that the jīva maintains not by its own independence but because Hari sustains it from within — the pañca-bheda (the five-fold real distinction: Lord–jīva, Lord–matter, jīva–jīva, jīva–matter, matter–matter) remaining unbreached even in the highest sāttvika state. Hearing these distinctions — aśeṣeṇa pṛthaktvena — is itself an act of bhakti-cognition, the jīva receiving from the svatantra Lord the capacity to distinguish.

  divergence: No bhāṣya by Madhva or Jayatīrtha survives for this verse; the reading is voiced directly from Dvaita siddhānta applied to the mūla.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha situates this verse within the cumulative trividhya (threefoldness) that has governed the prior sequence: karta (agent), karma (action), and now jnatri (knower) have each been shown as threefold; correspondingly the karana (instrument) too is threefold, and buddhi with dhrti are being introduced as that very karana. The announcement ‘hear the bheda of buddhi and dhrti separately' is an invitation into Krsna's lila: to hear with shuddha-sattva (pure existence-joy) is itself prasada (grace bestowed). All threefoldness resolves upward into Krsna's own svabhava.

  divergence: Vallabha: ‘atha kartrtrivid-hyenaiva jnaturapi traividhyam uktam... buddheh traividhyena karanasyapyuktam iti... buddheh dhrtesh ca gunatas traividhyam pratijanan naha.’

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara offers only a minimal gloss — ‘spashta-arthah' (the meaning is clear) — signaling that the verse is a pratijna (promise/announcement) of the threefold classification to follow and needs no elaborate unpacking at this stage. The verse functions as a pedagogical hinge: Krishna has explained the trividhya of jnana, karma, and karta; now buddhi and dhrti, the inner instruments of spiritual life, will receive the same treatment. For the devotee, merely hearing this announcement attentively is an act of shraddha (faith-attention).

  divergence: Sridhara: ‘idanim buddheh dhrtesh capi traividhyam pratijaniite -- buddhir iti. spashta-arthah.’

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana opens with a structural retrospect: jnana, karma, karta have been triply analysed; now the verse announces the same for buddhi and dhrti, both hinted at in the earlier epithet ‘dhrtyu-tsaha-samanvita.’ He then poses a philosophical question unique to this bhashya: does ‘buddhi' here denote vrtti-matra (the mental mode alone) or vrtti-mad-antahkarana (the inner organ bearing that mode)? He resolves: antahkarana-upahita-cidabhasa is the karta; here the upadhi (conditioning adjunct) alone is designated as karana. The separate mention of jnana-shakti (buddhi) and kriya-shakti (dhrti) is upalakshana (synecdochic indication) of all mental vrttis, not parisankhya (exclusive enumeration). The address ‘Dhananjaya' rouses the tamasic tendency to laziness: the digvijaya (world-conquest) hero must now conquer inner inertia.

  divergence: Madhusudana: ‘tadevaM jnanam karma ca karta ca tridhaiiva gunabhedatah iti vyakhyatam. samprati dhrtyutsaha-samanvita ityatra sucitayor buddhi-dhrtyor traividhyam pratijaniite... jnana-shakti-kriya-shaktyu-palakshanarthham natu parisankhyarthham iti rahasyam.’