Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 32: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  That buddhi (discernment) which, veiled by tamas (darkness-inertia), takes the prohibited — adharma (what is to be abandoned) — as dharma (what is to be followed), has already inverted the foundational axis of all discernment. Shankara extends this: not only the invisible adrishta domain but all knowable objects — samasta jneya-padarthas — are apprehended as their exact opposites by this viparita (inverted) faculty. Such a buddhi is wholly tamsī — it does not merely err on one point but operates in a systematically reversed mode, making liberation through jnana-marga impossible until tamas is burnt away.

  divergence: Shankara: ‘sarvarthan sarvaneva jneya-padarthan vipariitaneva vijanati' — ‘it cognizes all knowable objects as precisely their opposites.’

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Ramanuja specifies the inversion across multiple paired domains: adharma is taken as dharma and dharma as adharma; what is real (sat) is taken as unreal (asat) and the unreal as real; and most critically, what is the supreme tattva (Bhagavan as Paramatman) is taken as the inferior, and the inferior as supreme. This last inversion is the sharpest in Ramanuja's framing — it is not merely moral confusion but the ontological error of misidentifying Ishvara and jiva, making bhakti-yoga and kainkarya (selfless service) impossible for such a person.

  divergence: Ramanuja: ‘param ca tattvam aparam, aparam ca tattvam param evam sarvam viparitam manyate' — inverting even the supreme and inferior tattvas.

• Madhvadvaita

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

  Tāmasī buddhi (the intellect enveloped by tamas) inverts every category of discernment: adharma (the unrighteous) is taken for dharma (the righteous), and sarvārthān viparītāṃś ca — all objects and ends — are grasped in their contrary form. In the dvaita reading, this inversion is not merely an epistemic error but an ontological catastrophe: the jīva, whose paratantra (eternally dependent) nature is constitutive, fails to perceive its subordination to svatantra Hari. The pañca-bheda — the five-fold real distinction — remains objectively real, yet the tāmasī buddhi cannot register even one of its poles correctly. Lord–jīva distinction, jīva–jagat distinction, the taratamya (graded ontological hierarchy) running from Hari down through the orders of dependent beings: all stand inverted. A buddhi so occluded cannot orient the jīva toward bhakti as ontological subordination, for it cannot even identify Hari as the sole svatantra nor itself as wholly paratantra. Tamasāvṛtā — covered over by tamas — names a bondage prior to all moral failure: without buddhi capable of bheda-recognition, no dharma is possible, and the jīva spirals deeper into saṃsāra.

  divergence: No bhāṣya from Madhva or Jayatīrtha on this verse; reading derived from dvaita siddhānta as applied to the mūla.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha is compressed: tamas here is ajnana (ignorance) itself — not merely dimness but the active veiling power that causes sarvarthan-vipariitan (all objects to be apprehended as their opposites). For Pushti-marga, where prasada-flow from Krishna is the sole operative principle, a buddhi shrouded in ajnana cannot receive that prasada — it mistakes the very grace being offered for something else. The tamsī buddhi is thus not merely morally confused but is constitutively closed to lila-prasada.

  divergence: Vallabha: ‘tamasa ajnanenAvRta sarvarthan-vipariitan manyate sa tamsI' — ajnana as the specific agent of total perceptual inversion.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Shridhara names the tamsī buddhi as viparitagrahini — ‘that which grasps in reverse' — and then steps back to clarify the ontological architecture: buddhi is the antahkarana (inner instrument) already established earlier; jnana is a vritti (modification) of it; dhrti too is a vritti; and even the buddhi itself, as adhyavasaya-lakshana (defined by its function of firm determination), is a vritti of the dharmin antahkarana. The triple division (sattvika/rajasika/tamsika) of iccha, dvesha and their cognates was given because of their centrality in dharma-adharma-bhaya-abhaya — this verse stands as upalaksana (representative indicator) for all other inversions.

  divergence: Shridhara: ‘viparitagrahini buddhistamsiti arthah... upalakshanam caitad anysam' — the verse is a representative marker for the full class of inverted cognition.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudhana locates tamas precisely as ‘vishesadarshanavirodhina doshena' — the defect that opposes discernment of distinctions — not a mere dimness but an active anti-discriminative force. The buddhi it veils then commits viparyyaya (systematic reversal) in both invisible domains (adrishta, dharma-adharma) and all visible purposive objects (drshta-prayojana-jneya-padarthas). His synthesis of Advaita and bhakti is visible here: the tamsī buddhi cannot discriminate either the nirguna Brahman from the jagat nor the saguna Bhagavan from mere projections — both jnana-marga and bhakti-marga are blocked by this single defect.

  divergence: Madhusudhana: ‘vishesadarshanavirodhina doshena Avrita... sarvarthan drshta-prayojanan api vipariitaneva manyate' — total reversal across both seen and unseen domains.