Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 33: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The dhrti (resolve) that, through avyabhicarini (unwavering) yoga — meaning nitya-samadhi (perpetual absorption) — restrains the activities of manas (mind), prana (vital force), and indriyas (sense-organs) from veering toward astra-bahya (scripture-transgressing) objects is sattviki dhrti. Shankara reads 'yoga' here strictly as samadhi: dhrti is only truly sattviki when it is inseparable from continuous meditative absorption, not merely from volitional willpower. The mind-prana-indriya triad, when held by such dhrti, cannot stray outside the sruti-sanctioned path — making this dhrti a direct preparation for jnana.

  divergence: Shankara: 'yogena samadhina avyabhicarinyah nityasamadhyanugatayet — meaning the dhrti is co-extensive with samadhi throughout; manas-prana-indriya activities are restrained from ucchastra-marga (extra-scriptural courses).

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Sattviki dhrti is that resolve by which a person sustains the activities of manas, prana, and indriyas in unwavering alignment with yoga — where yoga here means Bhagavad-upasana (loving service-meditation on the Lord) as the direct means to moksa. Ramanuja sharply distinguishes this verse from mere mental self-control: the activities of mind and senses are oriented not toward abstract liberation but toward the specific sadhana of divine upasana. Dhrti is sattviki only when its governing telos is Bhagavan himself.

  divergence: Ramanuja: 'yogo moksasadhanabhutam Bhagavadupasanam' — the yoga in this verse is specifically Bhagavan-directed meditation; all mental and pranic activity is held in service of that single aim.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Dhṛti* (resolve) of the *sāttvika* order is named here: *dhṛtyā yayā dhārayate manaḥprāṇendriyakriyāḥ* — the steadying of *manas* (mind), *prāṇa* (vital breath), and the activities of the *indriya*s (senses) — sustained by *avyabhicāriṇī yoga* (unwavering, unswerving *yoga*). In *dvaita* reading, this *dhṛti* is not self-originating in the *jīva*. The *jīva*, eternally *paratantra* (dependent), holds fast only because *Hari*'s *anugraha* (sustaining grace) supports the holding. *Avyabhicāriṇī* — the quality of not swerving to any secondary object — names precisely the *jīva*'s single-pointed subordination to Hari, the *svatantra* (independently real, self-sufficient) Lord. Mind, breath, and sense-activity that stray enact *bheda* (real distinction) from that support; *sāttvikī dhṛti* is the condition in which they do not stray. The resolve described is thus the *jīva*'s *paratantra* participation in Hari's own ordering will, not an autonomous achievement — *dhṛtiḥ sā pārtha sāttvikī*.

  divergence: Madhva and Jayatīrtha are silent on this śloka. Reading voiced directly from *dvaita* *siddhānta*: *paratantra* *jīva*, *anugraha*, and *pañca-bheda* applied to the mūla's threefold steadying of *manas*, *prāṇa*, and *indriya*.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha defines dhrti here as the dharana-kriya (sustaining action) of the body and its faculties. Sattviki dhrti is that resolve which is avyabhicarini through the yoga-marga — specifically the capacity to endure the triduhkha (triple suffering) inherent in sadhana while remaining moksonmukha (face-turned-toward-liberation). For Vallabha, this endurance is itself Krsna's prasada operating through the sadhaka's constitution; the capacity to bear difficulty without deflection is not the jiva's own achievement but the Lord's sustaining gift.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'yogamargiyangaTridukhsahanasHilaya moksunmukhya' — the avyabhicarini quality is specifically the threefold-suffering-bearing quality of the yoga-path oriented to liberation.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara reads avyabhicarini yoga as cittaikagra (single-pointed concentration) — the unifying cause that makes dhrti truly unwavering. The dhrti that, by this one-pointed hetu (cause), restrains the vrtti (functioning) of manas, prana, and indriyas from scattering toward visayantara (other objects) is sattviki. Sridhara's voice is balanced and integrative: he does not collapse dhrti into samadhi alone (as Shankara does) nor into Bhagavan-upasana (as Ramanuja does); the sattviki quality is measured by the absence of viksepa (dispersal) rather than by the presence of a specific goal.

  divergence: Sridhara: 'yogena cittaikagryena hetuna avyabhicarinyah visayantaram adharantyah' — yoga = one-pointedness as the cause; avyabhicarini = not holding (carrying) any other object.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana synthesizes Shankara and the devotional register: sattviki dhrti is that resolve which is avyabhicarini because it is avinabhuta (co-extensive, inseparable) with samadhi — samadhi-vyapta (samadhi-pervaded). This dhrti restrains manas-prana-indriya activities from transgressing sastra and from avagahana (plunging into) artha-antara (other purposes). Its decisive mark: when this dhrti is present, samadhi arises avasyam (necessarily); and when it holds the mind, the mind cannot overstep the sastra's field. The synthesis: the 'yoga' of this verse is both samadhi (Advaita) and the bhakta's unwavering orientation, with neither element dispensable.

  divergence: Madhusudana: 'samadhina avyabhicarinyah avinabhutaya samadhivyaptaya yaya dhrtya... yasyam satyam avasyam samadhir bhavati' — the dhrti is defined by samadhi as both condition and consequence.