Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 36: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Hear now, O best of the Bharatas, the threefold nature of happiness. Happiness is that in which the mind rests through practice (abhyasa) — through repeated returning — and by dwelling in which one reaches the end of suffering (duhkhanta). Shankara reads this verse as an introduction to sattvika sukha: not immediate gratification but the happiness that arises from disciplined habituation to self-abiding, which ultimately extinguishes all samsaric pain.

  divergence: Shankara: 'abhyasat pariccayat avrtteh ramate ratim pratipadyate yatra yasmin sukhanubhave duhkhantam ca duhkhavasanam duhkhopashamam ca nigacchati niscayena prapnoti' — happiness is entered through familiarity and repeated return, and its fruit is the certain cessation of suffering.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  After enumerating that all the previously discussed agents, actions, and knowers belong to the Lord as modes of His body, Krishna now says: hear the threefold classification of the sukha (happiness) that pertains to them. That happiness in which, through prolonged practice (cirakala-abhyasa), the devotee comes gradually to unsurpassed delight (niratishaya rati), and reaches the end of all samsaric suffering — that is the highest happiness. Ramanuja emphasizes gradual deepening through sustained kainkarya (service), leading to the dissolution of all worldly grief.

  divergence: Ramanuja: 'yasmin sukhe cirakalaabhyasat kramena niratishayam ratim prapnoti duhkhantam ca nigacchati nikhilasya samsarikasya duhkhasya antam nigacchati' — in that happiness one reaches through gradual practice unsurpassed delight and the end of all samsaric suffering.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Bharatarṣabha* (bull of the Bharatas), hear from Me now the three kinds of *sukha* (happiness). That in which the *jīva* delights through *abhyāsa* (repeated practice), and which reaches the end of *duḥkha* (suffering) — this is *sāttvika* happiness. For the *paratantra* *jīva*, eternally dependent on *svatantra* Hari, such delight is not self-generated: it arises through disciplined engagement in the Lord's service, deepening with each repetition until bondage-suffering is genuinely extinguished. The *pañca-bheda* (five-fold real distinction) stands throughout — the jīva does not dissolve into the Lord at the end of duḥkha but arrives at its own full, graded enjoyment within *taratamya* (ontological hierarchy), remaining irreducibly distinct. *Abhyāsa* is the operative word: what takes time and repetition is precisely what belongs to sāttvika happiness, not the instant gratification of sense-contact.

  divergence: Madhva and Jayatīrtha are silent on this verse. The reading is voiced directly from dvaita *siddhānta* applied to the mūla: *paratantra* jīva, real *bheda*, and *taratamya* supply the doctrinal content; no bhāṣya Sanskrit can be quoted.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Krishna promises a classification of happiness: that happiness in which, through prolonged practice, one comes step by step to unsurpassed delight (niratishaya rati), and in which the suffering born of worldly contact (samsargika duhkha) also fully ends. For Vallabha, even this disciplined happiness is ultimately prasada — the Lord's own joy flowing into the soul that has surrendered to His lila. Practice here is not effortful striving but the habituation of loving receptivity to Krsna's grace.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'yatra sukhe cirakalaabhyasat kramena niratishayam ratim manyate samsargikaduhkhasya ca antam ca nitaram gacchati' — in that happiness one reaches unsurpassed delight by gradual practice and fully departs from the suffering of worldly association.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  The first half-verse announces the threefold classification of happiness; Sridhara notes it is clear in meaning (spastarthah). He then glosses sattvika sukha: in this happiness one does not gain delight (rati) suddenly as in sense pleasure — rather, only through atipariccaya (deep familiarity born of practice) does the mind come to rest there. And one who rests in that happiness reaches the end (avasana) of suffering — not a temporary pause but a full cessation.

  divergence: Sridhara: 'yatra yasmin sukhe abhyasad ati-pariccayad ramate na tu vishayasukha iva sahasa ratim prapnoti; yasmin ramamanas ca duhkhasyantam avasanam nitaram gacchati prapnoti' — the key distinction from sense pleasure is that delight here is gradual, not sudden.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  After completing the threefold classification of actions, causes, and agents, Krishna now announces the threefold classification of their fruit: happiness. Madhusudan reads the imperative 'shrnnu' (hear) as a command to stabilize the mind for discernment of what is to be accepted and what rejected (heyopadeyaviveka). The sattvika happiness is specifically samadhi-sukha — the joy of meditative absorption. Unlike sense pleasure which yields delight immediately but ends in great suffering, samadhi-sukha is entered only through atipariccaya (profound practice-familiarity) but leads to the complete cessation of ALL suffering — not a partial relief but total duhkhanta.

  divergence: Madhusudan: 'yatra samadhi-sukhe abhyasat ati-pariccayad ramate partitrpto bhavati na tu vishayasukha iva sadya eva; yasmin ramamanas ca duhkhasya sarvasya api antam avasanam nitaram gacchati na tu vishayasukha ivante mahad duhkham' — the defining contrast is samadhi versus sense pleasure: one ends all suffering, the other ends in great suffering.