Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 38: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  That pleasure born of the contact of sense organs (indriya) with objects (vishaya) seems like nectar (amrita) at the first moment of experience, but in its ripening (parinama) it becomes like poison (visha) — for it destroys strength, vitality, intelligence, and wealth, and leads through adharma to hell and suffering. Such pleasure is called rajasic. The senses are instruments of bondage; their apparent sweetness is the hook that snares the jivatman in samsara, delaying liberation.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  At the moment of experience (anubhava-vela), pleasure born of sense-object contact (vishaya-indriya-samyoga) appears like nectar; but when that pleasure matures and the hunger that was its occasion subsides, and when it becomes the cause of hell and worse, it is as though one has drunk poison. Bhagavan's devotee recognizes this inversion and turns from sense-pleasure toward kainkarya (service) to the Lord, which alone yields undiminishing joy. Such sense-born pleasure is declared rajasic.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Viṣayendriyasaṃyoga* (contact of sense-objects with the sense-organs) generates a pleasure that, at its arising, resembles nectar — *agre amṛtopamam* — yet in its *pariṇāma* (ripening, final issue) is *viṣam iva*, like poison. The *jīva* (the individual self), eternally *paratantra* (dependent) upon *svatantra* (the independently real, self-sufficient) Hari, is drawn by *rājasic* pleasure into ever-tighter bondage to *prakṛti*. The sweetness at first contact is not false in the sense of mere illusion — the *pañca-bheda* (five-fold real distinction) between Lord, *jīva*, and matter remains fully real throughout — but the pleasure's trajectory is corrupted: what presents itself as nourishing ultimately poisons. The *rājasic* *jīva*, seduced by the initial savour, fails to register the *taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy) that places Hari's *ānanda* incomparably above any object-sense delight. Remaining bound in this way, the *jīva* drifts from *bhakti* (devotion as ontological subordination to Hari), which alone constitutes its proper mode of being. The verse is thus a warning against the *viṣayendriyasaṃyoga*-born pleasure that, however nectar-like at first, ends in poison and prolongs the *jīva*'s dependent wandering far from Hari.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Pleasure arising from the contact of form (rupa) and other sense objects through the senses is, at its first arising, like nectar (amritopama); in its ripening (vipaka) it is like poison (visha) — full of suffering. Vallabha's tradition reads this as Krishna describing what lies outside Pushti-marga (the path of grace): the rajasic soul mistakes sense-pleasure for the ananda (bliss) of Krishna's lila, but sense-pleasure always turns bitter, while Krishna's prasada never turns. This verse marks the boundary between rajasic attachment and shuddhabhakti.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Rajasic pleasure is described here: the well-known pleasure of union with women and similar sense contacts, whose initial experience is like nectar (amrita) in the first moment (agre prathama). But at maturity (parinama) it is equal to poison (visha-tulya), since it is the cause of suffering both here and hereafter (iha and amutra). The bhakta who knows this turns from sense-pleasure to the nama (name) and seva (service) of Bhagavan, which alone bear no such reversal.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Pleasure born not from the clarity of atma-buddhi (self-intelligence) but from contact of sense objects with sense organs — the well-known joy of garlands, sandal-paste, and the company of women (srak-chandana-vanita) — seems like nectar at its very beginning, when the labor of mental discipline is absent. But in ripening it brings suffering both in this life and beyond (aihika and paratrika duhkha), and is therefore like poison. Madhusudhana holds that Krishna names this rajasic pleasure precisely so the mumukshu (seeker of liberation) and the bhakta may recognize its nature and renounce it in favor of devotion grounded in jnana.