Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 40: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga
Nothing anywhere, on earth or in the heavens, escapes the three qualities born of nature.
Bhāṣyakāra purports
- Śaṅkaraadvaita
No being on earth (prthivi), among celestials (divi), or anywhere in creation stands free from the three gunas (triguna) born of prakrti. Shankara uses this verse as the closing seal on samsara's total reach: every creature, every function — karaka, kriya, phala — is constituted by sattva-rajas-tamas as projected by avidya. The entire world-tree described as urdhva-mula (BG 15.1) has its roots in this triguna substrate, and only the asanga-shastra (sword of non-attachment) can sever it; the verse thus prepares the final summons toward the pada that lies beyond all gunas.
- Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita
From Brahma down to the blade of grass (brahma-sthavara-anta), every being embedded in prakrti-samskrsta existence is bound by the three gunas sprung from prakrti. Ramanuja reads this as the cosmological ground for why all karma must be performed as kainkarya (service) to Bhagavan: since no agent can step outside the gunas by mere renunciation of action, the only liberation is to redirect kartrtva — the sense of doership — toward the Paramapurusa, so that sattva-vrddhi becomes the vehicle of moksa-sadhana and all action becomes paramapur usa-aradhana (worship of the Supreme).
- Madhvadvaita
*Na tadasti* — not that being exists, on earth, in heaven, or among the gods, which stands free of the three *guṇas* (*tribhir guṇaiḥ*) born of *prakṛti*. The verse maps the entire field of *sattvas* — human, celestial, elemental — under a single law: all are *paratantra* (eternally dependent), none *svatantra* (self-sufficient). *Pañca-bheda* holds without remainder: Lord–*jīva* distinction is real, *jīva*–matter distinction is real, and no *jīva* anywhere in the three tiers of existence (*pṛthivī*, *divi*, *deveṣu*) escapes *guṇa*-bondage by its own power. The *taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy) of *jīvas* — from Brahmā downward — does not dissolve *guṇa*-subjection; it only ranks the degree of *sattva*-predominance. Liberation from the *guṇas* is therefore not a *jīva*'s self-achievement but Hari's sovereign act of grace, the *paratantra jīva* arriving at *mukti* only through ontological subordination to the *svatantra* Lord — *bhakti* as that subordination's living form.
- Vallabhaśuddhādvaita
Vallabha reads the verse as a declaration about the scope of prakrta existence: from the heights of Brahmaloka down to the earth, every being carries the three gunas of prakrti, with no exception. He adds a crucial Pustimarga inflection: Bhagavan's own lila and his devotees (go-gopi-adi) appear to participate in saguna existence, yet by the Brahma-sutra principle 'lokavat tu lilakaivalyam' (BS 2.1.33) Bhagavan's gunas are aprakrta (not of material nature) and serve as lila-prasada, not bondage — so the verse marks the boundary between samsaric gunas and the transcendent gunas of the Lord's own grace-play.
- Śrīdharabhakti
Sridhara Svami reads this as a clear closing summary (upasamhara) of the chapter's section on the gunas: the three gunas sprung from prakrti (prakrti-sambhava) pervade every category of being — human (prthivi), divine (divi), and all in between — leaving no entity anywhere exempt. The verse's function is integrative: it draws together all the prior guna-analysis into a single universalizing claim, reminding the practitioner that guna-discernment is not optional but the very instrument of vairagya (dispassion) and thus of bhakti's purification.
- Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti
Madhusudana Sarasvati refines the metaphysics: the gunas are not directly born of prakrti in an absolute sense — prakrti is the state of equilibrium (samyavastha) of sattva-rajas-tamas, and what is 'born' is the visamavastha (disequilibrium); or alternatively, prakrti is maya and the gunas are her kalpita projections. Either way, no being anywhere — animate or inanimate, earthly or celestial — stands free of this triple bondage (bandhana-hetu). For Madhusudana the verse also points toward its own resolution: the Krsna-bhakta who rests in the Advaita ground realizes that the substratum of all these gunas is nirguna Brahman, and Krsna's grace-consciousness alone dissolves the bondage that the verse describes as universal.