Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 56: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Even one who performs all actions — including those otherwise prohibited — while surrendering every disposition to me (mad-vyapashraya, 'taking refuge in me alone') attains by my grace (mat-prasada) the eternal, imperishable station (shashvatam padam avyayam), which Shankara reads as the Vaishnava pada — the immutable Brahman-ground. The emphasis falls not on the quality of the act but on the internal posture: all sense of independent agency is deposited in Ishvara, so no action accumulates binding karma. Grace here is the mechanism by which residual ignorance dissolves and the jiva recognizes its identity with the unchanging ground.

  divergence: Shankara glosses mad-vyapashraya as 'one in whom all dispositions are offered to me' (mayi arpita-sarva-bhavah); the pada is nityam vaishnavamavyayam — imperishable, not a conditional result but the recognition of what always already is.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Not only obligatory and occasional duties but even desire-born (kamya) actions, when performed by one who has transferred authorship to Bhagavan (mayi sannyasta-kartritvadikah), become kainkarya — loving service — and by Bhagavan's grace the devotee reaches the eternal, undecaying abode (avikalam padam), which Ramanuja reads as 'reaching me' (mam apnoti). The word pada (station, foot) is parsed as 'that which is arrived at' — Bhagavan himself as the destination, not a mere metaphysical state. Grace is not arbitrary but the flowering of surrendered service.

  divergence: Ramanuja's gloss: padam — padyate gamyate iti padam, mam apnoti iti arthah; avikalam (undecayed, integral) distinguishes this from any partial liberation.

• Madhvadvaita

  This verse is Madhva's summary-seal (upasanhara) of the inner means (antaranga-sadhana): the jiva, eternally distinct from Hari, performs all actions in complete dependence on him, and by Hari's anugraha alone — not by any capacity of the jiva — reaches the imperishable pada. The Dvaita reading insists the jiva's subordinate nature (paratantrya) is not dissolved by liberation but glorified: the eternal station is a state of unimpeded service, not merger. Madhva's terse comment signals this verse caps a logical sequence of inner-means discussion.

  divergence: Madhva's bhashya is minimal — 'punah antaranga-sadhanany uktva upasanharati sarvakarmany ityadina' — indicating this verse closes the antaranga-sadhana block. Full Dvaita doctrinal weight is carried by his systematic works; the verse-comment itself is a structural marker.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads every action — worldly and Vedic alike, performed as svadharma — as already under the indwelling Bhagavan's impulsion: 'the antaryami (inner-controller) himself prompts; action done by his will does not bind.' The devotee who takes refuge in Bhagavan as the sole agent receives mat-prasada read as mat-kripa (Bhagavan's grace-love), and reaches the brahma-akshara-dhama — the eternal, supreme abode identified with Purushottama-sayujya (union with the highest Person). The Avah prefix in avapnoti signals a descent of the pada toward the devotee, not merely the devotee's ascent.

  divergence: Vallabha explicitly glosses mat-prasadat as mat-krpata and the pada as brahma-akshara-dhama; he notes 'avam ity upasargah' — the prefix av- encodes the downward movement of grace toward the surrendered one.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Shridhara reads this verse as the conclusion (upasanhara) of the teaching that liberation arises through worship of Parameshvara via one's own prescribed duties (svakarmabhih parameshvararadhana). Performing all nityanaimitika and kamya actions in mad-vyapashraya — 'I alone am the refuge, not svarga or any conditional fruit' — the devotee attains the supremely excellent Vaishnava pada: eternal (anadi), imperishable (avyaya), the highest of all stations. Bhakti here is not sentiment but the structural re-orientation of every karmic act toward the Lord.

  divergence: Shridhara glosses mad-vyapashraya as 'aham eva vyapashraya ashryaniya, na tu svargadi-phalam yasya sah' — I alone am the refuge, not any conditional fruit; the pada is sarvotkrshtam vaishnavampadam.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana Sarasvati addresses the apparent impasse for the kshatriya who is both prohibited from full karma-sannyasa and, once inner-purity is won, prohibited from continuing action: the resolution is Bhagavad-eka-sharana — sole refuge in Bhagavan. For the Brahmin who can renounce, renunciation remains valid; for the kshatriya who cannot, all actions — even prohibited ones — performed in complete self-surrender (mayi arpita-sarvatma-bhavah) are subsumed by grace, and both reach the same eternal Vaishnava pada through Bhagavan-vijnanotpatti (arising of direct knowledge of Bhagavan). Grace is not a bypass of karma-phala but the ground on which the law of karma is transcended from within.

  divergence: Madhusudan's extended argument: sannyasa-anadhikari kshatriya does karmas, but as mad-vyapashraya his pratibandhaka (obstructions) dissolve through mat-prasada; sarva-karmanusandhanam ends in the same shashvatam padam as the Brahmin sannyasi's jnana-nishtha.