Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 5: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Śaṅkara holds that the triad of yajna (ritual), dana (giving), and tapas (austerity) must never be abandoned — they are karyam eva, obligatory without exception. The reason is precise: these acts are pavana (purifying) for the manisinin (the discerning one who seeks no fruit), meaning they cleanse the antahkarana (inner instrument) and make it fit for jnana. Niskriya-sannyasa of these acts is thus forbidden at this stage; the seeker performs them not for their result but as preparation for the knowledge that dissolves action altogether.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Ramanuja insists that Vedic karmas — yajna, dana, tapas — must never be relinquished by the mumuksu (liberation-seeker), but performed aharahah (day after day) right up to death. The karmas are pavana specifically in the sense that they destroy pracina-karma (accumulated past karma) that would otherwise obstruct upasana (meditative devotion to Bhagavan). For Ramanuja, mananam (the manisinin's reflecting) IS upasana — so these acts sustain the very bhakti-yoga they appear merely to prepare.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Yajña* (sacrifice), *dāna* (gift-giving), and *tapas* (austerity) are not to be relinquished — *kāryam eva tat*, they are precisely what must be done. The mūla names them *pāvanāni manīṣiṇām*, purifiers of the wise. For the *paratantra* *jīva* (the eternally dependent individual self), bound by *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction) to Hari and to matter, abandonment of these three is not liberation but a counterfeit self-sufficiency — an implicit claim to *svatantra* (independent self-sufficiency) that the *jīva* cannot possess. These observances are the *jīva*'s lived acknowledgment of its own *paratantra* nature: it depends on Hari, and *yajña*, *dāna*, and *tapas* are the appointed modes through which that dependence is enacted and honored. Their *pāvana* power — their capacity to purify — is not intrinsic to the acts in themselves but flows from Hari's *anugraha* (grace), which animates every legitimate rite. To cast them off under the name of renunciation is to misread *tyāga*; the wise, *manīṣiṇaḥ*, know that *bhakti* (devotion) as ontological subordination to Bhagavān is expressed through these very disciplines, not escaped by dropping them.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads through sruti — 'Yajno vai Visnuh' (the Taittiriya-Samhita declaration that yajna IS Visnu) — making the entire triad a direct form of Bhagavan's svarupa (own nature). These srautakarmas (Vedic ritual acts) are not merely preparatory; for the bhagavadiya (one possessed by Bhagavan), performing them is bhagavad-dharma-pada itself. Even the mumuksu cannot abandon them, because the Veda's rule of non-abandonment (veda-uktatvad api kartavyam) is absolute, and Yudhisthira's example — he performed yajna even after receiving Krsna's direct instruction — proves their pavana purpose is operative even at the highest station.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara Svami is economical: manisinin here means viveki (one of discrimination), and pavana means citta-suddhi-kara (productive of inner purity). The verse issues a firm niscaya (settled judgment) against abandonment: yajna, dana, tapas are obligatory because they cleanse the mind that is the instrument of bhakti. Without this cleansing, devotion cannot take root; the acts are therefore not ends but the indispensable soil of the devotional life.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana Sarasvatī locates the verse as the second of two options — the resolution of the vivada (doctrinal dispute) about karma. These three acts purify through two mechanisms: first, by washing away papa-mala (the dross of sin) that obstructs jnana; second, by depositing punya-guna (meritorious quality) that generates yogyata (fitness) for knowledge to arise. Only those who are akrta-phala-abhi-sandhina (free from desire for fruits) receive this purification — for them, and only for them, the acts are pavana. The upshot is non-abandonment insisted upon twice (na tyajyam… karyam eva tat) to underscore the absolute urgency, while the Advaita-bhakti synthesis holds that the purified antahkarana is the medium through which both jnana and Krsna-bhakti become possible.