Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 66: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Abandon all dharmas — and by 'dharma' here adharma too is included, since the aim is naishkarmya (actionlessness): renounce all karma entirely. Then seek refuge in Me alone — the one Self (sarvātman), present equally in all beings, birthless and deathless — understanding that nothing other than Me exists. I shall liberate you from all sins, meaning from the bondage constituted by dharma and adharma alike, by illuminating your own Self-nature; as declared, 'I destroy ignorance by the shining lamp of jnana' (10.11). Grieve not.

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'māmekam sarvātmānam... aham tvā evam niścitabuddhim sarvapāpebhyah sarvadharmaadharmabandhanarupebhyah moksayisyami svātmabhāvaprakāśīkaranena' — liberation is by Self-revelation, not by karmic merit. The entire surrounding discussion establishes that jnāna alone is the means to moksha; karma cannot produce the eternal, and samuccaya (combination of jnāna+karma) is also refuted.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Performing karma-yoga, jnāna-yoga, and bhakti-yoga as they befit your adhikāra — but relinquishing the sense of doership and the attachment to fruits (phala-karma-kartrtva-parityāga) — surrender to Me alone as doer, as the one to be worshipped, as the goal, and as the means. This is the śāstriya-parityāga declared earlier: not abandoning action but abandoning agency. I shall liberate you from all sins — the beginningless accumulated mass of krtya-akarana and akrtya-karana — which are too vast for finite atonements (krcchracāndrāyana etc.) to exhaust. Grieve not.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'fala-karma-kartrtva-ādi-parityāgena parityajya mām ekam eva kartāram ārādhyam prāpyam upāyam ca anusamdhatsva.' The surrounding verses on sāttvika-tyāga (18.9, 18.11) establish that renunciation means renouncing fruit and agenthood, not action itself. Prapatti replaces finite prayascitta.

• Madhvadvaita

  Abandon the fruits of all dharmas — relinquish karma-phala — but continue the actions themselves, since warfare has already been commanded. 'Dharma-tyāga' here means phala-tyāga, as stated at 18.11: 'he who abandons the fruits of action is called a tyāgī.' Come to Me — Hari alone, who is absolutely independent (svatantra) — as your sole refuge. I shall free you from all sins. Do not grieve.

  divergence: Madhva (terse): 'dharmatyāgah phalatyāgah. kathamanyathā yuddhavidhih. yastukarmaphalatyāgī sa tyāgītyabhidhīyate [18.11] iti coktam.' The brevity is deliberate: Madhva has already established that Hari is the only independent reality; the verse's command collapses entirely to phala-tyāga + Hari-śaraṇa.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  If you are unable even to perform the principal path (mukhya-karma) enjoined thus far, then here is the secondary provision (anukalpam): abandon all dharmas of the maryādā-mārga (the path of regulated observance) that obstruct entry into the puṣṭi-mārga (path of grace), and take exclusive refuge in Me. Krsna himself is the primary agent (mukhya-kartā); surrender means acknowledging His agency over all one's acts. I shall free you — by the very power of My descent (sarvanirodha-avatāratva) — from all sins, including the seemingly impossible (dussādhya) sins of killing kin. Grieve not.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'muyakhyakartari paradavatāyām paramātmani dharmakarmabhāram sannyasya madekasaranatayā madukta-kāritvam ucitam.' He distinguishes: 'sarvadharmān' = dharmas of the maryādā-mārga that obstruct puṣṭi entry; abandoning them is not antinomian but entry into Krsna's own kāritra (activity). 'Moksayisyāmi' (causative) rather than 'mocayisyāmi' signals Krsna's irreversible taking-on of the burden.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Now the most secret of secrets is declared: with firm conviction that through My bhakti alone everything shall be accomplished, abandon the burden of rule-bound compliance (vidhikaikarya) and become exclusively devoted to Me as your one refuge. Do not grieve fearing that sin may accrue from abandoning prescribed karma. Since you are one who has taken Me alone as refuge, I shall liberate you from all sins. Bhakti itself is the prayascitta.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'madbhaktyaiva sarvam bhavisyatīti drdhaviśvāsena vidhikaikaryam tyaktvā madekasarano bhava. evamvartamānah karmatyāganimitam pāpam syādīti mā śucah.' The commentary is compact but decisive: the verse is the most secret (guhyatamam) because it replaces śāstric compliance with pure bhakti-śraddhā.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Abandon all dharmas — not in the sense of literal renunciation (that would suit only sannyāsins, and Arjuna is a ksatriya), but by ceasing to regard dharma as independently efficacious. Seek refuge in Me alone — the Īśvara who is the very substrate (adhisthātar) and fruit-giver (phaladātar) of all dharma. Even while your duties continue, regard them with indifference (anādara) and attend solely to Bhagavān Vāsudeva in unbroken awareness (tailadhārāvad avicchinnayā). Since I am the agent behind all dharma, I shall free you — even without prayascitta — from the sins born of killing kinsmen. Grieve not.

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'dharmāh santu na santu vā kim tairanvasāpeksaih. bhagavadanugrahādeva tvanyanirapeksād... sarvadharmakarya-kāritvānmadeka-saranasya nāsti dharmāpeksā.' He explicitly refuses both the pure sannyāsa reading (Śaṅkara) and a literal karma-abandonment reading, arriving at bhagavad-ekaśaraṇatā as the synthesis available to all āśramas — brahmacarī, grhastha, vānaprastha, bhiksu alike.