Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 68: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Whoever transmits this highest secret (param guhyam) among devotees — meaning one who establishes it both textually and in its import, just as I have done for you — thereby performs the supreme service (shushrusa) to the highest teacher (parama-guru). For Shankara, the qualification is bhakti (devotion) alone; the verse signals that even one who lacks the three prior qualifications is eligible as a vessel if genuine bhakti is present. The fruit is unambiguous: such a teacher attains liberation — 'mam eva eshyati' means mergence, not separate arrival; the word 'eva' forecloses any alternative terminus.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Ramanuja reads 'param bhaktim' (supreme devotion) as the mode, not merely the motive: one who expounds this shastra to Bhagavan's devotees is himself doing an act of supreme bhakti (kainkarya, loving service), and Bhagavan's promise — 'mam eva eshyati' — means arrival at Bhagavan's own realm in a distinct, conscious form. The jivatman does not dissolve; it attains Bhagavan as 'vishesha' (qualified identity), and the teacher's service of transmission is itself the highest such qualification. Ramanuja keeps the commentary terse here, letting the verse stand as a direct divine promise.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Ya idaṃ paramaṃ guhyaṃ madbhakteṣvabhidhāsyati* — whoever declares this supreme secret among Hari's *bhaktas* (devotees) performs the highest *sevā* (service) to the Lord. *Bhaktiṃ mayi parāṃ kṛtvā* names the condition: *parā bhakti* (supreme devotion), understood in dvaita not as absorption into Hari but as the fullest expression of *paratantra* (eternally dependent) selfhood oriented entirely toward the *svatantra* (independently real, self-sufficient) Lord. The teacher-transmitter remains a *jīva* (individual self), irreducibly distinct from Hari by *bheda* (real distinction) — one instance of the *pañca-bheda* (five-fold real distinction: Lord–jīva, Lord–matter, jīva–jīva, jīva–matter, matter–matter) that no salvific event dissolves. *Māmevaiṣyatyasaṃśayaḥ* — 'he shall come to Me alone, without doubt' — means real arrival at Viṣṇu's abode, Vaikuṇṭha, the *jīva* retaining its distinct nature within the *taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy) of liberated souls. The act of transmission is itself *bhakti*-saturated *sevā*; the transmitter's eligibility rests on dependence-as-devotion, not on autonomous *jñāna* (knowledge). Because *bheda* is ontologically real and unbreached, 'reaching Hari' is genuine proximity and eternal service, not identity.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha's brief comment isolates the key: 'mad-bhaktesu abhidhasyati sa mam eveshyati' — among those who are MY devotees, whoever expounds this, THAT ONE reaches me. For Pushti-marga, eligibility is not earned but granted through Bhagavan's own grace (pushti); the teacher is already one upon whom Krishna's anugraha (grace) has descended, and the act of teaching is the lilas prasada flowering outward. The word 'eva' (surely, only) points to a direct, unconditional divine promise — Krishna does not say 'may attain' but 'will attain,' because in Pushti-marga the bhakta is already held.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Sridhara reads the verse as announcing the phala (fruit) for the one who teaches this Gita-shastra: such a teacher performs the highest bhakti in me and thereby reaches me 'nihsamshayah' (without doubt). His commentary unpacks the logic cleanly — the teacher's act of speaking IS itself an expression of 'param bhaktim,' so cause and fruit are intertwined: one who speaks out of devotion deepens devotion and attains the object of devotion. There is no intermediary stage; the transmission itself is transformative for the teacher, not just the hearer.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana expands significantly: the teacher (sampradaya-pravartaka) who establishes this shastra — both its letter and its meaning ('granthato arthatas cha') — does so in full recognition that this service to Bhagavan Vasudeva is the highest shushrusa (reverential service). He notes that the re-mention of bhakti in this verse signals that even one lacking the three prior qualifications is made eligible by bhakti alone. 'Mam eveshyati' is glossed as 'mam Bhagavantam Vasudevam eshyati' — the destination is Vasudeva specifically, and 'achiran' (swiftly) is implied; liberation from samsara is certain. Alternatively, Madhusudana offers a second reading: 'param bhaktim krtva' describes the teacher's inner state — performing with supreme devotion, free of doubt — as the condition under which the promise activates, harmonising Advaita's jnana-ground with bhakti's affective register.