Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 69: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Among all humans, no one who performs the shastra-ordained transmission (shastra-sampradaya-krta) is more beloved to Me than that teacher, in the present moment. Nor will any other ever surpass him in dearest action on this earth in time to come. Shankara reads the superlative priyakrttama as denoting the highest degree of service to Brahman's own self-disclosure through the scripture-tradition chain, not personal affection for a devotee-self.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Among all humans, no one prior to this has been more dear to Me by action than that teacher, nor will any other be so hereafter. Ramanuja's bhashya pointedly notes that the unqualified (ayogya) are named first precisely because naming them at all is the most unwelcome disclosure; qualified servants (yogya) merit the highest kainkarya (service-love), and the teacher of the Gita-shastra stands supreme among them as the instrument of Bhagavan's own self-gift to souls.

• Madhvadvaita

  No commentary from Madhvacharya is attested for this verse. From Dvaita first principles: the one who teaches the Gita performs Hari-seva (service to Hari) of the highest order, because the jiva (individual soul) is eternally distinct from and dependent on Vishnu; conveying His word is therefore the greatest act of dependent worship, making such a teacher the most priya-krt (beloved-acting) among all humans past or future.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha's bhashya is terse: 'me priyakrt kascit' — some one is My beloved-actor. In Pushti-marga reading this terseness is itself revelatory: Krishna names the teacher of His Gita as His own prasada-instrument, the human vessel through whom His lila overflows as shastra into the world. No past or future human exceeds this because the Gita's transmission is Krishna's own sveccha (free will) operating as grace through a chosen patra (vessel).

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Among My devotees (mad-bhaktas), from that person who expounds (vyakhyatr) the Gita-shastra there is no other human being who is more thoroughly satisfying to Me (paritosa-karta) now or in any future time. And among all those, no one dearer than that expositor exists for Me on this earth now, nor will exist hereafter. Sridhara explicitly identifies the referent as the Gita-commentary-teacher (gita-shastra-vyakhyatr), making bhakti and intellectual transmission inseparable: the act of explaining the Gita is itself the highest bhakti-service.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Among My devotees (bhaktas), from the shastra-tradition teacher (shastra-sampradaya-krta) no other human is more supremely beloved to Me in the present, nor was there such a one before, nor will there be hereafter. And from that teacher, no one more beloved exists on this earth now or ever will. Madhusudana applies the superlative in both directions of time and layers it twice over — once for the teacher's action and once for Krishna's own priti (love) — synthesizing Shankara's dialectical precision with Sridhara's devotional warmth by treating the Gita-teacher's act as simultaneously the highest jnana-transmission and the highest bhakti-expression.