Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 70: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Whoever will study this dharmic dialogue — a text that has never deviated from dharma — worships me through jnana-yajna (knowledge-sacrifice), which Shankara identifies as the highest among all yajnas by virtue of its mental nature. The fruit of such study is equal to the fruit of any yajna directed at devas: the student has as good as honored the Lord. This is a fala-vidhi, a genuine injunction of fruit, not a mere arthavada (laudatory statement) — so the claim carries binding, not rhetorical, force.

  divergence: jnana-yajna is mahattama (most excellent) among vidhi-japa-upanshu-manasa yajnas due to its mental nature; adhyayana is therefore stutya (praiseworthy) precisely because its phala equals deva-yajna-phala

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  The one who will study this dharmic dialogue of ours performs jnana-yajna — and by that alone, Bhagavan declares himself worshipped (ista). Ramanuja reads this as a direct statement of Bhagavan's accessibility: the study of his own words as spoken to Arjuna is itself a form of kainkarya (service), not a substitute for it. The qualifier 'our dialogue' (avayoh samvadam) anchors the text's authority in the intimacy of Bhagavan's own utterance.

  divergence: adhyayana-matreṇa iṣṭaḥ syam — by study alone I shall be worshipped; the jnana-yajna spoken of here is this very adhyayana

• Madhvadvaita

  Madhvacharya left no direct commentary on this verse. A rendering consistent with Dvaita siddhantas: the jiva who studies this dharmic conversation between Hari and his devotee performs jnana-yajna in its truest sense — acknowledgment of Hari's absolute supremacy and the jiva's irreducible distinctness. Study that does not culminate in praising Hari's svabhava (intrinsic nature) remains incomplete; study that does is itself worship. The text's authority rests on the speaker being Hari himself, whose words are self-evidently pramana.

  divergence: Madhva commentary absent for this verse — rendering extrapolated from Dvaita siddhanta only

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Even one who recites this samvada without grasping its meaning receives its fruit — just as a name spoken at random still summons its referent. Vallabha's gloss is unambiguous: it is pathana-matrat (from recitation alone), like nāma-smarana (name-remembrance), that the samvada bears fruit. The text belongs to Kṛṣṇa's lila; to speak it at all is to participate in that lila regardless of intellectual attainment.

  divergence: artham ajanato'pi pumso namavat pathana-matrat phaladam ayam samvada — even of one not knowing the meaning, like a name, this dialogue yields fruit from recitation alone

• Śrīdharabhakti

  One who recites this dialogue in japa-form (japa-rupena) — even without comprehending its meaning — causes Kṛṣṇa to feel himself made manifest (mam evāsau prakaśayati). Śrīdhara draws the Ajamila parallel explicitly: just as someone who accidentally utters another's name draws that person near, so this recitation, however inadvertent, draws Kṛṣṇa into proximity. The samvada's fruit is therefore not contingent on adhikara (qualification) or comprehension — presence follows utterance.

  divergence: gītārtham abudhyamāna eva japati tathāpi tac-chṛṇvato mama mām evāsau prakaśayatīti buddhir bhavati — Ajamila and Kshatriya-bandhu cited as precedent for nāma-ucchāraṇa-mātreṇa prasanna

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusudana distinguishes two grades: japa-matra (bare recitation) already yields the phala of jnana-yajna, namely moksha, through the intermediary path of sattva-shuddhi (purification of sattva) and jnana-utpatti (arising of knowledge). For one who recites with artha-anusandhana (reflection on meaning), moksha comes directly — 'what need is there to say more?' The verse is conclusively a fala-vidhi, not arthavada, and the scale runs from inadvertent recitation up to full meditative study, with moksha at both ends though by different routes.

  divergence: japa-matrād api jnana-yajna-phalam moksham labhate; sattva-shuddhi-jnanautpatti-dvara — artha-anusandhana-purvakam pathatas tu sakshad eva moksho iti kim u vaktavyam; fala-vidhir evayam narthavadah