Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 2, Verse 30: Krishna to Arjuna — Sāṅkhya-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The embodied one — the dehī (self-in-body) — is avaddhya (unslayable) in every state, because it is niravayava (partless) and therefore nitya (eternal): what has no parts cannot be loosened, separated, or destroyed. This dehī is sarvagata (all-pervading) — it dwells even in the bodies of sthāvara beings, plants and rocks, and so when any body is slain, the dehī within it simply is not struck. Therefore, since grief and delusion are structurally impossible from the standpoint of paramārtha-tattva (ultimate truth), you have no warrant to grieve for Bhīṣma or for any bhūta whatsoever.

  divergence: निरवयवत्वान्नित्यत्वाच्च अवध्यः — because it is without parts and because it is eternal, this dehī is avaddhya (unslayable); सर्वगतत्वात् स्थावरादिषु स्थितोऽपि — being all-pervading, even while dwelling in sthāvara (immobile, plant-bodied) beings; देहे वध्यमानेऽपि अयं देही न वध्यः — even when the body is slain, the dehī is not slain

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Even though beings appear in radically unequal forms — from the deva (celestial) at one end to the sthāvara (immobile plant) at the other — they are, at the level of their own svarūpa (essential nature), equal: all are nitya (eternal) and avaddhya (unslayable) dehins. The vaiṣamya (inequality) and anityatva (impermanence) that so trouble the grieving mind belong entirely to the deha (body), not to the jīva who inhabits it. Therefore your grief is not merely about Bhīṣma and the Kurus — if the logic of śoka (grief) were valid, it would extend to all beings everywhere; but since the dehī within each is eternally unharmed, you have no warrant to grieve for any bhūta at all.

  divergence: सर्वाणि देवादिस्थावरान्तानि भूतानि विषमाकाराणि अपि उक्तेन स्वभावेन स्वरूपतः समानानि नित्यानि च — all beings from deva to sthāvara, though of viṣama-ākāra (unequal outward form), are by their own svarūpa (essential nature) equal and eternal; देहगतं तु वैषम्यम् अनित्यत्वं च — but the inequality and impermanence belong to the deha (body) alone

• Madhvadvaita

  The dehī — the nitya-jīva (eternal individual soul), eternally distinct from Paramātman Hari — is avaddhya (unslayable) in every body, whether of deva or sthāvara, because Hari who is its sovereign support does not permit its destruction. The jīva's indestructibility is not a feature of its identity with Brahman — the jīva remains always jīva, always distinct — but of its complete dependence on Hari, who holds every jīva in existence by his own will and power. To grieve for any bhūta is therefore to misread the fundamental order: the dehī within each being is perpetually under Hari's protection, and what Hari sustains no weapon or circumstance can reach.

  divergence: Madhvācārya did not compose a bhāṣya on this verse; rendered from Dvaita siddhānta (established doctrine) on the indestructibility of the nitya-jīva as dependent on Hari's sovereignty

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  The ātmā — jīva — is nityam avaddhyaḥ (eternally unslayable): this is Bhagavān's own disclosure, given freely, as prasāda (grace-gift), not as earned conclusion. This jīva dwells in the bodies of every kind — anekāvidha (the many-formed), deva or stone or human — and in none of them can it be touched, because it IS Kṛṣṇa's own śakti (power) wearing each form as his līlā (divine play). Since the jīva in every bhūta is thus protected within Kṛṣṇa's own being, grief for the destruction of any of these forms is a failure to see what is actually happening in each moment.

  divergence: देही आत्मा जीवो नित्यमवध्यः सर्वस्यानेकविधस्य देहे — the dehī, the ātman, the jīva, is eternally avaddhya (unslayable) in the body of every being of anekāvidha (many-formed) kind

• Śrīdharabhakti

  The ātma-tattva (truth of the self) is durbodha — genuinely difficult to know — and Kṛṣṇa has been teaching it in condensed form throughout these verses; this verse is the upasaṃhāra (gathering conclusion) of that teaching. The dehī is declared avaddhya (unslayable) in every kind of body precisely so that aśocyatva — the quality of not warranting grief — is established as the final, unified teaching: there is no bhūta, in any body, whose dehī can be harmed. Those who receive this teaching with the bhāva (devotional disposition) of a sincere seeker find the ātman revealed; those whose minds remain covered by viparīta-bhāvanā (contrary habitual thought) hear the words but do not know.

  divergence: दुर्बोधमात्मतत्त्वं संक्षेपेणोपदिशन्नशोच्यत्वमुपसंहरति — concisely teaching this difficult-to-know ātma-tattva, [Kṛṣṇa] draws together the conclusion of aśocyatva (the quality of not being worthy of grief)

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana reads this verse as the removal of the sarvapraṇi-sādhāraṇa-bhrama — the delusion common to all beings — through a precise three-tier argument: the sthūla-deha (gross body) is aśocya (not worthy of grief) because its destruction is aparihārya (unavoidable and therefore not a subject for śoka); the liṅga-deha (subtle body, the upādhi that persists across births) is aśocya because it is avaddhya just as the ātman is avaddhya; and the ātman itself is avaddhya beyond question. Since no tier of the being — gross, subtle, or essential — is subject to genuine destruction, grief directed at any bhūta is incoherent at every level: na sthūlasya na liṅgasya na ātmanaḥ śocyatvam (neither gross nor subtle nor ātman warrants grief) — the illusion is dissolved root and branch.

  divergence: सर्वप्राणिसाधारणभ्रमनिवृत्तिसाधनम् — the means of removal of the universal delusion common to all beings; स्थूलदेहस्याशोच्यत्वमपरिहार्यत्वात् — the gross body is not worthy of grief because its destruction is unavoidable; लिङ्गदेहस्याशोच्यत्वमात्मवदेवावध्यत्वात् — the subtle body is not worthy of grief because it is avaddhya (unslayable) just like the ātman; न स्थूलदेहस्य लिङ्गदेहस्यात्मनो वा शोच्यत्वं युक्तम् — neither the gross body, nor the subtle body, nor the ātman is worthy of grief