Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 3, Verse 11: Krishna to Arjuna — Karma-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  By this yajña (sacrifice), nourish the devas (gods) — Indra and the rest — and let those devas nourish you through rain and its fruits. Śaṅkara reads this mutual nourishment as provisional: the immediate gain is svarga (heaven), but the deeper trajectory is mokṣa (liberation) through the sequential path of jñāna-prāpti. Yajña here is not an end but a ladder; the wise performer already holds it lightly, acting without grasping the fruit.

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'devan indrādīn bhāvayata vardhayata anena yajñena... śreyaḥ paraṃ mokṣalakṣaṇaṃ jñānaprāptikrameṇa avāpsyatha.' Bhāṣya present; reading follows directly.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  The devas whom you propitiate through yajña are not independent powers but the very body of Bhagavān — 'macccharīrabhūtān madātmakān.' Rāmānuja insists: the real recipient of every offering is Viṣṇu/Kṛṣṇa himself, for 'ahaṃ hi sarvayajñānāṃ bhoktā' (9.24). When those body-of-God devas are honored, they in turn sustain you with food and water. The entire circuit is kainkarya (service) within the divine body; the śreyas (highest good) so attained is mokṣa understood as eternal participation in Bhagavān's being.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'anena devatārādhanabhūtena devān macccharīrabhūtān madātmakān ārādhayata... paraṃ śreyo mokṣākhyam avāpsyatha.' Bhāṣya present; reading follows directly.

• Madhvadvaita

  Madhva's gloss on 3.10–11 is compressed — 'atra arthavādam āha sahayajñā iti' — flagging the passage as arthavāda (laudatory context) rather than a primary injunction. For Dvaita, the essential point stands firm: jīvas (souls) are eternally distinct from and dependent on Hari; yajña performed as dependent worship of Viṣṇu yields gradated results according to the adhikāra (qualification) of the worshipper. Mutual flourishing between humans and devas is real but secondary to the vertical order of dependence on Bhagavān.

  divergence: Madhva: 'atrārthavādamāha sahayajñā iti.' Bhāṣya is minimal; Dvaita framing extrapolated from school doctrine — flagged as inference beyond direct gloss.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads 3.10–11 together as Kṛṣṇa confirming the śruti declaration that yajña is the means for all human aims (sarvapuruṣārthahetu). The devas — understood as Viṣṇu and his manifestations — are to be nourished by yajña; they in turn grant the asked-for good. Crucially, Vallabha rejects the reading that this is kāmya-karma (desire-motivated action); the yajña is niyata-karma (ordained action), and its fruit, the paraṃ śreyas (supreme good), is ātyantikaṃ — absolute, not contingent. Everything flows as prasāda of Puruṣottama's līlā.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'anena yajñena viṣṇvādīn devān bhāvayat. tadā paraṃ śreya ātyantikamavāpsyatha.' Bhāṣya covers 3.10–11 jointly; reading follows directly.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara focuses tightly on how yajña becomes an 'iṣṭakāmadoha' (wish-fulfilling cow): you sustain the devas with havirbhāga (oblation portions), they sustain you with rain, food, and progeny. The reciprocal loop — 'parasparam anyonyaṃ saṃvardhayantaḥ' — yields the abhīṣṭa (desired end). Śrīdhara reads the verse straightforwardly within the Vedic frame, without collapsing it into a purely advaitic or polemic point; bhakti's inflection is the warmth of gratitude built into the mutual nurturing.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'anena yajñena yuvaṃ devān bhāvayata havirbhāgaiḥ saṃvardhayata... evam anyonyaṃ saṃvardhayanto devāśca yūyaṃ ca parasparam śreyobhīṣṭam arthaṃ prāpsyatha.' Bhāṣya present; reading follows directly.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana reads the verse on two levels simultaneously. On the surface, the yajamāna (sacrificer) nourishes Indra and the devas with havirbhāga; the devas nourish him in return through rain and abundance; mutual tarpana (satisfaction) produces the paraṃ śreyas. He explicitly bifurcates that śreyas: for the devas it is tṛpti (satisfaction), for the human it is svarga (heaven) as the 'higher good.' Madhusūdana then folds this into his synthesis: the same karma, performed with non-attachment and Kṛṣṇa-bhakti, points past svarga toward mokṣa — advaitic jñāna is not opposed to devotional yajña but is its inner ripening.

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'devāstṛptiṃ prāpsyanti yūyaṃ ca svargākhyaṃ paraṃ śreyaḥ prāpsyatha.' Bhāṣya present; reading follows directly.