Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 3, Verse 16: Krishna to Arjuna — Karma-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The cosmic wheel set in motion by Īśvara through the sequence of Veda, sacrifice, rain, food, and beings sustains the very fabric of worldly existence — he who, though qualified for action (karmādhikāra), does not turn this wheel lives an existence dyed in sin (agha, evil). Such a one whose senses feed only on objects (indriyārāma, sense-reveler) has not yet ripened for jñāna-niṣṭhā and therefore wastes the very life that could be spent purifying the antaḥkaraṇa (inner instrument) for Self-knowledge. Until the fitness for knowledge-yoga dawns, niṣkāma-karma (desireless action) alone is the prescribed discipline; abandoning it without having attained that fitness is sheer futility.

  divergence: Direct — Śaṅkara explicitly frames the verse as establishing karmādhikāra (qualification for action) for the ajñānin (non-knower of the Self), distinguishing this clearly from the path of the jñānin who has renounced all.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  The Paramapuruṣa himself has set the wheel turning — embodied souls sustain their bodies through yajña-śiṣṭa (sacrifice-remainder food), which alone suppresses the rajasic and tamasic impulses that blind the ātman from within. One who refuses to rotate this wheel — whether qualified for karma-yoga or jñāna-yoga — becomes aghāyu (one whose very lifespan is sin-laden) and, bloated by unsanctified food and uncontrolled rajas, cannot turn inward toward the Bhagavān who indwells all beings. He becomes indriyārāma (pleasured only in sense-objects), utterly closed to ātmadarśana (vision of the self), and his life is mithyā (empty of its proper purpose).

  divergence: Direct — Rāmānuja's bhāṣya specifies the two-fold reading of aghāyu: life spent initiating sin, and life that has itself become sin-ripened; he also explicitly links indriyārāma to the rajasic-tamasic thickening that blocks ātmadarśana.

• Madhvadvaita

  The wheel is the entire jagat-cakra (world-wheel) in which the imperishable syllables (akṣarāṇi) are manifest through beings — it is Hari's own order expressed in creation. He who does not sustain this wheel becomes the cause of its destruction, and his life (āyu) is therefore nothing but a vehicle for agha (sin); such a jīva, eternally distinct from Brahman, squanders the very dependency-relationship (pāratantrya) that is his essential nature, serving no purpose other than sin-accumulation.

  divergence: Direct — Madhva's characteristically concise bhāṣya identifies the wheel with jagat-cakra where akṣarāṇi (imperishable principles) are expressed through beings; his definition of aghāyu as 'one whose lifespan has sin as its sole cause' is verbatim.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Prajāpati's own upadeśa (instruction) set this action-cycle turning for the puruṣārtha-siddhi (fulfillment of life's purposes) of all beings — and the one who, luxuriating in his senses (indriyārāma), refuses to enter this prasāda-chain of Kṛṣṇa's unfolding līlā (divine play) simply squanders the extraordinary gift of embodied life. Vallabha reads the karma-cakra not merely as cosmic necessity but as Bhagavān's grace-structure (anuśāsana, sacred injunction); abandoning it is not liberation but ingratitude, cutting oneself off from the current of divine anugrahā (grace).

  divergence: Direct — Vallabha's bhāṣya uses prajāpati-kṛta-upadeśa (instruction given by Prajāpati himself) and puruṣārtha-siddhi as the governing frame; karma-cakra is glossed as both karma-cycle and karma-anuśāsana (injunction about action).

• Śrīdharabhakti

  The Lord himself (Parameśvara) set the wheel turning through the sequence Veda→karma→dharma→prajanya→anna→bhūtāni and back again; the one who will not sustain it sins not merely by omission but by refusing the very telos of his existence — the worship of Īśvara through action. Śrīdhara emphasizes that indriyārāma points to the one who takes delight in sense-objects alone (viṣayeṣu eva ramati) rather than in Īśvara-ārādhana (worship of the Lord), making the verse a sharp diagnostic: the test of whether one is living meaningfully is whether one's action flows toward God or terminates at the senses.

  divergence: Direct — Śrīdhara's bhāṣya is free of HTML artifacts; he explicitly glosses indriyārāma as 'one who delights in sense-objects alone and not in karma as Īśvara-worship,' and agha as pāpa-rūpa (sin-formed).

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  From the eternal, pure, faultless Veda (nitya-nirdoṣa-veda) that the Parameśvara illumines flows the entire chain of dharma, rain, food, and beings — he who breaks this chain is pāpajīvana (one whose living is sin), and for such a one death would be better than life, since at least in the next birth dharma-practice might become possible again. Madhusūdana synthesizes both paths: for the ātmajñānin (knower of Self), the phrase indriyārāma is the differentiating mark that disqualifies one from Brahman-knowledge — the karmādhikārin who revels in sense-objects is not yet the brahmavidvān for whom action falls away, and therefore his abandonment of the wheel is a double failure: neither jñāna nor karma.

  divergence: Direct — Madhusūdana explicitly quotes Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (atha o ayam vā ātmā...) to ground the cosmic-cycle claim; his statement 'tasya jīvanān maraṇam eva varam' (death is better than such living) and the indriyārāma-as-brahmavidvān-exclusion marker are both verbatim in his bhāṣya.