Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 3, Verse 17: Krishna to Arjuna — Karma-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The one established in ātma-jñāna (self-knowledge) finds rati (delight) nowhere except in the ātman itself — not in the objects of the senses — and is tṛpta (satiated) by the ātman alone, not by food or taste or external pleasure. Such a sannyāsin who is santushta (fully content) in the ātman alone, having relinquished all thirst for external things, has no kartavya (duty to perform) whatsoever — for the very definition of remaining duty presupposes an unsatisfied want, and in the ātmavit (knower of Self) no such want remains.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  The rare adhikārin (qualified aspirant) who stands independent of both karma-yoga and jñāna-yoga sādhanā (means of practice) is already ātmābhimukha (turned toward the self) — finding fullness in the ātman, finding neither nourishment in food and drink nor beauty in gardens and music. For such a person the ātman is itself the object of all poṣaṇa (sustenance), bhoga (enjoyment), and dhāraṇa (support) — and therefore no sādhanā for ātma-darśana (vision of the self) remains, since the ātman is perpetually self-disclosed to them.

• Madhvadvaita

  The one who has entered asamprajñāta-samādhi (absorption without cognitive distinction) in the Paramātman (supreme Self, Viṣṇu) alone experiences the ramana (joy born of the Lord's vision) that makes all other ālambu (supportive objects) redundant — the rati, tṛpti, and santoṣa spoken of here are not metaphors but three distinct internal states, each higher than external pleasure. This state belongs only to the jñānin in deepest absorption, not to the ordinary sthitaprajña; the mānava (human) of this verse signals one of the jñāna-dhātu (lineage of awakened understanding), and the reference is specifically to Viṣṇu-rati — for it is said, 'for one whose rati is in Viṣṇu alone, action truly does not exist.'

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Here Kṛṣṇa distinguishes the sāṃkhya-mārgin (one on the path of discriminative knowledge) from the karma-yogin addressed in the preceding verse: the muni (sage) on the sāṃkhya path finds tṛpti (satisfaction) and tuṣṭi (contentment) in the ātman alone — marked explicitly by the aikāra (the emphatic 'eva', 'alone') — and not in anything anātma (not-self). The 'tu' (but) at the opening of the verse marks a clean categorical separation: what is true for the jñānin is not a prescription for those who still need karma as their path of fulfillment.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara reads this verse as completing the frame opened at 3.4: having shown that karma-yoga purifies the antaḥkaraṇa (inner instrument) of the ajñāna (the ignorant), Kṛṣṇa now shows that the jñānin — one whose rati (delight) is in the ātman alone, who is tṛpta (satisfied) through the experience of sva-ānanda (one's own bliss), and who is therefore bhogāpekṣārahita (free from desire for any enjoyment) — has no kartavya (obligatory action) at all. The commentator's voice is restrained and philological: each compound is unpacked but no new doctrinal elaboration is added beyond what the text requires.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana distinguishes three grades of inner state — rati (relishing), tṛpti (satiation), and santoṣa (contentment) — and demonstrates that the indriya-rāma (one reveling in the senses) finds these only in fragrance, food, and possessions, while the one who has gained paramātma-ānanda (the bliss of the supreme Self) no longer seeks them in objects because dvaita-darśana (perception of duality) has dissolved. The usage 'ātma-rati' in the Taittirīya citation ('ātmakriḍa ātmaratiḥ') confirms this is technical: the ātmavit (knower of Self) does not literally experience rati in the ātman as an object — rather, the absence of all dual perception means rati, tṛpti, and santoṣa are attributed upacārāt (by secondary usage), gesturing at a state that transcends the triad itself.