Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 3, Verse 18: Krishna to Arjuna — Karma-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  For the one who rests in the Self — who has attained ātma-rati (delight in the Self) — no purpose whatsoever is served by action, nor does any fault (pratyavāya, harm from omission) arise from inaction. Just as one who stands in the flood of water has no need to dig a well, so the knower of Brahman has no dependency on any being, from Brahmā down to the immovable, for the accomplishment of any end through action.

  divergence: Advaita locates the verse's force entirely in jñāna: action and inaction are both rendered inert by Self-knowledge; the verse is addressed only to the jñānin, not to the karma-yogin.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  For the knower who has achieved ātma-darśana (direct vision of the Self), no further means or purpose attaches to action or inaction, since the Self is already self-luminously attained — not dependent on any sādhana (means). He who is naturally turned away from all acit-objects (insentient matter) finds no refuge in any being from ākāśa to earth; he is already mukta (liberated). Yet precisely because karma-yoga is the easier path for most, and because even the jñāna-yogin requires bodily sustenance through action, karma-yoga is declared superior for the actualization of Self-vision.

  divergence: Unlike Śaṅkara who leaves the sage in solitary jñāna, Rāmānuja loops back to kainkarya: freedom from obligation opens into spontaneous, joyful service — the verse releases the sage not into inaction but into unstinted devotion.

• Madhvadvaita

  For the one whose attachment to Hari exceeds all else — who is ātma-rati in the Dvaita sense of loving dependence on the Lord — no karmic fruit (puṇya) accrues from obligatory action, nor does any demerit arise from its omission. He has no purpose-dependency (artha-vyapāśraya) on any being. However, Madhva notes that this does not dissolve all action for Arjuna: those still bearing prārabdha-karma (karma already in motion) cannot simply claim exemption — for them, great sins like the slaying of Vṛtra show the difference between the sage's freedom and the warrior's ongoing obligation.

  divergence: Madhva alone introduces the prārabdha-karma caveat as a polemical check against quietism, maintaining the jīva's eternal distinct status and its real exposure to karmic consequence until Hari's grace completes liberation.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Naiva — for such a one, kṛtena niṣiddhena ca arthaḥ phalaṃ sukha-duḥkhādi nāsti: neither through what is done — including the niṣiddha (prohibited) — nor through what is left undone does any fruit, whether pleasure or pain, accrue. And again, arthārtham āśrayaḥ kaścin nāsti: no purposive refuge (artha-vyapāśrayaḥ) in any being whatsoever remains. The one established in puṣṭi-mārga (the path of grace) acts not to secure any end; the very category of fruit-bearing action ceases to bind him, for Kṛṣṇa's prasāda (grace) has already given everything.

  divergence: Vallabha dissolves the binding force of niṣiddha for the true devotee not through jñāna or māyā-doctrine but through puṣṭi — the Lord's own grace. Where other schools hold that the liberated sage transcends vidhi-niṣedha (injunction and prohibition) by knowledge, Vallabha grounds the transcendence in brahma-sambandha (the soul's real relation to Brahman): there is simply no artha left to seek and no āśraya left to take among creatures.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Because the Self-knower is beyond the reach of vidhiniṣedha (scriptural injunction and prohibition) — being nirāhaṃkāra (free of ego) — no puṇya accrues from action and no pratyavāya (harm) from its omission. Critically, even the gods cannot obstruct one whose ātma-tattva (Self-knowledge) is firm; the Upaniṣad confirms: tasya ha na devāś ca nābhūtyā īśate — the gods too cannot impede such a one, for the Self itself becomes them.

  divergence: Śrīdhara uniquely brings in the deva-obstacle objection absent from other commentators, using it to emphasize the absolute security of the jñānin — a devotionally inflected move that prepares for guru-Bhagavān's protective function in bhakti.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Ātmarati (one who delights in the Self alone) has no abhyudayalakṣaṇa (prosperity-type) purpose and no niḥśreyasalakṣaṇa (liberation-type) purpose to gain from action (kṛtena karmaṇā), because he seeks no svargādi-abhyudaya and because niḥśreyasa is karmāsādhya (not achievable by action). The śruti confirms: nāsty akṛtaḥ kṛtena — the eternal, uncreated mokṣa cannot be produced by any performed act. Niḥśreyasa is nityaprāpta (eternally accomplished); its apparent non-attainment is ajñānamātra (sheer ignorance alone), removable by tattvajñāna alone. Once that ajñāna is dispelled by tattvajñāna, the ātmavid has nothing remaining to accomplish — na kiñcit karmasādhyaṃ jñānasādhyaṃ vā prayojanam. Nor does non-performance of nitya-karmas bring prātyavāya (demerit), since the ātmavid has no artha-vyapāśraya — no prayojanasaṃbandha — with any being from Brahmā down to the immovable (brahmādi-sthāvarānteṣu). The śruti seals this: nainaṃ kṛtākṛte tapataḥ; and again, tasya ha na devāś ca nābhūtyā īśata ātmā hy eṣāṃ sa bhavati — even the gods cannot obstruct his liberation, rendering propitiation-rites purposeless. Madhusūdana then maps this state onto Vasiṣṭha's seven jñāna-bhūmikā-s: śubhecchā (first), vicāraṇā (second), tanumānasā (third) — these three constitute the sādhana-rūpa waking-state (jāgradavasthā). The fourth, sattāpatti — nirvikalpaka brahma-ātmaikyasākṣātkāra — is the fruit-stage, called svapnāvasthā, where all the world shimmers as mithyā: advaite sthairyam āyāte dvaite praśamam āgate | paśyanti svapnavaj lokaṃ caturthī bhūmikāmitāḥ. The yogī who reaches the fourth is called brahmavid. The fifth (asaṃsakti) and sixth (padārthābhāvanī) are degrees of jīvanmukti corresponding to suṣupti and gāḍhasuṣupti: the brahmavid-vara rises spontaneously from the fifth; the brahmavid-varīyān requires another's effort to rouse. The seventh, turyagā, is the state of one absorbed in pūrṇa-paramānandaghana, neither self-roused nor other-roused, his bodily functions sustained solely by parameśvara-prerita-prāṇavāyu — he is brahmavid-variṣṭha. The present verse, on this reading, is addressed above all to those from the fourth bhūmikā upward, for whom kṛtākṛte (done and undone) no longer constrain.

  divergence: Madhusūdana alone maps naiva tasya kṛtenārthaḥ onto the seven jñāna-bhūmikā-s from Vasiṣṭha's scheme, situating the verse's declaration as the condition of those at and above sattāpatti (fourth stage). This reading goes beyond Śaṅkara's straightforward ātmavid-gloss by grading the non-attachment described in the mūla across ascending stages of samādhi, and by integrating the śruti citation tasya ha na devāś ca nābhūtyā īśata to foreclose even the pretext of god-propitiation for obstacle-removal.