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.