Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 3, Verse 34: Krishna to Arjuna — Karma-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  For each sense-organ, attraction (rāga) to its pleasant object and aversion (dveṣa) to the unpleasant are invariably present — this is simply how embodied nature operates. But the human being is precisely the one who does not fall under their sway: when śāstra-vision governs, one is no longer governed by prakṛti. Do not come under the power of these two, for they are brigands on the road (paripanthinau) to liberation — as surely as robbers block a traveler's path.

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'yadā rāgadveṣau tatpratipakṣeṇa niyamayati tadā śāstradṛṣṭir eva puruṣaḥ bhavati na prakṛtivaśaḥ' — only when the opposites are regulated by the opposing force does the person become śāstra-sighted rather than prakṛti-bound.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Prior-life saṃskāras deposit desire for pleasant sense-experience and revulsion against its denial — these are unavoidable (avarjanīya) deposits in the field of every sense organ and every organ of action. They lie in wait, and when the sādhaka strains toward jñāna-yoga, they seize control and drag him into their own work. Therefore one must not come under their power, for these two are Bhagavān's enemies within us — the formidable enemies blocking ātma-jñāna.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'tāv eva jñānayogāya yatamānaṃ niyamitasarvendriyaṃ svavaśe kṛtvā prasahya svakāryeṣu niyojayataḥ' — they forcibly press even the sense-restrained practitioner of jñāna-yoga into their own service.

• Madhvadvaita

  Even the gods Brahmā and the rest fall under the pull of these saṃskāras — the conditioning is powerful beyond ordinary reckoning. Yet with extraordinary effort (ati-prayatnataḥ) even deep-grooved tendencies can be made otherwise. The suppression (nigraha) of rāga and dveṣa bears fruit immediately when undertaken with intensity, even before long-term results appear.

  divergence: Madhva quotes: 'saṃskāro balavān eṣa brahmādyā api tadvāśāḥ / tathāpi so'nyathākartuṃ śakyate'tiprayatnataḥ' — even Brahmā is subject to this conditioning, yet it can be redirected through extreme effort.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Śāstric injunction and prohibition are neither aimed at the fully enlightened nor at the wholly ignorant — they address the middling sādhaka (madhyamasyeti) who still tastes the objects of the senses. For such a person, rāga and dveṣa are internally created (svakṛtau), not externally imposed — and therefore independence from them is precisely what constitutes siddhi. Fall not under their dominion, for they forcibly lead the one of discernment (vivekavittasya) onto crooked paths and destroy him outright.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'indriyarasavān evādhikārī... vivekavittasya kupathaprāpakau prasabhaṃ ghātakāv ity arthaḥ' — the qualified adhikārī is one still alive to sense-taste; for him these two are outright destroyers.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Rāga and dveṣa are invariably stationed in each sense-organ for its respective object — attraction to the favorable, aversion to the unfavorable. Nature drives the inattentive person along by these two, as a deep river current sweeps along one who has not boarded a vessel in time. Śāstra intervenes upstream, before the current takes hold, by setting the sādhaka in motion toward worship of the Supreme (parameśvara-bhajana) and thus away from the objects that feed rāga-dveṣa.

  divergence: Śrīdhara Svāmī: 'gabhīrasrotaḥpātāt pūrvam eva nāvam āśrita iva nānarthaṃ prāpnoti' — just as one who has boarded a boat before the rapids does not come to harm, so śāstra-guided bhakti preempts the sweep of rāga-dveṣa.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Śāstra operates not by suppressing rāga-dveṣa directly but by dismantling their causal conditions: by demonstrating that the prohibited act carries powerful hidden harm (balavad-aniṣṭa-anubandha), śāstra removes the ignorance that fueled attraction; by demonstrating that the enjoined act carries profound benefit, it removes the ignorance that fueled aversion. When causes are destroyed, the drives themselves dissolve — and the person functions as śāstra-sighted, neither driven toward the forbidden nor repelled from the obligatory. Do not come under their power, for they are highway bandits (dasyū iva pathikasya) blocking the path of the aspiring person.

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'śāstrīyavivekavijñānaprābalyena svābhāvikarāgadveṣayoḥ kāraṇopamardena... na prakṛtir vipārītamārge puruṣaṃ śāstradṛṣṭiṃ pravartayituṃ śaknoti' — by the predominance of śāstric discriminative knowledge, the causes of natural rāga-dveṣa are destroyed and prakṛti loses its power to drive the śāstra-sighted person onto the wrong path.