Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 4, Verse 22: Krishna to Arjuna — Jñāna-Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The renunciant who is content with what arrives unsought — yādṛcchā-lābha (gain by chance) — has extinguished the very notion of a doer: guṇāḥ guṇeṣu vartante (the strands move among strands), and the self is never the agent. From this vantage, even the act of going door-to-door for alms is not 'done' by the knower of truth; it is only so attributed by ordinary convention. Because the root-and-branch of karma — its causal fuel — has been burned in the fire of jñāna (discernment), no further bondage accrues.

  divergence: Śaṅkara's bhāṣya distinguishes two registers: laukika (conventional), where agency is ascribed by others, and svānubhava (self-experience grounded in śāstra), where the jñānī is permanently akartā (non-agent). The specific phrase 'bhandahetos sahetus karmano jñānāgninā dagdhatvāt' (the karma together with its cause is burned by the fire of jñāna) is the mechanical ground of non-bondage.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  The devotee bearing only what sustains the body for the span of sādhana (spiritual practice) — tolerating heat and cold as unavoidable until the work is done — acts in battle and every other assigned station without coveting outcomes. Even without the fully ripened jñāna-niṣṭhā (steadfast wisdom), this equanimity in victory and defeat itself prevents rebirth, for the action has been offered without self-assertion.

  divergence: Rāmānuja's bhāṣya specifies 'yāvat-sādhana-samāpti-avarjanīya-śītoṣṇādi-sahaḥ' — the body-pair of heat and cold is to be endured only as long as the means require. He explicitly states 'jñāna-niṣṭhāṃ vinā api na nibadhyate,' signaling that karma-yoga alone, without full jñāna, can prevent saṃsāra — a point Advaita would qualify sharply.

• Madhvadvaita

  This verse names the marks of the yata-citta-ātmā (the one whose mind-and-self are restrained): content with what Hari grants unsought, beyond the pairs, and alike in success and failure because the jīva (individual self) has no independent claim on outcomes — all belongs to Hari alone. For such a one, action cannot bind, since the binding would require a selfhood that is never truly the agent.

  divergence: Madhva's bhāṣya is terse — 'yatacittātmano lakṣaṇam āha' (this verse states the marks of the restrained self) — and the question 'kathaṃ dvandvātītatvam' (how is transcendence of the pairs established?) is answered precisely by 'samaḥ siddh-āv asiddhau' (equal in success and failure). The terseness signals that for Madhva the verse confirms Dvaita ontology by implication rather than requiring elaboration.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads the verse as pointing back to the Sāṅkhya-Yoga content already given: samaḥ siddh-āv asiddhau (equal in siddhi and asiddhi) reprises the earlier disclosure, and 'na nibadhyate' (is not bound) quietly points to akarmatva — the state in which action leaves no residue because Kṛṣṇa's prasāda (grace) pervades and enlivens every movement. The practitioner does not renounce action but is carried by the current of līlā.

  divergence: Vallabha's bhāṣya is concise: 'pūrvoktasāṅkhyayogārthaḥ pradarśitaḥ' (the meaning of the Sāṅkhya-Yoga stated earlier is demonstrated) and 'akarmatvaṃ sūcitam' (akarmatva is indicated). The brevity is deliberate — for Puṣṭi-mārga, the grace of Kṛṣṇa is the unstated subject doing the real explanatory work.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara reads the verse accessibly: yādṛcchā-lābha means gain that arrives without being asked for; dvandva (the pairs) such as heat and cold are 'transcended' in the sense of being endured without agitation (tatsahanaśīla, bearing-them-patiently). One who possesses these four qualities — contentment, tolerance, freedom from envy, equanimity — does not attain bondage whether acting from the duties of an earlier stage or a later one.

  divergence: Śrīdhara's bhāṣya gloss 'tatsahanaśīla ity arthaḥ' (the meaning is: one who is capable of bearing them) is a careful philological move, distinguishing 'transcendence' as functional tolerance rather than metaphysical absence. The phrase 'pūrvottara-bhūmikayoḥ yathāyathaṃ vihitaṃ svābhāvikaṃ vā karma' (duty suited to earlier or later stages, or natural duty) shows his accommodating reach across āśrama-dharma.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana builds the most architecturally dense reading: yādṛcchā is precisely defined as that which arrives without śāstra-unanumata-prayatna (effort not sanctioned by scripture) — the renunciant may go to the village to beg per śāstra but may not scheme, solicit by omens, or exploit discipleship. Even hunger-and-thirst (kṣut-pipāsā) and cold are transcended in samādhi through their non-arising, and in vyutthāna (ordinary wakefulness) through the counter-force of the experience of paramānanda (supreme bliss) that overwhelms lesser sensations. The non-agent acts, is seen by others as acting, and is unbound — the exact echo of Śaṅkara's bhāṣya, now woven through bhakti awareness.

  divergence: Madhusūdana quotes Manu on begging conduct and the śāstra-stipulated minimum kit (loincloth, blanket, sandals) to concretize 'yādṛcchā-lābha-santuṣṭa' as a lived discipline, not mere attitude. His key phrase 'samādhidaśāyāṃ teṣām aspharaṇāt; vyutthānadaśāyāṃ... paramānandād dvitīya akartṛ-abhoktṛ-ātma-pratyayena bādhāt' (in samādhi the pairs do not arise; in ordinary awareness they are overridden by the non-dual ātma-cognition of supreme bliss) synthesizes Advaita epistemology with bhakti experiential register.