Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 4, Verse 24: Krishna to Arjuna — Jñāna-Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  When the brahma-vit (knower of Brahman) looks upon the sruc (ladle) with which he pours, he sees only Brahman — just as one recognising a shell sees no silver. The offering, the fire, the act of pouring, the very agent who pours: none of these retain separate existence any more than the rope-snake retains its fangs once the rope is seen. Therefore the karma (action) itself dissolves — brahma-buddhi (Brahman-cognition) has annihilated the distinction of kāraka (instrument), kriyā (act), and phala (fruit), leaving only the non-dual substratum.

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'ब्रह्मबुद्ध्युपमृदितार्पणादिकारकक्रियाफलभेदबुद्धि कर्म। अतः अकर्मैव तत्' — karma whose kāraka-kriyā-phala distinctions are annihilated by Brahman-cognition is in truth akarma (non-action). The silver-in-shell analogy makes this explicit.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Every element of the yajña — the sruc (ladle) as instrument, the havis (oblation), the agni (fire), the kartā (officiant) — is constituted by Brahman as its inner-self; they are brahma-kārya (Brahman's effects) and therefore brahma-maya (Brahman-pervaded), not merely appearances to be negated. The mumukṣu (seeker of liberation) who sustains this anusandhāna (contemplative holding) throughout action performs karma that is itself jñānākāra (having the form of knowledge), a direct upāya (means) for ātmāvalokanam (self-vision) — with no intervening jñāna-niṣṭhā step required. The gantavya (destination) is the ātman's own svarūpa in its Brahman-constitution, attained through this unified vision.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'सर्वं कर्मब्रह्मात्मकत्वाद् ब्रह्ममयम् इति यः समाधत्ते... मुमुक्षूणां क्रियमाणं कर्म परब्रह्मात्मकम् एव इत्यनुसन्धानयुक्ततया ज्ञानाकारं साक्षादात्मावलोकनसाधनम्' — karma sustained in Brahman-consciousness becomes jñānākāra and directly enables self-vision.

• Madhvadvaita

  When scripture declares that the arpaṇa (offering act) is Brahman, it does not mean ontological identity but ādhīna-sattā (dependent existence): each element of the yajña has its being and activity solely by Hari's will, and therefore Hari alone is the true agent — the jīva (individual soul) acts only as a paratantra (dependent) instrument. The verse is anchored in the pādma-vacana: 'वदन्ति मुनयः सर्वे न तु सर्वस्वरूपतः' — sages call everything Brahman because of dependence, not because of identity of essence. Liberation here is brahma-prāpti (reaching Brahman) understood as eternal, blissful proximity to Hari, not merger.

  divergence: Madhva: 'सर्वमेतद्ब्रह्मेत्युच्यते तदधीनसत्ताप्रवृत्तिमत्त्वात् न तु तत्स्वरूपत्वात्' — everything is called Brahman because of dependence-in-existence, not because of essential identity. The Pādma-purāṇa citation confirms this.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  The verse discloses bhāvādvaita (identity in feeling), kriyādvaita (identity in act), and dravyādvaita (identity in substance) simultaneously: Hari himself is the agni, the havis, the sruc, the prayāja — his own prakṛti (nature) pervading the entire yajña as sat-cid-ānanda (pure being-consciousness-bliss). For the jñānin who sees this, all karma becomes brahma-arpaṇa not as mental superimposition but as an abirбhāva (manifestation) of what was always true; the Paurāṇika formula — 'agnihotraṃ... kramāt pañcātmako Hariḥ' — is not metaphor but ontological description. Mokṣa arrives krameṇa (gradually) as the obscuring prakṛti-veil thins through this lived recognition.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'भावाद्वैतं क्रियाद्वैतं द्रव्याद्वैतं उच्यते भगवता स्वमुखेन... ज्ञानिनस्तदभिव्यक्तौ कर्तुर्मोक्षः क्रमाद्भवेत्' — the three-fold identity is declared by the Lord himself; for the knower its manifestation yields liberation gradually.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  This verse specifies how karma becomes akarma (non-binding action) for the upāsaka who has taken up parameSvara-ārādhana (worship of the supreme Lord) as his activity: each limb of the sacrifice — arpaṇa, havis, agni, kartā — is seen as suffused with Brahman, leaving no residue that could bind as saṃsāra-karma. The sādhaka who fixes his citta-ekāgryam (one-pointed mind) on Brahman as the sole substance of every karmāṅga (limb of action) reaches only Brahman as phala — no fala-antaram (other result) accrues, because the distinction of upāsaka and upāsya (worshipper and worshipped) has been dissolved in the vision.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'ब्रह्मण्येव कर्मात्मके समाधिश्चित्तैकाग्र्यं यस्य तेन ब्रह्मैव गन्तव्यं प्राप्यं न तु फलान्तरम्' — one whose mind is single-pointedly absorbed in Brahman as the substance of the karma-act reaches only Brahman, no other fruit.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana deploys a full kāraka analysis to show that every grammatical participant in the yajña — karman (object), karaṇa (instrument), sampradāna (recipient), adhikaraṇa (locus) — is Brahman-projected, like a serpent projected onto a rope; once brahma-tattva-jñāna (knowledge of the truth of Brahman) arises, these vyavahāras (conventional distinctions) persist only as dagdha-paṭa (burnt cloth) — visible in form but incapable of bearing any fruit. The brahma-karma-samādhin (one absorbed in Brahman as the substance of action) thus reaches Brahman by identity (abheda-prāpti), not by traversing any distance — because only Brahman was ever the content of the act.

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'सर्वेषां क्रियाकारकादिव्यवहाराणां ब्रह्माज्ञानकल्पितानां... ब्रह्मतत्त्वज्ञानेन बाधे बाधितानुवृत्त्या क्रियाकारकादिव्यवहाराभासो दृश्यमानोऽपि दग्धपटन्यायेन न फलाय कल्पते' — the apparent action-distinctions, sublated by Brahman-knowledge, persist only as burnt cloth and generate no fruit.