Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 4, Verse 32: Krishna to Arjuna — Jñāna-Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  These many yajñas (sacrifices), spread across the mouth of brahman (Veda), are known through the Veda alone — as in 'into speech we pour the breath.' Know all of them as karma-ja (born of bodily, vocal, and mental action) and therefore not born of the ātman, who is ever actionless. Knowing thus — 'these activities are not mine; I am the uninvolved witness' — you will be freed from the bondage of saṃsāra.

  divergence: Śaṅkara reads 'brahmaṇo mukhe' as the Veda's gateway; liberation turns on recognizing ātman's nirvy āpāra (complete non-agency), not on performing yajña well.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  All these karma-yogas in their many forms are spread through the mouth of brahman as means for attaining the true nature of the self (ātmayāthātmya). Know every one of them — those named and unnamed — as karma-ja, arising from daily and occasional obligatory acts performed without selfish desire. Having known and practiced them in this manner, you will be liberated. Here jñāna is interior to the karma; the knowledge-aspect within right action bears the greater weight.

  divergence: Rāmānuja's distinctive move: jñāna is not a separate subsequent stage but already present within karma-yoga as its inner form — karma carries jñāna as its essential dimension.

• Madhvadvaita

  All these yajñas are spread at the mouth of the Paramātman himself, for Kṛṣṇa declares (9.24) 'I alone am the enjoyer and lord of all yajñas.' Know every one — whether born of mānasa (mental), vācika (verbal), or kāyika (bodily) action — as karma-ja. Having so known them and performed them, you will be freed. Even the renunciation you might undertake instead of battle is itself a karma; therefore prescribed duty must not be abandoned.

  divergence: Madhva uniquely glosses 'brahmaṇaḥ' as Paramātman (not Veda), grounds all yajña in Hari's lordship, and preemptively closes the escape route of renunciation as spiritually superior to action.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  From the very beginning the Veda spreads these many yajñas — 'the gods worshipped Yajña with yajña' (Ṛgveda 8.6.19.6; Yajurveda 31.16) — and these formed the primal dharmas. Know all the yajña-designated acts enjoined by the Veda as karma-ja, accomplished through one's own ritual activity. Having so known them and enacted them, you will be freed: both the absence of suffering and the presence of joy are the two puruṣārthas (human ends), and mokṣa is the fulfillment of kāma within these.

  divergence: Vallabha ties mokṣa to a dual puruṣārtha frame (absence of pain + presence of joy) and roots yajña in the Vedic creation-hymns, making ritual action a participation in the primordial cosmic yajña of the gods.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  To praise jñāna-yajña above the rest, Kṛṣṇa here recapitulates all the yajñas mentioned. They are 'spread at the mouth of the Veda' — directly enjoined by the Veda itself. Yet know all of them as karma-ja, born of speech, mind, and body, and therefore untouched by the nature of the ātman, which never falls within the range of karma (karmāgocara). Having known this and abiding in jñāna-niṣṭhā (steadiness in knowledge), you will be freed from saṃsāra.

  divergence: Śrīdhara's distinctive purpose is compositional: this verse is a deliberate recapitulation that sets up the subsequent praise of jñāna-yajña as the highest; liberation is explicitly tied to jñāna-niṣṭhā, not merely performance.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Lest one think this enumeration rests on mere conjecture, Kṛṣṇa affirms: all these many yajñas — instruments of every Vedic good — are spread at the mouth of the Veda, known only through the Veda's gateway; individual Vedic sentences are not cited for fear of prolixity. Know all of them as karma-ja, arising from bodily, vocal, and mental acts — none of them ātma-ja. For the ātman is entirely actionless; knowing 'these activities are not mine; I am the uninvolved witness,' you will be freed from the bondage of saṃsāra.

  divergence: Madhusūdana's synthesis: he follows Śaṅkara's ātman-as-nirvy āpāra logic almost verbatim while foregrounding the Veda's epistemic authority as the warrant — his response to an implied objection that Kṛṣṇa is speculating rather than citing scripture.