Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 4, Verse 41: Krishna to Arjuna — Jñāna-Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  One who has renounced all action through the yoga of ultimate discernment (paramārtha-darśana, 'direct vision of the highest reality') — and whose doubt has been severed by the knowledge that the individual self and Īśvara are one — is called yoga-sannyasta-karman ('one whose actions are renounced through yoga'). For such a person, actions perceived as modifications of the gunas do not bind, nor do they generate desired or undesired fruits. Doubt dissolved, bondage cannot take root: the ātman (self), self-possessed and undistracted, stands beyond the reach of karma.

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'ज्ञानेन आत्मेश्वरैकत्वदर्शनलक्षणेन संछिन्नः संशयो यस्य' — doubt severed by knowledge whose mark is seeing the oneness of ātman and Īśvara.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  One who has renounced action in the form taught by Bhagavān — wherein karma itself becomes suffused with the quality of ātma-jñāna (self-knowledge) — is called jñānākāratāpanna-karman ('action that has assumed the form of knowledge'). Doubt about the ātman is severed by the taught knowledge, and the person becomes manasvī (one of steady mind), firmly established in what has been instructed. Even the vast accumulation of prior karmas that would otherwise cause bondage cannot bind this ātmavat (self-possessing) soul.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'यथोपदिष्टयोगेन संन्यस्तकर्माणं ज्ञानाकारतापन्नकर्माणं... बन्धहेतुभूतप्राचीनानन्त कर्माणि न निबध्नन्ति' — even infinite prior bondage-causing karmas do not bind.

• Madhvadvaita

  The *paratantra* (eternally dependent) *jīva* who has surrendered all action through *yoga* — *yoga-saṃnyasta-karmāṇam* — and whose doubt (*saṃśaya*) regarding Hari's absolute *svatantra* (independently real, self-sufficient) supremacy has been severed by *jñāna* — *jñāna-saṃchinna-saṃśayam* — is not bound (*na nibadhnanti*) by *karma*. The *ātmavantam* here names not self-sufficiency but possession of right orientation toward the *ātman* as Hari's dependent: the *jīva* who knows its own *paratantra* nature stands freed from karmic bondage. *Pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction) is not dissolved in this liberation; the *bheda* (real distinction) between Lord and *jīva* remains fully intact. Freedom from *karma* is not an autonomous achievement of the *jīva* but follows solely from Hari's grace operating through the *jīva*'s *bhakti* (devotion) — an ontological subordination, not an independent knowledge-event. *Saṃśaya* regarding Hari's *taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy) at the apex is the root of bondage; *jñāna* that severs it is itself *Hari-prabhā*, illumination granted by Hari, not self-generated. Thus *karma* binds only those who assert a false independence the *jīva* never possessed.

  divergence: Mādhva and Jayatīrtha are silent on this verse; the reading draws directly from Dvaita *siddhānta*: *paratantra* *jīva*, grace-dependent liberation, and the permanence of *bheda* even in the freed state.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha praises the one who stands at the convergence of both paths: outwardly engaged in kriyā (action) with equanimity in success and failure alike — and inwardly free of any bond to the inner organ. This is the dhīra (resolute one) — śūnya (empty) of any antaḥkaraṇa-saṃbandha (connection to inner faculties as possessions), whose doubt has been cut by the Sāṃkhya-knowledge distinguishing ātman from anātman. Such a one is kevalam ātmavant ('exclusively self-possessing') and not anātmābhimānavant ('identified with what is not-self'): therefore performed actions do not bind.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'केवलमात्मवन्तं न तु केवलमनात्माभिमानवन्तं पुरुषं क्रियमाणानि तानि कर्माणि न निबध्नन्ति' — a crisp binary: ātman-identified vs. anātman-identified.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara reads this verse as the summation of both chapters — the two-tier brahma-niṣṭhā (steadfast absorption in Brahman) of karma and jñāna. One who has dedicated all action to Parameśvara (the Supreme Lord) through yoga-as-worship, whose doubt — rooted in deha-abhimāna (identification with the body) — has been severed by the knowledge of the non-doer ātman, and who is apramādin (vigilant, not heedless): such a person is not bound even by lokasaṃgraha-artha (world-sustaining) or svābhāvika (natural, spontaneous) action.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'योगेन परमेश्वराराधनरूपेण तस्मिन् संन्यस्तानि समर्पितानि कर्माणि... अतश्च ज्ञानेनाकर्त्रात्मबोधेन संच्छिन्नः संशयो देहाद्यभिमानलक्षणो यस्य'.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana holds open both readings: yoga as samata-buddhi (equanimous awareness) offered as Bhagavad-ārādhana (worship of the Lord), or yoga as paramārtha-darśana (vision of ultimate reality) that abandons action entirely. Either way, jñāna here is ātma-niścaya (settled conviction about the self), and the prerequisite is apramāditva (perpetual vigilance), because without it knowledge cannot arise. The ātmavat (self-collected one), free from the distraction of viṣaya-paravaśatva (captivity to sense-objects), is not bound by actions performed for lokasaṃgraha (world-order) or by mere vṛthā-ceṣṭā (purposeless movement): no body — neither undesired, desired, nor mixed — is generated.

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'विषयपरवशत्वरूपप्रमादे सति कुतो ज्ञानोत्पत्तिः... आत्मवन्तमप्रमादिनं सर्वदा सावधानं' — apramāditva as the necessary condition for jñāna-arising.