Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 4, Verse 6: Krishna to Arjuna — Jñāna-Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Though birthless (aja) and of inexhaustible nature (avyayātmā), and though sovereign over all beings from Brahmā down to a blade of grass, I take hold of my own māyā — the triguṇa-constituted prakṛti of Viṣṇu — and appear as though embodied, as though born, not in ultimate reality (paramārthataḥ) but by my own māyā. This apparent birth is superimposed: the world, deluded by this same māyā, fails to recognize me as Vāsudeva. The birth-question itself dissolves on examination — when and for what purpose I appear will be stated next.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Without ever abandoning the full range of divine qualities — birthlessness, imperishability, lordship over all — I manifest (sambhavāmi) in my own nature (svām prakṛtim), that is, in my own intrinsic form whose luminous reality is attested by śruti: 'āditya-varṇaṃ tamasaḥ parastāt' and 'hiraṇmayaḥ puruṣaḥ.' Here māyā means knowledge (jñāna), as confirmed by the Vedic lexicographers ('māyā vayunaṃ jñānam'), and ātma-māyā thus means 'by his own omniscient will (ātma-saṃkalpa).' I take birth among devas or humans by my own sovereign resolve, not by the compulsion of karma that governs the jīva's transmigration.

• Madhvadvaita

  Though I am aja (birthless) and though my body itself is avyaya (imperishable — for 'anantaṃ viśvatomukham' describes that form), I appear as if born among those who are born of prakṛti — among Vasudeva and others — not by subjection to that prakṛti but through my own sovereign nature (svām, not svatantrām). The ātma-māyā here is ātma-jñāna — the Lord's own cognitive power, distinct from prakṛti; the Śrī-Bhūmi śaktis prepare the field of appearances, but Viṣṇu himself, who is 'īśeṣu vara' (superior even to lords), appears at will among those already born of prakṛti.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  I appear (sambhavāmi) — birthless and imperishable — by my own free māyā, which has multiple senses: in one register māyā = Hari's omnipotence (sāmarthya); in the devotional register it is compassion (kṛpā) toward the bhaktas themselves. I do this while never departing from my own essential nature (svām prakṛtim) — saccidānanda, the ground of eternal knowledge, action, and the six-fold divine excellence (ṣaḍguṇa). The jīva, by contrast, undergoes tirobhāva (concealment) of ānanda and all six qualities through 'paro'bhidhyāna'; I never undergo such diminishment — my appearance is āvirbhāva, a radiant coming-forth, not a fall.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Though beginningless and incapable of decay, free of the karmic bondage that binds the jīva, I appear (sambhavāmi) in full possession of undimmed powers — knowledge, strength, valor (jñāna-bala-vīrya) — by my own māyā. The mechanism is: I take up (adhiṣṭhāya, 'having presided over') my own śuddha-sattva-ātmikā prakṛti — a nature of pure, refined sattva untouched by the rajas and tamas that cloud the jīva's embodiment — and descend by my own will (svecchayā) in a body of supremely pure light-substance. There is no śoḍaśa-kalā liṅga-deha here: the vehicle is śuddha-sattva itself.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Neither jīva-hood (which would limit omniscience to vyaṣṭi-upādhi) nor ordinary Īśvara-hood (which would make embodiment inexplicable through gross or subtle bhautika material) fully characterizes this birth. The Lord's form is ākāśa-śarīra — the unmanifest (avyākṛta) as body, as śruti confirms: 'ākāśa-śarīraṃ brahma'; to ordinary perception this appears as manhood through māyā, not in reality. Māyā here is the Lord's own beginningless causal upādhi — eternally present as the substrate of world-causation, functioning by his will alone, and constituted of viśuddha-sattva, which is therefore the true mūrti: 'manyā māyā eva madupādhibhūtā.'. The 'birth' is the Lord's gracious appearance (loka-anugraha) for worldly purposes, not an ontological change — the Mokṣadharma passage is explicit: 'māyā hy eṣā mayā sṛṣṭā yan māṃ paśyasi nārada.'