Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 5, Verse 17: Krishna to Arjuna — Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Those whose intellect (buddhi) has entered Brahman itself — such that Brahman alone is their ātman, their total abiding, and their supreme refuge — reach non-return (apunar-āvṛtti), meaning the cessation of body-rebirth altogether. This is because knowledge (jñāna) has incinerated the root defect (kalmaṣa) — the avidyā-born cycle of saṃsāra — down to its cause. The renunciant (yati) who has abandoned all action in Brahman alone is precisely the one Kṛṣṇa is describing; the next verse will explain how such a paṇḍita actually perceives reality.

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'tad-ātmānaḥ tad eva paraṃ brahma ātmā yeṣāṃ te'; kalmaṣa = pāpādi-saṃsāra-kāraṇa-doṣa; apunar-āvṛtti = apunar-deha-sambandha

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  The four qualifications — intellect resolved on ātman-vision (tad-buddhi), mind absorbed in that object (tad-ātman), sustained practice directed there (tan-niṣṭhā), and the ātman as the only final resort (tat-parāyaṇa) — describe progressive intensification of upāsanā toward Bhagavān's cit-body. Through such continually cultivated knowledge, ancient defilement (prācīna-kalmaṣa) is expunged, and the sādhaka reaches the ātman in its own intrinsic form — the state from which no further return occurs. The goal named is the ātman itself standing in svarūpa, not an external destination.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'tathāvidhāṃ ātmānam apunar-āvṛttiṃ gacchanti'; apunar-āvṛtti as svarūpa-avasthita ātman

• Madhvadvaita

  This verse names the immediate proximate means (avyavahita-sādhana) to direct, non-inferential knowledge (aparokṣa-jñāna) of Hari as the supreme independent reality (svatantra). The fourfold qualification is not a merger but a perfected orientation of the jīva — eternally distinct — toward Hari's lordship; ignorance of that distinction is the kalmaṣa that jñāna removes. Non-return is thus release into Hari's service, not dissolution of the jīva's own substance.

  divergence: Madhva: 'aparokṣa-jñāna-avyavahita-sādhanam āha tad-buddhaya iti' — verse frames proximate sādhana for direct Hari-realization; jīva-Brahman distinction remains eternal

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  These knowers — whose intellect, self-sense, steadiness, and final resort all rest in that (tat, Kṛṣṇa himself) — are already liberated (muktāḥ); the verse is their portrait, not a prescription. Liberation here is obtained through knowledge of Brahman's own form (brahma-svarūpa-viṣayaka-jñāna) bestowed by Kṛṣṇa's prasāda (grace-gift); it is not self-earned. Kalmaṣa is dissolved not by ascetic effort but by the grace-kindled insight that reveals the world as Kṛṣṇa's own līlā-light.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'tat-prasāda-labdhena jñānena brahma-svarūpa-viṣayakeṇa nirasta-kalmaṣā muktiṃ yānti'

• Śrīdharabhakti

  This verse reveals the fruit (phala) of Īśvara-upāsanā as Śrīdhara names it directly: the four terms — intellect on That, mind on That, resolve in That, supreme resort in That — together constitute total God-centeredness. Through knowledge of the ātman obtained as prasāda from that very Īśvara, kalmaṣa is wholly expelled and the worshipper reaches mukti (apunar-āvṛtti). The sequence is devotional: upāsanā → prasāda → ātma-jñāna → liberation.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'evaṃbhūta-īśvara-upāsanā-phalam āha'; 'tat-prasāda-labdhena ātma-jñānena nirdhūtaṃ kalmaṣaṃ yeṣāṃ'

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana reads the four qualifications as a reverse-ordered sādhana-stack: tat-parāyaṇa (supreme detachment, vairāgya) enables tan-niṣṭhā (śravaṇa-manana, vedānta-vicāra with sarva-karma-sannyāsa), which enables tad-ātman (nididhyāsana-ripeness removing viparīta-bhāvanā), which culminates in tad-buddhi (sākṣātkāra, the unmediated recognition). The jīva-Brahman distinction is a māyā-projection, not ultimate; the 'tad-ātman' qualifier distinguishes the wise who have shed deha-abhimāna from the ignorant who misidentify with body. Jñāna does not merely suppress kalmaṣa but uproots it at the root (samūlam unmūlita), severing even the cause of re-embodiment.

  divergence: Madhusūdana: four-term reverse causation (uttarottarasya pūrva-pūrva-hetutva); 'jñānena anādi-avidyā-nivṛttyā tat-kārya-karma-kṣaye tan-mūlaka-punar-deha-grahaṇaṃ kathaṃ bhavet'