Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 5, Verse 1: Krishna to Arjuna — Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Arjuna presses the dialectical nerve: Kṛṣṇa appears to commend both the renunciation of prescribed actions (karma-saṃnyāsa) and their vigorous performance (karma-yoga), yet the two cannot be co-executed by one person at one time. Śaṅkara hears the question precisely — what is more praiseworthy (praśasyatara), not merely permissible? The answer sought is not preference but the single path whose practice (anuṣṭhāna) delivers the highest good (śreyas); Arjuna demands it stated without residual ambiguity (suniścita).

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'praśasyataraṃ ca anuṣṭheyam — yat śreyas praśasyataram etayoḥ karmasaṃnyāsakarmayogayoḥ yad-anuṣṭhānāt śreyo'vāptiḥ mama syād iti manyase tat ekam anyatarat saha ekapuruṣānuṣṭheyatvāsaṃbhavāt me brūhi suniścitam'

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Arjuna has followed Kṛṣṇa's teaching across chapters two through four and now identifies a coherent arc: first karma-yoga purifies the inner organ, then jñāna-yoga delivers self-realisation (ātma-darśana). But Kṛṣṇa also insisted that karma-niṣṭhā (steadiness in action) stands independently as the single means to ātma-prāpti even for one qualified for jñāna-yoga. Which of the two — jñāna-yoga or karma-yoga — achieves liberation more easily (saukaryāt) and more swiftly (śaīghryāt)? Tell me that one with finality.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'etayoḥ jñānayogakarmayogayoḥ ātmaprāptisādhanabhāve yad ekaṃ saukaryāt śaīghryāt ca śreyaḥ śreṣṭham iti suniścitam tan me brūhi'

• Madhvadvaita

  The fifth chapter systematically expands what chapter four taught: on one side, contentment with what comes of itself (yadṛcchā-lābha-santuṣṭa) points toward saṃnyāsa; on the other, 'do action alone as the ancients did' (karma eva kuru) enjoins karma-yoga. Arjuna's deepest anxiety is tactical: if saṃnyāsa is the greater good, it is slightly opposed to battle — yet Kṛṣṇa called him to fight. Kṛṣṇa (the Compeller, kṛṣ-ṇa, who draws all worlds under his governance) will himself define the true meaning of saṃnyāsa; Arjuna simply needs to know which side of the apparent dilemma to inhabit.

  divergence: Madhva: 'yadi saṃnyāsaḥ śreyo'dhikaḥ syāt tarhi saṃnyāsasyeṣadvirodhi yuddham iti' — the combat-saṃnyāsa tension is the crux Madhva isolates.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Arjuna has not grasped that Sāṃkhya (knowledge-path) and Yoga (action-path) are already unified in their telos — the outer performance of one's own duty (svakarmana bahi) is the single form. Not yet seeing this identity, he asks what is appropriate (kṣama) for his own highest good (nijaśreyas). Saṃnyāsa means the relinquishment of Sāṃkhya's ritualistic karma; yoga means that very karma re-engaged in Kṛṣṇa's relational field. Because their forms are mutually opposed, both cannot operate simultaneously for one person; therefore speak the one that is definite.

  divergence: Vallabha (anuṣṭubh mangalācaraṇa): 'sāṃkhyayogaikārthamataṃ svakarmákaraṇaṃ bahi / ity abuddhvā nijaśreyo-niścaye pṛcchati kṣamam'

• Śrīdharabhakti

  After chapters three and four cut through Arjuna's uncertainty with the sword of knowledge and directed him to karma-yoga, Arjuna nonetheless detects contradiction: earlier verses praised the jñānin's right to renounce all karma (karma-saṃnyāsa), while the closing instruction was 'sever doubt with the sword of knowledge and stand in yoga.' Since both cannot be simultaneously followed — their essential forms are opposed (viruddha-svarūpa) — he asks Kṛṣṇa to state the single superior (śreṣṭha) and definite one.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'na ca karmasaṃnyāsaḥ karmayogaś caikasyaikaiva saṃbhavataḥ viruddhasvarūpatvāt — tasmādетаyor madhye ekasmin anuṣṭhātavye sati mama yac-chreyaḥ śreṣṭhaṃ suniścitaṃ tad ekaṃ brūhi'

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana maps the full epistemological terrain Arjuna inherits: chapters three and four showed that karma (for the ignorant) and jñāna (for the knowing) cannot be simultaneous, cannot be alternated arbitrarily, yet both are ultimately subordinated to the single end of self-knowledge. Karma purifies the inner instrument (antaḥkaraṇa-śuddhi) and then must yield to saṃnyāsa, which creates the unobstructed occasion for śravaṇa and manana. Neither synthesis nor free choice between the two is possible — the sequence is non-negotiable. Arjuna, standing at the hinge of ignorance and incipient detachment, asks: which one applies to me now?

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'tasmādādau bhagavadarpanabuddhyā niṣkāmakarmānuṣṭhānādantaḥkaraṇaśuddhau tīvreṇa vairāgyeṇa vividiṣāyāṃ dṛḍhāyāṃ sarvakarmásaṃnyāsaḥ ... kartavya iti bhagavato matam'