Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 5, Verse 25: Krishna to Arjuna — Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Those seers (ṛṣis) who have burned away all impurity (kṣīṇa-kalmaṣa) and severed doubt (chinna-dvaidha) attain brahma-nirvāṇa — extinction into Brahman — which Śaṅkara identifies as mokṣa: not a destination reached but the recognition of what was never absent. The restraint of the sense-complex (yatātmā) and compassionate non-harm toward all beings (sarva-bhūta-hite ratāḥ) are conditions of fitness, not acts of merit, because the jñāna already present requires only the removal of the veil. The plural 'they attain' (labhante) signals, per Śaṅkara, a canonical rule — whichever aspirants fulfill these marks, without exception, realize the non-dual Brahman.

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'ṛṣayaḥ samyag-darśinaḥ sannyāsinaḥ... ahiṃsakā ity arthaḥ' — the seers are the right-seeing renouncers; their non-harm is the outer face of inner non-difference.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Rāmānuja reads the verse as a ladder: the dvandvas (chinna-dvaidha) are heat-cold pairs, not abstract doubts, and liberation from them is the fruit of sustained ātma-awareness (yatātmā — mind fixed on the self alone). The ṛṣis are 'seers of the ātman' (draṣṭāraḥ ātmāvalokanapara), and their 'delight in the welfare of all beings' (sarva-bhūta-hita) is not generic kindness but the recognition that every being is an ātman housed within Bhagavān. Once the obstacles to the remaining connection with Brahman dissolve (kṣīṇa-śeṣātma-prāpti-virodhi-kalmaṣa), brahma-nirvāṇa is reached — meaning the ātman rests in its natural mode of eternal kainkarya within the qualified Whole.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'kṣīṇā śeṣātma-prāpti-virodhi kalmaṣāḥ brahma-nirvāṇaṃ labhante' — the impurity that blocks the ātman's realization of its servant-nature is what dissolves, not the ātman's individuality.

• Madhvadvaita

  For Madhva, the verse announces a strict ontological sequence: sin first declines (pāpa-kṣaya), enabling the severing of dvaidha (dvaidha = either doubt or categorical error/viparīta, per his cited verse), after which the mind becomes 'long' — dīrgha-manasaḥ, expansive in omniscient alignment with Hari's will. The plural 'seers' (ṛṣayaḥ) denotes souls of particular adhikāra (qualification) who have been granted this progression by Hari's grace, not by independent effort. Brahma-nirvāṇa is the state in which the jīva, irreducibly distinct, abides in undivided devotion to the supreme; Madhva's citation — 'kṣīṇa-pāpā mahā-jñānā jāyante gata-saṃśayāḥ' — makes the dependence on grace explicit.

  divergence: Madhva: 'dvaidhā-bhāvo dvaidham — saṃśayo viparyayo vā' — dvaidha is specifically named as either doubt or perverse inversion; its cessation requires prior sin-destruction, confirming the sequential, grace-mediated path.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha is conspicuously brief: the ṛṣis here are mantra-seers (mantra-draṣṭāraḥ), made omniscient (sarvajñā) through Kṛṣṇa's revelation, and they attain brahma-ānanda — Vallabha substitutes ānanda for nirvāṇa, signaling that liberation in Puṣṭi-mārga is blissful entry into Kṛṣṇa's own joy, not the extinction of a flame. The conditions (chinna-saṃśaya, yatātmā) are the marks of those on whom Kṛṣṇa bestows his grace freely (puṣṭi), not the fruits of human effort alone. The verse is cited to validate the conduct of the sat-jana as precedent, not as a prescription to be followed by effort.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'ṛṣayo mantra-draṣṭāraḥ sarvajñā bhūtvā... brahma-ānandaṃ labhante' — the replacement of 'nirvāṇa' with 'ānanda' is the hermeneutic key distinguishing Śuddhādvaita from all other schools here.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara's gloss is concise and heart-centered: the ṛṣis are samyag-darśinaḥ (right-seeing), their impurity has subsided, their doubt is severed, their mind is restrained, and — crucially — they are kṛpāluḥ, compassionate. Śrīdhara introduces 'compassion' (kṛpā) as the inner quality animating sarva-bhūta-hita, not merely abstract non-harm: these seers feel for all beings. Brahma-nirvāṇa is glossed as mokṣa, with no further metaphysical elaboration, leaving the rendering devotionally open — the emphasis falls on the person of the seer, whose inner purity and outward compassion jointly constitute the condition for liberation.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'sarvabhūtānāṃ hite ratāḥ kṛpāluvas te brahma-nirvāṇaṃ mokṣaṃ labhante' — the one word kṛpāluḥ (compassionate ones) that Śrīdhara adds is absent in Śaṅkara's bhāṣya and marks his devotional inflection.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana gives the most developmental reading: the verse encodes a four-stage progression — (1) yajña and ritual remove coarse impurity; (2) inner-organ purification (antaḥkaraṇa-śuddhi) produces the ṛṣi capacity for subtle discrimination; (3) śravaṇa-parīpāka (ripening of hearing) severs all doubt; (4) nididhyāsana-parīpāka (ripening of contemplation) makes the mind one-pointed on Paramātman. Those who have traversed all four, and who — by seeing non-duality — are naturally harmless (hiṃsā-śūnya), are the brahma-vidas who attain brahma-nirvāṇa. The śruti he cites ('yasmin sarvāṇi bhūtāny ātmaivābhūd vijānataḥ — ko mohaḥ kaḥ śoka ekatvam anupaśyataḥ') is the Īśāvāsya pivot: the person who knows oneness cannot harm, because all beings are already seen as the Self.

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'nididhyāsana-parīpākena saṃyatātmānaḥ paramātmany evaikāgra-cittāḥ... brahma-vido brahma-nirvāṇaṃ labhante' — the four-stage ladder is unique to his commentary and absent from all other schools' glosses on this verse.