Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 5, Verse 28: Krishna to Arjuna — Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The muni (sage) who has restrained the senses, mind, and intellect (yatendriya-mano-buddhi) — who has expelled outer sense-objects from inward cognition by sheer withdrawal — stands as one whose sole destination (parayana) is liberation. Desire, fear, and anger have departed because there is no 'other' against whom they could be directed. Such a renunciant is already free (mukta eva); liberation is not something still to be accomplished.

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'na tasya mokṣāyānyas kartavyo'sti' — for such a one, no further act is owed toward liberation. Withdrawal of sense-objects (bāhyān akintayataḥ) is the mechanism; inward dissolution of the viṣaya-vṛtti precedes jñāna.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  The muni described here has withdrawn every outward sense-operation and, gazing inward upon the ātman alone, has made desire, fear, and anger vanish — not by violent suppression but by the natural consequence of fixing awareness on ātma-darśana (direct self-vision). In Rāmānuja's reading, this very discipline is what makes the practitioner 'mokṣa-parāyaṇa' (solely intent on liberation as service to Bhagavān). Freedom in the accomplished state (sādhya-daśā) and freedom in the practice state (sādhana-daśā) are described as equivalent: 'sādhanādaśāyāmapi mukta eva.'

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'ātmāvalokanāt anyatra pravṛtty-arhendriyamanobuddhiḥ' — the senses, mind, and intellect become incapable of moving toward anything other than self-vision; hence release is present even while the body continues.

• Madhvadvaita

  Madhva reads the verse as prescribing the specific posture-and-breath protocol of dhyāna-yoga: the gaze held at the midpoint of the eyebrows (bhruvoh madhyam), the breath suspended in kumbhaka (prāṇāpānau samau). The muni who is 'mokṣa-parāyaṇa' is so precisely because Hari alone is the giver of mokṣa — the restraint here is an act of dependent surrender, not of self-generated power. Desire, fear, and anger dissolve when the jīva recognises its eternal subordination to the Lord.

  divergence: Madhva cites an auxiliary text: 'nāsāgre vā bhruvormadhye dhyānī cakṣurnidhāpayet' — the dhyānin should fix the eye either at the nose-tip or the brow-centre. Kumbhaka (breath-retention) is the technical meaning of 'prāṇāpānau samau kṛtvā.'

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha situates the verse within the Puṣṭi-mārga teaching that Īśvara-ālambana (resting on the Lord as sole support) is the true yoga here — not an act of self-mastery but a grace-empowered state. 'Muktaḥ' does not mean the practitioner has achieved liberation through technique; it means one who is held by Kṛṣṇa's prasāda is already released in the midst of the world (jīvanmukta, 'prapañce eva muktaḥ'). The restraint of senses and the kumbhaka breath are outward signs of an inward surrender, not independent causes.

  divergence: Vallabha in the Subodhini: 'sa sadā prapañce evam ukta eva jīvanmukta ityarthaḥ' — such a one is always, even within manifestation, liberated; and separately, Īśvara-ālambana-yoga alone generates bhakti across lifetimes ('bahujanma-vipākena bhaktim janayati dhruvam').

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara offers a compact, faithful gloss: the muni whose senses, mind, and intellect are restrained (yatāḥ saṃyatāḥ), whose supreme destination (paramāyana) is liberation, and from whom desire, fear, and anger have departed — such a one, even while living (jīvanapi), is always already free (mukta eva). The simplicity is deliberate: Śrīdhara does not over-philosophise but lets the verse stand as a practical portrait of the jīvanmukta.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'mokṣa eva paramayanaṃ prāpyaṃ yasya... yaḥ evaṃbhūto muniḥ sa sadā jīvannapi mukta eva ityarthaḥ.' The phrase 'anena upāyena' (by this means) ties 5.28 directly to the prāṇāyāma/dṛṣṭi instructions of 5.27.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana reads the verse as the third of three 'sūtra-verses' (5.27–5.29) that compress the entire sixth chapter in advance: inner renunciation (karma-saṃnyāsa) → meditative discipline (dhyāna-yoga) → fruit as Brahman-knowledge (paramātma-jñāna). The half-closed eye (ardhonmīlana, placed at the brow-centre) is technically motivated: full closure invites laya (the sleep-like dissolution), full opening invites the four viṣepa-vṛttis of pramāṇa/viparyaya/vikalpa/smṛti — so the middle path (pañca vṛttayo niroddhavyāḥ) is prescribed. Such a saṃnyāsī is always free — 'na tu mokṣaḥ tasya kartavyo'sti.'

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'atyanta-nimīlane hi nidrā-khyā layātmikā vṛttir ekā bhavet; prasāraṇe tu pramāṇa-viparyaya-vikalpa-smṛtayaś catasro vikṣepātmikā vṛttayo bhaveyuḥ' — the technique of ardhonmīlana is the exact midpoint between laya and vikṣepa.