Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 5, Verse 2: Krishna to Arjuna — Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Both saṃnyāsa (renunciation of action) and karma-yoga (performance of action) produce the highest good by serving as causes for the arising of jñāna (liberative knowledge). Yet between these two means to niḥśreyasa, karma-yoga excels over mere karma-saṃnyāsa — not because action is intrinsically superior, but because the unqualified aspirant cannot safely abandon the field of purifying action. Śaṅkara immediately presses the question forward: 'On what grounds?' — revealing this verse as a dialectical setup, not a final verdict.

  divergence: ज्ञानोत्पत्तिहेतुत्वेन — 'by virtue of being causes for the arising of jñāna'; कर्मयोगो विशिष्यते इति कर्मयोगं स्तौति — 'thus [the verse] praises karma-yoga.' Bhāṣya present and explicit.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Saṃnyāsa here means jñāna-yoga; both jñāna-yoga and karma-yoga are nirapekṣa (mutually independent, not sequentially dependent) and each, for one qualified to pursue it, leads independently to liberation. Nevertheless karma-yoga excels over jñāna-yoga — because in Rāmānuja's reading the verse prepares Arjuna for the fuller bhakti-karma synthesis where action as kainkarya (loving service) to Bhagavān is both accessible and supremely fructifying. The comparison is not derogation of jñāna but a declaration of karma-yoga's wider eligibility.

  divergence: निरपेक्षौ निःश्रेयसकरौ — 'independently productive of the highest good'; संन्यासः ज्ञानयोगः — Rāmānuja explicitly glosses saṃnyāsa as jñāna-yoga. Bhāṣya present.

• Madhvadvaita

  Madhva makes a sharp institutional cut: the saṃnyāsa praised here is not the turīya-saṃnyāsa of the monastic order — it is renunciation of the pairs of opposites (dvandva-tyāga). His chain of scriptural citation (Nāradīya, Jābāla, Yājñavalkya Upaniṣad) establishes that true, highest saṃnyāsa is superior even to householder virtue, yet mat-pūjā (worship of Hari) surpasses even that. Karma-yoga excels because it is the very form of dependent worship of Hari available to the jīva who cannot yet access turīya-saṃnyāsa; it is graded superiority within a hierarchy ordered by devotion to Bhagavān.

  divergence: नायं सन्न्यासो यत्याश्रमः — 'this saṃnyāsa is not the monastic āśrama'; द्वन्द्वत्यागात्तु सन्न्यासान्मत्पूजैव गरीयसी — 'from saṃnyāsa as dvandva-tyāga, my worship alone is superior.' Bhāṣya present with extensive śruti citations.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha frames Kṛṣṇa's response as directed specifically at Arjuna as a puṣṭi-niṣṭha devotee caught between two poles of a doubt (ubhaya-koṭi-saṃśaya). Both sāṃkhya-saṃnyāsa and karma-yoga are independently capable of leading the puruṣa to liberation — neither is merely ancillary to the other. Karma-yoga excels because external action sustains loka-anugraha (world-benefit), and even the tattva-knowing renunciant is urged to continue acting outwardly; the true renunciation is only internal (manasaiva tyāgaḥ, not external). For Arjuna the message is: karma-yoga will be fruitful for you too.

  divergence: मनसैव त्यागः न बाह्यतः — 'renunciation is only mental, not external'; तत्त्वज्ञानिनोऽपि लोकानुग्रहार्थं कर्मकरणश्रवणात् — 'because scripture enjoins action on tattva-jñānins too, for the benefit of the world.' Bhāṣya present.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara carefully disambiguates the intended audience: Kṛṣṇa does not address karma-yoga to one who already knows the ātman as taught in Vedānta (paramātma-jñāna-vid), since that would contradict the earlier advocacy of saṃnyāsa. Rather the instruction targets Arjuna-as-deha-ātma-abhimānin (one who identifies self with body), whose grief and delusion must first be severed with the sword of viveka-jñāna. Karma-yoga purifies citta; from purified citta arises ātma-tattva-jñāna; jñāna matures into jñāna-niṣṭhā which subsumes saṃnyāsa. The two paths are thus sequentially integrated, not rival — yet karma-yoga is superior as the necessary first stage for the unready practitioner.

  divergence: देहात्मविवेकज्ञानासिना छित्त्वा — 'cutting with the sword of discriminative knowledge (between body and self)'; कर्मयोगेन शुद्धचित्तस्य — 'for one whose citta has been purified by karma-yoga.' Bhāṣya present and detailed; no HTML artifacts in supplied payload.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana synthesizes tersely: both paths are niḥśreyasa-kara by being instrumental causes of jñāna-utpatti (arising of liberative knowledge). Karma-yoga excels specifically over karma-saṃnyāsa performed by one who is anadhikārin (without proper qualification) — it excels not in absolute worth but in adhikāra-sampādakatva, its capacity to confer the very qualification that makes saṃnyāsa meaningful. The polemical edge is Advaita-orthodox (jñāna remains final), but the pastoral concern is devotional: do the accessible practice that builds capacity, do not leap to a renunciation you have not earned.

  divergence: अनधिकारिकृतात्कर्मसंन्यासात् — 'over karma-saṃnyāsa performed by one lacking qualification'; अधिकारसंपादकत्वेन — 'by virtue of conferring qualification.' Bhāṣya present; most concise in the panel.