Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 6, Verse 21: Krishna to Arjuna — Dhyāna-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  That happiness which is absolute — without end or gradation — is grasped by the intellect (buddhi) alone, operating free of the sense organs; it is beyond sense-contact entirely. The wise one who abides in that state does not merely experience it: he knows it as his own nature, and having so known, does not fall away from that essential form (tattva). Śaṅkara is precise: the modifier 'ātyantikaṃ' means literally 'extreme-continuous,' synonymous with ananta — it is not an intensified pleasure but the abolition of the pleasure-pain axis altogether.

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'buddhyaiva indriyanirapekṣayā gṛhyate iti buddhi-grāhyam — atīndriyam indriyagocarātītam aviṣajanitam'; and 'tattvāt na pracyavate.'

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  The yogin, established in the experience of the ātman, knows a happiness that is absolute and apprehensible only by ātma-buddhi — the intellect turned fully toward the self as a mode of Bhagavān. Rāmānuja's phrasing 'ātma-buddhy-eka-grāhyam' is deliberate: this happiness is not intellect perceiving an abstract absolute but the qualified self (viśiṣṭa jīvātman) knowing its own joy within Īśvara. Established thus in yoga, the yogin does not deviate from that truth — because the truth is a living relationship, not a dissolved identity.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'ātma-buddhy-eka-grāhyam ātyantikam sukham yatra ca yogī sthitaḥ sukh-atirekem tattvataḥ tad-bhāvān na calati.'

• Madhvadvaita

  This happiness, apprehensible by purified buddhi and beyond the senses, is rooted in the eternal form of Bhagavān (bhagavad-rūpatva) — not in the jīva's self-sufficiency. The non-deviation from truth (tattva) means non-deviation from the reality that Hari is the independent Lord and the jīva is permanently dependent: joy arises precisely because that distinction is known, not dissolved. Madhva's gloss is terse by design — 'tattvato bhagavad-rūpatvāt' collapses the verse into its deepest import: the happiness is Bhagavān's own nature shining through the surrendered jīva.

  divergence: Madhva (on 6.21–22): 'tattvato bhagavad-rūpatvāt' — the non-deviation is grounded in Bhagavān's own form as the telos.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  The happiness described here is ātma-sukha — the bliss that is the very form of the ātman — and it is indicated by Kṛṣṇa precisely because the ātman is identical with Kṛṣṇa's own prasāda-given being. Vallabha reads 'ātyantikam' as 'ātma-rūpayā buddhyā jñānena grāhyam': the knowing and the known are both in the order of ātman-as-bliss, not ātman-as-knower grasping a separate object. Non-deviation from tattva here means non-deviation from sva-sukha-ātmatva — the identity of self and bliss as Kṛṣṇa's free gift.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'ātma-rūpayā buddhyā jñānena grāhyam... tattvataḥ ātma-svarūpāt sukha-ātmatvād dhi na calati.'

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara explains the verse as supplying the reason for the yogin's self-sufficiency in ātman: the happiness experienced in that special state (avasthā-viśeṣa) is 'niratiśayam ātyantikam nityam' — without a superior, absolute, and permanent. The objection is met directly: since there is no sense-object contact, how can there be happiness? Because, he answers, the happiness is atīndriya — beyond sense-object conjunction — and is grasped by buddhi alone assuming the form of ātman. The yogin established there does not depart from the essential form of ātman.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'niratiśayam ātyantikam nityam sukham vetti... atīndriyam viṣayendriya-sambandha-atītam kevalaṃ buddhyaiva ātmākāratayā grāhyam.'

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana offers the fullest analytical treatment: 'ātyantikam' names the bliss as Brahman's own svarūpa; 'atīndriyam' excludes sense-based pleasure (which requires viṣaya-indriya-saṃprayoga); 'buddhi-grāhyam' excludes deep-sleep happiness (where buddhi is dissolved). The samādhi happiness is grasped by a buddhi free of rajas and tamas, carrying sattva alone — yet even this grasping must not be savored as a separate object of enjoyment, for Gauḍapāda warns 'nāsvādayet sukham tatra niḥsaṅgaḥ prajñayā bhavet.' Bhakti is implicit throughout: the Brahman whose bliss this is, is Kṛṣṇa himself, and the yogin's non-deviation is the beginning of kaivalya.

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'ātyantikam iti brahma-sukha-svarūpa-kathanam; atīndriyam iti viṣaya-sukha-vyāvṛttiḥ; buddhi-grāhyam iti sauṣupta-sukha-vyāvṛttiḥ' — with Gauḍapāda citation.