Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 6, Verse 28: Krishna to Arjuna — Dhyāna-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The yogī who, by the prescribed method (yathokta-krama), keeps the mind ever absorbed — free from all impurity (vigata-kalmaṣa, 'gone-sin') — attains brahma-saṃsparśa (contact-with-Brahman) effortlessly. Śaṅkara glosses brahma-saṃsparśa as 'that bliss whose very constitution is the touch of the supreme Brahman' — not a relationship with an other, but identity without remainder. This bliss is called atyanta ('having surpassed all limits') because it transcends every superimposition; it is niratiśaya (unsurpassable), and its attainment (aśnute, 'pervades') is the direct result of yoga issuing in the singular vision of Brahman — the severing of all saṃsāra.

  divergence: For Śaṅkara brahma-saṃsparśa is tādātmya (identity), not proximity; the verse announces the fruit that motivates the entire jñāna-mārga.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  The yogī who engages (yuñjan) the self in the manner described — having shed all accumulated impurity (prācīna-samasta-kalmaṣa, 'entire past-impurity') — enjoys the bliss of brahma-saṃsparśa, which Rāmānuja reads as brahma-anubhava-rūpa sukha (bliss whose form is the direct experience of Brahman). This enjoyment is aparimita ('without measure') and is attained sukhena ('with ease') because niṣkāma practice has cleared every obstruction. Brahman here is Bhagavān Himself — the yogī does not dissolve into Brahman but rests in His presence; the bliss is relational beatitude, not featureless absorption.

  divergence: Rāmānuja introduces 'sadā' (always) and 'aparimita' (boundless) where Śaṅkara stresses 'niratiśaya' (unsurpassable); the devotional flavor renders bliss as experienced relationship, not dissolution.

• Madhvadvaita

  Madhva notes that this verse simply *prapañcayati* (unfolds, elaborates) what was stated in the preceding verse — *pūrvaślokoktaṃ prapañcayati evaṃ yuñjann iti*. Jayatīrtha presses the question: why restate what was already said of the *praśānta-manasa* (the one whose mind is stilled)? The answer is that the restatement extends and fills out (*prapañcayati*) that prior characterization. The *yogī vigata-kalmaṣaḥ* — blemish (*kalmaṣa*) fully shed — who thus disciplines the *ātman* (*evaṃ yuñjan*) attains *brahma-saṃsparśa* (contact with Brahman), an *atyantaṃ sukham* (extreme, unexcelled bliss) reached with ease (*sukhena*). In Madhva's *siddhānta*, *brahma-saṃsparśa* is real contact with *svatantra* Hari, not absorption: the *jīva* (*paratantra*, eternally dependent) arrives in the presence of Brahman while remaining ontologically distinct — *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction) holds even in beatitude. The ease named by *sukhena* reflects Hari's *anugraha* (grace) sustaining the dependent *yogī*.

  divergence: Madhva's bhāṣya is a single-sentence cross-reference (*pūrvaślokoktaṃ prapañcayati*); Jayatīrtha's sub-commentary supplies the motivating question. Doctrinal elaboration of *brahma-saṃsparśa* as proximity rather than fusion is drawn from established Madhva *siddhānta*, not from an independent bhāṣya expansion on this verse.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads 'ātmānam' as manas (mind) — the yogī who everywhere-absolutely (sarvātmanā) dedicates mind to Brahman, leaving no impurity, attains brahma-saṃsparśa, which Vallabha glosses as 'the direct apprehension (sākṣātkāra) of akṣara-Brahman that entirely removes the distinction (atyanta-bheda-nivartaka).' This supreme, lokottara (transcending-the-world) bliss is called jīvan-mukti — liberation while alive. The verbal root aś (to eat/pervade) is deliberately in ātmanepada because the fruit returns entirely to the self: 'so'śnute sarvān kāmān' — he tastes all desires, as śruti confirms.

  divergence: Vallabha uniquely glosses the grammatical choice (ātmanepada of aś) as doctrinal — the bliss that returns to the experiencer, citing Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.1 in support.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara reads this verse as declaring kṛtārthatā — the yogī's complete fulfilment. The one who always disciplines mind (manaḥ yuñjan, 'yoking-mind'), free from impurity, attains brahma-saṃsparśa, which he defines as 'the direct apprehension that removes avidyā (avidyā-nivartaka sākṣātkāra).' This direct apprehension — not a state of proximity but of knowing — is itself the supreme bliss; Śrīdhara identifies the result flatly as jīvan-mukti (living liberation). The voice is balanced: jñāna and bhakti are not opposed; the yogī's disciplined practice simply culminates in immediate seeing.

  divergence: Śrīdhara aligns closely with Vallabha on jīvan-mukti but grounds brahma-saṃsparśa in avidyā-removal (epistemological) rather than Vallabha's bheda-removal (ontological); the inflection is more Advaita-adjacent while remaining devotionally warm.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana clarifies the 'bliss of the yogī' announced in the previous verse by specifying its inner mechanism: the yogī who is vigata-kalmaṣa — free of saṃsāra-causing dharma and adharma — attains brahma-saṃsparśa through īśvara-praṇidhāna (surrender-to-the-Lord) which removes all obstacles (antarāya-nivṛtti). He provides a detailed taxonomy of the nine yogic obstacles from the Yoga-Sūtras (vyādhi, styāna, saṃśaya, pramāda, ālasya, avirati, bhrānti-darśana, alabdha-bhūmikatva, anavasthitatva), showing that surrender to Īśvara alone clears them all. The resultant bliss is experienced by sūkṣma-manas (subtle-mind) in samādhi — neither in laya (dissolution) nor in vikṣepa (distraction) — where all vṛttis are absent.

  divergence: Madhusūdana alone explicates the nine antarāyas (from Yoga-Sūtra 1.30) and identifies sukhena as pointing to their removal via īśvara-praṇidhāna — a synthesis unavailable in any other bhāṣya on this verse.