Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 6, Verse 32: Krishna to Arjuna — Dhyāna-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The yogin who perceives through ātmaupamya (analogy of the self) that what is agreeable (anukūla) to oneself is equally agreeable to all sentient beings, and what is disagreeable (pratikūla) to oneself is equally disagreeable to all — such a one acts without harming any creature (ahiṃsaka). This equanimous perception is not mere sentiment but the hallmark of samyag-darśana (right vision): seeing the single ātman reflected in all appearances. Among all yogins, the one established in this non-injurious vision of identity is declared supreme (parama).

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'na kasyacit pratikūlam ācarati ahiṃsaka ity arthaḥ' — the ethical entailment of ātmaupamya is non-injury; the vision of sameness is samyag-darśana itself.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  When individual selves (ātmānaḥ) are recognised as qualitatively identical in their unconditioned knowing-nature (asaṃkucita-jñāna-ekākāratā), the yogin perceives joy at a son's birth and grief at a son's death as equally unrelated to the true self — one's own as much as another's. This asambandha-sāmya (equality of non-relation) dissolves the partiality that inflates one's own pleasure and minimises another's pain. Such a yogin has reached the apex of yoga-practice (parama-yoga-kāṣṭha).

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'para-putra-janma-maraṇādi-samaṃ sva-putra-janma-maraṇādi' — the model is structural equality of non-ownership, not undifferentiated monism.

• Madhvadvaita

  Madhva glosses the verse with a single move: *sāmyaṃ prakārāntareṇa vyācaṣṭe ātmaupamyeneti* — he reads *ātmaupamya* (comparison with oneself) as delivering *sāmya* (equanimity) by a different modality than the *samadaśana* already treated at 5.29. Jayatīrtha presses the point: *sarvatra samadaśanaḥ* (5.29) could be misconstrued, as if sameness of vision meant the homogenising perception of a cow or a horse (*goṇavayādivad*), or as if it required the position of absolute oneness (*ekatvam āsthita*), which the text itself then has to explain away — *svayam eva vyākhyātam*. That advaitic reading is rejected as *anyathāvyākhyānam*, a mis-reading. Instead the verse is now glossed *bhagavadanuvartiviṣayatayā api* — the equanimity is read in terms of every object (*viṣaya*) being a follower (*anuvartin*) of the Lord. Seeing another's *sukha* (pleasure) and *duḥkha* (pain) as one sees one's own is not the dissolution of *bheda* (real distinction) between *jīva*s; it is the recognition that every *jīva*, equally *paratantra* (eternally dependent) on Hari, stands in identical subordination to His sovereign will. The *yogī paramo*, the supreme yogin, holds this vision steadily — not by collapsing the *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction), but by perceiving all *jīva*s as equally ordered to the Lord's worship.

  divergence: The bhāṣya's *bhagavadanuvartiviṣayatayā api* is the pivot of the Dvaita reading; the fuller doctrinal expansion of *paratantra* and *pañca-bheda* is drawn from Madhva's siddhānta to unpack what Jayatīrtha's gloss implies but does not spell out sentence by sentence.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads this verse as the culminating self-description of the supreme yogin: seeing pain and pleasure everywhere through the likeness of oneself (sva-sādṛśya), such a one abides in Kṛṣṇa's own vision — for Kṛṣṇa Himself delights in and suffers with every soul that is His own (sva). This is not detachment from feeling but the fullness of prasāda, in which the divine affection that Kṛṣṇa pours upon the devotee is extended universally. The yogin is supreme because his gaze replicates the Lord's own gaze.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'sva-sādṛśyena sarvatra samaṃ duḥkhādikaṃ paśyan bhavati sa paramo yogī mataḥ' — seeing through likeness to the self (sva-sādṛśya), not mere reasoned analogy.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Among the yogins who worship Me, the one who is supremely compassionate toward all beings (sarva-bhūta-anukampī) is the best. Through ātmaupamya — knowing that as pleasure is dear to oneself and pain is unwelcome to oneself, so it is for all others — such a yogin wishes joy for every being and does not wish pain upon anyone (na tu kasyāpi duḥkhaṃ). This universal compassion-in-action (anukampā) is what earns the designation 'supreme among yogins, beloved of Me.'

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'sukhām eva sarveṣāṃ yo vāñchati na tu kasyāpi duḥkhaṃ sa yogī śreṣṭho mamābhimata' — active willing of others' happiness, not merely equal perception.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana situates this verse at the junction of tattva-jñāna (liberating knowledge) and the lived condition: the yogin who has genuine tattva-jñāna but still experiences the residue of prārabdha-karma rises from samādhi to perceive — by the analogy of the self — that the pleasure and pain of all living beings are equal in reality. Free from rāga and dveṣa (attraction and aversion), this yogin neither engineers another's harm nor withholds from engineering another's good. Such serene-minded wisdom-holders (nirvāsanatayā upaśānta-manāḥ) are the true brahma-vit, supreme among all yogins.

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'rāgaśūnyatvāt... praḍveṣaśūnyatvāt... sa nirvāsanatayopaśānta-manāḥ yogī brahma-vit paramaḥ' — dual absence of rāga and dveṣa, not mere cognitive equanimity.