Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 6, Verse 43: Krishna to Arjuna — Dhyāna-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  In that birth among yogins, the fallen practitioner recovers the very buddhi-saṃyoga (union with discriminating intelligence) carried from the prior body — the impressional continuity that makes prior striving available. From that recovered saṃskāra (deep impressional trace) the aspirant strives more intensely toward saṃsiddhi (complete perfection). Śaṅkara's gloss is terse and dialectical: the next verse will explain precisely how this prior-body buddhi-contact is possible at all.

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'tatra yogināṃ kule taṃ buddhi-saṃyogaṃ labhate paurvadehikaṃ — that buddhi-saṃyoga which is paurvadehika, born in the prior body; yatate ca tataḥ pūrvakṛtāt saṃskārāt bhūyaḥ — strives more, from that prior saṃskāra.' The compressed dialectical close ('kathaṃ pūrvadeha-buddhi-saṃyoga iti tad ucyate') signals that verse 6.44 carries the full epistemic weight.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  In that rebirth the practitioner recovers the very paurvadaihika yoga-viṣaya buddhi-saṃyoga — the mind's devotional orientation toward Bhagavān formed in the former body. Like one waking from deep sleep (supta-prabuddha-vat), the aspirant stirs into awareness and strives again toward saṃsiddhi, precisely so that no obstacle (antarāya) can interrupt the forward movement. For Rāmānuja, this is not mere psychic residue — it is the grace-structured continuity of Bhagavān's own kainkarya-śakti (serving power) preserving the devotee across births.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'tatra janmani tam eva paurvadaihikaṃ yoga-viṣayaṃ buddhi-saṃyogaṃ labhate; tataḥ supta-prabuddha-vad bhūyaḥ saṃsiddhau yatate; yathā na antarāya-hato bhavati tathā yatate.' The simile supta-prabuddha-vat is Rāmānuja's distinctive contribution — recognition is instantaneous, not laboriously reconstructed.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Tatra taṃ buddhi-saṃyogaṃ labhate paurvadehikam* — in that new birth, the *jīva* (the individual self, eternally *paratantra*, dependent on Hari) recovers the *buddhi-saṃyoga* (conjunction with discriminative intelligence) accumulated across prior embodiments. This recovery is no intrinsic achievement of the *jīva*; it is *anugraha* (grace) dispensed by *svatantra* (the independently real, self-sufficient) Hari, whose sovereign will ordains which *saṃskāra*-s (formative impressions) are restored and at what degree in the *taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy). The *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction) between Lord, *jīva*, and *jaḍa* (inert matter) remains unreduced: the prior *buddhi-saṃyoga* is transferred across bodies as a real quality belonging to a real, bounded *jīva*, not dissolved back into any undifferentiated ground. From that recovered footing the *jīva* strives again — *tato bhūyaḥ saṃsiddhau yatate* — pressing toward *saṃsiddhi* (full perfection), yet this striving too is sustained by Hari's *preraṇā* (interior impulsion), the *jīva* occupying precisely its assigned station in the order of *bhakti* (devotion as ontological subordination) that it had reached in the life before.

  divergence: No bhāṣya by Madhva or Jayatīrtha on this verse. The reading applies *paratantra*-*jīva*, *taratamya*, *anugraha*, and *pañca-bheda* directly to the mūla's *buddhi-saṃyoga* and *bhūyaḥ yatate* without bhāṣya corroboration.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha's commentary on this verse is extremely sparse — only a gloss confirming that yatate means deliberate effort (prayatna). From Puṣṭi-mārga doctrine: recovery of prior buddhi-saṃyoga is Kṛṣṇa's prasāda flowing uninterruptedly across the veil of death; the aspirant's fresh effort is itself Kṛṣṇa's own śakti (power) operating through the reborn devotee — the jīva does not strive toward Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa strides forward through the jīva's reborn form.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'tataḥ kiṃ tatrāha — tatra tam iti; yatata iti prayatna uktaḥ.' Commentary is nearly absent; Puṣṭi-mārga rendering is doctrine-extrapolated beyond the available bhāṣya text.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara reads this verse as covering both categories of rebirth mentioned in 6.41–42: in either birth (dviḥ-prakāra janmani), the practitioner recovers the paurvadehika buddhi-saṃyoga — specifically the buddhi's orientation toward Brahman (brahma-viṣayā buddhi). From that recovered orientation the aspirant strives with renewed intensity (bhūyaḥ adhikaṃ) toward mokṣa (saṃsiddhi). The devotional register is evident in naming the goal directly as mokṣa rather than mere saṃsiddhi.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'tatra dviḥ-prakāre api janmani pūrvadehe bhavaṃ paurvadehikaṃ tam eva brahma-viṣayayā buddhyā saṃyogaṃ labhate; tataś ca bhūyo adhikaṃ saṃsiddhau mokṣe prayatnaṃ karoti.'

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  *Tatra* — in either type of birth — the practitioner recovers *taṃ buddhi-saṃyogaṃ*, that union of intellect with *brahma-ātmaikyaviṣayā buddhi* (the intellect whose object is the identity of Brahman and ātman). Precisely as much of *sarvakarmā-saṃnyāsa-gurūpasadana-śravaṇa-manana-nididhyāsanānāṃ madhye yāvat-paryantam anuṣṭhitam* — however far along the series of renunciation of all karma, approach to the guru, hearing, reflection, and sustained contemplation one had practiced — *tāvat-paryantam eva* that much and no more is recovered: *labhate prāpnoti*. Not recovery alone, but immediately *tato bhūyo adhikaṃ labdhāyā bhūmer agrimāṃ bhūmiṃ saṃpādayituṃ saṃsiddhau yatate* — from the bhūmikā already gained, effort presses toward the next, ascending without repetition, until liberation is complete. The seven bhūmikās, drawn from *Bhagavad-Vasiṣṭha* and cited verbatim — *śubhecchā* (first, identical with *sādhanacatuṣṭayasampat*), *śravaṇa-manana-sampat* (second), *tanumānasā* or *nididhyāsanasampat* (third), *tattvasākṣātkāra* (fourth), and the three *jīvanmukti* grades (fifth through seventh) — define this ascent. One who attains the fourth bhūmikā and dies secures *videha-kaivalya* without doubt; one established in the upper three is *jīvann api mukta*. The *saṃnyāsin* whose *bhogavāsanā*-*prābalya* (the force of enjoyment-impressions) caused a craving for enjoyment to arise at the moment of departure — *prāṇotkrāntisamaye prādurbhūtabhogaspṛhaḥ* — is the one whose intermediate-birth detour is described here. By contrast, the *saṃnyāsin* in whom *vairāgyavāsanāprābalya* and the Lord's grace kept that craving absent at death is born directly in *śucīnāṃ śrīmatāṃ gehe* — in the household of the pure and prosperous — and recovers prior *saṃskāras* without effort. The address *kuru-nandana* signals that Arjuna's own birth in Kuru's line is precisely such a prior-*saṃskāra* advantage: *pūrvavāsanāvaśād anāyāsenaiva jñānalābho bhaviṣyati* — knowledge will arise for him with ease, drawn forward by what was already cultivated.

  divergence: Re-anchored directly to Madhusūdana's bhāṣya phrasing: 'sarvakarmā-saṃnyāsa-gurūpasadana-śravaṇa-manana-nididhyāsanānāṃ madhye yāvat-paryantam anuṣṭhitaṃ tāvat-paryantam eva taṃ brahma-ātmaikyaviṣayayā buddhyā saṃyogam... labhate' and 'tato bhūyo adhikaṃ labdhāyā bhūmer agrimāṃ bhūmiṃ saṃpādayituṃ saṃsiddhau yatate.' The two-type saṃnyāsin distinction — prāṇotkrāntisamaye prādurbhūtabhogaspṛhaḥ versus anudblūtabhogaspṛhaḥ — is drawn from the bhāṣya's closing analysis and was absent from the prior rendering.