Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 6, Verse 44: Krishna to Arjuna — Dhyāna-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The yoga-fallen soul is carried irresistibly by the momentum of prior-birth practice (pūrvābhyāsa) — even without volition — because the saṃskāra (latent impression) born of sādhana is stronger than adharma unless adharma itself is made dominant. Even one who merely inquires into the nature of yoga transcends śabda-brahman (the Veda's ritual-fruit domain), since jñāna-saṃskāra, being real in its object, overpowers impermanent sensory vāsanās (desire-traces). How much more, says Śaṅkara, does the steady yogī surpass all this.

  divergence: Directly anchored in Śaṅkara's bhāṣya: 'yogābhyāsajanitena saṃskāreṇa hriyate' and the explicit weighing of adharma-force vs. yoga-saṃskāra force; śabda-brahman glossed as 'vedoktakarmānuṣṭhānaphalam.'

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  The greatness (māhātmya) of yoga is precisely that even the fallen yogī is drawn back to yoga against his will, for prior practice is a form of Bhagavān's power working through the soul. Even the mere inquirer — whose mind has not yet fully stabilized — by resuming inquiry and undertaking karma-yoga, surpasses śabda-brahman; and śabda-brahman here is prakṛti itself (the domain of name-and-form: gods, humans, sky), from which liberation means reaching the ātman that is pure jñāna-ānanda (knowledge-bliss), free of all prakṛti-designation.

  divergence: Rāmānuja's bhāṣya explicitly glosses 'śabda-brahma' as 'devamanuṣyapṛthivyantarikṣasvargādisabdābhilāpayogyaṃ brahma prakṛtiḥ' — nature as the domain of verbal predication — and liberation as reaching the ātman 'jñānānandaikatanam,' distinct from Śaṅkara's reading.

• Madhvadvaita

  Even one whose longing is no more than 'I must know this yoga' — a mere wish (jijñāsā) without practice — already transcends śabda-brahman and attains Parabrahman (Hari), for the desire itself, directed toward Hari's yoga, carries the jīva across. The eternal distinction of jīva and Īśvara means the jīva's crossing is always accomplished by Hari's grace, not by self-power alone.

  divergence: Madhva's bhāṣya is terse but precise: 'jñātavyo mayā yoga iti yasyātīvecchā so'pi śabdabrahmātivartate. paraṃ brahma prāpnotītyarthaḥ' — the one with intense desire attains Parabrahman. No intermediate stages; direct attainment, consistent with Dvaita's grace-primacy.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Even without wishing it — even despite obstacles from prior lives — the soul is seized and turned away from sense-objects into yoga-niṣṭhā (steady yoga) by the prior-body's practice: Kṛṣṇa's prasāda (grace-gift) operates through the saṃskāra. By the ascending argument (kaimutya): if even the bare inquirer is honored like a paramahaṃsa and indirectly knows Parabrahman through śabda-brahman's intention (tātparya), how much more does the firmly established one transcend it altogether.

  divergence: Vallabha's bhāṣya supplies both the 'paramahaṃsa iva sampūjito bhavati' framing for the mere inquirer and the alternative reading: 'śabdabrahmātivartate arthāt paraṃ brahma śabdabrahmātātparyabhūtaṃ pārokṣyeṇa jānāti' — indirect knowledge through śabda-brahman's own import.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  The prior-birth practice draws the soul compulsorily away from sense-objects into brahma-niṣṭhā (steadiness in Brahman), even through unintended obstacles. Then, by the ascending argument (kaimutya-nyāya), Śrīdhara clarifies the two cases: the mere inquirer into yoga's nature — not even an accomplished yogī, merely one who has entered the path and then fallen through sin — already surpasses Vedic ritual-fruit (śabda-brahman), attaining a fruit higher than any Vedic karma can yield, and thereby reaches liberation.

  divergence: Śrīdhara's bhāṣya governs this rendering: 'yogasya svarūpaṃ jijñāsureva kevalaṃ natu prāptayogaḥ... śabdabrahma vedamativartate vedoktakarmaphalānyatikrāmati. tebhyo'dhikaṃ phalaṃ prāpya mucyata ityarthaḥ.' Śrīdhara's text is clean of any HTML artifacts.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana addresses the hard case: the kṣatriya born into royal luxury, insulated from jñāna by layers of sensory enjoyment, who seems disqualified from renunciation. His answer: jñāna-saṃskāra, even accumulated across many births and buried under countless pleasures, overpowers all obstacles by its own strength — because it is real in its object while bhoga-vāsanās (pleasure-traces) are not. Like a thief who seizes horses even from the midst of many guards, the saṃskāra breaks through all hindrances without the jīva's cooperation. Even the inquirer, dying at the first stage (prathama-bhūmikā) of sannyāsa and reborn as a great king, in that very birth transcends karma-kāṇḍa (Vedic ritual-action domain) and becomes qualified for jñāna — refuting jñāna-karma-samuccaya (the synthesis of knowledge and action) definitively.

  divergence: Madhusūdana's extended bhāṣya supplies the thief-and-horses analogy, the prathama-bhūmikā framing, and the explicit anti-samuccaya conclusion: 'etenāpi jñānakarmasamuccayo nirākṛta iti draṣṭavyam.'