Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 7, Verse 22: Krishna to Arjuna — Jñāna-Vijñāna-Yoga
Armed with that faith, he worships the chosen deity and wins the desires he sought, but I alone ordained those fruits.
Bhāṣyakāra purports
- Śaṅkaraadvaita
Endowed with that śraddhā (faith) which I myself have allotted, the worshipper applies himself to the aradhana (propitiation) of that divine form. From that propitiated deity he obtains the kāmāḥ (desired objects) — but they were fashioned by me alone, the omniscient Parameśvara who determines the distribution of karma-phala (fruits of action). The word 'hitān' in an alternate reading is mere courtesy-usage, for desires are not truly beneficial to anyone — the undiscriminating, desire-driven worshipper is thus heading toward finite ends.
divergence: Śaṅkara: 'mayaiva parameśvareṇa sarvajñena karmaphala-vibhāga-jñatayā vihitān' — the omniscient Lord, knowing the apportionment of all karma-phala, is the real dispenser; the deity is only an instrumental appearance.
- Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita
Armed with unobstructed śraddhā (faith), the devotee exerts himself toward the aradhana (worship) of Indra and the other devas — who are in truth my own bodily manifestations (mat-tanu). He receives from that worship exactly the kāmāḥ (desires) he craved, which I alone have ordained. Even though at the moment of worship he does not recognize Indra as my body and therefore does not know he is truly worshipping me, it is in fact mat-aradhana (worship of me) in substance, and so I myself fulfill his wish.
divergence: Rāmānuja: 'indrādayo madīyāḥ tanavaḥ tata eva tadarcanaṃ ca mad-ārādhanam' — the devas are enumerated as Bhagavān's body; worship of the part reaches the whole, even in ignorance.
- Madhvadvaita
Whatever form — from Brahmā downward — the worshipper approaches with śraddhā (faith), that form is one of my divine manifestations (tanavaḥ). Madhva grounds this verse in the Mahābhārata and Nāradīya evidence: the bhaktas of Brahmā and other devas attain finite ends, while the bhaktas of Hari alone attain ananta (infinite) liberation. The kāmāḥ (desires) granted are real but bounded — the jīva (individual soul), eternally distinct from Hari, receives exactly the fruit appropriate to its station of worship.
divergence: Madhva: 'anto brahma-ādi-bhaktānāṃ mad-bhaktānām anantatā' (Nāradīya citation) — finite boundary for deva-bhaktas, infinite for Hari-bhaktas; the contrast is Madhva's polemical crux.
- Vallabhaśuddhādvaita
The worshipper obtains his kāmāḥ (desires) from the upāsya-deva (worshipped deity), who is an aṃga (limb) of me — and the fruit is fashioned by me, the aṃgin (the whole whose limb the deity is). Even if he worships that aṃga-deity without recognizing me as the aṃgin, still, because it is in substance mat-aradhana, he receives fruit that is truly my creation — just as water poured on a branch reaches the root, or as what is given to a person's body is ultimately given to the ātman.
divergence: Vallabha: 'mad-aṃga-bhūtād upāsya-devāt labhate kāmān mayaivāṃginā vihitān' and the śākhī-mūla-secana-vat (watering the branch = watering the root) analogy.
- Śrīdharabhakti
That devotee (bhakta), armed with dṛḍha (firm) śraddhā, performs the aradhana (worship) of that divine form. The kāmāḥ he had resolved upon he obtains from that particular deva — but only because I, dwelling as antaryāmin (inner controller) within each deva and being the mūrti (embodied ground) of each, have fashioned and ordained those fruits. The dependence of each deva upon me and my own mūrtihood through them is precisely why the fruits flow reliably.
divergence: Śrīdhara: 'tattad-devatāntaryāmiṇā vibitān... tattad-devatānām api mad-adhīnatvāt mama mūrtitvācca' — antaryāmin and mūrtitva as the twin grounds for why the Lord alone ultimately gives.
- Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti
That kāmī (desire-filled) worshipper, endowed with firm śraddhā that I have ordained, performs the pūjana (worship) of that divine form and obtains from it the īpsitān (coveted), pūrva-saṃkalpitān (previously resolved-upon) kāmāḥ. These were fashioned by me — omniscient, dispenser of all karma-phala, antaryāmin of every deva — at the moment of each phala-vipāka (fruit-ripening). The alternate reading 'hitān' means either 'dear to the mind' or, in the compound 'manaḥ-priyān,' desires that appear beneficial even when they are not — a compassionate fiction that Bhagavān enacts.
divergence: Madhusūdana: 'sarvakarmaphaladāyinā tattad-devatāntaryāmiṇā vihitān tattad-phala-vipāka-samaye nirmitān hitān manaḥ-priyān' — synthesizing Śaṅkara's omniscient-Lord reading with the compassion-register of bhakti.