Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 7, Verse 23: Krishna to Arjuna — Jñāna-Vijñāna-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The fruit accruing to those of limited understanding (alpa-medhas) is perishable — it ends. Those who worship the devas attain the devas; my devotees, by contrast, reach me. Śaṅkara's pain is audible here: with equal effort, they could reach the infinite, yet they choose the finite — 'how grievous' (kṛṣṭam), he says. The contrast is not between good and bad paths but between the finite and the limitless: the devas themselves are bounded (antavat), so arrival at them is arrival at impermanence.

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'samāne api āyāse mām eva na prapadyante ananta-phalāya' — with the same effort they do not turn to me for the infinite fruit. Expressed as compassionate lament (anukrośa).

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Worshippers of Indra and the lesser devas obtain fruits that are both slight and impermanent — because those devas are themselves of limited enjoyment (paricchinna-bhoga) and finite duration. When their sāyujya (union) with such devas runs out, they fall back. The devotees of Bhagavān, however, having understood that all their actions are in fact worship of the Lord, and having shed attachment to bounded rewards, attain Bhagavān alone and do not return.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'mad-āradhana-rūpatāṃ jñātvā paricchinna-phala-saṅgaṃ tyaktvā mat-prīṇana-eka-prayojanāḥ mām eva prāpnuvanti na ca punar nivartante' — recognizing all karma as Bhagavān-worship, with sole motive of pleasing Him, they reach Him and are not reborn.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Alpa-medhasām* (of limited intelligence) — the worshippers of *devā*-s obtain *antavat* (bounded, perishable) fruit, for they approach what is *paratantra* (eternally dependent) while missing the *svatantra* (independently real, self-sufficient) Lord altogether. *Deva-yajo yānti devān*: the deva-worshipper reaches the deva; the deva is real, the fruit is real, but both are finite — bounded by the *taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy) in which no *paratantra* being holds ultimate standing. *Mad-bhaktā yānti mām api*: Hari's devotees reach Hari Himself, the one *svatantra* reality upon whom all *devā*-s and *jīva*-s depend without exception. The *api* is not casual; it registers the *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction: Lord–*jīva*, Lord–matter, *jīva*–*jīva*, *jīva*–matter, matter–matter) — the devotee arrives at Hari and remains genuinely, irreducibly distinct in *bheda* (real distinction), a *paratantra jīva* in eternal *bhakti* (devotion) to the sovereign Lord. Perishable fruit follows perishable allegiance; imperishable arrival follows allegiance to the imperishable.

  divergence: With no extant Madhva or Jayatīrtha commentary on this verse, the reading is drawn directly from *pañca-bheda* and *taratamya* as the operative *dvaita* siddhānta: the verse's *antavat*–*mām api* contrast maps precisely onto the *paratantra*–*svatantra* axis.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  The difference in fruit arises from difference in bhāva (inner disposition), signaled by the 'tu' (but). Those who worship only a branch of the tree — any single deva — receive only a branch's fruit: small and perishable. Yet in the Vedic yajña (śrauta), when the devas are understood as limbs (aṅga) of Bhagavān, their worship is no contradiction. In pure devotion (bhakti), the whole tree is watered when the root is worshipped — Kṛṣṇa, the mūla-rūpa. His devotees attain Him: this is the supremacy of Puṣṭi-prasāda.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'alpa-medhasāṃ indrādi-mātra-aṅga-yājināṃ śākhā-phala-patra-anyatara-secanānām iva teṣāṃ phalam alpaṃ antavat' — like one who waters only a branch or leaf, not the root.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Even though all devas are, in truth, forms (mūrtis) of the Lord — and He Himself is the giver of every fruit — the limitedness of the worshipper's vision (paricchinna-dṛṣṭi) makes the fruit perishable. Those who worship Indra and the rest attain perishable devas. Those whose devotion is aimed directly at the Lord, who is beginningless and endless, attain that supreme bliss (paramānanda) which has no termination.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'parīcchinna-dṛṣṭīnāṃ mayā dattam api tat phalam antavad bhavati... mad-bhaktās tu mām anādy-antaṃ taṃ paramānandaṃ prāpnuvanti' — even the fruit I grant them is finite because their vision is finite.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  All devas are bodies (tanu) of the universal Self; their worship is in truth His worship; He is the inner-ruler (antaryāmin) who gives every fruit. Yet the fruit diverges because of a single variable: whether the worshipper possesses real discernment (vastu-viveka) or not. The discriminating devotee, even while pursuing desires, is ripened by proximity to Kṛṣṇa into the trackless infinite. The 'api' in 'mām api' carries the weight: first the desired object, then, by the grace of bhakti's purification, the Lord Himself — unbounded bliss.

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'vastu-viveka-aviveka-kṛtaṃ phala-vaiṣamyaṃ bhavati... tat-parīpāka-māt mām anandam ānandam-ghanam īśvaram api yānti' — the divergence of fruit is caused solely by the presence or absence of discernment of reality.