Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 7, Verse 24: Krishna to Arjuna — Jñāna-Vijñāna-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  The undiscerning (abuddhayaḥ, 'those without viveka') mistake me — the eternally established Īśvara — for one who has merely moved from the unmanifest (avyaktam, 'the unillumined') into a manifest personal form (vyaktim āpannam). They do so because they fail to know my supreme nature (paraṃ bhāvam), which is the very form of the Paramātman. That nature of mine is without diminution (avyayam, 'without expenditure') and admits no superior (anuttamam) — yet viḍambana (the folly of confusing nirguṇa Brahman with a finite form) blinds them to this.

  divergence: Śaṅkara reads avyaktam as 'aprakāśam' (unillumined) and the error as confusing the nityaprasiddha Īśvara with an entity that has merely 'undergone manifestation.' The irony he marks: even while standing as the unchanging Paramātman, Kṛṣṇa is perceived as a contingent emergence.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  I, the lord of all (sarveśvaraḥ), whose essential nature and qualities (svarūpa-svabhāva) cannot be circumscribed even by speech and mind (vāṅmanasāpariccheda), have descended as the son of Vasudeva without abandoning my own nature (ajahatsvaḥ) — out of supreme compassion (paramakāruṇya) and tender love for my dependents (āśritavātsalya). Those of dull understanding (abuddhayaḥ) mistake me for an ordinary royal prince who was previously unmanifest and has now obtained a particular birth through the force of karma (karmavaśāt janmaviśeṣam). Not knowing my supreme, imperishable, unsurpassed nature (param bhāvam avyayam anuttamam), they neither seek refuge in me nor worship me through their acts.

  divergence: Rāmānuja explicitly frames the descent as ajahatsvaḥ — Kṛṣṇa retaining all divine attributes in the avatāra. The error is not epistemic confusion about Brahman but a failure to recognise the Bhagavān who is the proper object of kainkarya (loving service).

• Madhvadvaita

  What distinguishes you from others? He answers: I am avyaktam — free from the contingent body and such instruments (kāryadeha). Yet you appear as though possessing them, which he also addresses: I have entered into a functional body and its faculties (kāryadeham āpannam) for the sake of cosmic action. The scriptures declare — 'beyond both cause and effect, without hands or feet' (Śvetāśvatara 3.19) — and also 'they take the bliss-body of the Puruṣa as merely the conventional bodied one.' Those who do not know the true nature (yāthārthyam) of Hari are utterly deluded (vimoḥitāḥ) regarding his supreme reality.

  divergence: Madhva anchors on the Śvetāśvatara citation to establish that Hari's avyaktatva is not Advaita's nirguṇatā but transcendence over kārya-deha. The ānanda-deha (bliss-body) is Hari's real form; mistaking it for a conventional body is the specific error.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Because they do not know my essential greatness (matsvarūpamāhātmya), those who worship other gods — and even many who worship me — consider me as having moved from a state where my sovereignty (aiśvarya) and beauty (saundarya) were concealed (aprakaṭam) into an ordinary manifest form. Or else they regard the unformed (nirākāra) as having taken personal shape. Either way, the unintelligent (abuddhayaḥ) do not grasp that my nature is pure, eternal bliss (sadānandamātra) of inconceivable sovereignty (acintyaiśvarya) — the mode of being (paraṃ bhāvam) in which I and my portions are established in their relation (aṃśāṃśibhāva).

  divergence: Vallabha's bhāṣya explicitly covers two types of abuddhayaḥ: those who worship other gods and, pointedly, those who wrongly understand Kṛṣṇa himself — including those who read him as nirākāra. Kṛṣṇa's concealed beauty (durvibhāvya saundarya) is the Puṣṭimārga's positive anchor.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  When the benefit of worshipping Kṛṣṇa so clearly exceeds that of worshipping other devas, why do people still not worship him? He explains: those of little understanding (alpabuddhayaḥ) see me — the one who transcends phenomenal manifestation (avyaktam, prapañcātītam) — as merely having taken on human, fish, tortoise and other forms (vyaktim manuṣyamatsyakūrmādibhāvam prāptam). They do not know my supreme nature (paraṃ svarūpam) — eternal (avyayam) and beyond which there is no superior (anuttamam). Mistaking me, the supreme Īśvara who has displayed these pure, mighty, sattva-forms to protect the world, for a being with a physically-constituted body like other devatās, the dull-minded (mandamatayaḥ) do not honour me sufficiently but instead worship other devas for quick results — and receive only finite fruits.

  divergence: Śrīdhara's key phrase is 'jagadrakṣārthaṃ līlayā āviṣkṛta-nānā-viśuddha-ūrjita-sattva-mūrti' — the avatāra forms are not karma-born but līlā-manifested bodies of pure, intense sattva. The contrast with the karma-born body (svakarmaniirmita-bhautika-deha) of ordinary devatās is doing the main work.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Although bhagavadbhajana yields the supreme fruit above all else, why are beings mostly turned away from Bhagavān? Kṛṣṇa gives the reason: those without discrimination (abuddhayaḥ, viveka-śūnyāḥ) regard me — who am Īśvara even while taking on the appearance of a jīva by assuming a physical body at Vasudeva's house — as merely some jīva. Or: they see me as having moved from the unmanifest (avyaktam, sarva-kāraṇam) into the many avatāra-forms of fish, tortoise and others (kārya-rūpatām prāptam). They fail to know my supreme nature as both the cause of all (sarva-kāraṇarūpam) — eternal and immutable (avyayam) — and in its nirupādhika form (without limiting adjunct), unsurpassable, the supreme bliss undivided and infinite (paramānanda-ghana, ananta). Seeing only the kārya side they mistake me for a jīva and turn instead to more familiar devatās.

  divergence: Madhusūdana explicitly maps two levels of ignorance: sopādhika (not knowing Kṛṣṇa as the material cause of all) and nirupādhika (not knowing him as the infinite paramānanda). This double-ignorance structure is his synthesis signature — Advaita's upādhi-analysis in service of bhakti motivation.