Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 7, Verse 28: Krishna to Arjuna — Jñāna-Vijñāna-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Those whose accumulated sin (pāpa) has reached its end — thinned out and exhausted — are precisely the ones whose meritorious action (puṇya-karma) has purified the inner instrument (sattva-śuddhi). Freed from the dvandva-moha (the delusive pull of opposing pairs), they worship Me with dṛḍha-vrata (unwavering resolve) — which Śaṅkara glosses as the certainty born of complete renunciation: the conviction that Brahman alone is the paramārtha-tattva (ultimate reality), nothing else. They worship not for reward but because the obstacle — sin as cognitive distortion — has been removed, leaving direct apprehension.

  divergence: Advaita locates liberation in jñāna (knowledge), not bhakti per se; worship here is preparatory purification, not the terminal act.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Only those whose sin accumulated across many births (aneka-janma-arjita pāpa) — sin that is the very root of icchā-dveṣa (desire-aversion) and the primary obstruction to turning toward Me — has been exhausted can take shelter in Me as their sole refuge. Having done so, they become free from the guṇamaya moha (illusion woven of the three guṇas) and worship Me with dṛḍha-saṃkalpa (firm resolve) for one of four aims: liberation from old age and death, direct vision of the self freed from matter, supreme sovereignty, or attainment of Me directly. Rāmānuja emphasizes that this verse transitions into the three types of seekers enumerated next.

  divergence: Uniquely, Rāmānuja names four distinct liberation-goals, implying diverse valid seekers; Śaṅkara collapses them all into jñāna.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Viparītāś ca kecit santi* — there are also those of the contrary kind: this is what the verse announces. Madhva's gloss is a single move: having named four types of devotees at 7.16, the following verse (*uttaraṃ vākyam*) might seem redundant (*gatārtha*); Jayatīrtha answers that it is not, for a fresh doubt requires resolution. If *sarva-bhūtāni sammohaṃ yānti* — all beings fall into delusion — then the path of liberation (*mukti-mārgaḥ*) would seem foreclosed. The verse counters: *dvandva-moha-rahitāś ca kecit santi* — some indeed exist who are free of *dvandva-moha* (the delusion born of the pairs of opposites). These are the *puṇya-karmaṇaḥ* whose *pāpa* has reached its end (*anta-gataṃ pāpam*). A second question is also settled: does the *jīva* fail to seek Hari because *māyā* has no cause in Hari (*tvat-prapatter māyā-karaṇa-akāraṇatvāt*), or because of the *jīva*'s own fault (*sva-doṣāt*)? The verse answers that the obstruction is real and belongs to the *jīva* — *pañca-bheda* intact, the *paratantra jīva* distinct from *svatantra* Hari. When that real obstruction is gone, *bhajante māṃ dṛḍha-vratāḥ*: they worship with firm resolve, *bhakti* being the *jīva*'s own proper mode before its Lord.

  divergence: Re-anchored to Madhva's *viparītāś ca* gloss and Jayatīrtha's resolution of the *gatārtha* objection and the *māyā-karaṇa-akāraṇatva / sva-doṣa* dilemma. Sanskrit phrases quoted verbatim from the bhāṣya.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha reads this verse with characteristic economy: it is not that virtue earns worship — rather, those seen to be worshipping Me are precisely those from whom the single obstruction, pāpa (here: the pratibandhaka, the blocker), has been removed. The emphasis falls on 'dṛḍha-vrata' as the quality Kṛṣṇa perceives in these devotees — they appear before Him as those who have already arrived. In Puṣṭi-mārga the initiative is always Kṛṣṇa's prasāda; merit clears only the obstruction, it does not earn the bhajana, which is itself Kṛṣṇa's gift.

  divergence: Vallabha reverses the causal arrow: worship is not produced by removing sin — Kṛṣṇa's grace removes sin and the worshipping simply becomes visible.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara frames this verse as an explanatory answer: why are some people actually seen worshipping You when most fall into moha? Because for those habituated to meritorious conduct (puṇyācaraṇa-śīla), every pratibandhaka pāpa — every obstructing sin — has been destroyed. Free from the moha caused by dvandva (the opposing pairs of experience), they become ekāntins (single-pointed devotees) of firm resolve and worship Me. The word ekāntin is Śrīdhara's gloss on dṛḍha-vrata and carries technical weight: exclusive, unwavering orientation toward the Lord alone.

  divergence: Śrīdhara's insertion of 'ekāntin' introduces the technical bhakti category of exclusive devotion, absent from Śaṅkara's and Madhva's readings.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana resolves the apparent contradiction between 'all beings go into delusion' (earlier) and 'the four types worship Me': the general rule is moha; this verse states the exception — those who through accumulated merit across many births (aneka-janmasu puṇyācaraṇa-śīla) have exhausted the jñāna-pratibandhaka pāpa (sin specifically blocking knowledge). Freed spontaneously from dvandva-moha, they become 'ananya-śaraṇa' — of no other refuge — their resolve unshakeable because their conviction arises from pramāṇa-generated certainty, free from any residual doubt about validity. Such are the sукṛtins named earlier; they are the exception that proves the universal rule.

  divergence: Madhusūdana uniquely specifies that pāpa blocks jñāna (knowledge), not merely devotion — unifying the jñāna and bhakti streams by making sin an epistemological rather than merely moral obstacle.