Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 8, Verse 1: Krishna to Arjuna — Akṣara-Brahma-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Arjuna asks: What is that Brahman? What is adhyātma (the self as inner ground)? What is karma, O Puruṣottama? Śaṅkara reads these as the seven technical seeds sown at the end of Chapter 7 — the unanswered pratiśruti (implicit promise) that compels Chapter 8. The seven terms are not idle curiosity; they are the epistemological preconditions for the inquiry into liberation from birth and death (jarā-maraṇa-mokṣa), and Arjuna now demands each be specified so that jñāna can proceed without ambiguity.

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'te brahma tad viduḥ kṛtsnam' (7.29) — iti bhagavatā arjunasya praśna-bījāni upadiṣṭāni; thus the questions were seeded by Bhagavān himself. Bhāṣya confirms both the dialogic structure and the jñāna-orientation.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Arjuna — representing seekers who have taken refuge in Bhagavān for liberation from old age and death — now asks: what is that Brahman, what is adhyātma, what is karma, that the mumukṣu (liberation-seeker) must know? And for those who seek aiśvarya (divine sovereignty), what are adhibhūta and adhidaiva? Who is the adhiyajña, how does he inhere in the body, and how is he to be known at the moment of departure? The three classes of seekers (mumukṣus, aiśvaryārthinaḥ, and the niyatātmā who knows the Lord at death) map the full scope of the chapter.

  divergence: Rāmānuja explicitly names three seekers: jarā-maraṇa-mokṣārthinaḥ (liberation-seekers), aiśvaryārthinaḥ (sovereignty-seekers), and niyatātmā (the self-controlled who know Bhagavān at prayāṇa-kāla). This tripartite reading is distinctive to his bhāṣya.

• Madhvadvaita

  Arjuna asks what must be known and done at the time of death — for in Madhva's reading, the adhyāya's central concern is maraṇa-kāla-kartavya (the duty at the moment of death) and the path thereafter. The seven questions frame the action-field of the departing jīva, who remains eternally distinct from Hari and must worship Him even in the final act of leaving the body.

  divergence: Madhva's bhāṣya (8.1–8.2) is minimal but decisive: 'maraṇakāla-kartavya-gatyādi asmin adhyāye upadiśati' — this chapter teaches the duty and destination at death-time. The question is tactical, not metaphysical.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Arjuna, doubtful (sandihāna), asks because Brahman, karma, and the rest are fit to be known (vijñeya) by the wise (prājña) — not by ordinary beings like us. Vallabha reads the question as an admission of the questioner's limitation and a reaching-toward grace: the inquiry itself is a form of surrender, an opening for Kṛṣṇa's prasāda to flow in.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'brahma-karmādikaṃ prājñair vijñeyaṃ nāsmādādibhiḥ — iti jijñāsayā pārthaḥ sandihāno'tha pṛcchati.' The sandehā (doubt) is the devotional posture that qualifies the seeker for revelation.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara notes that Brahman, karma, adhibhūta, and the rest — spoken of as knowable (vijñeya) by those whose minds are fixed on Kṛṣṇa (kṛṣṇaika-cetasaḥ) — are now to be made explicit (spaṣṭa) in Chapter 8. Arjuna asks cleanly, as a sincere student of the seven seeds planted at the chapter's end; his question is transparent (spaṣṭo'rthaḥ — the meaning is plain), and the chapter is the ordered answer.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'pūrvādhyāyānte bhagavatopakṣiptānāṃ brahmādhyātmādi-saptānāṃ padārthānāṃ tattvaṃ jijñāsur arjuna uvāca — spaṣṭo'rthaḥ.' Bhāṣya is intentionally brief here; the question is treated as an unambiguous entry-point.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana reads Arjuna's seven questions as exposing genuine philosophical ambiguity left at the end of Chapter 7: Is Brahman sopādhika (conditioned) or nirupādhika (unconditioned)? Is adhyātma the aggregate of sense-organs (śrotrādi-karaṇa-grāma) or pure inner consciousness (pratyak-caitanya)? Is karma of one kind or two — as śruti distinguishes 'vijñānaṃ yajñaṃ tanute / karmāṇi tanute'pi ca'? The address 'Puruṣottama' signals that the questioner knows the answerer is omniscient (sarvajña) and thus entirely capable of resolving what appears ambiguous to the bound intellect.

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'tat jñeyatvena uktaṃ brahma kiṃ sopādhikaṃ nirupādhikaṃ vā... adhyātmaṃ kiṃ śrotrādi-karaṇa-grāmo vā pratyak-caitanyaṃ vā... kiṃ karma yajñarūpam anyad vā... hetu pūruṣottama iti.' The address to Puruṣottama is not ornament but epistemic pointer.