Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 9, Verse 33: Krishna to Arjuna — Rāja-Vidyā-Rāja-Guhya-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Even those of meritorious birth — the twice-born (dvija) who are fit vessels, and the royal sages (rājarṣi) who wield both rule and renunciation — attain liberation through devotion; how much more certain, then, is that path for the qualified. Śaṅkara's gloss presses the urgency: human birth (manuṣyatva) is rare (durlabha) and momentary (kṣaṇabhaṅgura), a fleeting occasion for pursuing the supreme end (puruṣārtha), utterly devoid of inherent enjoyment (sukhavajita). The imperative 'bhajasva' is therefore not an invitation but an insistence: seize this impermanent vehicle for the only work it is good for — the discipline that culminates in self-knowledge.

  divergence: Śaṅkara: 'puruṣārthasādhanaṃ durlabhaṃ manuṣyatvaṃ labdhvā bhajasva' — rare human birth obtained, therefore worship Me.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Rāmānuja reads the verse as a crescendo of eligibility: pious brāhmaṇas and royal sages who have taken refuge in Bhagavān's bhakti have already crossed the obstacle of triple affliction (tāpatraya). Arjuna himself is a rājarṣi — a royal sage — and stands already on the near shore; the world he inhabits is unstable (asthira) and pain-suffused (asukha) precisely because it is the domain of tāpatraya, not because matter is ultimately unreal. Service (kainkarya) performed in that unstable world is not wasted — it is the form bhakti takes inside time; hence 'bhajasva' means: offer your present embodied life as continuous service.

  divergence: Rāmānuja: 'tāpatrayābhihatatayā asukhaṃ ca imaṃ lokaṃ prāpya vartamāno māṃ bhajasva' — abiding in a world struck by three afflictions, worship Me.

• Madhvadvaita

  *Kiṃ punar brāhmaṇāḥ puṇyāḥ* — how much more, then, for *brāhmaṇas* of meritorious birth and *bhaktā rājarṣayaḥ*, royal sages consecrated by *tapas*? The rhetorical ascent is complete: if women, *vaiśyas*, and *śūdras*, beings of restricted *adhikāra* (eligibility), attain the supreme goal through *bhajasva mām*, those of higher natural qualification have even less reason to seek any other refuge. Yet the Dvaita reading does not let high birth be mistaken for self-sufficiency. Every *jīva* is *paratantra* (eternally dependent), its *adhikāra* itself a gift of Hari's *anugraha* (grace); the *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction) between Lord and *jīva* stands unbreached regardless of the *jīva*'s birth-order in *taratamya* (the graded ontological hierarchy). *Anityam asukhaṃ lokam imaṃ prāpya* — having attained this world, impermanent and devoid of real happiness — the imperative *bhajasva mām* is not a hurried counsel born of world-weariness alone but the metaphysical claim that *bhakti* (devotion) as ontological subordination to *svatantra* (the independently real, self-sufficient) Hari is the only pursuit commensurate with what the *jīva* actually is. The *anitya* quality of *saṃsāra* discloses the positive priority of Hari-*bhakti*, not merely the negative defect of the world.

  divergence: Neither Madhva nor Jayatīrtha left a direct *bhāṣya* on this verse; the reading is voiced from core Dvaita *siddhānta* — *paratantra jīva*, *pañca-bheda*, *taratamya*, and *bhakti* as ontological subordination — applied directly to the *mūla*.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Vallabha's commentary is the most elaborate in the panel and reveals its hidden (nigūḍha) logic: even those of the highest natural and scriptural qualification — brāhmaṇas armed with all Vedic sādhanā, kṣatriya royal sages — are paradoxically the most susceptible to the obstacle of ahaṃbhāva (the pride that attainment is one's own doing). The Puṣṭi path is not earned but bestowed; the verse's imperative 'māṃ bhajasva' is therefore Puruṣottama himself prescribing single-pointed bhajana as svadharma — not one option among many but the unique duty of every jīva who is Kṛṣṇa's own fragment. Vallabha seals it with the ācārya-vākya: 'yo yadaṃśaḥ sa taṃ bhajet... svasyāyameva dharmo hi nānyaḥ kvāpi kadācana' — whoever is whose fragment, that fragment must worship its source; no other dharma exists, ever.

  divergence: Vallabha: 'māṃ bhajasva iti puruṣottamaikabhajanaṃ vihitaṃ svadharmatvāt' — single-pointed worship of Puruṣottama enjoined as one's own dharma.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  Śrīdhara Svāmī reads the verse in a straightforwardly devotional register: the brāhmaṇas here are pious (sukṛtina) and the rājarṣis are kṣatriyas refined by ascetic practice — both already on the path and already going to the supreme state (parā gati). The two reasons given for urgency — anitya (impermanence) and asukha (absence of real enjoyment) — function as a double argument: because this world will not last, do not delay; because it yields no genuine happiness, do not redirect effort toward worldly pleasure. The instruction 'bhajasva' therefore means: you, Arjuna, already a rājarṣi, have landed in exactly the rare birth these others aspire to — do not squander it.

  divergence: Śrīdhara: 'anityadvilambaṃ akurvann asukhatvāc ca sukhārthodyamaṃ hitvā māmeva bhajasva' — not delaying on account of impermanence, abandoning effort for pleasure on account of its painfulness, worship Me alone.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Madhusūdana Sarasvatī synthesizes both registers with characteristic precision: the brāhmaṇas here are sādācāra (of virtuous conduct) and uttamayoni (high birth), the rājarṣis are sūkṣmavastu-vivekina (discerning of subtle realities) — they go to the supreme precisely because bhakti's glory (mahimā) is what it is. From that premiss Madhusūdana draws the sharpest possible imperative: the human body (manuṣyadeha) is atīdurlabha (exceedingly rare), āśuvinaśin (swiftly perishing), and garbhavāsādi-anekaduhkhabahula (laden with the many sufferings beginning with womb-dwelling) — therefore, while it lasts, take refuge in Me without delay. The phrase 'anyathā hi etādṛśaṃ janma niṣphalam eva te syāt' (otherwise such a birth would be fruitless for you) makes explicit what the other commentators leave implicit: the price of deferral is the birth itself becoming void.

  divergence: Madhusūdana: 'atīdurlabhaṃ ca manuṣyadeham anitya āśuvinaśinam asukhaṃ... labdhvā yāvadayaṃ na naśyati tāvad atiśīghrameva bhajasva māṃ śaraṇam āśrayasva' — having obtained the exceedingly rare human body, as long as it has not yet perished, take refuge in Me immediately.