Advaita Vedānta

These commentators read the verse as praise for the worship of the saguna (with-attributes, form-bearing) Brahman, while holding that the formless, attributeless reality remains higher in itself. The praise here is a teaching device. Krishna sees that the questioner is qualified for the with-attributes path and makes it attractive by exalting it; the very next verses will turn to those who worship the imperishable formless Brahman. So the 'most joined' standing is awarded for the saguna path's ease and for the ceaseless devotion it produces, with the open admission that the formless worshippers are not thereby lower in the ultimate reckoning ('are the others, then, not the most yoked? Hear what is to be said of them'). One member frames the underlying question explicitly: is the saguna path being praised for being easier to perform, or the nirguna for being the direct cause of liberation? The answer here favors the saguna by its easier practicability. One member also pointedly rejects a forced reading that would take the 'Me' as 'the knower whom the omniscient Lord, out of grace, deems most joined', keeping the plain sense that it is Krishna as supreme Lord who is worshipped, though another member of this same school is willing to entertain that very gloss, hearing the all-knowing One as partial even to fools out of compassion.

Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Ānandagiri

Viśiṣṭādvaita

For these commentators there is no demotion of the personal God at all. The worship of the Lord's personal form, with the mind placed in Him and joined by supreme faith, simply is the highest, and Krishna's word settles the ranking on His own authority. The worshipper acts from an exceedingly great love and a longing for perpetual union, and the mind's object is understood as the very goal to be attained. The reward is stated plainly and warmly: such worshippers attain the Lord with ease and before long. On this reading the following verses do not overturn this verdict; they explain why the worshippers of the imperishable, though valid, are placed lower.

Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika

Śuddhādvaita

These commentators read the verse as the settled doctrine ('siddhanta') that those who serve the Lord in His manifest, fullest form are foremost. The 'Me' is unpacked at length as the complete Purushottama, the supreme deity, the abode of all qualities that lie beyond the worldly, very god of love to the god of love, whose name, form and limbs are beyond the world, the highest reality whose very being is 'rasa' (the savor of love). The bond that joins the worshipper is above all the single bond of love, and the supreme faith is defined by its 'premaika-lakshana', its sole mark being loving attachment, joined with total self-surrender. The fortunate ones who place the mind in this manifest form alone are the most thoroughly joined.

Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama

Bhakti

These commentators read the verse as Krishna declaring His own devotees the best, and they make the personal object concrete: the mind is fixed on Krishna in the form of Shyamasundara, dark as the blue lotus, the son of Devaki. The supreme faith here is read as faith that transcends the gunas, citing the Bhagavata that faith in service to the Lord is beyond the three modes, above the sattvic faith of the self-knower. Two members draw a sharper conclusion from 'My exclusive devotees': by naming these the most joined, the verse implies that devotion mixed with knowledge and action is inferior to exclusive, unmixed devotion, so that devotion is established as superior to knowledge, and among devotees the exclusive ones are highest. One member renders the rising faith with vivid images: as the sun's rays follow it behind the western hills though unseen, and as a river swells in the rains and keeps its force even as it nears the sea, so faith keeps increasing as the devotee continues in worship day and night with all the senses.

Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar

Kashmir Shaivism

This commentator reads the verse through the term 'samavesha' (absorption). The 'most joined' are those whose absorption has for its field the sovereignty of the great Lord, and whose state of being made of that absorption is unfeigned, genuine and not put on. The accent falls on the seeker's real identification with the Lord's sovereign reality rather than on ritual worship as such.

Ācārya Abhinavagupta

Modern

These commentators present the verse as a clear, practical direction rather than a sectarian ranking. One stresses that Krishna had in fact already given this same verdict, unasked, in chapter six; but a teaching heard when one has not personally asked tends to slip past and not lodge as one's aim, so Arjuna now asks deliberately and the Lord answers afresh. For this commentator the whole weight rests on three phrases, the mind flowed into God as water into water, the union unbroken, and the highest faith that neither demands proofs nor wavers without them; and Krishna exalts this path not to belittle the path of the akshara but to give the seeker a clear direction, since in loving worship the seeker surrenders not only his deeds but his very mind and heart. Another describes the object as the Cosmic Form, the Supreme Lord and Lord of all masters of yoga who is free from attachment and other passions, and underlines that these devotees live for God alone, with no other thoughts. A third reads it simply: those who keep the mind on God and become 'yukta-citta', mind-united, worshipping with the highest devotion, are the best yogins.

Swami Ramsukhdas · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak