Advaita Vedānta

For these commentators the figure in the verse is the knower of the non-dual Self, the Sankhya who is steadfast in Self-knowledge. The Self in which he delights is the supreme, non-dual Self of bliss, and his freedom from action follows from the dissolution of duality: seeing no second thing, he has no object left to want and no purpose left to serve. One commentator carefully separates the three terms as delight (attachment falling on an object), contentment (the happiness from contact with a particular object), and satisfaction (the general happiness of simply gaining a desired thing), all of which the knower now finds in the Self alone. Another quotes scripture, 'sporting in the Self, delighting in the Self, he is the best of the knowers of Brahman', and says that for such a one no work, Vedic or worldly, remains because the very cause of qualification for action is absent. These commentators also use the verse to argue that the Gita teaches knowledge-with-renunciation as the means to liberation: the realised knower is shown free of clinging precisely so the still-ignorant seeker can model himself on that detachment.

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

Viśiṣṭādvaita

These commentators read the verse not about anyone still on the path of knowledge but about the already-liberated soul, the mukta, in the state of release itself. They make this point because even one fit for the discipline of knowledge, and even a renouncer who keeps his order-duties, has still been told to act; so the freedom from action here can only belong to one for whom the goal is already attained and who has no need of the means at all. They take 'rati' here to mean being turned toward the Self ('abhimukhya'), kept distinct from satisfaction and contentment which are listed separately. For this soul the Self alone is all that is to be upheld, nourished, and enjoyed; he is content by the Self and not by food and drink, satisfied in the Self and not in pleasure-gardens, garlands, song, music, or dance. They add a fine point: such a one does need not even origination nor sustenance through action, for his vision of the Self is ever-present by its own nature, and what little 'work' realisation ever required was only the removal of an obstruction, which is now gone.

Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika

Bhedabheda

This commentator reads the verse tersely. The 'but' is for emphasis, marking off this person from those still bound to act. His single point is that in this state alone there is no ground for entitlement to action, and so action is abandoned. The fullness is 'in the Self alone'.

Śrī Bhāskara

Dvaita

These commentators give the verse a strict and distinctive reading on two counts. First, the 'Self' in which this person delights is the supreme Self, not the individual soul. They argue that having had 'enough' of all else cannot fittingly be directed at the individual self, and that scriptural usage ('we are not sated with the deeds of the One praised in noble verse') shows the word 'self' can denote the supreme Lord; supplying an extra word is a last resort and is not needed here. Delight is the happiness arising from the vision of the supreme; contentment is the sense of having had enough of all else; satisfaction is the very happiness that produces that 'enough'. Second, and crucially, they hold that the freedom from duty here is NOT for every knower. It belongs only to one settled in objectless trance ('nirvikalpa samadhi'), the deep absorption beyond cognition, in which the lapse of action is simply unavoidable. Even the man of steadied wisdom has duties, such as the care of the body, at all other times, and even a slight delight elsewhere belongs to everyone outside that trance. The word 'manava' ('man'), they say, is from the root meaning 'to be aware', and so signals that this objectless trance belongs only to the man of knowledge. So the verse describes the knower not absolutely, but only during that highest absorption.

Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha

Śuddhādvaita

These commentators take the Self in which this person delights to be Bhagavan, the Lord himself, so the verse describes the settled devotee. One reads the verse as describing the Sankhya-path follower for whom knowledge alone, with no second outside the Self, is the appropriate good, the 'eva' itself marking out this contemplative. The other makes the devotional sense explicit: this person delights only in the Self, that is, in the Lord alone; he is made content by the bliss of Bhagavan, joyous and satisfied in the Self that is Bhagavan, with no need for any enjoyment of his own. Being sated in the Lord, the settled devotee is beyond the very ground of duty. One frames the verse as Krishna answering why not all his devotees act in the world: those wholly full in him no longer have anything they must do.

Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama

Kashmir Shaivism

This commentator gives the verse a subtle twist. For one who delights in the Self, action is reduced to the mere working of the senses, and toward such action there is an evenness: doing and not doing become equal. Precisely because he has no purpose of his own to serve among beings, he does not engage in restraint or favour; he acts only to the extent that something is genuinely 'to be done'. The takeaway he draws is not withdrawal but the right kind of engagement: let one do the action that is to be done, unattached.

Ācārya Abhinavagupta

Bhakti

These commentators read the verse about the jnani who, through the purifying of the inner instrument by selfless action and worship, has mounted to the plane of knowledge; such a one performs neither the regular nor the optional rites. They stress that his fullness is the experience of the Self's own bliss ('sva-ananda'), so he has no remaining dependence on enjoyments. One asks pointedly whether such a person, resting in his own Self, might still rest even a little in outer objects, and answers 'not at all'. One frames the underlying logic crisply: the obligation of action rests on a residual lack, and where the Self has overflowed into its own bliss, the ground for obligation is gone. One describes this person as beholding his own true nature as endowed with the eightfold qualities such as freedom from sin, self-luminous and ever-seen, so no action remains even for the sake of beholding the Self. One adds that he alone is free from the pollution of action who, while living in the body, ever abides in the blissful knowledge of the highest Self.

Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar

Modern

These commentators give a direct, experiential reading. The sage does not depend on external objects for happiness; he finds his joy, bliss, and contentment within his own Self, has already done all that was to be done, and has satisfied all his desires, so nothing remains for him to do. One draws out the progression plainly: so long as a person takes his relationship with the world to be real, his loving inclination ('rati') lies in sense-objects, his satisfaction depends on outer fulfilment, and his contentment is measured by what he gets and does not get; but when discrimination ('viveka') sets the world's claim aside, the inclination turns to the Self, satisfaction is the Self, and contentment is in the Self alone, and then nothing further must be done. One notes that the 'tu' marks off the great one who has gained perfection through doing his duty from the man of the previous verse who shirks it.

Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas