Advaita Vedānta

This school carefully splits the residents of Brahma-loka into two groups, to reconcile the verse with scriptures that promise non-return to those who reach Brahma's world. Those who arrive there by certain meditations whose fruit is 'krama-mukti' (gradual or step-by-step liberation), such as the dahara-vidya (meditation on the space within the heart), gain right knowledge there and are liberated together with Brahma at the great dissolution; they do not return. But those who arrive merely by ritual means, such as the panchagni-vidya (the five-fire knowledge) practised without that liberating worship, exhaust their merit and are reborn. So 'all worlds return' is read with this qualification: the worlds and their ordinary residents return, while the knowers among them attain release. One commentator notes the scriptural promise of non-return is then 'relative', resolved by this distinction, and that the qualifying word 'this' in 'they do not return to this human round' leaves room for return elsewhere.

Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Ānandagiri

Bhakti

These devotional commentators keep the same krama-mukti distinction but frame the contrast around the Lord's devotees. Even greatly meritorious souls are reborn, but the Lord's devotees never are. Those who reach Brahma's realm by ritual fall at the end of their enjoyment; but the fixed devotees of the Supreme Lord, who pass through the higher worlds in succession, do not fall from there. Rather, when that world is dissolved, they attain, together with its lord Brahma, the world of the Supreme Lord himself. This is supported by the remembered verse that 'together with Brahma they all, at the reabsorption, having perfected themselves, enter the supreme abode.' One voice illustrates the sheer scale of Brahma's realm (a single day there spanning the lifetimes of fourteen Indras) only to insist that even this towering power is not above the cycle of birth and death; the one who abides in the Lord is untouched by it, as a waking person is untouched by the floods seen in a dream.

Śrīla Baladeva · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Sant Jñāneśvar

Viśiṣṭādvaita

This school locates the cause of return in the perishing of the destination itself. All the worlds up to Brahma's, abiding within the egg of Brahma (the cosmic shell), are abodes of enjoyment and lordship, and they perish; so even one who has gained the goal of lordship cannot avoid perishing along with the place attained. But the one who reaches the Lord reaches an imperishable goal. The Lord is described in rich terms: all-knowing, of true resolve, whose play it is to bring about the world's creation, maintenance and dissolution, supremely compassionate, and 'ever of one form'. Because there is no occasion of his perishing, there is no rebirth for the one who reaches him. The 'tu' carries the whole load: the gods' worlds, however high, are circular, while the Lord's destination is final, and the seeker should set his sights accordingly.

Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika

Dvaita

This school reads 'a-brahma-bhuvanat' as a downward boundary line rather than as sweeping in the very highest worlds. From the seat of Brahma on the great Meru, and from the human world, downward, there is no escape from return; but the worlds standing beyond and above (such as Jana-loka and higher) do not return. The basis is given by scripture alone (the Narayana-gopala-kalpa): 'from the seat of Brahma on Meru, and from the world of men, there is birth on earth; the absence of it everywhere comes only by reaching Him born of Vasudeva.' The point of naming both the Meru-seat and the human world is to cover worlds connected with the earth and those not connected with it. Even so, the verse's second half is not pointless on this reading: for one who, having come to the Lord who abides in those higher worlds, has taken his stand there, there is no birth again. Release in every case comes only by reaching the Lord born of Vasudeva.

Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha

Kashmir Shaivism

This voice openly breaks with the standard explanation. He notes that all other commentators say even those who reach Brahma's world return, but objects that if so, release would have to mean going to some world still higher than Brahma's, and that does not satisfy him. He offers instead a reading gathered from scripture: as far as the state of Brahma is reached, just so far do beings return, from whatever world, sideways, above or below; like a wheel they ceaselessly wander and turn about from place to place. The accent falls on the relentless, wheel-like circling of all conditioned states up to and including Brahma's, with the implication that release is of a different order than ascent to any world at all.

Ācārya Abhinavagupta

Śuddhādvaita

This school draws the dividing line precisely at the Lord. Even Brahma's world falls within the 'a-brahma' compass and so is bound by the rule of recurrence; every world that stands within the cosmic frame turns back, and only the coming-near to the Lord lifts the soul beyond it. One commentator grounds non-return in 'naiskarmya' (the state beyond action) and adds the maxim that 'the ripening of non-causal dharma stands at the level of Parameshtin', restating the teaching to settle it beyond doubt. For the 'pushti' devotee the practical upshot is that no intermediate world, not even Brahma's, should be made the goal, since the recurrence-rule binds them all alike; the goal is the Lord himself, in whom alone the return is broken.

Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama

Bhedabheda

This commentator presses a particular difficulty: scripture says the knower of supreme Brahman becomes Brahman and is released once the deeds already set in motion are exhausted, so how can there be return for any knower of Brahman? His answer is that those established in a cosmic office, charged by the Lord's command with favoring the worlds, continue in that office (such as the office of Prajapati) for as long as the office lasts; their continuance is the duty of the post, not a failure of knowledge. Even there, for one who keeps practising the remainder of his knowledge, liberation comes when the deeds whose fruit has begun are exhausted. So the apparent 'return' of knowers is really the holding of an appointed office, after which release follows.

Śrī Bhāskara