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Ananta

Interpretations at a Glance

How the Schools Read the Gītā

One song, heard in many keys

One song, and yet it has never been read by a single voice. For more than a thousand years the schools of Vedānta, and the Śaiva and the modern readers beside them, have heard the same eighteen chapters in different keys. Some hear a teaching about knowledge, some about love, some about tireless action. They part most sharply on a single question Krishna raises in the second chapter: when he says that none of us will ever cease to be, does he mean one Self appearing as many, or many souls eternally real and distinct? Here is where they stand, side by side.

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Heart of the Gītā

All 12 readings on this one question

ŚaṅkaraAdvaita VedāntaKnow the Self as the non-doer, one with non-dual Brahman.
RāmānujaViśiṣṭādvaitaLoving surrender to Nārāyaṇa, the Self of all.
BhāskaraBhedābhedaDo your duty knowing the deathless Self within.
NimbārkacontextDvaitādvaitaLoving devotion to Rādhā–Kṛṣṇa.
MadhvaDvaitaThe soul is eternally distinct from and dependent on Viṣṇu.
VallabhaŚuddhādvaitaLoving participation in Kṛṣṇa's līlā.
GauḍīyaAcintya-bhedābhedaLoving devotion (prema-bhakti) to Kṛṣṇa is the highest truth.
AbhinavaguptaKashmir ŚaivaRecognize all knowing and doing as the play of one Consciousness.
TilakModernThe Gītā is a gospel of selfless action.
GandhiModernNon-attachment, the inner war, and selfless service; read as moral allegory.
AurobindoModernThe Gītā synthesizes knowledge, devotion, and works into a divine life.
Classical Sāṅkhya–Yogacontextthe darśanaDiscriminate the conscious witness (puruṣa) from insentient nature.

A note on method

Each cell is a phrase, not a verdict. The readings of the soul question are grounded in the bhāṣyas on this site, several quoted verbatim from the commentary on Gītā 2.12; tap “the text” under any soul-band cell to see the source. The wider metaphysical cells lean on published reference works alongside the bhāṣyas. Two readings, Nimbārka and classical Sāṅkhya–Yoga, have no commentary on the site and are marked as context. This page is a draft, offered as a map for the reader, not a settled judgment between schools; corrections from scholars are welcome.

Sources
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