Bhagavad Gita Bhashya

Shankara's central claim is that liberation (moksha) arises solely from jnana—direct knowledge of the identity of Atman and Brahman—and that no amount of action, ritual, or devotion can independently produce it. He rejects the Mimamsa view that Vedic rituals alone lead to liberation, and he rejects the idea that karma yoga and jnana can be combined as equal paths (jnana-karma-samuccaya). For Shankara, Nishkama Karma is only a means of citta-shuddhi (mental purification), preparing the seeker for jnana, after which action naturally falls away for the knower. This subordination of action to knowledge is the commentary's distinctive argument.

Shankara argues that Nishkama Karma is not simply performing actions without attachment to results, but is fundamentally a discipline of renouncing the sense of doership (kartritva-abhimana) and the notion that one is the agent of action. The 'desirelessness' is not merely psychological; it is grounded in the understanding that the Self is actionless (akarta). He insists that this discipline is only a preparatory stage, not the final state. For the jnani who has realized the Self, there is no longer any injunction to act, though the jnani may continue to act for the welfare of the world without any sense of agency.

The fundamental difference concerns the relationship between the individual self, the world, and Brahman. Shankara reads the Gita as teaching strict non-dualism: the individual self is identical with Brahman, and plurality is ultimately sublated by knowledge. Ramanuja's Visistadvaita commentary argues that the individual self is a real, distinct mode (prakara) of Brahman, and that liberation consists in eternal loving service to a personal God (Narayana). Consequently, Ramanuja interprets bhakti as the primary means to liberation, whereas Shankara reinterprets bhakti as ultimately identical with jnana—the highest devotion is knowing God as non-dual consciousness.

In his commentary on Gita 18.66 ('abandoning all dharmas, take refuge in Me alone'), Shankara interprets 'dharmas' as including both dharma and adharma—that is, the entire complex of prescribed and prohibited actions grounded in the sense of doership. 'Renouncing all dharmas' means the total abandonment of the notion that one is an agent who must perform or avoid actions. It is not a license for moral chaos but the culmination of the path of knowledge: the knower of the Self has transcended the injunctions of karma-kanda. This reading is central to Shankara's argument that liberation comes from knowledge, not from works.

Shankara distinguishes between two kinds of bhakti: apara-bhakti (lower devotion), which involves loving worship of a personal God with form, and para-bhakti (higher devotion), which is identical with jnana—the direct knowledge of Brahman as non-dual consciousness. He argues that apara-bhakti is a valid preparatory practice that purifies the mind, but it is para-bhakti alone that constitutes liberation. Verses where Krishna speaks of devotees being dear to him are interpreted as accommodating the seeker's initial need for a personal relationship, while the ultimate teaching is the non-dual identity of the devotee and the Lord.

The Gita Bhashya is one of Shankara's three canonical commentaries on the Prasthanatrayi—the triad of foundational texts consisting of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma Sutras. While the Brahma Sutra Bhashya establishes the systematic metaphysics of Advaita and the Upanishad Bhashyas provide the scriptural basis, the Gita Bhashya addresses the practical and ethical dimensions of the path. It shows how the knowledge of non-duality is to be lived in the context of action, duty, and social obligation, making it the most accessible entry point into Shankara's philosophy for seekers engaged in worldly life.