Why the knower stands highest among the Lord's four devotees

Advaita Vedānta

These commentators ground the mutual love in the identity of the Self. The Lord (Vasudeva) is the very inner Self of the knower, and it is well known in scripture and in the world that the Self is dearest of all; one source cites the Upanishadic line that the innermost Self is 'dearer than son, dearer than wealth, dearer than all else.' So the Lord is exceedingly dear to the knower because the Lord is his own Self. And the knower is exceedingly dear to the Lord because the knower is the very Self of the Lord. The eka-bhakti here is devotion to the one non-dual Lord understood as utterly non-different from oneself; single devotion arises because the knower sees no other worthy of worship and has no cause of mental distraction once body-self identification is gone.

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

Viśiṣṭādvaita

Here the relationship is one of love between distinct persons, not identity. The jnani is supreme because the Lord alone is the thing he seeks to attain, so his union with the Lord is perpetual, while the other two are joined to the Lord only until they get what they long for. The word 'exceedingly' marks a dearness so unmeasured that even the omniscient, all-powerful Lord cannot fully express it. As an example, Prahlada, foremost among knowers, his mind fixed on Krishna, did not feel his own body even as great serpents bit him, abiding in the gladness of remembering the Lord; and he is dear to the Lord in just that measure. The fourth devotee is supreme because his motive is internal to the loving relation itself, not external to it.

Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika

Bhedabheda

This reading holds both sides together: the Lord is the inner Self of the whole world, the Supreme Self, and the knower, realizing 'this very one is also my own Self,' is bound to the Lord by natural affection and delights in him ever more. Yet the verse is also careful to note that attraction and aversion do not literally exist for the Lord; the knower is called 'dear' because he truly knows the real meaning of scripture and because he attains oneness. The knower is the Lord's very Self, his self disciplined, established in the Lord alone as the unsurpassed goal.

Śrī Bhāskara

Dvaita

These commentators focus narrowly on defining 'single devotion' (eka-bhakti) and on the grammar of the compound. Single devotion is, on the authority of the Garuda Purana, 'devotion to Me alone and to nothing else.' The detailed grammatical discussion works out, against an objection, that the compound holds 'devotion to the one alone,' establishing it by scriptural sanction. The accent falls on the strict exclusivity of the object of devotion: the one Lord and no other.

Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha

Śuddhādvaita

These commentators read the verse as the seal of the highest bhakti, marking the word 'eva' (only) in both halves of the second line: such mutual dearness obtains in this case alone and not in the other three, where dearness is mediated by what the devotee has come for. Here the dearness is of the substance, not of the office. The jnani takes the Lord as the very thing wanted, not as a means; he serves single-pointedly like a servant set on his master and on no one else, and the Lord, receiving such love at its highest, answers it with his own highest love. One source supports this with the Lord's word in the Bhagavata: 'they know nothing other than Me, and I do not depart from them even a little.'

Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama

Bhakti

These commentators take the jnani as the true and constant devotee and read the mutual love through the principle of Gita 4.11, 'in whatever way they approach me, I respond to them.' The jnani's perpetual yoga and exclusive bhakti are possible only because body-self identification has fallen away, removing all distraction of the mind; dearness here is not sentiment but the structural consequence of knowledge. One source guards against a misreading: the genuine knower is not one who merely worships out of fear that his knowledge would be wasted; rather the Lord, in his dark and beautiful form, is exceedingly dear to him, impossible to give up whether in practice or in attainment. Another renders the knower's state as merging in the Lord's divine essence (the wind grown still becomes one with the sky, a crystal in running water looks like the water itself), so that his life and acts already flow from the Lord even while he appears to act as a devotee in the body.

Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar

Modern

These commentators present the jnani in plain, practical terms. Eka-bhakti is unswerving single-minded devotion, and the jnani-bhakta stands beyond all cults, creeds, and formal rules; the Lord is his very Self (Antaratma), and since everyone loves his own Self most, the Lord is extremely dear to him and he to the Lord. The 'yukta' is described as a desireless frame of mind, and the jnani as one who, believing there is no other, worships the Lord alone. One source pictures the jnani as a loving devotee (premi-bhakta) whose connection holds through every task, like the gopis who, while milking cows, churning curd, and husking grain, kept their minds on Sri Krishna; so the jnani, through all his worldly and spiritual activities, stays always joined to the Lord, every action done while the bond with the Lord is held.

Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas