Arjuna gathers every witness he can, and lets the surest of them, Krishna's own word, speak last.
This is Arjuna speaking, not Krishna, so no closing verse-line is given here. He backs his own confession with the seers, with Narada, Asita, Devala, and Vyasa, and only then lets the one he is praising confirm it himself.
All the seers call you this, and so do the divine sage Narada, and Asita, Devala, and Vyasa: the eternal divine Person, the primal God, the unborn, the all-pervading. And you yourself tell me this.
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
Krishna has just been named, in the verse before this one, the supreme Brahman, the supreme abode, the supreme purifier. Arjuna is not finished. He now shows that this is not a private feeling he alone holds; it is something the highest knowers of scripture have always said.
The teaching
Notice the order Arjuna builds. He starts with the widest circle: all the seers. Then he narrows to a single towering name, the divine seer Narada. Then further, to two more names, Asita and Devala. Then further still, to Vyasa, the great sage who is said to have divided the Vedas themselves. And only at the very end does he name the surest witness of all: you yourself tell me this. Where the surviving commentaries speak to this shape, they read it as deliberate, a funnel narrowing from the broadest testimony down to its sharpest point, closing on the voice of the very one being described. Some of the acaryas whose commentary anchors this page have more to say about this verse than others. Ramanuja and Madhusudana, in particular, give it real attention, naming each witness with care and explaining directly why Narada and the rest are singled out even though the general word seers would already cover them: not redundancy, but emphasis, because these are the weightiest voices available. What is not honest to claim is a full, elaborate reading from every one of the six commentators drawn on here. Shankara's word on this exact verse is a brief confirmation, not an extended argument. And Abhinavagupta's commentary is silent on this verse entirely; nothing of his on it survives. This page states that plainly rather than filling the silence with invented confidence.
The doubt that rises
If something is true, shouldn't you be able to recognize it for yourself? Does calling in a whole roster of names, however distinguished, actually add anything, or is it only a comfort borrowed from the outside?
Where the paths divide
Read from a brief, unelaborated confirmation of the list.
What survives here is a simple affirmation that each named witness genuinely says what Arjuna reports: the seers say it, Narada says it, Asita and Devala say it, Vyasa says it, and Krishna himself closes the list. No extended argument for why this matters is preserved, and this page does not invent one on Shankara's behalf.
Read as one continuous utterance running from the verse before this one.
Ramanuja treats 10.12 and 10.13 as a single unbroken confession, grounded first in a dense weave of Vedic and Upanishadic citation that already names Narayana as the supreme Brahman, the supreme light, the supreme self. On this reading the seers' witness in 10.13 is not a separate strand of evidence; it converges with scripture and with Krishna's own earlier self-declaration on one identical Person.
Read through Madhva's philology of the titles named just before this verse.
What survives from Madhva concentrates on tracing Brahman and vibhu to their Vedic roots, growth and fullness, coming to be in many forms, each backed by citation. He does not separately expand the witness-list of 10.13 in what remains to us; extending his method honestly, one would expect each named seer to be read as a dependent knower, seeing by the Lord's grace rather than by independent authority.
Read where the source is silent, and marked as such.
No comment from Abhinavagupta on this verse has come down to us. A Kashmir Shaiva extension can be offered, that each witness's naming of Krishna is itself consciousness recognizing its own highest nature through a particular voice, but it must be held at arm's length as exactly what it is: a conditional reading built from his known positions elsewhere, not a report of anything he actually said about this verse.
Read through Sridhara's spare, funnel-shaped tracing of the list.
Sridhara lets Arjuna's own words carry their weight without much elaboration of his own, but the pattern is clear: seven seers as a class, Narada named, the two perfected sages Asita and Devala named, Vyasa the Veda-divider named, and the list closing on the Lord's own voice. The widest circle of testimony narrows, step by step, to its single surest point.
Read through Madhusudana's fuller identification of each witness.
Madhusudana gives the most developed surviving treatment, naming Bhrigu and Vasishtha among the seers, identifying Asita Devala as the elder brother of Dhaumya, and Vyasa as Krishna-dvaipayana. He answers directly why these names appear apart from the general word seers: emphasis on their distinction, not redundancy. And he reads the closing line as the moment every prior witness is fulfilled, no longer merely required.
The traditions agree that Arjuna is naming witnesses and that the list ends on Krishna's own word. They differ in how much can honestly be said beyond that. Ramanuja and Madhusudana build real, detailed readings from what survives. Sridhara sketches a shape and lets it stand. Shankara's word is a brief confirmation. And for Abhinavagupta, nothing on this verse survives at all. This page leaves that unevenness visible rather than smoothing it into a uniform six-fold commentary that the sources do not actually support.
A question to carry
When was the last time you felt certain of something and reached outward, to a teacher, a text, a trusted voice, to see whether your certainty could stand beside theirs? And what would it take for the thing itself, not just others' words about it, to finally speak to you directly?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
So hold your own convictions the way Arjuna holds his here: not defended in isolation, but tested against every trustworthy voice you know, and open, always, to the moment the truth itself might finally speak in its own voice.
Each school is voiced from the commentators named above. Their full words, every translation, and where the schools agree and differ wait in the reading desk just below. Open the commentary desk.
It follows directly on 10.12, where Arjuna named Krishna the supreme Brahman, the supreme abode, the supreme purifier; here he shows that this confession is not his alone.
Where they agreethe convergence
Across schools and centuries the commentators come to the same ground. These are the points they share, and the voices that hold each one.
Arjuna is no longer arguing; he is gathering witnesses, so his confession rests on more than a single, personal impression.
Across Viśiṣṭādvaita, Bhakti, AdvaitaRāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Rāmānuja, Śrīdhara, and 1 others’ words
Arjuna has stopped arguing and started gathering witnesses. Having just called Krishna the supreme Brahman, the supreme abode, the supreme purifier, he now names who else says the very same thing: all the seers, the divine seer Narada, Asita, Devala, and Vyasa. His point is that this confession is not private feeling standing alone; it is the convergent word of the highest knowers of scripture.
All the seers would already include Narada and the rest, yet Arjuna names them anyway, because the weightiest voices are worth naming by name.
Across Bhakti, AdvaitaŚrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śrīdhara and Madhusūdana’s words
More than one reading notices that all the seers would already include Narada and the rest, since they too are seers, so naming them again looks at first like redundancy. The resolution offered is that these particular names are lifted out for their exceptional distinction; the list narrows on purpose from the whole body of seers down to its weightiest individual voices.
The list keeps its surest witness for last: Krishna's own word completes what every other witness had already been pointing toward.
Across Viśiṣṭādvaita, Bhakti, AdvaitaRāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Rāmānuja, Śrīdhara, and 1 others’ words
The list is built to end on its strongest possible witness. After the seers and sages, Arjuna closes with you yourself tell me this. Where the extant comments speak to it, this closing line is read as the climax: once the one being praised declares his own nature directly, no further testimony is needed to complete the case.
Where the record itself is thin, this page says so rather than dressing a brief source up as a fuller argument than it is.
Across ViśiṣṭādvaitaRāmānujaIn Rāmānuja’s words
For at least one reading, this final line is not a vague flourish but a pointer back to specific things Krishna has already said of himself earlier in the dialogue, so that Arjuna's certainty rests on Krishna's own prior self-declaration and not only on the seers' praise.
Testimony, at its best, does not replace your own seeing; it stands alongside it, and finishes only when the thing itself speaks.
Across Advaita, Kashmir ŚaivaŚaṅkara · AbhinavaguptaIn Śaṅkara and Abhinavagupta’s words
Where the sources are thin or silent, this page says so rather than filling the gap. Shankara's extant word here is a brief confirmation without extended argument, and no comment from Abhinavagupta on this verse has survived at all; both facts are stated honestly rather than papered over with invented elaboration.
This is the shared ground; it can be carried as it is. Below is where they differ.
Where they differthe divergence
Viśiṣṭādvaita, in their fuller words
Ramanuja reads the whole passage, verses twelve and thirteen together, as resting on a dense weave of Vedic and Upanishadic citation that already identifies Narayana as the supreme Brahman, the supreme light, the supreme self. The seers' witness and Krishna's own earlier words are not separate strands but one converging testimony to a single, already-scripturally-named Person.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
Madhva's extant treatment concentrates on the philology of the titles named in the verse before this one, tracing Brahman and vibhu back to their Vedic roots. He does not separately elaborate the witness-list of 10.13 in what survives; on his general method, though, one would expect each named seer to be read as a dependent knower granted vision of the Lord by grace, not as an independent authority.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara lets Arjuna's own list carry its weight without much added argument, but the shape he draws out is a funnel: seven seers as a class, narrowing to Narada by name, narrowing further to the two perfected sages Asita and Devala, narrowing again to Vyasa, and closing on the Lord's own voice, so that the widest possible circle of testimony converges on its single surest point.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Madhusudana gives the fullest surviving treatment, naming each witness individually, Bhrigu, Vasishtha, Narada, Asita Devala as Dhaumya's elder brother, Vyasa as Krishna-dvaipayana, and explaining directly why they are named apart from the general word seers: not redundancy but emphasis, since these speakers are very greatly distinguished. He reads the closing line as the moment every prior witness is fulfilled rather than still required.
A few questions to carry
These ask for understanding, not recall; each answer is settled by the commentary itself.
For a second sitting
Carry this with youwhat stays
Notice, for a moment, whose voice you trust when something matters to you. Arjuna does not rest his confession on his own feeling alone; he calls to mind every teacher, every text, every trusted witness that has ever said the same thing, and only then does he let the Lord's own word complete the case. Try holding your own quiet certainties this way: not as private opinions to defend, but as claims that either do or do not stand with what the wisest voices you know have also said.
So when you find yourself certain of something that matters, let that certainty stand not alone but alongside every trustworthy voice you know, and listen, too, for when the thing itself finally speaks.
Read deeper
Everything a full study holds, folded below.
Word by word
All the commentary, woven together
The commentary, woven together
machine-assisted draft, pending review
Convergence
rjuna has stopped arguing and started gathering witnesses. Having just called Krishna the supreme Brahman, the supreme abode, the supreme purifier, he now names who else says the very same thing: all the seers, the divine seer Narada, Asita, Devala, and Vyasa. His point is that this confession is not private feeling standing alone; it is the convergent word of the highest knowers of scripture.
Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
More than one reading notices that all the seers would already include Narada and the rest, since they too are seers, so naming them again looks at first like redundancy. The resolution offered is that these particular names are lifted out for their exceptional distinction; the list narrows on purpose from the whole body of seers down to its weightiest individual voices.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The list is built to end on its strongest possible witness. After the seers and sages, Arjuna closes with you yourself tell me this. Where the extant comments speak to it, this closing line is read as the climax: once the one being praised declares his own nature directly, no further testimony is needed to complete the case.
Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
For at least one reading, this final line is not a vague flourish but a pointer back to specific things Krishna has already said of himself earlier in the dialogue, so that Arjuna's certainty rests on Krishna's own prior self-declaration and not only on the seers' praise.
Rāmānujācārya
Where the sources are thin or silent, this page says so rather than filling the gap. Shankara's extant word here is a brief confirmation without extended argument, and no comment from Abhinavagupta on this verse has survived at all; both facts are stated honestly rather than papered over with invented elaboration.
Śaṅkarācārya · Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
The surviving comment is a bare confirmation of the witness-list rather than an extended argument, so nothing more elaborate should be attributed to Shankara here. What is preserved is simply that he affirms each named voice, the seers, Narada, Asita, Devala, Vyasa, and Krishna's own closing word, as genuinely saying what Arjuna reports them saying.
Śaṅkarācārya
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Ramanuja reads the whole passage, verses twelve and thirteen together, as resting on a dense weave of Vedic and Upanishadic citation that already identifies Narayana as the supreme Brahman, the supreme light, the supreme self. The seers' witness and Krishna's own earlier words are not separate strands but one converging testimony to a single, already-scripturally-named Person.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
Madhva's extant treatment concentrates on the philology of the titles named in the verse before this one, tracing Brahman and vibhu back to their Vedic roots. He does not separately elaborate the witness-list of 10.13 in what survives; on his general method, though, one would expect each named seer to be read as a dependent knower granted vision of the Lord by grace, not as an independent authority.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
No comment from Abhinavagupta on this verse has survived; his commentary passes over it in silence. Any Kashmir Shaiva reading offered here, for instance that the witnesses each instance consciousness recognizing its own highest nature through a particular voice, must be marked as a conditional extension of his known positions elsewhere, not a report of anything he actually wrote at 10.13.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara lets Arjuna's own list carry its weight without much added argument, but the shape he draws out is a funnel: seven seers as a class, narrowing to Narada by name, narrowing further to the two perfected sages Asita and Devala, narrowing again to Vyasa, and closing on the Lord's own voice, so that the widest possible circle of testimony converges on its single surest point.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Madhusudana gives the fullest surviving treatment, naming each witness individually, Bhrigu, Vasishtha, Narada, Asita Devala as Dhaumya's elder brother, Vyasa as Krishna-dvaipayana, and explaining directly why they are named apart from the general word seers: not redundancy but emphasis, since these speakers are very greatly distinguished. He reads the closing line as the moment every prior witness is fulfilled rather than still required.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
If something is true, shouldn't I be able to recognize it myself? Why does Arjuna need a whole list of authorities to back up what he has already said in his own words?
Where the sources speak to it, the list is not offered as a substitute for Arjuna's own conviction but as its confirmation. He has already made the confession himself in the verse before this one; naming the seers and sages shows that what he sees is not an isolated impression but something the highest knowers of scripture converge on as well.
Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
The list does not actually end with a human authority at all. It ends with Krishna's own word: you yourself tell me this. Where this is addressed, that closing line is read as the true weight-bearing point, so that authority is not the final court of appeal here; self-declaration by the one in question is.
Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
It is also worth being honest about the limits of what survives to answer this question fully. Some of the six commentaries drawn on here treat this exact verse only briefly or not at all, and this page says so rather than manufacturing a fuller answer than the sources actually give.
Śaṅkarācārya · Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Contemplation
Notice, for a moment, whose voice you trust when something matters to you. Arjuna does not rest his confession on his own feeling alone; he calls to mind every teacher, every text, every trusted witness that has ever said the same thing, and only then does he let the Lord's own word complete the case. Try holding your own quiet certainties this way: not as private opinions to defend, but as claims that either do or do not stand with what the wisest voices you know have also said.
Sit with this · sonnet-5-authored
All the translations and commentary
Pull up a chair.
You have come to sit with this verse. When you are ready to hear the translators and the commentators in full, open a tradition in the doorways below, or add a voice by name above.
Also hear this verse, tradition by tradition.