Arjuna asks again for what he already has, because the hearing itself has become nectar.
Having heard Krishna's power and glory once, in brief, Arjuna asks for it again, at full length. His own reason, plainly stated, is that the words are nectar, and nectar never leaves the drinker satisfied.
Tell me once more, Krishna, and this time at full length, of your own power and your glories. I cannot get enough of your nectar-like words, however long I listen.
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
Krishna has already told Arjuna, briefly, in chapters seven and nine, of his power and his manifestations. Now Arjuna asks again, this time wanting the fuller account, before Krishna answers with the great catalogue of glories that fills the rest of this chapter.
The teaching
Tell me again, Arjuna says, and this time at length: your yoga, the sovereign power that makes you Lord, and your vibhuti, the glories in which that power becomes visible in the world. He is not asking for something new. What he asks for was already given, if briefly, and he knows it. His reason for asking again is exact and his own: there is no satisfaction for me as I listen, because your words are amrita, nectar, and nectar does not work the way ordinary food works. Food fills and satisfies; nectar, being deathless, only deepens the thirst it answers. He calls Krishna Janardana here, a name some hear as carrying its own hint at this exact moment, whether as the one who drives away the enemies within, or the one whom everyone rightly asks for both worldly good and the highest good. Either way, his own asking is shown to be nothing unusual. What stands out across the little that survives on this verse is how much is read from so few words, and how honestly some readers simply admit there is little more to say. Where fuller comment survives, it dwells on the nectar and the hunger it creates. Where it does not survive at all, as with Abhinavagupta on this particular verse, the honest response is silence, not invention.
The doubt that rises
Is Arjuna's endless asking a sign that he has understood too little, or a sign that what he has understood cannot, by its nature, ever be fully drunk? And what should a reader do with a teacher's silence, when the record itself simply has nothing to offer on a given verse?
Where the paths divide
Read at its plain sense, without added doctrine.
Shankara stays close to the words themselves: tell it again, in full, for I find no fullness in your nectar-like speech. His one interpretive addition is philological, tracing Janardana to the root ard, motion, and reading it as either the driver of demons or the one all people entreat. Nothing here forces Arjuna's asking into a larger argument; it is read simply as fitting and expected.
Read as a bond being voiced, not a gap being reported.
Ramanuja reads the accent as falling on relationship. Arjuna asks again for what Krishna already told him of being the source of all things, and the telling detail is that his unfilled longing is itself already known to the one he asks. Nothing here is a complaint against an earlier lack; it is devotion continuing to speak what it already knows the Lord has seen.
Read narrowly, resting on the name alone.
The only comment from Madhva that survives on this verse fixes the meaning of Janardana against the ordinary etymologies: unborn, and yet the one who afflicts the round of rebirth, supported by the Bhabhravya branch's own words. He does not extend further here on the nectar or the repeated asking; the reading stays with the name.
Read as an honest silence, with only a flagged extension offered.
No comment from Abhinavagupta on this verse has come down to us, and this page will not invent one. On a Kashmir Shaiva reading, one might extend his account of the Lord's self-manifestation to suggest the unfillable hunger mirrors consciousness recognizing its own fullness, a fullness no amount of hearing from outside could ever exhaust. But that is offered here as a conditional extension of his method, never as his own words.
Read as praise wearing the shape of a request.
Sridhara hears a request beneath the request: even though the mind runs outward, teach the glories so that in every single object only the thought of you arises. He reads the verse as praise dressed as asking, since a mind fed on nectar has no alam, no point of enough, and the Lord's only fitting answer to such an ear is to keep on speaking.
Read as an objection met and answered in Arjuna's own terms.
Madhusudana takes the natural question seriously, why entreat the telling of what is already told, and then answers it directly from Arjuna's own words: no cutting off of longing by any sense of enough, only a nectar sweeter at every step. He notices, too, that Arjuna never plainly names the words he craves, and reads that very reticence as proof of how far the longing overflows description.
The surviving comments agree that the hunger is not a flaw, but they do not agree on how much weight the verse itself can bear. Some readers stay close to the plain words and the name Janardana; others read a whole theology of relationship or of recognition into the same few lines. And on at least one voice, Abhinavagupta, there is simply nothing to weigh at all. This page leaves that gap open rather than filling it, and lets the five voices that do speak stand in their own, sometimes narrow, registers.
A question to carry
When you return, once again, to a teaching you already know by heart, do you experience that return as a lack in your own understanding, or as something closer to what Arjuna names here: a nectar that only deepens the thirst it answers?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
May the asking-again that rises in you be received gently, not as evidence that you have understood too little, but as the nectar working exactly as it works, drawing you back to drink.
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.
Krishna has already named his sovereign power and glory once, briefly, in chapters seven and nine; here, before Krishna answers with the great list of glories, Arjuna's own voice states why he needs to hear it again.
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 asks for two things as one: Krishna's inner sovereign power and the outer glories where that power becomes visible.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhva · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 3 others’ words
Arjuna asks Krishna to tell him again, and this time vistarena, at length, of two things held together: his yoga, the inner sovereign power that makes him Lord, and his vibhuti, the glories, the outer expanse in which that power becomes visible. The two are asked for as one pair, the hidden capacity and its visible showing.
He is asking again for what he already received, briefly, in chapters seven and nine; nothing was lacking in the first telling.
Across Advaita, ViśiṣṭādvaitaŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 1 others’ words
This is a request for something already given. Krishna's power and glory were set out, in brief, in chapters seven and nine, and the commentators register that fact rather than pass over it. The renewed asking is not read as an accusation that the first telling failed.
His own stated reason is that the words are amrita, nectar, and a nectar-fed mind finds no point of enough.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
The reason Arjuna gives for asking again is his own unfilled hunger: there is no satisfaction, no triptih, for me as I listen, because what he hears is amrita, nectar, the deathless drink. The dissatisfaction is not treated as a problem to be solved but simply reported as what happens when the thing heard is nectar rather than ordinary speech.
Where the sources are thin, as with Abhinavagupta, this page says so plainly rather than inventing a master's voice.
Across Advaita, DvaitaŚaṅkara · MadhvaIn Śaṅkara and Madhva’s words
Several readings dwell on the address Janardana as carrying its own weight at this exact moment: a name given to the Lord in the middle of a request is read as fitting the request itself, whether as the one who drives out enemies or the one whom all people entreat.
Read together, the surviving comments treat Arjuna's hunger less as a fault than as devotion doing exactly what devotion does.
Across Bhakti, AdvaitaŚrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śrīdhara and Madhusūdana’s words
Sridhara and Madhusudana both hear this unfillable hunger as itself a kind of praise, a sign of devotion rather than a flaw in the hearer; the Lord's fitting answer to such an ear is simply to keep speaking, since the sweetness of what is heard is what stirs the wanting to hear more.
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 accent as falling on relationship rather than new content: Arjuna asks again for what Krishna already said of himself as the source of all, and the telling detail is that his unfilled longing is itself already known to the Lord. The devotee does not need to argue for more teaching; being seen in the hunger is already part of the asking.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
Madhva's surviving comment here is narrow and precise: he glosses Janardana against the ordinary etymologies, reading it through the Bhabhravya branch as the unborn one who nonetheless afflicts, ardayati, the round of rebirth. He does not comment further, in the material available, on Arjuna's nectar-hunger or the repeated asking; the name alone carries his reading.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara hears a request beneath the request: teach the glories so that in every object only the thought of you arises. He reads the whole verse as praise wearing the shape of a request, since a mind fed on amrita has no alam, no stopping point of enough, and the Lord's fitting reply to such an ear is simply to keep speaking.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Madhusudana takes up the standing objection directly, why ask again for what is already told, and answers it from Arjuna's own words: no cutting off of longing by any sense of enough, and a drinking-in of the nectar of Krishna's speech, sweeter at every step. He notices, too, that Arjuna never plainly says your words, and reads that veiling itself as proof of how far his longing overflows plain description.
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, the next time a teaching you already know moves you again, that the moving itself is not a failure of memory. Let the wanting to hear it once more be received rather than corrected, and return to the source instead of assuming you have already drawn all there is from it.
May the wanting-more that returns you to a teaching you already know be received as the nectar working, not as understanding falling short.
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 asks Krishna to tell him again, and this time vistarena, at length, of two things held together: his yoga, the inner sovereign power that makes him Lord, and his vibhuti, the glories, the outer expanse in which that power becomes visible. The two are asked for as one pair, the hidden capacity and its visible showing.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhvācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
This is a request for something already given. Krishna's power and glory were set out, in brief, in chapters seven and nine, and the commentators register that fact rather than pass over it. The renewed asking is not read as an accusation that the first telling failed.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The reason Arjuna gives for asking again is his own unfilled hunger: there is no satisfaction, no triptih, for me as I listen, because what he hears is amrita, nectar, the deathless drink. The dissatisfaction is not treated as a problem to be solved but simply reported as what happens when the thing heard is nectar rather than ordinary speech.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Several readings dwell on the address Janardana as carrying its own weight at this exact moment: a name given to the Lord in the middle of a request is read as fitting the request itself, whether as the one who drives out enemies or the one whom all people entreat.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhvācārya
Sridhara and Madhusudana both hear this unfillable hunger as itself a kind of praise, a sign of devotion rather than a flaw in the hearer; the Lord's fitting answer to such an ear is simply to keep speaking, since the sweetness of what is heard is what stirs the wanting to hear more.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Shankara reads the verse without adding a doctrinal claim beyond the plain sense: tell it again, in full, and I find no fullness in hearing your nectar-like speech. His only interpretive addition is philological, unpacking Janardana by its root, ard, motion, as either the driver of demons or the one all people entreat, so that Arjuna's asking is shown to be nothing unusual.
Śaṅkarācārya
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Ramanuja reads the accent as falling on relationship rather than new content: Arjuna asks again for what Krishna already said of himself as the source of all, and the telling detail is that his unfilled longing is itself already known to the Lord. The devotee does not need to argue for more teaching; being seen in the hunger is already part of the asking.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
Madhva's surviving comment here is narrow and precise: he glosses Janardana against the ordinary etymologies, reading it through the Bhabhravya branch as the unborn one who nonetheless afflicts, ardayati, the round of rebirth. He does not comment further, in the material available, on Arjuna's nectar-hunger or the repeated asking; the name alone carries his reading.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
No comment from Abhinavagupta on this verse survives; the honest report is silence, not a reconstructed position. On a Kashmir Shaiva reading, one might extend his account of the Lord's self-manifestation to suggest the unfillable hunger mirrors consciousness recognizing a fullness that hearing alone cannot exhaust, but this is a conditional extrapolation offered by this page, clearly not his own words.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara hears a request beneath the request: teach the glories so that in every object only the thought of you arises. He reads the whole verse as praise wearing the shape of a request, since a mind fed on amrita has no alam, no stopping point of enough, and the Lord's fitting reply to such an ear is simply to keep speaking.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Madhusudana takes up the standing objection directly, why ask again for what is already told, and answers it from Arjuna's own words: no cutting off of longing by any sense of enough, and a drinking-in of the nectar of Krishna's speech, sweeter at every step. He notices, too, that Arjuna never plainly says your words, and reads that veiling itself as proof of how far his longing overflows plain description.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
If I keep coming back to the same teaching and never feel finished with it, does that mean I have not truly understood it yet?
Not on this verse's own account. Arjuna has already been given the teaching, in the seventh and ninth chapters, and no commentator here reads his return as proof he missed it the first time. The return is read as sweetness continuing to work, not comprehension failing to land.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
What is being described is a different kind of fullness than the kind that ends wanting. Ramanuja reads the never-arriving satisfaction as already known and, in that sense, already welcomed by the one being asked; it is not a gap to be closed but a relationship being lived.
Rāmānujācārya
Sridhara and Madhusudana both take the hunger itself as the sign of something working rightly: a mind fed on nectar does not reach a stopping point the way it does on ordinary food, and that overflow, rather than any deficiency in understanding, is what keeps bringing you back.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Contemplation
Notice, the next time a teaching you already know moves you again, that the moving itself is not a failure of memory. Let the wanting to hear it once more be received rather than corrected, and return to the source instead of assuming you have already drawn all there is from it.
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.