The chief of each class is his glory, even the consciousness in beings.
Krishna is still naming the places where he can be found, and here he gives four at once. Among the Vedas he is the one that is sung; among the gods, their king; among the senses, the mind that moves them; and in beings, the very awareness by which they know.
Among the Vedas, I am the Sama-Veda. Among the gods, I am Indra. Among the senses, I am the mind. In beings, I am consciousness.
The roll-call of glories is already under way; this verse keeps its form, one class, one chief, four times over, and ends at the awareness inside living beings.
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.
He is not made of Vedas or gods or senses; in each group he names the chief, because that is where his presence shows most clearly.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Rāmānuja · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · Baladeva · Sivananda · Tilak · Ramsukhdas · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · ViśvanāthaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 12 others’ words
This verse continues Krishna's roll-call of his vibhutis, his special glories: he names the single best item in each of four classes and says that item is himself. Among the four Vedas he is the Samaveda; among the gods he is Vasava, that is, Indra; among the senses he is the mind; and among beings he is chetana, consciousness. The form is always the same: pick the chief of a group, and there see the Lord most clearly. The commentators stress that Krishna is not made of these things, rather he is pointing to where his presence shines out with the greatest brilliance, so the meditator has a definite handhold for contemplation.
Among the Vedas he is the one that is sung, for worship carried on song has a sweetness the bare recited word does not.
Across Advaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, Viśiṣṭādvaita, and the modern voicesMadhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Baladeva · Tilak · Ramsukhdas · Śaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Vedānta Deśika · ŚrīdharaIn Madhusūdana, Nīlakaṇṭha, and 9 others’ words
He is the Samaveda among the Vedas, and the reason almost every commentator gives is the same: the Samaveda is the Veda that is sung, and its sweetness of chant, its madhurya or musical loveliness, lifts it above the others. Worship offered as song carries a beauty the bare recited or ritual texts do not, so the Lord shines out most in the sung Veda. Several voices add that this musical sweetness is why the Samaveda is the fitting glory here, and the devotional commentators link it directly to praising the Lord through song.
Among the gods he is Vasava, Indra their king; where the divine order has its head, there his glory gathers.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Rāmānuja · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · Sivananda · TilakIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 11 others’ words
Among the gods he is Vasava, which the commentators uniformly gloss as Indra, the king and lord of all the gods. The point is rank: Indra is the chief, the ruler of the divine order, so among the gods that is where the Lord's glory is concentrated. A few add the texture of why Indra holds this chiefship, naming his lordship over the other deities such as the Rudras and Adityas, his kingship, and his share in the fruits of action.
Among the senses he is the mind, the inner one that prompts all the rest; your eyes and ears can do nothing without it.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Rāmānuja · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Baladeva · Sivananda · Tilak · PuruṣottamaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 9 others’ words
Among the senses he is the mind, the manas. The commentators explain the mind's pre-eminence in two related ways. First, it is the inner sense that prompts and impels the other senses; the outer organs cannot act without it. Second, it is the inner field where the deliveries of the outer senses are received and processed, the instrument that governs the rest. Either way the mind is the chief of the senses, the eleventh among the eleven (the five organs of knowledge, the five of action, plus the mind), and so the Lord's glory in the realm of the senses is the mind.
And in beings he is chetanā, the awareness itself; what makes a being a being is that it knows, and there his glory stands.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Rāmānuja · Vedānta Deśika · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · Sivananda · ĀnandagiriIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 10 others’ words
Among beings he is chetana, consciousness, the very awareness or power of knowing that belongs to living things. This is named as the essential mark of a being: what makes a being a being, in its highest expression, is that it is conscious. The Advaita commentators describe chetana as the intellect's function or movement that manifests consciousness in the aggregate of body and senses, the illumining principle that lights up everything from the intellect down to the grossest object. The Vishishtadvaita and Bhakti commentators describe the same chetana as the jnana-shakti, the power of awareness or knowing, that beings carry. In both readings, consciousness is the deepest and best thing about a being, and there the Lord's glory stands out.
This is the shared ground; it can be carried as it is. Below is where they differ.
Where they differthe divergence
Advaita Vedānta, in their fuller words
These commentators read chetana, the consciousness among beings, as the function or modification of the intellect that manifests awareness within the aggregate of the body and the instruments. Chetana is described as the ever-manifest illumining principle, that which lights up everything from the intellect down to the grossest object. The mind in this reading is the sense whose nature is resolving and doubting, the impeller of the other organs. The accent falls on consciousness as the all-pervading manifestor that shines in the body-mind complex; one source even supplies that this manifestor of consciousness is to be understood as all-pervading and present up to death in the individual aggregate.
Viśiṣṭādvaita, in their fuller words
These commentators make a careful grammatical point that the others do not press: the genitive in this verse is not, in their reading, a genitive of selection that simply picks one item out of a class. Of beings that have consciousness, the consciousness itself is the Lord. They read chetana as the conscious-quality that is the essential mark of a being, the being-quality at its highest. One source frames the four sub-listings as an ordered descent from inner to outer, from the spoken inner record of the Veda, to the gods as the cosmic ordering principle, to the mind as the inner instrument, to consciousness as the essential mark, so that the verse supplies four contemplative objects of different registers, all of them the Lord.
Śuddhādvaita, in their fuller words
These commentators read chetana as the jnana-shakti, the power of knowing, in beings. One of them resolves a grammatical worry: since the mind is also being treated under the heading of the senses, the genitive here is not strictly one of selection alone, and the qualifier prayah (mostly, generally) from the following line is understood to cover the case, since the mind too can be counted as a sense without contradiction. The other develops Indra's chiefship in fuller detail, naming him Shatamakha (lord of a hundred sacrifices), the enjoyer of a portion of every action, and the enjoyer of kingship, and reads the mind specifically as the impeller of all and as the deity-aspect (adhidaivika) sense.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
These commentators gloss chetana as the jnana-shakti, the power of awareness that belongs to beings as beings, the very awareness that is theirs. They emphasize the devotional register of the Samaveda's sweetness of song as the way the Lord's glory is worshipped, and one of them adds that the mind, besides being the prompter of the senses, is hard to conquer, durjaya. The stress is on these glories as objects of worship and praise of the Lord.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
These commentators add framing the classical voices leave implicit. One reads chetana as the movement of vitality in created beings, and devotes a long note to the apparent tension that elsewhere the Gita exalts the pranava Om in all the Vedas (7.8) and lists the Rigveda first (9.17), resolving it by appeal to the Chandogya teaching that the udgitha (Om) is the summary of the Samaveda and the Samaveda the summary of the Rigveda, and concluding that the real reason for exalting the Samaveda here is simply that song-worship is always given prominence on the path of devotion. Another likewise states that the Samaveda, being the Vedic verses sung with melody, is where the praise of the Lord in the form of Indra is set out, which is why it is his vibhuti. A third spells out the eleven senses in full and explains chetana as the intelligence manifest in the aggregate of body and senses that illumines all.
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
Take the verse as a set of four contemplative handholds, each in a different register, and let each one lead your attention the same way: from the outer toward the source. Begin with the sung Veda and notice how worship offered as music carries a beauty bare words do not, then move inward to the ordering power that runs the cosmos, then further in to your own mind, the inner instrument that governs all your senses, and finally to consciousness itself, the awareness that is the very mark of your being. In each of these the same Lord is shining as the chief, the best, the most luminous. You do not have to leave your daily experience to find him; you only have to look at its highest point and see whose glory that is.
You do not have to leave your day to find him: the awareness by which you know it is already his.
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
his verse continues Krishna's roll-call of his vibhutis, his special glories: he names the single best item in each of four classes and says that item is himself. Among the four Vedas he is the Samaveda; among the gods he is Vasava, that is, Indra; among the senses he is the mind; and among beings he is chetana, consciousness. The form is always the same: pick the chief of a group, and there see the Lord most clearly. The commentators stress that Krishna is not made of these things, rather he is pointing to where his presence shines out with the greatest brilliance, so the meditator has a definite handhold for contemplation.
Braided from 14 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīla Viśvanātha
He is the Samaveda among the Vedas, and the reason almost every commentator gives is the same: the Samaveda is the Veda that is sung, and its sweetness of chant, its madhurya or musical loveliness, lifts it above the others. Worship offered as song carries a beauty the bare recited or ritual texts do not, so the Lord shines out most in the sung Veda. Several voices add that this musical sweetness is why the Samaveda is the fitting glory here, and the devotional commentators link it directly to praising the Lord through song.
Braided from 11 commentators
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīla Baladeva · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas · Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Among the gods he is Vasava, which the commentators uniformly gloss as Indra, the king and lord of all the gods. The point is rank: Indra is the chief, the ruler of the divine order, so among the gods that is where the Lord's glory is concentrated. A few add the texture of why Indra holds this chiefship, naming his lordship over the other deities such as the Rudras and Adityas, his kingship, and his share in the fruits of action.
Braided from 13 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak
Among the senses he is the mind, the manas. The commentators explain the mind's pre-eminence in two related ways. First, it is the inner sense that prompts and impels the other senses; the outer organs cannot act without it. Second, it is the inner field where the deliveries of the outer senses are received and processed, the instrument that governs the rest. Either way the mind is the chief of the senses, the eleventh among the eleven (the five organs of knowledge, the five of action, plus the mind), and so the Lord's glory in the realm of the senses is the mind.
Braided from 11 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Śrī Puruṣottama
Among beings he is chetana, consciousness, the very awareness or power of knowing that belongs to living things. This is named as the essential mark of a being: what makes a being a being, in its highest expression, is that it is conscious. The Advaita commentators describe chetana as the intellect's function or movement that manifests consciousness in the aggregate of body and senses, the illumining principle that lights up everything from the intellect down to the grossest object. The Vishishtadvaita and Bhakti commentators describe the same chetana as the jnana-shakti, the power of awareness or knowing, that beings carry. In both readings, consciousness is the deepest and best thing about a being, and there the Lord's glory stands out.
Braided from 12 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Śrī Ānandagiri
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators read chetana, the consciousness among beings, as the function or modification of the intellect that manifests awareness within the aggregate of the body and the instruments. Chetana is described as the ever-manifest illumining principle, that which lights up everything from the intellect down to the grossest object. The mind in this reading is the sense whose nature is resolving and doubting, the impeller of the other organs. The accent falls on consciousness as the all-pervading manifestor that shines in the body-mind complex; one source even supplies that this manifestor of consciousness is to be understood as all-pervading and present up to death in the individual aggregate.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Ānandagiri · Swami Sivananda
Viśiṣṭādvaita
These commentators make a careful grammatical point that the others do not press: the genitive in this verse is not, in their reading, a genitive of selection that simply picks one item out of a class. Of beings that have consciousness, the consciousness itself is the Lord. They read chetana as the conscious-quality that is the essential mark of a being, the being-quality at its highest. One source frames the four sub-listings as an ordered descent from inner to outer, from the spoken inner record of the Veda, to the gods as the cosmic ordering principle, to the mind as the inner instrument, to consciousness as the essential mark, so that the verse supplies four contemplative objects of different registers, all of them the Lord.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators read chetana as the jnana-shakti, the power of knowing, in beings. One of them resolves a grammatical worry: since the mind is also being treated under the heading of the senses, the genitive here is not strictly one of selection alone, and the qualifier prayah (mostly, generally) from the following line is understood to cover the case, since the mind too can be counted as a sense without contradiction. The other develops Indra's chiefship in fuller detail, naming him Shatamakha (lord of a hundred sacrifices), the enjoyer of a portion of every action, and the enjoyer of kingship, and reads the mind specifically as the impeller of all and as the deity-aspect (adhidaivika) sense.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
These commentators gloss chetana as the jnana-shakti, the power of awareness that belongs to beings as beings, the very awareness that is theirs. They emphasize the devotional register of the Samaveda's sweetness of song as the way the Lord's glory is worshipped, and one of them adds that the mind, besides being the prompter of the senses, is hard to conquer, durjaya. The stress is on these glories as objects of worship and praise of the Lord.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Śrī Puruṣottama
Modern
These commentators add framing the classical voices leave implicit. One reads chetana as the movement of vitality in created beings, and devotes a long note to the apparent tension that elsewhere the Gita exalts the pranava Om in all the Vedas (7.8) and lists the Rigveda first (9.17), resolving it by appeal to the Chandogya teaching that the udgitha (Om) is the summary of the Samaveda and the Samaveda the summary of the Rigveda, and concluding that the real reason for exalting the Samaveda here is simply that song-worship is always given prominence on the path of devotion. Another likewise states that the Samaveda, being the Vedic verses sung with melody, is where the praise of the Lord in the form of Indra is set out, which is why it is his vibhuti. A third spells out the eleven senses in full and explains chetana as the intelligence manifest in the aggregate of body and senses that illumines all.
Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas · Swami Sivananda
A Seeker Asks
If Krishna is the consciousness in every being and the mind in every person, in what sense is he singling out a glory rather than just describing what is true of everything everywhere?
The verse is not claiming to be everything equally; it is pointing to the chief item in each class, the place where the Lord's presence is most concentrated and visible. Among the Vedas it is the one that is sung, among the gods it is their king, among the senses it is the one that governs and impels the rest. The whole method of these vibhuti verses is to give the meditator a definite, outstanding handhold rather than a vague everywhere.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Vedānta Deśika · Rāmānujācārya · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha
Consciousness is named here precisely because it is the best and deepest thing about a being, not merely one feature among many. It is the essential mark of a being, the awareness or power of knowing without which a being would not be a being at all, and the principle that lights up everything else from the intellect down to the grossest object. So to say the Lord is the chetana in beings is to point to their highest point, the very thing that makes them alive and aware, and there to recognize his glory.
Braided from 6 commentators
Vedānta Deśika · Rāmānujācārya · Swami Sivananda · Śaṅkarācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva
Contemplation
Take the verse as a set of four contemplative handholds, each in a different register, and let each one lead your attention the same way: from the outer toward the source. Begin with the sung Veda and notice how worship offered as music carries a beauty bare words do not, then move inward to the ordering power that runs the cosmos, then further in to your own mind, the inner instrument that governs all your senses, and finally to consciousness itself, the awareness that is the very mark of your being. In each of these the same Lord is shining as the chief, the best, the most luminous. You do not have to leave your daily experience to find him; you only have to look at its highest point and see whose glory that is.
Sit with this · Vedānta Deśika
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, tap a name in The seating.