The list closes, but only because no telling could ever reach the end of it.
Krishna does not run out of examples; he tells you plainly that examples could never be enough. What was named across this whole chapter was always a sample, offered so that you would look past it, not stop at it.
There is no end to my divine glories, Arjuna. What I have told you here is only a brief indication of their reach.
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
You have just heard Krishna move through glory after glory, the outstanding instance in class after class, the Himalaya among mountains, the ocean among waters, the syllable Om among words. Now he stops, and tells you plainly why: not because the list ran out, but because it never could have finished.
The teaching
There is no end to these divine glories, Krishna says, none at all. And what has been told across this whole chapter, all the way back to the request that opened it, has been told only by way of indication, a single portion offered as a sign toward what could not be spoken in full. This is a statement about the nature of the thing described, not about a failure of the telling. Shankara is direct on this point: to know something completely is to have reached its edge, and what has no edge cannot be completely known even by a boundless knower. So the list was never going to close the account, however long it ran. Each named glory, on this reading, is a sign rather than a summary. Ramanuja calls it a limiting mark, a boundary drawn around one class of excellent things to make the Lord's rulership visible there, never a claim that exhausts the class itself. Learn to see rightly in one instance, and you have learned the way of seeing that could, in principle, find the same rulership anywhere the list never reached. And the closing address carries its own weight. You are called scorcher of foes here, at the very place the catalogue ends, and Madhusudana reads this as no accident: the true foes are inward, attachment and aversion, desire, anger, and greed, and this very contemplation of an endless glory is the fire meant to burn them. The unfinished list, then, was never meant only to inform you. It was given so that turning your attention toward it would do something to what binds you.
The doubt that rises
If even Krishna says the telling could never be complete, what exactly was the finite list for, and what am I supposed to do with the handful of named things now that the catalogue has closed? And when a source's own words on this verse are thin, as with Madhva here, or folded into a larger passage, as with Abhinavagupta, what is owed to the reader in that silence?
Where the paths divide
Read as a plain statement of measure.
Shankara reads the verse as closing the chapter with an exact admission: the Self's own glory cannot be told or known in full by anyone, since completeness requires an edge that this glory does not have. What was spoken was a pointing, in a single portion, and the stopping of the list is itself instruction about what it points toward.
Read as rulership shown through limiting marks.
Ramanuja reads each named glory as a limiting mark, a sign set up to show the Lord's rulership visibly in one class without exhausting that class. The devotee who has understood even one mark rightly has learned the method for finding the same rulership everywhere else, so the roll can end here without loss, its purpose being worship rather than a completed inventory.
Read as an honest silence, with only a flagged extension offered.
No comment from Madhva on this verse has come down to us, and this page will not invent one. On a Dvaita reading extended from his larger teaching, one might suggest that an unlimited glory belonging solely to the Lord marks the very line his system draws between the one independent reality and every dependent being's borrowed excellence, but that is offered here as a conditional extension of his method, never as his recorded words.
Read within a combined passage guarding against fragmentation.
Abhinavagupta's surviving comment treats this verse as part of one continuous unit running from 10.19 to 10.42, concerned throughout with a single danger: that naming a chief glory in each class might lead a listener to mistake that one thing for the whole of Brahman. Extended to this closing verse specifically, an avowedly unfinished list is itself part of that safeguard, since what openly admits its own incompleteness resists being mistaken for a closed account. This reading is offered as an extension of his stated concern, not as a sentence he wrote about 10.40 in particular.
Read as an honest teacher marking his own limit.
Sridhara brings the whole chapter to its summary in the two words there is no end, content to mark the close rather than press further argument onto it. The roll was never even meant to be complete, since completeness is plainly beyond what speech can hold, and a teacher who tells you exactly where his words run out has told you something true about the thing itself.
Read as instrument, not only information.
Madhusudana reads the closing address, scorcher of foes, as doing real work at this precise juncture. The foes fit to be scorched are internal, attachment, aversion, desire, anger, and greed, and contemplating this endless glory is itself the fire that burns them. The verse states honestly that the telling was always partial, and hands you the practical use to which even a partial telling can be put.
All six readings agree the list is genuinely endless and that what was given was only ever a sample. They part on what to make of that. Advaita reads it as a statement about the limits of telling and knowing as such. Vishishtadvaita reads each item as a sign of rulership meant to teach a method of seeing. Kashmir Shaivism, read into this closing verse from a wider passage, treats the admitted incompleteness as a guard against fragmenting an undivided whole. Bhakti simply honors the teacher's own honest limit. The modern-facing reading turns the unfinished catalogue into a fire for inner foes. And on two voices, Madhva entirely and Abhinavagupta specifically for this line, the record itself is thin or silent; this page leaves that gap open rather than filling it with invented confidence.
A question to carry
Now that the list has closed without finishing, what excellent thing in your own life today, never named in any scripture, might you let stand as one more unnamed glory pointing back toward the source this chapter could never fully name?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
You were given a sample, not an inventory, and that was always enough. Let the next excellence you meet, however small, be received as one more thing this list never reached, and let it turn you, gently, toward what has no end.
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.
This is the closing word on the long catalogue of divine glories that has filled the second half of the chapter: not one more instance, but the sweeping admission that instances could never suffice.
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.
The glories have no measure that any telling could reach, so the catalogue's ending is not exhaustion of content but honesty about its nature.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
This verse is Krishna's deliberate sign-off for the whole chapter of glories. Having named example after example, the outstanding instance in class after class, he now steps back and closes the topic with one sweeping statement: there is no end to these glories, and the list could never have been finished. The commentators read this as an ending placed here on purpose, a summary rather than one more example.
Every named glory was a sign pointing at a wider possession, never a claim that used up the class it was drawn from.
Across Advaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 1 others’ words
The reason the list had to stop is built into what it describes. The glories are without limit, without measure, so no telling, however long, could reach their edge. Shankara presses this hardest: to know a thing completely is to have come to its boundary, and what has none cannot be known in that complete way by anyone, however vast a knower.
Being addressed as scorcher of foes at this close turns the whole list from information into a fire meant to burn what binds you within.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhusūdana · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
What Krishna has actually given, then, is only a sample, spoken by way of indication, a pointing at a few instances rather than a closed roll. Ramanuja calls the named items limiting marks, signs set up to show a wider possession beyond the sign itself; the listener is meant to take the pointer and look past it, not mistake the finger for the whole reach it indicates.
Where a source's own words on this verse are thin or absent, that gap is named plainly rather than smoothed over with invented confidence.
Across AdvaitaMadhusūdanaIn Madhusūdana’s words
The address scorcher of foes, parantapa, is read as carrying real weight at this closing moment rather than being a leftover formality. Madhusudana in particular reads the true foes as inward: attachment and aversion, desire, anger, and greed. The contemplation of this endless glory is itself the fire meant to burn them, so the whole catalogue is turned, at its very close, from information into instrument.
A teacher who tells you exactly where his words run out has told you something true about the thing itself, not merely about his own limits.
Across Dvaita, Kashmir ŚaivaMadhva · AbhinavaguptaIn Madhva and Abhinavagupta’s words
Where a source is thin or silent, that silence is reported rather than filled with invented confidence. Madhva's own comment on this verse has not survived, and Abhinavagupta's surviving remark treats this line as part of one continuous unit stretching from 10.19 to 10.42 rather than addressing 10.40 on its own; both facts are stated plainly here, with only clearly flagged extrapolation offered where the source itself is quiet.
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 each named glory as a limiting mark, a boundary drawn around one class of excellent things to show the Lord's rulership visibly there, never an exhaustive claim on that class. The devotee who understands even one mark rightly has learned the method for finding the same rulership everywhere else, so the chapter can close without loss, its aim being worship rather than an inventory.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
No comment from Madhva on this verse survives; the honest report is silence, not a reconstructed position. On a Dvaita reading extended from his larger teaching, one might suggest that unlimited, unexhausted glory belonging solely to the Lord marks exactly the line his system draws between the one independent reality and every dependent being's borrowed excellence, but this is a conditional extrapolation offered by this page, clearly not his recorded words.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara brings the chapter's topic to its summary in the two words there is no end, content simply to mark the close rather than press further argument. The roll was never even meant to be complete, since completeness is plainly beyond what speech can hold, and a teacher who admits exactly where his own words run out has told the listener something true about the thing itself.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Madhusudana reads the closing address, scorcher of foes, as doing real work at this precise juncture: the foes fit to be scorched are internal, attachment, aversion, desire, anger, and greed, and contemplating this endless glory is itself the fire that burns them. The verse states honestly that the telling was always partial, and hands the listener the practical use to which even a partial telling can be put.
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
Sit for a moment with the plain fact this verse states: whatever has been named to you of the Lord's glory, far more was left unnamed, not from withholding but because no telling could reach its edge. Let that admission settle any hunger in you to complete the list, and notice instead one excellent thing in front of you today, however small, and let it stand as the pointer this verse says it always was.
May the next excellent thing you meet, however small, be received as an unnamed glory pointing you back toward the one the list could never finish.
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 is Krishna's deliberate sign-off for the whole chapter of glories. Having named example after example, the outstanding instance in class after class, he now steps back and closes the topic with one sweeping statement: there is no end to these glories, and the list could never have been finished. The commentators read this as an ending placed here on purpose, a summary rather than one more example.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The reason the list had to stop is built into what it describes. The glories are without limit, without measure, so no telling, however long, could reach their edge. Shankara presses this hardest: to know a thing completely is to have come to its boundary, and what has none cannot be known in that complete way by anyone, however vast a knower.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
What Krishna has actually given, then, is only a sample, spoken by way of indication, a pointing at a few instances rather than a closed roll. Ramanuja calls the named items limiting marks, signs set up to show a wider possession beyond the sign itself; the listener is meant to take the pointer and look past it, not mistake the finger for the whole reach it indicates.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
The address scorcher of foes, parantapa, is read as carrying real weight at this closing moment rather than being a leftover formality. Madhusudana in particular reads the true foes as inward: attachment and aversion, desire, anger, and greed. The contemplation of this endless glory is itself the fire meant to burn them, so the whole catalogue is turned, at its very close, from information into instrument.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Where a source is thin or silent, that silence is reported rather than filled with invented confidence. Madhva's own comment on this verse has not survived, and Abhinavagupta's surviving remark treats this line as part of one continuous unit stretching from 10.19 to 10.42 rather than addressing 10.40 on its own; both facts are stated plainly here, with only clearly flagged extrapolation offered where the source itself is quiet.
Madhvācārya · Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Shankara reads the verse as a plain statement of measure: the Self's own glory cannot be told or known in full by anyone, since completeness would require reaching an edge that does not exist. What was spoken was offered as a pointing, in a single portion, and the listener's task is to let the stopping of the list itself function as instruction about the nature of what it describes.
Śaṅkarācārya
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Ramanuja reads each named glory as a limiting mark, a boundary drawn around one class of excellent things to show the Lord's rulership visibly there, never an exhaustive claim on that class. The devotee who understands even one mark rightly has learned the method for finding the same rulership everywhere else, so the chapter can close without loss, its aim being worship rather than an inventory.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
No comment from Madhva on this verse survives; the honest report is silence, not a reconstructed position. On a Dvaita reading extended from his larger teaching, one might suggest that unlimited, unexhausted glory belonging solely to the Lord marks exactly the line his system draws between the one independent reality and every dependent being's borrowed excellence, but this is a conditional extrapolation offered by this page, clearly not his recorded words.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
Abhinavagupta's surviving comment treats 10.19 through 10.42 as one continuous unit guarding against a specific misreading: that naming a chief glory in each class might lead a listener to mistake that one thing for the whole of Brahman, cutting apart an undivided reality. Read into this closing verse specifically, an avowedly unfinished list is itself part of that safeguard, since what openly admits its own incompleteness cannot be mistaken for a closed account that excludes what it leaves unnamed; this extension is flagged as a reading of his stated concern, not his own sentence on 10.40.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara brings the chapter's topic to its summary in the two words there is no end, content simply to mark the close rather than press further argument. The roll was never even meant to be complete, since completeness is plainly beyond what speech can hold, and a teacher who admits exactly where his own words run out has told the listener something true about the thing itself.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Madhusudana reads the closing address, scorcher of foes, as doing real work at this precise juncture: the foes fit to be scorched are internal, attachment, aversion, desire, anger, and greed, and contemplating this endless glory is itself the fire that burns them. The verse states honestly that the telling was always partial, and hands the listener the practical use to which even a partial telling can be put.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
If even Krishna admits his glories cannot be exhausted in speech, what was the point of the whole chapter's list, and what am I supposed to do with the handful of examples he actually gave?
The list was never meant to be complete, and this verse says so outright. What was told was told by way of indication, a sample that points beyond itself; the incompleteness is not a gap left to be filled later but the very nature of a glory that no speech, and no knower however vast, could exhaust.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
So the named items are signs, not a fence around what counts. Ramanuja's limiting marks show you where a rulership stands most visibly in each class so that you can learn to recognize the same rulership in everything the list never reached, rather than treating the roll as a closed set.
Rāmānujācārya
And the use is practical, not merely informational. Being called scorcher of foes at this precise close suggests the real aim: this contemplation is meant to burn attachment, aversion, desire, anger, and greed in you. The list does its work when it turns your attention toward the Lord and that attention starts consuming what binds you.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Contemplation
Sit for a moment with the plain fact this verse states: whatever has been named to you of the Lord's glory, far more was left unnamed, not from withholding but because no telling could reach its edge. Let that admission settle any hunger in you to complete the list, and notice instead one excellent thing in front of you today, however small, and let it stand as the pointer this verse says it always was.
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.