The list of glories ends here, but the glories themselves have no end.
Krishna has named glory after glory, and now he stops, not because the catalogue is complete but because it never could be. What he has spoken is a brief indication of something without limit, a few names pointing toward the boundless rest.
There is no end to my divine manifestations, Arjuna. What I have given here is only a brief account of their extent.
It comes at the very end of the chapter's long roll of glories: Krishna closes the topic on purpose, not with one more example but with the sweeping word that the list could never be finished.
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.
Here the chapter of glories closes; Krishna does not add one more name, he steps back and tells you the list could never be finished.
Across Advaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · TilakIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 6 others’ words
This verse is Krishna's deliberate sign-off for the whole chapter of glories. Having listed example after example of his vibhutis (his special manifestations, the outstanding instance in each class of things), he now steps back and closes the topic with a single sweeping statement: the list could never have been finished. The commentators read 'na anto asti', 'there is no end', as the plain heart of the verse, and they note that the chapter ends here on purpose, with a summary rather than with more examples.
These glories have no measure that could ever be reached; to know them in full would be to set a limit on what has none.
Across Advaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, Viśiṣṭādvaita, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Dhanapati · Sivananda · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · RāmānujaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 5 others’ words
The reason the list had to stop is that the glories are literally endless. They have no limit, no boundary, no measure that could ever be reached. Because of this, no one can fully tell or fully know them. Several commentators press this hard: even an all-knowing knower could not exhaust them, because to know them in full would be to set a limit on what has no limit. So the incompleteness of Krishna's catalogue is not a failure of speech or memory; it is built into the nature of what is being described.
What you have heard is a sample, a few names spoken by way of indication; take them as a finger pointing toward the glory never named.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabha · Nīlakaṇṭha · Baladeva · Viśvanātha · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 6 others’ words
What Krishna has actually given, then, is only a sample, spoken 'uddeshatah', by way of indication. The commentators stress that this word means a naming-by-example, a pointing-out of a few instances, not a complete or closed roll. The few glories named are meant as a finger pointing at the infinite rest. The listener is not to mistake the sample for the whole; he is to take these named items and from them infer, and extend his seeing toward, the boundless glory that was never named.
Krishna calls you scorcher of foes, and the foes are within; let this very contemplation of his glory be the fire that burns them.
Across Advaita, and the modern voicesMadhusūdana · Dhanapati · SivanandaIn Madhusūdana, Dhanapati, and 1 others’ words
The address 'Parantapa', scorcher of foes, is not a throwaway form of speech; the commentators find a pointed meaning in it. Read against the chapter's purpose, the foes Arjuna is to scorch are inner: attachment and aversion, and the cluster of desire, anger, and greed. The implication is that this very contemplation of the Lord's divine glory is itself the fire that burns those inner enemies. Knowing the glory, one is to turn its heat on the foes within.
This is the shared ground; it can be carried as it is. Below is where they differ.
Where they differthe divergence
Bhakti, in their fuller words
On the Bhakti reading the unfinished list is an invitation rather than a closed account. Because completeness is on the face of it beyond speech, the roll was never even meant to be complete; what counts is that the devotee learn the way of seeing. Hearing only a sample, the devotee is to carry the same seeing outward and find the Lord's portion in every excellent thing not named here as well. The catalogue is thus a training in vision, teaching the heart to recognize its Lord wherever excellence shines.
Śuddhādvaita, in their fuller words
This reading dwells on the freedom and play behind the glories. The divine vibhutis are 'self-formed in play', arising from the Lord's own free movement, not extracted from him by any need or necessity. It also reads a second point into the very act of speaking: by the fact that only the Lord could speak even this much, the inability of anyone else to know even this small portion is quietly signified. The address 'Parantapa' here is taken as spoken for the sake of strengthening Arjuna's faith.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
This devotional-Vedanta reading turns the endlessness into a living practice for the seeker. The word 'divya', divine, marks the uncommon and extraordinary; and since none is divine like the Lord, wherever the seeker's mind goes and contemplates him, that very divinity will at once come forth there. Even the gods, who are themselves called divine, forever carry the longing for the Lord's darshan. So the seeker need not chase a finished list; the divine shows itself at the very place where the mind rests on the Lord.
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
Return to this verse over the coming days. Read once, it stays a phrase; sat with, it begins to settle.
Whatever excellence meets you today, count it among the glories that were never named.
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 listed example after example of his vibhutis (his special manifestations, the outstanding instance in each class of things), he now steps back and closes the topic with a single sweeping statement: the list could never have been finished. The commentators read 'na anto asti', 'there is no end', as the plain heart of the verse, and they note that the chapter ends here on purpose, with a summary rather than with more examples.
Braided from 8 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Lokmanya Tilak
The reason the list had to stop is that the glories are literally endless. They have no limit, no boundary, no measure that could ever be reached. Because of this, no one can fully tell or fully know them. Several commentators press this hard: even an all-knowing knower could not exhaust them, because to know them in full would be to set a limit on what has no limit. So the incompleteness of Krishna's catalogue is not a failure of speech or memory; it is built into the nature of what is being described.
Braided from 7 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Swami Sivananda · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Rāmānujācārya
What Krishna has actually given, then, is only a sample, spoken 'uddeshatah', by way of indication. The commentators stress that this word means a naming-by-example, a pointing-out of a few instances, not a complete or closed roll. The few glories named are meant as a finger pointing at the infinite rest. The listener is not to mistake the sample for the whole; he is to take these named items and from them infer, and extend his seeing toward, the boundless glory that was never named.
Braided from 8 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Śrīla Baladeva · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The address 'Parantapa', scorcher of foes, is not a throwaway form of speech; the commentators find a pointed meaning in it. Read against the chapter's purpose, the foes Arjuna is to scorch are inner: attachment and aversion, and the cluster of desire, anger, and greed. The implication is that this very contemplation of the Lord's divine glory is itself the fire that burns those inner enemies. Knowing the glory, one is to turn its heat on the foes within.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Swami Sivananda
Divergence
Bhakti
On the Bhakti reading the unfinished list is an invitation rather than a closed account. Because completeness is on the face of it beyond speech, the roll was never even meant to be complete; what counts is that the devotee learn the way of seeing. Hearing only a sample, the devotee is to carry the same seeing outward and find the Lord's portion in every excellent thing not named here as well. The catalogue is thus a training in vision, teaching the heart to recognize its Lord wherever excellence shines.
Vallabhācārya · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Śuddhādvaita
This reading dwells on the freedom and play behind the glories. The divine vibhutis are 'self-formed in play', arising from the Lord's own free movement, not extracted from him by any need or necessity. It also reads a second point into the very act of speaking: by the fact that only the Lord could speak even this much, the inability of anyone else to know even this small portion is quietly signified. The address 'Parantapa' here is taken as spoken for the sake of strengthening Arjuna's faith.
Śrī Puruṣottama
Modern
This devotional-Vedanta reading turns the endlessness into a living practice for the seeker. The word 'divya', divine, marks the uncommon and extraordinary; and since none is divine like the Lord, wherever the seeker's mind goes and contemplates him, that very divinity will at once come forth there. Even the gods, who are themselves called divine, forever carry the longing for the Lord's darshan. So the seeker need not chase a finished list; the divine shows itself at the very place where the mind rests on the Lord.
Swami Ramsukhdas
A Seeker Asks
If even Krishna says his glories cannot be exhausted in speech, what is the point of a list at all, and what am I supposed to do with the few examples he did give?
The list was never meant to be complete, and Krishna says so plainly. He gives the examples 'by way of indication', as a sample that points beyond itself; the incompleteness is not a gap to be filled but the very nature of an infinite glory that no speech, and no knower however vast, could ever exhaust.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
So the examples are a finger pointing, not a fence. You are meant to take the few named glories and from them infer and extend your seeing toward the boundless rest, learning to recognize the Lord's portion in every excellent thing that was never named.
Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrīla Viśvanātha
And the seeing has a practical edge. The verse calls you 'scorcher of foes', which the commentators read as the inner foes of attachment, aversion, desire, anger, and greed. This very contemplation of the Lord's glory is the fire that burns them; the list does its work when it turns your attention toward him and that attention consumes the enemies within.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Swami Sivananda
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.