Whatever shines with glory, fortune, or strength is born of a fragment of his splendor.
The catalogue of divine glories is drawing to a close, and no list could ever finish them. So Krishna hands Arjuna a single rule to cover all the rest: whatever excels anywhere, in any way, has risen from one portion of his splendor.
Whatever being is glorious, prosperous, or powerful, know that it springs from a fragment of my splendor.
It comes at the end of the chapter's long roll of manifestations, after Krishna has named glory upon glory by name, and turns the unfinishable list into one covering rule.
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 list could never be finished, so one mark now covers every being at all: glory, fortune, or surpassing strength.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Rāmānuja · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · RamsukhdasIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 11 others’ words
This verse is the closing rule of the whole catalogue of divine manifestations. After listing specific glories one by one, Krishna now gives a single principle that covers all the rest. The grammar is sweeping: 'whatever being' (yad yad sattvam) means any thing at all, living or not. Krishna names three marks of such a thing. It is 'vibhutimat,' possessed of glory or lordship; 'shrimat,' rich in fortune, beauty, or grace; and 'urjitam,' vigorous, surpassing in strength or power. Several commentators note that this is given precisely because the list could never be finished, so a defining characteristic is stated to gather up even the glories left unspoken.
Wherever such splendor meets you, know it born of a single portion of his power; the most dazzling thing carries a fragment, never the whole.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Rāmānuja · Vedānta Deśika · Madhva · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · Tilak · RamsukhdasIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 13 others’ words
Wherever any such glory, fortune, or strength is found, Krishna says, know that very thing to have arisen from a portion of his 'tejas,' his splendor or power. The key words are 'amsha-sambhavam,' born of a portion or fragment. Even the most dazzling thing in the world is not the whole of his power but only a single part of it. The commentators are emphatic about this proportion: it is one fraction, one quarter, one region, one particle of his splendor that grounds an entire excellence. Tejas itself is glossed as the Lord's power, his brilliance, or, more pointedly, his power of overcoming and governing all others.
Carry this as a way of seeing: meet any excellence anywhere, even one never named here, and let your contemplation rest in the Lord.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesNīlakaṇṭha · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · RamsukhdasIn Nīlakaṇṭha, Vedānta Deśika, and 4 others’ words
The verse is not meant only as information but as a portable contemplative key. Because the catalogue cannot list everything, the seeker is handed a rule he can apply himself: encountering any glory, prosperity, or strength anywhere, he is to take it as the Lord's spark and let his contemplation rest there. The bhakti and devotional commentators in particular turn this outward into a living habit of seeing. Every excellence whatever, even one never named in Krishna's own roll, becomes a doorway through which contemplation can rest in the Lord, so that no object of beauty or force is met without the Lord being met in it.
This is the shared ground; it can be carried as it is. Below is where they differ.
Where they differthe divergence
Dvaita, in their fuller words
This school presses the word 'portion' (amsha) to draw a sharp line between two kinds of beings. Most glorious beings, including high gods like Rudra, Indra, and the rulers, are merely joined with a portion of the Lord's splendor; they are individual living beings carrying a fraction. But certain forms, the Boar (Varaha), Krishna, Rama, Kapila, and others, are not portions at all: they are the Lord himself, his own essential forms. The supporting scriptures cited are the Paingi and Gautama supplementary hymns and the Bhagavata (1.3.27-28), which lists the seers, Manus, and gods as portions of Hari while naming the avatara forms as the Person himself. The word 'but' (tu) in 'but Krishna is the Lord himself' is read as decisive, marking the contrast. A grammatical argument is added: the later plural verb 'they gladden the world' cannot refer back to Krishna alone once the sentence has separated him out, so the distinction between portion-beings and the Lord's own forms must stand.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Within the devotional commentators there is a notable split over whether the verse allows ranking among manifestations. One devotional reading holds that the two notions in this verse, dependence upon the Lord and being pervaded by him, are what account for all the Gita's statements of non-difference and reconcile the special incarnations like Vamana with the general rule. The other devotional voice goes the opposite way, insisting that because the Lord's presence fills the whole universe, it is a sin to discriminate one manifestation as low and another as high; there are no grades of high and low in the divine being, as there is no front and back to the sun, and one should worship the Lord without distinction, as one in all and all in one.
Śuddhādvaita, in their fuller words
This school gives the 'portion' a specific content. The 'tejo-amsha' is not a generic divine stamp but the Lord's own being, his sat-cit-ananda (being, consciousness, bliss), appearing through a single quarter of itself alike in the inert object, in the conscious self (jiva), and in the inner controller. The operative agency is the Lord's inconceivable yoga-power (acintya yoga-shakti): that any one portion of his being should suffice to ground a whole world of excellences is itself the measure of that inconceivable power. The devotee's vision is to be tuned by this so that every excellent thing is read back to the very sat-cit-ananda of the Lord and he is met in it.
Viśiṣṭādvaita, in their fuller words
This school glosses tejas precisely as the power of overcoming others, the governing-power of the Lord whose power is unthinkable; the glorious thing springs from one region of that governing-power. The verse is read chiefly as supplying the general rule by which the seeker can extend the listing himself: every shining thing in the world is a spark of the Lord's brilliance, so the contemplation is made portable and not tied to the particular items already listed.
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 this verse as a practice you can carry everywhere. The long list of glories was never a closed catalogue; it was a sample. So wherever you meet anything in the world that is full of grace and beauty, or that surpasses in power, recognize that you have just met a portion of the Lord's own splendor. The point is to turn this into a steady habit of seeing. Every excellence whatever, even one the Gita never names, becomes a doorway by which your contemplation can come to rest in the Lord. Met this way, the world stops being a distraction from God and becomes a continual reminder of him.
Met this way, the world stops pulling you away from the Lord and begins, glory by glory, to remind you of him.
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 the closing rule of the whole catalogue of divine manifestations. After listing specific glories one by one, Krishna now gives a single principle that covers all the rest. The grammar is sweeping: 'whatever being' (yad yad sattvam) means any thing at all, living or not. Krishna names three marks of such a thing. It is 'vibhutimat,' possessed of glory or lordship; 'shrimat,' rich in fortune, beauty, or grace; and 'urjitam,' vigorous, surpassing in strength or power. Several commentators note that this is given precisely because the list could never be finished, so a defining characteristic is stated to gather up even the glories left unspoken.
Braided from 13 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Ramsukhdas
Wherever any such glory, fortune, or strength is found, Krishna says, know that very thing to have arisen from a portion of his 'tejas,' his splendor or power. The key words are 'amsha-sambhavam,' born of a portion or fragment. Even the most dazzling thing in the world is not the whole of his power but only a single part of it. The commentators are emphatic about this proportion: it is one fraction, one quarter, one region, one particle of his splendor that grounds an entire excellence. Tejas itself is glossed as the Lord's power, his brilliance, or, more pointedly, his power of overcoming and governing all others.
Braided from 15 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Madhvācārya · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
The verse is not meant only as information but as a portable contemplative key. Because the catalogue cannot list everything, the seeker is handed a rule he can apply himself: encountering any glory, prosperity, or strength anywhere, he is to take it as the Lord's spark and let his contemplation rest there. The bhakti and devotional commentators in particular turn this outward into a living habit of seeing. Every excellence whatever, even one never named in Krishna's own roll, becomes a doorway through which contemplation can rest in the Lord, so that no object of beauty or force is met without the Lord being met in it.
Braided from 6 commentators
Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Ramsukhdas
Divergence
Dvaita
This school presses the word 'portion' (amsha) to draw a sharp line between two kinds of beings. Most glorious beings, including high gods like Rudra, Indra, and the rulers, are merely joined with a portion of the Lord's splendor; they are individual living beings carrying a fraction. But certain forms, the Boar (Varaha), Krishna, Rama, Kapila, and others, are not portions at all: they are the Lord himself, his own essential forms. The supporting scriptures cited are the Paingi and Gautama supplementary hymns and the Bhagavata (1.3.27-28), which lists the seers, Manus, and gods as portions of Hari while naming the avatara forms as the Person himself. The word 'but' (tu) in 'but Krishna is the Lord himself' is read as decisive, marking the contrast. A grammatical argument is added: the later plural verb 'they gladden the world' cannot refer back to Krishna alone once the sentence has separated him out, so the distinction between portion-beings and the Lord's own forms must stand.
Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha
Bhakti
Within the devotional commentators there is a notable split over whether the verse allows ranking among manifestations. One devotional reading holds that the two notions in this verse, dependence upon the Lord and being pervaded by him, are what account for all the Gita's statements of non-difference and reconcile the special incarnations like Vamana with the general rule. The other devotional voice goes the opposite way, insisting that because the Lord's presence fills the whole universe, it is a sin to discriminate one manifestation as low and another as high; there are no grades of high and low in the divine being, as there is no front and back to the sun, and one should worship the Lord without distinction, as one in all and all in one.
Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Śuddhādvaita
This school gives the 'portion' a specific content. The 'tejo-amsha' is not a generic divine stamp but the Lord's own being, his sat-cit-ananda (being, consciousness, bliss), appearing through a single quarter of itself alike in the inert object, in the conscious self (jiva), and in the inner controller. The operative agency is the Lord's inconceivable yoga-power (acintya yoga-shakti): that any one portion of his being should suffice to ground a whole world of excellences is itself the measure of that inconceivable power. The devotee's vision is to be tuned by this so that every excellent thing is read back to the very sat-cit-ananda of the Lord and he is met in it.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Viśiṣṭādvaita
This school glosses tejas precisely as the power of overcoming others, the governing-power of the Lord whose power is unthinkable; the glorious thing springs from one region of that governing-power. The verse is read chiefly as supplying the general rule by which the seeker can extend the listing himself: every shining thing in the world is a spark of the Lord's brilliance, so the contemplation is made portable and not tied to the particular items already listed.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
A Seeker Asks
If even a fraction of God's power produces the greatest glories I can see, what does it change in how I should meet a beautiful or powerful thing?
It changes the meaning of every glory you encounter. Krishna is giving you a rule, not just a list: whatever is glorious, fortunate, or strong has arisen from a portion of his splendor. So a thing's beauty or power is no longer just its own; it is a visible trace of the Lord, a single fraction of his brilliance standing forth in that place.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Swami Ramsukhdas
It also keeps your wonder in proportion. The commentators stress that even the most dazzling thing is born of only one part, one quarter, one region of his power, never the whole. So admiration need not stop at the object and need not inflate it; the glory points past itself to the far greater source from which it came.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Vallabhācārya · Swami Ramsukhdas
Practically, it turns seeing into contemplation. Because the catalogue can never be complete, you are handed a portable key: meeting any excellence at all, even one never named, you can read it as the Lord's spark and let your attention rest there. Worldly excellence then becomes a continual doorway to him rather than a distraction from him.
Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Contemplation
Take this verse as a practice you can carry everywhere. The long list of glories was never a closed catalogue; it was a sample. So wherever you meet anything in the world that is full of grace and beauty, or that surpasses in power, recognize that you have just met a portion of the Lord's own splendor. The point is to turn this into a steady habit of seeing. Every excellence whatever, even one the Gita never names, becomes a doorway by which your contemplation can come to rest in the Lord. Met this way, the world stops being a distraction from God and becomes a continual reminder of him.
Sit with this · Śrīdhara Svāmī
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.