Before Arjuna asks to see, he first shows how fully he has already heard.
This is Arjuna's own verse, not Krishna's, and it reads like a receipt: he names exactly what he has taken in, the rising and dissolving of all beings and a greatness in Krishna that never wears thin, before he goes on to ask for the sight of the form itself.
I have heard from you, at length, how beings arise and how they pass away, and I have also heard of your greatness, lotus-eyed one, a greatness that never wears thin.
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
This is Arjuna speaking, not Krishna. Before the great vision that will fill the rest of this chapter, Arjuna pauses on the threshold and does something simple: he takes inventory of what the teaching has already given him.
The teaching
Arjuna says he has heard, at length and in full detail, not once but repeatedly, how beings come into being and pass away. This is not new information; it runs through the teaching Krishna has already given across the seventh through the tenth chapters, where Krishna named himself the origin and dissolution of the whole world. The point Arjuna has absorbed is not the bare fact that things are born and die. It is the deeper claim underneath that fact: every being arises from Krishna alone, rests only in him, and returns only into him. He has also heard of a greatness that is imperishable, avyaya, a greatness that does not decay no matter how much it does. Krishna creates the whole world, moves beings to their good and evil deeds, and hands out the many fruits of bondage and freedom, and through all of it he stays unchanged, unattached, and even-minded, free of any fault of unfairness or cruelty. And Arjuna calls him by the beauty of his eyes, lotus-petal-eyed, an address more than one reader takes as love overflowing into an image, right at the moment before Arjuna is about to ask for something more than words.
The doubt that rises
If Arjuna has already heard all of this, in such detail and more than once, why is hearing not enough? What is it about a teaching, once it has truly landed, that makes a person want to see it directly rather than simply hold it in memory?
Where the paths divide
Read through Shankara, as a hearing that also fixes a scriptural meaning.
Shankara's own extant comment here is brief, functioning mainly as a marker that the ground has been laid. But it carries a further, technical claim: the teaching from the seventh chapter through the tenth is read as settling the meaning of the word 'that,' the very 'that' of 'that thou art.' Arjuna's plain report of having heard is also, on this reading, the establishing of what the great sentence points to, and the greatness he names is Krishna's being the one imperishable Self of all, in whom nothing finally stands apart.
Read through Ramanuja, as a careful summary handed back as proof of receipt.
For Ramanuja, the beings whose rising and dissolving Arjuna has heard are beings other than Krishna, who remains the supreme Self distinct from them. The greatness Arjuna names is spelled out concretely: ownership of every conscious and unconscious thing, supremacy through auspicious qualities like knowledge and power, standing as the support of all, and being the one who sets every act in motion, down to the blinking of an eye. This is a real lordship over a real, dependent world, never a dissolving of the difference between the Lord and what depends on him.
Read honestly, as a gap the source does not fill.
No comment from Madhva survives on this verse; the published record states this plainly, and nothing more should be claimed in his name. What can be noted, carefully marked as inference rather than report, is that Madhva's consistent theme elsewhere is the soul's total dependence on the Lord, including for the very capacity to hear and understand. On that pattern, a reader familiar with his method might expect him to read Arjuna's 'I have heard' as itself a grace, but this remains a guess about his approach, not a reading of anything he wrote here.
Read from a blank record, extended only as clearly-marked conjecture.
Abhinavagupta's surviving commentary has nothing to report at this verse at all. On a Kashmir Shaiva reading, one might cautiously extend the chapter's wider concerns: the rising and dissolving of beings as consciousness recognizing its own play, and the greatness that never wears thin as that same consciousness's inexhaustible freedom to appear as the many while remaining one underneath. This extension is offered plainly as conjecture, built to stay consistent with his broader philosophy, not as anything he actually wrote on this verse.
Read through Sridhara, as a report of an inner change.
Sridhara traces Arjuna's words back almost line by line to specific earlier verses, and lingers on the address lotus-petal-eyed as an image of eyes wide, calm, and open, not mere ornament. What matters most to him is what the hearing has actually done: even on the side where beings depend wholly on Krishna, Arjuna's own delusion of being the doer has gone. The verse, for Sridhara, is less a statement of fact than the mark of a heart already being remade.
Read through Madhusudana, as a ripened understanding reaching for more.
Madhusudana reads the tenderness in Arjuna's address as love naming beauty, not flattery seeking favor, and traces the greatness Arjuna has heard through Krishna's full nature: unchanging while making the world, even-tempered while setting every deed in motion, unattached while dispensing every fruit, and finally the Self of all, both limited and limitless, never perishing. The verse's closing 'and,' he notes, shows this has fully ripened in Arjuna, which is exactly what lets the request to see follow so soon after.
All six readings agree that Arjuna has genuinely received the teaching, and that something in this hearing prepares the ground for the vision to come. They part on what exactly the greatness he has heard consists of, a real lordship over a dependent world, or the one Self in whom nothing stands apart, or an inner change more than a settled doctrine. And honestly, for two of the six voices gathered here, Madhva and Abhinavagupta, this page has almost nothing of their own words to offer on this exact verse, and it declines to manufacture more. Faithfulness to the record, even when the record is thin, is kept as the higher value.
A question to carry
What have you already been given, in words, that you have not yet let settle all the way down? And what would it take for you to want, as Arjuna now does, not just to hear it again but to see it for yourself?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
Take stock, as Arjuna does here, of what has already been given to you. Let it rest long enough to ripen, and notice, without forcing anything, whether a hearing that has truly landed begins on its own to ask for more.
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.
It opens Arjuna's reply after the long teaching of the seventh through the tenth chapters, and it lays the ground for the great vision to come by first showing the teacher how thoroughly the words have landed.
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 reports back what he has received: the coming-to-be and passing-away of beings, and a greatness in Krishna that does not decay.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
Arjuna is taking inventory. He names two specific things he has received: the bhava and apyaya of beings, their coming-into-being and their passing-away, and Krishna's mahatmya, a greatness that is avyaya, imperishable and undecaying. The verse is Arjuna showing the teacher, plainly, that the teaching has landed.
He has heard this not in passing but at length, tracing it back to specific lines from the earlier chapters, to show how fully it has been received.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
He stresses that he heard this not briefly but vistarashah, at length and in full detail, more than once. The readings trace this back to specific lines from the seventh chapter onward, Krishna's own repeated claim to be the origin and dissolution of the whole world, so that Arjuna is, in effect, quoting the teacher back to himself to prove how thoroughly the words were received.
The deeper point is not that things are born and die, but that every being arises from Krishna alone, abides in him, and returns into him.
Across Viśiṣṭādvaita, Bhakti, AdvaitaRāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Rāmānuja, Śrīdhara, and 1 others’ words
The point of naming the rising and dissolving of beings is not the bare fact that things are born and die. What has gone all the way down for Arjuna is that every being arises only from Krishna, abides only in him, and is reabsorbed only into him. In plain words, everything is the Lord alone, and this is what has begun to loosen Arjuna's own 'I am the doer' delusion.
The greatness he has heard stays untouched: Krishna does everything, and yet remains unchanged, even-minded, and free of any fault.
Across Viśiṣṭādvaita, Bhakti, AdvaitaRāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Rāmānuja, Śrīdhara, and 1 others’ words
The greatness Arjuna has heard is specifically a greatness that stays untouched. Krishna creates the world, moves beings to good and evil action, and hands out the many fruits of bondage and liberation, and yet remains free of change, unattached, and even-minded through all of it, so there is no fault of unfairness or cruelty in him even though the world he makes is unequal.
Two of the six voices gathered here are silent on this exact verse, and this page marks that honestly rather than inventing what is missing.
Across Dvaita, Kashmir ŚaivaMadhva · AbhinavaguptaIn Madhva and Abhinavagupta’s words
Two of the six acaryas gathered here, Madhva and Abhinavagupta, are silent on this exact verse; the surviving record for each states plainly that no comment remains. This page marks that gap honestly rather than inventing confident readings in their names, treating faithfulness to the source as the higher value.
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 beings Arjuna names as beings other than Krishna, and Krishna as the supreme Self distinct from them. The imperishable greatness is spelled out concretely: ownership of everything conscious and unconscious, supremacy through auspicious qualities, standing as the support of all, and being the one who sets every act in motion. This greatness is a real lordship over a real, dependent world, and the difference between the Lord and beings is never dissolved.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
No comment from Madhva survives on this verse; the published record states this plainly, and nothing more is claimed here in his name. What can be noted only as inference, not as report, is that his consistent emphasis on the soul's total dependence, including dependence for the very capacity to hear and understand, would fit naturally with reading Arjuna's 'I have heard' as itself a grace rather than an unaided achievement. This remains a guess about his method elsewhere, not a reading of anything he wrote here.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara reads the verse almost word by word, tracing Arjuna's claims back to specific earlier lines, and lingers on the address lotus-petal-eyed as more than ornament, an image of eyes wide, calm, and open. What matters most to him is the inner change the hearing has produced: even on the side where beings depend wholly on Krishna, Arjuna's own doership-delusion has gone, so the verse reads less as a statement of fact than as a report of a heart already being remade.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Madhusudana draws out the tenderness of the address, lotus-petal-eyed, as love naming beauty rather than flattery seeking favor, and reads the greatness Arjuna has heard as encompassing Krishna's full nature: unchanging while making the world, even-tempered while setting all deeds in motion, unattached while dispensing every fruit, and finally the Self of all, both limited and limitless, which never perishes. The closing 'and' shows this has fully ripened in Arjuna and still holds, which is exactly what lets the next request follow.
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
Before you ask for anything more, try Arjuna's own move: take stock of what you have already been given. Name it plainly, even to yourself. Notice whether the truth that everything arises from one source, rests in it, and returns to it has gone further than your memory, whether it has begun, even slightly, to loosen your own quiet certainty that you are the one running things.
So take stock, as Arjuna does, of what you have already been given, and let it settle enough that it can carry you toward whatever you are about to ask for next.
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 is taking inventory. He names two specific things he has received: the bhava and apyaya of beings, their coming-into-being and their passing-away, and Krishna's mahatmya, a greatness that is avyaya, imperishable and undecaying. The verse is Arjuna showing the teacher, plainly, that the teaching has landed.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
He stresses that he heard this not briefly but vistarashah, at length and in full detail, more than once. The readings trace this back to specific lines from the seventh chapter onward, Krishna's own repeated claim to be the origin and dissolution of the whole world, so that Arjuna is, in effect, quoting the teacher back to himself to prove how thoroughly the words were received.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The point of naming the rising and dissolving of beings is not the bare fact that things are born and die. What has gone all the way down for Arjuna is that every being arises only from Krishna, abides only in him, and is reabsorbed only into him. In plain words, everything is the Lord alone, and this is what has begun to loosen Arjuna's own 'I am the doer' delusion.
Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The greatness Arjuna has heard is specifically a greatness that stays untouched. Krishna creates the world, moves beings to good and evil action, and hands out the many fruits of bondage and liberation, and yet remains free of change, unattached, and even-minded through all of it, so there is no fault of unfairness or cruelty in him even though the world he makes is unequal.
Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Two of the six acaryas gathered here, Madhva and Abhinavagupta, are silent on this exact verse; the surviving record for each states plainly that no comment remains. This page marks that gap honestly rather than inventing confident readings in their names, treating faithfulness to the source as the higher value.
Madhvācārya · Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Shankara's extant comment functions mainly as a marker rather than a developed argument, but it carries a technical weight: the teaching of chapters seven through ten, now confirmed as received, is read as fixing the meaning of the word 'that' in the great sentence 'that thou art.' Arjuna's hearing here is, on this reading, also the settling of that scriptural meaning, so that the greatness named is Krishna's being the imperishable Self of all, both with and without conditions, in whom nothing finally stands apart.
Śaṅkarācārya
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Ramanuja reads the beings Arjuna names as beings other than Krishna, and Krishna as the supreme Self distinct from them. The imperishable greatness is spelled out concretely: ownership of everything conscious and unconscious, supremacy through auspicious qualities, standing as the support of all, and being the one who sets every act in motion. This greatness is a real lordship over a real, dependent world, and the difference between the Lord and beings is never dissolved.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
No comment from Madhva survives on this verse; the published record states this plainly, and nothing more is claimed here in his name. What can be noted only as inference, not as report, is that his consistent emphasis on the soul's total dependence, including dependence for the very capacity to hear and understand, would fit naturally with reading Arjuna's 'I have heard' as itself a grace rather than an unaided achievement. This remains a guess about his method elsewhere, not a reading of anything he wrote here.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
Abhinavagupta's surviving commentary has nothing to report at this verse. On a Kashmir Shaiva reading, one might cautiously extend the chapter's concerns and suggest that the rising and dissolving of beings names consciousness recognizing its own play, and the greatness that never wears thin names that same consciousness's inexhaustible freedom to appear as the many while remaining one underneath. This extension is explicitly conditional, built to be consistent with his wider philosophy, not drawn from anything he actually wrote on 11.2.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara reads the verse almost word by word, tracing Arjuna's claims back to specific earlier lines, and lingers on the address lotus-petal-eyed as more than ornament, an image of eyes wide, calm, and open. What matters most to him is the inner change the hearing has produced: even on the side where beings depend wholly on Krishna, Arjuna's own doership-delusion has gone, so the verse reads less as a statement of fact than as a report of a heart already being remade.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Madhusudana draws out the tenderness of the address, lotus-petal-eyed, as love naming beauty rather than flattery seeking favor, and reads the greatness Arjuna has heard as encompassing Krishna's full nature: unchanging while making the world, even-tempered while setting all deeds in motion, unattached while dispensing every fruit, and finally the Self of all, both limited and limitless, which never perishes. The closing 'and' shows this has fully ripened in Arjuna and still holds, which is exactly what lets the next request follow.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
Arjuna says he has already heard all this. Why does he need to see it as well, and isn't hearing enough?
The readings agree that something in Arjuna has changed between hearing and this moment of reporting back. Sridhara reads the verse as evidence of an inner shift, the doer-delusion loosening, not merely a memorized fact; Madhusudana notes that the teaching has 'ripened' in him. A ripened understanding tends to reach for confirmation, not because the hearing failed, but because it succeeded enough to want more.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Ramanuja notices the word 'indeed' opening the verse and reads it as the sign of a mind no longer content with report alone. Having understood something with full conviction, Arjuna now wants what understanding, by its nature, reaches toward: direct acquaintance with what it has understood, rather than a description of it.
Rāmānujācārya
Where the record itself is thin, as it is here for Madhva and Abhinavagupta, this page does not manufacture their answer either. What can be said honestly, consistent with the fuller readings, is that hearing and seeing are not being set against each other as rivals; hearing that has truly landed is what makes the seeking of a fuller vision possible at all.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Contemplation
Before you ask for anything more, try Arjuna's own move: take stock of what you have already been given. Name it plainly, even to yourself. Notice whether the truth that everything arises from one source, rests in it, and returns to it has gone further than your memory, whether it has begun, even slightly, to loosen your own quiet certainty that you are the one running things.
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.