Arjuna asks to see the imperishable Self, and leaves the verdict on his own fitness to the one he asks.
This verse belongs to Arjuna, not Krishna. He wants the vision intensely, and he still will not certify himself as ready for it; he only asks, and hands the judgment elsewhere.
If you think it possible, Lord, for me to see it, then, O master of yoga, show me your imperishable Self.
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
You stand at the edge of a vision you long for and cannot earn. Krishna has just unfolded glories beyond counting; Arjuna, having listened, now turns from listening to asking, and makes his one request. This verse is his, not Krishna's, the last word of the seeker before the showing begins.
The teaching
You want to see, but wanting is no warrant. Arjuna's desire alone does not oblige the Lord to act, so he makes the request and leaves the judgment to the one he is asking: if You think I can see it, let me see it. He does not certify his own worthiness; he places that question in the hands of the one addressed. He calls Him Prabhu, the able one, master of the whole cosmic work, and so capable that even what lies past ordinary sight can be made visible by that power alone; to one who is truly such a Lord, a command would be unfitting, so Arjuna implores rather than orders. He calls Him Yogeshvara, Lord of yoga: the sight cannot come from his own effort or merit, only from the Lord's own power, since a common practitioner shows only the greatness his acquired yoga reaches, while this Lord owns yoga by His very nature. What he asks to be shown is named directly: the imperishable Self, undecaying, unfading, eternal, whatever form it takes when it becomes visible. And running under the doctrine is something plainer: an urgent, humble longing, spoken without any pretense that longing itself has earned its answer.
The doubt that rises
If the vision depends entirely on the Lord's grace and not on Arjuna's effort, what was the point of asking or striving at all, and what, if anything, does the seeker actually contribute to a gift that was never his to produce?
Where the paths divide
Read where the extant comment stays close to grammar and narrative shape.
The surviving note here is compact: it marks the conditional phrasing, the address to the master of yogins, and the hinge into the Lord's reply, without developing a fuller Advaita argument about the vision on this particular line. Read honestly, this verse's Advaita material is thinner than on many others; what it offers is a careful marking of how the request is made, not a doctrine of what the vision ultimately is.
For the one who sees the Lord joined with His own auspicious qualities.
Take the yoga in Lord of yoga as the Lord's joining with His own auspicious qualities, His knowledge, power, lordship, valour, might, and splendour, later named explicitly as His lordly yoga. And read imperishable as qualifying not only the Self but the showing itself: show me Yourself whole, completely, holding nothing back. The eagerness in Arjuna's voice, his joy breaking through as he begs, belongs to this reading as much as the doctrine does.
On the one fragment that survives, narrowly lexical rather than doctrinal.
What is on record from this school here is a single, careful lexical point: Prabhu means the able one, supported by the Moksha-dharma's declaration that no being stands higher than that everlasting Person, and by a lexicon equating prabhu, isha, and the capable one. The address, on this reading, is not mere courtesy toward a superior; it names a surpassing competence, one able to make even what lies beyond the senses visible.
Honest absence, with only a flagged, conditional extension offered.
No comment by Abhinavagupta on this verse survives; the source states this directly, and nothing invented stands in its place. If one wished to extend the tradition's general emphasis on recognition, pratyabhijna, one might read the request to see the imperishable Self as consciousness asking to recognize its own unbounded freedom, a recognition never self-produced but always given. This is offered only as a clearly-labeled possibility, not as Abhinavagupta's own words.
For the seeker whose wish alone establishes no claim on the one who grants it.
The wish to see, by itself, obliges the Lord to nothing at all; wanting something intensely does not certify that you are fit to receive it. So the devotee frames the desire as a conditional, if You think, and asks only this: that if the Lord finds him able, the seeing be granted. The courtesy of the asking is itself the teaching, not a preface to some separate doctrinal point.
Read as a portrait of asking well, more than as a systematic claim.
The verse answers an objection it never states aloud: why wish to see what is not fit to be seen? Arjuna's response is to name the Lord's mastery first, over creation, over keeping and ending, over entering and ruling, and only then to venture his request as a supposition rather than a demand, trusting that if the vision comes, it comes by the Lord's own wish and not by anything Arjuna himself supplies.
The schools converge tightly on how Arjuna asks, conditionally, humbly, without presuming the verdict, but they do not agree on how much doctrine this particular verse actually carries. Two of the six readings on file here are honestly thin: Madhva's surviving comment is a single lexical note, and Abhinavagupta's is simply absent. This page does not manufacture positions those sources do not themselves state. What remains open, for every school, is the larger question the whole scene is about to test: once the vision is granted, what happens to the one who asked for it?
A question to carry
When you ask for something you cannot produce by your own effort, do you ask the way Arjuna asks here, naming the longing plainly and leaving the verdict to whoever actually holds it, or do you quietly try to prove yourself worthy first?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
Bring your longing plainly, before the one who can actually answer it. You do not have to manufacture your own worthiness first. Name the desire honestly, and let the verdict rest where it has always belonged.
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.
Having heard Krishna speak of glories beyond counting, Arjuna turns from listening to asking, and makes his one request: let me see the imperishable Self with my own eyes.
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 does not order the vision; he asks conditionally, if You think it can be seen by me, and lays the question of his own worth in the Lord's hands.
Across Advaita, Bhakti, ViśiṣṭādvaitaŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Śrīdhara · RāmānujaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 2 others’ words
Arjuna does not command the vision; he requests it conditionally, if You think it can be seen by me, deferring the judgment of his own fitness to the one he asks. This is read as the opposite of a demand: his mere desire to see is no warrant that obliges the Lord to act.
He calls Him Prabhu, the able one, whose power reaches over all that is made and unmade, so a command would be unfitting and he implores instead.
Across Dvaita, AdvaitaMadhva · MadhusūdanaIn Madhva and Madhusūdana’s words
The address Prabhu, Lord, is read as the able one, the competent one. What is stressed is a power so surpassing that even what lies beyond ordinary sight can be made visible by it, and that to one who is genuinely such a Lord, a command would be unfitting, so Arjuna implores rather than orders.
He calls Him Yogeshvara, Lord of yoga; a common yogin shows only his own acquired greatness, but this Lord owns yoga by nature, and that alone can make the unready one fit to see.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhusūdana · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
The address Yogeshvara, Lord of yoga, carries the reasoning of the whole verse: the seeing cannot come from Arjuna's own effort or merit, only from the Lord's own power. A common practitioner shows greatness by the strength of yoga he has acquired; this Lord owns yoga by His very nature, so His sovereignty alone can make the one who asks fit to see.
What he asks to behold is the imperishable Self, the undecaying reality that does not fade or diminish, however varied the form through which it might be shown.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhusūdana · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
What Arjuna asks to be shown is named as the imperishable Self, atman avyaya, the Lord's own eternal, undecaying reality borne within or as the form already glimpsed in outline. The word imperishable is not incidental; it marks the object of the vision as something that does not fade with whatever form conveys it.
The asking itself, urgent and humble at once, is treated by the commentators as part of the verse's meaning, not a mere prelude to it.
Across Viśiṣṭādvaita, AdvaitaRāmānuja · MadhusūdanaIn Rāmānuja and Madhusūdana’s words
Across the readings, the devotional intensity behind the words is treated as part of the verse's meaning, not separate from it. Ramanuja notes the eagerness and the breaking voice; Madhusudana notes the heartfelt plea to the most compassionate one. The asking itself, longing joined to humility, is read as the fitting shape a creature's request takes before its Lord.
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 yoga in Yogeshvara as the Lord's joining with His own auspicious qualities, His knowledge, power, lordship, valour, might, and splendour, later named explicitly as His lordly yoga. He also takes imperishable as qualifying the act of showing itself, not only the Self shown: show me Yourself whole, completely, holding nothing back.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
The one fragment on file from Madhva is narrowly lexical: Prabhu means the able one, grounded in the Moksha-dharma's declaration that no being stands higher than that everlasting Person, and in a lexicon equating prabhu, isha, and the capable one. The point pressed is that the address carries a surpassing competence, not mere courtesy toward a superior.
Shaiva, in their fuller words
No commentary by Abhinavagupta on this verse survives; the published source states this directly. Only a clearly-labeled conditional extension is offered: on a Kashmir Shaiva reading, one might extend the tradition's general stress on grace and recognition, pratyabhijna, to say that the request to see the imperishable Self mirrors consciousness asking to recognize its own freedom, a recognition the tradition holds is never self-produced. This is explicitly extrapolation, not Abhinavagupta's own words.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara dwells on the courtesy of the asking itself: the wish to see, by itself, gives the Lord no obligation to show, so Arjuna frames his desire as a conditional and places the verdict on his own fitness entirely in the Lord's hands, asking only that if the Lord finds him able, the seeing be granted.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Madhusudana's paraphrase reads the verse as Arjuna's answer to an unspoken objection, why wish to see what is not fit to be seen, and locates the entire force of the coming vision in the Lord's own wish rather than in anything Arjuna supplies. On this reading the verse is less a doctrinal claim than a portrait of asking rightly: name the Lord's mastery, then plead, without presuming the outcome.
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
Notice, the next time you want something you cannot make happen by your own effort, whether you ask the way Arjuna asks here: naming your desire plainly, without pretending you can certify in advance that you deserve it. Try handing the verdict elsewhere, to time, to grace, to the people or circumstances that actually hold it, and see what changes in how you carry the wanting.
Bring your longing plainly, without first manufacturing your own worthiness; name the desire honestly, and leave to the one you ask the part that was always theirs to grant.
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 does not command the vision; he requests it conditionally, if You think it can be seen by me, deferring the judgment of his own fitness to the one he asks. This is read as the opposite of a demand: his mere desire to see is no warrant that obliges the Lord to act.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Rāmānujācārya
The address Prabhu, Lord, is read as the able one, the competent one. What is stressed is a power so surpassing that even what lies beyond ordinary sight can be made visible by it, and that to one who is genuinely such a Lord, a command would be unfitting, so Arjuna implores rather than orders.
Madhvācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The address Yogeshvara, Lord of yoga, carries the reasoning of the whole verse: the seeing cannot come from Arjuna's own effort or merit, only from the Lord's own power. A common practitioner shows greatness by the strength of yoga he has acquired; this Lord owns yoga by His very nature, so His sovereignty alone can make the one who asks fit to see.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
What Arjuna asks to be shown is named as the imperishable Self, atman avyaya, the Lord's own eternal, undecaying reality borne within or as the form already glimpsed in outline. The word imperishable is not incidental; it marks the object of the vision as something that does not fade with whatever form conveys it.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Across the readings, the devotional intensity behind the words is treated as part of the verse's meaning, not separate from it. Ramanuja notes the eagerness and the breaking voice; Madhusudana notes the heartfelt plea to the most compassionate one. The asking itself, longing joined to humility, is read as the fitting shape a creature's request takes before its Lord.
Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Shankara's surviving note stays close to the grammar and the devotional shape of the request: Arjuna, addressing the master of yogins, asks conditionally to see the form he longs for, and is answered. The extant comment does not develop a fuller Advaita metaphysics of the vision on this specific line; it functions mainly to mark the narrative hinge into the theophany that follows.
Śaṅkarācārya
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Ramanuja reads yoga in Yogeshvara as the Lord's joining with His own auspicious qualities, His knowledge, power, lordship, valour, might, and splendour, later named explicitly as His lordly yoga. He also takes imperishable as qualifying the act of showing itself, not only the Self shown: show me Yourself whole, completely, holding nothing back.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
The one fragment on file from Madhva is narrowly lexical: Prabhu means the able one, grounded in the Moksha-dharma's declaration that no being stands higher than that everlasting Person, and in a lexicon equating prabhu, isha, and the capable one. The point pressed is that the address carries a surpassing competence, not mere courtesy toward a superior.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
No commentary by Abhinavagupta on this verse survives; the published source states this directly. Only a clearly-labeled conditional extension is offered: on a Kashmir Shaiva reading, one might extend the tradition's general stress on grace and recognition, pratyabhijna, to say that the request to see the imperishable Self mirrors consciousness asking to recognize its own freedom, a recognition the tradition holds is never self-produced. This is explicitly extrapolation, not Abhinavagupta's own words.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara dwells on the courtesy of the asking itself: the wish to see, by itself, gives the Lord no obligation to show, so Arjuna frames his desire as a conditional and places the verdict on his own fitness entirely in the Lord's hands, asking only that if the Lord finds him able, the seeing be granted.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Madhusudana's paraphrase reads the verse as Arjuna's answer to an unspoken objection, why wish to see what is not fit to be seen, and locates the entire force of the coming vision in the Lord's own wish rather than in anything Arjuna supplies. On this reading the verse is less a doctrinal claim than a portrait of asking rightly: name the Lord's mastery, then plead, without presuming the outcome.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
If I have to wait for the vision, the answer, the readiness, to be granted rather than earned, what is actually left for me to do in the meantime?
What is left is the asking itself, done honestly. Arjuna does not sit in silence waiting; he names his longing in full and directs it to the one who can answer it. The verse does not counsel passivity, it counsels asking without presuming the verdict.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
What is placed beyond your effort is specifically the granting, not the desiring or the addressing. Yogeshvara names a power that is not yours to borrow by trying harder; recognizing that boundary honestly is itself part of the discipline, not a way of avoiding it.
Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
And the address itself, naming the one asked as able, as master of the very discipline you lack, is not empty flattery. It is a way of correctly locating where the power actually lies, which is the first honest step whenever what you want exceeds what you can produce alone.
Madhvācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Contemplation
Notice, the next time you want something you cannot make happen by your own effort, whether you ask the way Arjuna asks here: naming your desire plainly, without pretending you can certify in advance that you deserve it. Try handing the verdict elsewhere, to time, to grace, to the people or circumstances that actually hold it, and see what changes in how you carry the wanting.
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.