Arjuna asks for the living portrait of the one who has crossed beyond the three qualities.
Krishna has just promised deathlessness, even while still embodied, to whoever passes beyond clarity, restlessness, and inertia. Here Arjuna asks for that promise made concrete: the marks that reveal such a person, the way such a person actually lives, and the means by which the crossing is made.
Arjuna asked: Lord, by what signs is a person known who has gone beyond these three qualities? How does such a person live, and how does one cross beyond the three qualities in the first place?
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
Krishna has just told you that one who crosses beyond the three qualities of nature, clarity, restless activity, and inertia, reaches deathlessness even while still living in a body. You stand here with Arjuna, who wants that promise made concrete. This verse is his question, not Krishna's answer.
The teaching
Arjuna's question has three parts, and nearly every commentator who treats this verse counts the same three. First, by what marks or signs can you recognize the one who has crossed beyond the qualities? Second, what is his conduct: how does he behave, how does he actually live from day to day? Third, by what means does a person cross beyond the three qualities in the first place? So you are asking for the signs, the way of life, and the path, all in one breath. Arjuna addresses Krishna as Lord, Prabhu, and the commentators who dwell on this read it as deliberate: just as a master can lift the troubles of those who serve him, Krishna alone can resolve this doubt, and the title carries the trust that the one being asked is the very one able to answer. Notably, not every one of the six acaryas whose commentary this page draws on has left an extended word on this particular verse. Madhva's comment does not survive at all here; Ramanuja's and Shankara's are brief restatements rather than developed teaching. This is worth sitting with honestly rather than papering over: some verses are, in the record we have, quieter than others, and this is one of them. What can be said with confidence is only what the verse itself does. It poses a precise, three-part question, and hands the answer to what Krishna is about to say.
The doubt that rises
If everything I do, and even every passing state of my mind, is some mixture of the three qualities, how could a living, embodied person ever be genuinely beyond them, and what would actually look different about such a person?
Where the paths divide
Read through Shankara's own terse note on this verse.
What survives of Shankara's comment here is a clean restatement: by what marks is such a person known, how does he live, and by what way does he cross over. He adds only that both the marks and the means will be answered in what follows. There is no developed doctrine to report at this exact verse; the honest reading holds that the real teaching is deferred, not that it is hidden here waiting to be extracted.
Read through Ramanuja's own brief note on this verse.
Ramanuja's surviving comment is a single compact restatement of the same threefold question, without an extended gloss of his own at this point. It would be unfaithful to present more than this as his teaching on this verse; his richer doctrine of surrendered agency and devotion will bear on the answer, not on the question itself.
Read honestly through the absence of comment.
The record states plainly that Madhva offers no comment on this verse, and nothing should be invented in his name to fill that gap. If one wanted to extend his settled positions elsewhere, labeled clearly as extrapolation and not as his own words, one might expect him to read even the capacity to cross the qualities as dependent on the Lord's sanction, so that Arjuna's question becomes how a bound self receives the power to transcend its own bondage.
Read through Abhinavagupta's own note, which poses a real objection.
Take the question as a genuine difficulty, not a request for detail. If the one who has crossed is still embodied, every state he occupies rests on some movement of mind, and every such movement is necessarily one of the three qualities. Embodiment, on this reading, seems to close off transcendence entirely. Abhinavagupta's extant note poses this doubt without resolving it here; any further move toward a Trika resolution, transcendence as recognition operating within embodiment, is only a labeled extension beyond what survives.
Read through Sridhara's structural framing of the triplet.
Sridhara reads the address 'Prabhu' as pointing to signs arising in the atman itself, not outward show, and treats the mark-conduct-means triplet as the frame for the entire remainder of the chapter. On his reading, everything Krishna says from here to the chapter's close answers this one question, paid out in stages rather than settled all at once.
Read through Madhusudana's precise three-way division.
Madhusudana gives the fullest surviving treatment among the six, naming each of the three questions in turn, the marks, the conduct, whether it runs unchecked or restrained, and the means. He also reads the address 'Prabhu' as a claim on the Lord's own capacity to remove the servant's sorrow. His discipline is itself worth noticing: he resists anticipating any answer, treating the verse purely as a precisely divided question.
The schools do not really diverge on doctrine here, since most of the surviving comment is question, not teaching. What is left open is honesty about the record itself: some of these six acaryas said little or nothing at this exact verse, and this page has tried to say so plainly rather than manufacture confident readings where none survive. What also stays open is Arjuna's own doubt: how a still-embodied being, whose every state is some movement of the qualities, could ever be genuinely beyond them. That is the very question Krishna is about to answer.
A question to carry
Before you read on to hear Krishna's answer, sit with Arjuna's own question as your own: what would actually be different about how you eat, sit, and move through your day, if you had truly gone beyond the pull of these three qualities?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
Notice that what Arjuna wants to know is plain: how the one who has crossed lives an ordinary day. Carry that plainness with you into what follows, and let any high teaching you meet be tested against exactly that.
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 follows directly on Krishna's claim that one who crosses the three qualities reaches the deathless while still living, and turns that claim into the question the rest of the chapter will answer.
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.
This is Arjuna's question, not Krishna's teaching: the qualities have been named, and now he wants the portrait of the one who has gone past them.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhusūdana · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
This verse belongs to Arjuna, not Krishna. Krishna has just said that one who crosses beyond the three qualities, sattva, rajas, and tamas, reaches deathlessness even while still living in a body, and Arjuna now asks him to make that claim concrete. The commentators agree this is a hinge: the teaching about the qualities has been given, and the portrait of the one who has gone past them is what is now wanted.
He asks three things in one breath: the marks that reveal such a person, the conduct that shows his way of living, and the means by which anyone actually crosses over.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhusūdana · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
The question has three distinct parts, and every commentary that treats the verse at any length counts the same three. By what marks is such a person recognized, what is his conduct, his way of living, and by what means does anyone cross beyond the three qualities in the first place. The verse asks for the signs, the way of life, and the path, all at once.
He calls Krishna 'Lord,' and in that word trusts that the one he is asking is the very one able to lift the doubt and answer it.
Across AdvaitaMadhusūdanaIn Madhusūdana’s words
The address 'Prabhu,' Lord or Master, is read as deliberate rather than a formality. Just as a master can lift the troubles of those who serve him, Krishna alone is capable of resolving these doubts, and the respectful title carries the seeker's trust that the one being asked is the very one able to answer.
Several of the sources for this exact verse are terse or silent, Madhva's is absent entirely, and the honest reading names that silence rather than filling it.
Across Advaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara and Śrīdhara’s words
The answer is not given all at once. Krishna takes up the threefold question in turn across the verses that follow, first the marks, then the conduct, then the means, and the commentators who note this treat the whole remainder of the chapter as the reply being paid out in stages.
The reply will not come all at once; Krishna takes up the three parts in turn across the verses still to come.
Across Dvaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, AdvaitaMadhva · Rāmānuja · ŚaṅkaraIn Madhva, Rāmānuja, and 1 others’ words
Where the sources fall silent, they are read as silent rather than filled in. Madhva's extant comment on this verse is simply absent, and Ramanuja's and Shankara's are terse restatements without extended doctrine; the honest reading holds that the verse's own weight is deferred to what Krishna says next, not invented here on the commentators' behalf.
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's surviving comment is a single compact restatement of the question, without a distinctive gloss added at this verse. He registers the same threefold shape, marks, conduct, means, that the other commentators note. Nothing further can honestly be drawn from the source at this exact point; his fuller teaching on surrendered agency and devotion bears on the verses that follow, not on this one.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
The source states plainly that Madhva offers no comment on this verse, and nothing further should be attributed to him. Labeled as extrapolation only, and not as his own words: on a Dvaita reading extended from his settled positions elsewhere, the very capacity to cross the qualities would likely be read as itself dependent on the Lord's sanction, so that Arjuna's question becomes how a bound self receives the power to transcend its bondage at all.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara frames the verse as a formal triplet, mark, conduct, means, and reads the address 'Prabhu' as pointing to signs arising within the atman rather than outward show. His distinctive observation is structural: this same triplet sets the frame for the entire remainder of the chapter, so that everything Krishna says from here on answers this one question, paid out across several verses rather than settled at once.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Madhusudana gives the fullest surviving treatment, dividing the question with technical precision into three named questions, marks, conduct, means, and reading the address 'Prabhu' as a claim on the Lord's capacity to remove the servant's sorrow. His discipline is worth noting as a method in itself: he resists anticipating the answer, treating the verse purely as three distinct questions asked in a single breath, not one vague curiosity.
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 plainness of what Arjuna asks. He does not ask for a definition to admire from a distance; he asks how such a person eats, sits, and moves through an ordinary day, and by what actual means anyone gets there. Let his question be your own. Ask of any state you have heard praised, not whether it sounds exalted, but whether it would change how you live this day, this hour, this next small act.
Keep Arjuna's own posture as you read on: do not ask of any state you hear praised whether it sounds exalted, but whether it would actually change how you eat, how you rest, how you meet the ordinary day.
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 belongs to Arjuna, not Krishna. Krishna has just said that one who crosses beyond the three qualities, sattva, rajas, and tamas, reaches deathlessness even while still living in a body, and Arjuna now asks him to make that claim concrete. The commentators agree this is a hinge: the teaching about the qualities has been given, and the portrait of the one who has gone past them is what is now wanted.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
The question has three distinct parts, and every commentary that treats the verse at any length counts the same three. By what marks is such a person recognized, what is his conduct, his way of living, and by what means does anyone cross beyond the three qualities in the first place. The verse asks for the signs, the way of life, and the path, all at once.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
The address 'Prabhu,' Lord or Master, is read as deliberate rather than a formality. Just as a master can lift the troubles of those who serve him, Krishna alone is capable of resolving these doubts, and the respectful title carries the seeker's trust that the one being asked is the very one able to answer.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The answer is not given all at once. Krishna takes up the threefold question in turn across the verses that follow, first the marks, then the conduct, then the means, and the commentators who note this treat the whole remainder of the chapter as the reply being paid out in stages.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Where the sources fall silent, they are read as silent rather than filled in. Madhva's extant comment on this verse is simply absent, and Ramanuja's and Shankara's are terse restatements without extended doctrine; the honest reading holds that the verse's own weight is deferred to what Krishna says next, not invented here on the commentators' behalf.
Madhvācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śaṅkarācārya
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Shankara's own extant note stays close to a plain restatement: Arjuna asks by what marks such a person is known, how he lives, and by what way he crosses over, and Shankara adds that both questions, the marks and the means, will be answered in what follows. No further doctrinal elaboration survives at this exact verse in the register drawn on here; the weight of the Advaita reading falls on the verses that actually supply the marks and the means.
Śaṅkarācārya
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Ramanuja's surviving comment is a single compact restatement of the question, without a distinctive gloss added at this verse. He registers the same threefold shape, marks, conduct, means, that the other commentators note. Nothing further can honestly be drawn from the source at this exact point; his fuller teaching on surrendered agency and devotion bears on the verses that follow, not on this one.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
The source states plainly that Madhva offers no comment on this verse, and nothing further should be attributed to him. Labeled as extrapolation only, and not as his own words: on a Dvaita reading extended from his settled positions elsewhere, the very capacity to cross the qualities would likely be read as itself dependent on the Lord's sanction, so that Arjuna's question becomes how a bound self receives the power to transcend its bondage at all.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
Abhinavagupta hears in Arjuna's question a genuine philosophical objection: if the person is still embodied, every state he occupies rests on some movement of mind, and every such movement is necessarily one of the three qualities, so embodiment seems to close off transcendence entirely. His extant note poses this difficulty without resolving it; a further extension toward his wider Trika reading, that transcendence is recognition operating within embodiment rather than escape from it, is offered here only as a labeled inference.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara frames the verse as a formal triplet, mark, conduct, means, and reads the address 'Prabhu' as pointing to signs arising within the atman rather than outward show. His distinctive observation is structural: this same triplet sets the frame for the entire remainder of the chapter, so that everything Krishna says from here on answers this one question, paid out across several verses rather than settled at once.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Madhusudana gives the fullest surviving treatment, dividing the question with technical precision into three named questions, marks, conduct, means, and reading the address 'Prabhu' as a claim on the Lord's capacity to remove the servant's sorrow. His discipline is worth noting as a method in itself: he resists anticipating the answer, treating the verse purely as three distinct questions asked in a single breath, not one vague curiosity.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
If everything I do, and even every passing mood, is made of the three qualities, how could a living, embodied person ever be truly beyond them?
This is exactly the difficulty Arjuna is voicing. Read sharply, an embodied being always abides in some movement of mind, and every such movement is one of the three qualities, so embodiment can look like a permanent lock.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
But the verse itself does not treat the crossing as impossible. It follows directly on Krishna's own claim that one who goes beyond the qualities reaches deathlessness while still living, so the very thing you doubt has just been affirmed as real; the question is how it works, not whether it can happen.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
And the verse names its own three-part path forward: the marks, the conduct, the means. The honest answer to the doubt is not a quick proof but an invitation to keep reading, since the means of crossing is exactly what Krishna takes up next.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Contemplation
Sit for a moment with the plainness of what Arjuna asks. He does not ask for a definition to admire from a distance; he asks how such a person eats, sits, and moves through an ordinary day, and by what actual means anyone gets there. Let his question be your own. Ask of any state you have heard praised, not whether it sounds exalted, but whether it would change how you live this day, this hour, this next small act.
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.