Where your own judgment falters, let the tested standard decide, and act on what it says.
A whole chapter has weighed the divine and the demonic; at its close one practical question remains: what do you finally trust to settle a real choice. This verse answers plainly: not your own surmise, but scripture, tested and received, and once you know what it says, you act on it, here.
So let scripture be your authority in deciding what should and should not be done. Once you understand what its rule prescribes, you should act accordingly here in this world.
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
The chapter has just traced the demonic temperament to its root: desire, anger, and greed deciding right and wrong on their own terms, and calling the result reasonable. Now Krishna closes the whole division between the divine and the demonic with the single practical instruction that follows from it.
The teaching
When you face a real choice about what should and should not be done, what is duty and what is not, do not let that choice rest on your own private verdict alone. Consult scripture, understood broadly: the whole received body of teaching, not one narrow text, working as a living code of what is enjoined and what is forbidden. Once you understand what it actually prescribes, you are then fit to act, here, in this human field, in the very duty standing in front of you. For Arjuna this means the battle he has been resisting. For you it means whatever task you are weighing right now. The commentators converge on one guarded failure above all: casting the received standard aside and deciding right and wrong by cleverness alone, the very move that turns out badly precisely because private judgment, however sharp, cannot see past its own desire. Keep the standard instead, and something durable follows: a clearer, steadier mind, and from that clarity, in time, the knowledge that actually frees.
The doubt that rises
If a tested standard outside yourself is meant to decide such questions, what happens when you cannot check it against its source, when two trusted voices seem to disagree, or when your own conscience pulls the other way? And what, honestly, is left in this verse when even the acaryas' own record runs thin, silent for one voice entirely, and only half-preserved for another?
Where the paths divide
Read as the checked, decisive standard for the still-unready mind.
Scripture is the plain ruling for a seeker not yet fit to rest in knowledge directly: not your own surmise, not a clever person's opinion, but a standard you check every action against. Know what it enjoins and what it forbids, avoid the one, perform the other, and let this very discipline purify the mind until it becomes fit for the knowledge that liberates outright.
Read as revelation of the Lord, not only a rule of conduct.
Scripture is trusted because your own desire-impulse cannot be relied on to see past itself, while scripture holds steady across every case. And what it finally discloses is not a bare code but the supreme Person and the action that reaches Him. Understand that truth rightly, neither short of it nor beyond it, and take up only that.
Honestly silent here, extended only as a labeled possibility.
The record shows no direct comment from Madhva on this particular verse. Rather than invent his voice, this reading offers only a flagged extension of his wider framework: scripture's authority would rest on its freedom from any fallible human origin, and to follow it would be the fitting posture of a self whose very power to discern right from wrong is itself dependent, never autonomous. This is extrapolation, not his recorded word.
Drawn from the shared remark covering this verse and the one before it.
Abhinavagupta's fullest surviving comment falls at the preceding verse, treating both as one passage: scripture is beginningless and is what gives true knowledge, so casting it aside for private cleverness brings a result running opposite of good. Beyond this, his commentary does not elaborate here the theme of scripture as recognition of the self's own freedom that marks his reading elsewhere; any such extension is offered only as a labeled possibility, not his stated position on this verse.
Read as the chapter's own hinge into what follows.
The entire portrait of the two natures, divine and demonic, was drawn for exactly this end: so that at the close, scripture could be set forward as the one trustworthy authority. Purity of being, right knowledge, and release all root in keeping it, and on a wider devotional reading, from that keeping grows the unwavering devotion promised earlier in the Gita. The next chapter's question about faith without scripture follows naturally from here.
Read as one workable discipline, not an abstract metaphysics.
Strip the verse to its practical core: craving-driven action has already been shown to fail at its own goals, so one operational test replaces it, know what is enjoined and forbidden in the situation you actually face, and act accordingly. This is not arbitrary restriction; it is the discipline available to clear the very desire, anger, and greed the chapter has just named as the root of every downfall.
All six readings agree that a tested standard outside your own wanting, not private cleverness, is the trusted guide. They part on what that standard finally discloses and on how much of it survives in each teacher's own hand. For Advaita it purifies toward a separate knowing. For Vishishtadvaita it already discloses the Person who is the goal. For Dvaita, honestly, the record is silent here, and only a labeled extension can be offered. For the Kashmir Shaiva reading, only half the intended comment survives, shared with the verse before. For Bhakti it is the whole chapter's aim, arriving exactly here. None of this is settled by the verse itself, and this page will not pretend otherwise.
A question to carry
When you cannot check a teaching against its own source, or when two trusted voices seem to pull apart, what tells you that you are consulting a tested standard and not simply dressing your own preference in its authority?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
So when the next real decision comes, and you feel the old pull to settle it only by what you want, set that pull down. Consult what has actually been tested and received. Then act, here, in the duty in front of you, and let that steadier ground, not your own cleverness alone, carry the weight of the choice.
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 shown that action driven by raw desire and cut off from scripture leads nowhere good, Krishna closes the chapter with its practical conclusion: therefore let scripture be your authority for what should and should not be done.
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.
Where you must tell duty from non-duty, do not let your own guess settle it alone; a tested, received standard is the trusted source here.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhusūdana · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
This is the closing verse of the chapter, and Krishna draws his practical conclusion from everything said before: therefore, let scripture be your authority. The word for authority, pramana, names the valid means of knowing, the trusted source you consult to settle a matter. In deciding what should and should not be done, scripture, and not your own private guess, is that trusted source.
That standard is not one narrow rule but the whole received body of teaching, naming plainly which acts are called for and which are barred.
Across Viśiṣṭādvaita, Bhakti, AdvaitaRāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Rāmānuja, Śrīdhara, and 1 others’ words
Scripture is read broadly, not as one narrow book. The commentators who remark on it take it to mean the whole accepted body: the Veda together with the law-books, the Puranas, and the histories, instructing by injunction, one should do this, and prohibition, one should not do that.
Once you know what it lays down, you are fit to act here, in the very field of duty in front of you, not somewhere else, not some other time.
Across Advaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 1 others’ words
Having known what scripture lays down, you are then fit to act. The word 'here' is read as pointing to the field of action, this human world, the ground where a person is qualified to work, which for Arjuna concretely means his own duty as a warrior.
The verse guards against exactly one failure: deciding right and wrong by private cleverness once any received guide has been quietly set aside.
Across Kashmir Śaiva, AdvaitaAbhinavagupta · ŚaṅkaraIn Abhinavagupta and Śaṅkara’s words
The verse is read as guarding against a single failure named earlier in the chapter: deciding right and wrong by private cleverness alone, the very move that Abhinavagupta's surviving remark on this passage calls out directly, and that leads, in his words, to a result that is the opposite of good.
This is the chapter's seal and a bridge onward: keep the standard with faith, and purity of mind, right knowledge, and freedom follow from it.
Across Bhakti, AdvaitaŚrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śrīdhara and Madhusūdana’s words
The verse is read as the seal of the whole chapter and a bridge forward. Keeping scripture is said to yield purity of mind, and through that, right knowledge and, finally, liberation, with the natural next question, what of those who set scripture aside yet act with faith, opening the seventeenth chapter.
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 holds that scripture's authority is trusted precisely because the self's own desire-impulse cannot see past itself, while scripture discloses, across every case, the supreme truth, the Person Himself, and the action that reaches Him. Following scripture rightly is therefore not preparatory; it is already oriented toward the Lord it exists to reveal.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
Madhva leaves no direct comment on this verse, so nothing in his own words can be reported here. Extending his broader framework only as a labeled possibility: scripture's authority would rest on its freedom from fallible human origin, and obedience to it would be read as the fitting posture of a self whose very power to discern right from wrong is itself dependent and granted, never autonomous.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara reads the verse as the chapter's own turn toward what follows: the whole portrait of the two natures existed so that, at the close, scripture could be set forward as the one authority. Purity of being, knowledge, and release all root in keeping it, and on his wider Vaishnava reading, from that keeping grows the unwavering devotion promised earlier in the Gita.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Read for a contemporary seeker, Madhusudana's point lands practically: craving-driven action, already shown to fail at its own goals, is replaced by one operational test, know what is enjoined and forbidden, and act accordingly, not because scripture is an arbitrary external rule but because it is the one available discipline capable of clearing the very desire, anger, and greed that the chapter has just named as the root of every downfall.
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
The next time you face a real decision and feel the pull to settle it purely by what you want, pause on that very pull. Set your own verdict down for a moment and ask what a trusted, tested standard outside your own wanting would say. This is not a call to stop thinking. It is a call to notice how often what parades as judgment is only desire wearing judgment's face, and to let something steadier than that impulse be consulted first.
When your next real decision comes and you feel the pull to settle it only by what you want, set that pull down for a moment, consult what has been tested and received, and act, here, from that steadier ground.
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 is the closing verse of the chapter, and Krishna draws his practical conclusion from everything said before: therefore, let scripture be your authority. The word for authority, pramana, names the valid means of knowing, the trusted source you consult to settle a matter. In deciding what should and should not be done, scripture, and not your own private guess, is that trusted source.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Scripture is read broadly, not as one narrow book. The commentators who remark on it take it to mean the whole accepted body: the Veda together with the law-books, the Puranas, and the histories, instructing by injunction, one should do this, and prohibition, one should not do that.
Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Having known what scripture lays down, you are then fit to act. The word 'here' is read as pointing to the field of action, this human world, the ground where a person is qualified to work, which for Arjuna concretely means his own duty as a warrior.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
The verse is read as guarding against a single failure named earlier in the chapter: deciding right and wrong by private cleverness alone, the very move that Abhinavagupta's surviving remark on this passage calls out directly, and that leads, in his words, to a result that is the opposite of good.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta · Śaṅkarācārya
The verse is read as the seal of the whole chapter and a bridge forward. Keeping scripture is said to yield purity of mind, and through that, right knowledge and, finally, liberation, with the natural next question, what of those who set scripture aside yet act with faith, opening the seventeenth chapter.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Scripture is the seeker's plain, decisive ruling for the human goal: not one's own surmise, not the word of a clever person, but the standard against which every action is checked. Madhusudana adds the mechanism directly: know what scripture enjoins and forbids, avoid the forbidden, perform the enjoined, and let this practice purify the inner being until it becomes fit for the knowledge that actually liberates.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Ramanuja holds that scripture's authority is trusted precisely because the self's own desire-impulse cannot see past itself, while scripture discloses, across every case, the supreme truth, the Person Himself, and the action that reaches Him. Following scripture rightly is therefore not preparatory; it is already oriented toward the Lord it exists to reveal.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
Madhva leaves no direct comment on this verse, so nothing in his own words can be reported here. Extending his broader framework only as a labeled possibility: scripture's authority would rest on its freedom from fallible human origin, and obedience to it would be read as the fitting posture of a self whose very power to discern right from wrong is itself dependent and granted, never autonomous.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
Abhinavagupta's fullest surviving remark falls under the preceding verse, treating 16.23 and 16.24 as one unit: scripture is beginningless and is what gives true knowledge, so casting it aside and deciding right and wrong by private cleverness alone brings a result that runs the opposite of good. A Kashmir-Shaiva extension beyond what the source actually states would read scripture as the crystallized memory of what the awakened have already recognized, guarding the still-contracted self until it can see that freedom directly; this extension is flagged as such, not as his recorded word.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara reads the verse as the chapter's own turn toward what follows: the whole portrait of the two natures existed so that, at the close, scripture could be set forward as the one authority. Purity of being, knowledge, and release all root in keeping it, and on his wider Vaishnava reading, from that keeping grows the unwavering devotion promised earlier in the Gita.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Read for a contemporary seeker, Madhusudana's point lands practically: craving-driven action, already shown to fail at its own goals, is replaced by one operational test, know what is enjoined and forbidden, and act accordingly, not because scripture is an arbitrary external rule but because it is the one available discipline capable of clearing the very desire, anger, and greed that the chapter has just named as the root of every downfall.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
If scripture is meant to be my authority, what do I do when I cannot read the originals, when different teachings seem to disagree, or when my own conscience pulls a different way?
See first what the verse is actually correcting: not an absence of scholarship, but the danger of becoming a law unto yourself, deciding right and wrong by cleverness alone, which Abhinavagupta's own surviving remark on this passage names as the very failure that turns the result opposite of good.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta · Śaṅkarācārya
Scripture here is broader than any single text you might lack access to; it is the whole received body, and its actual demand is narrow and doable: know what is enjoined and forbidden in the situation in front of you, avoid the one, and perform the other, exactly where you are qualified to act.
Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Where a conflict feels real, understand rightly before you decide, neither falling short of the teaching nor reading into it more than it says, and trust that its aim was never restriction for its own sake but the purification that finally lets right knowledge, and even devotion, arise on their own.
Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Contemplation
The next time you face a real decision and feel the pull to settle it purely by what you want, pause on that very pull. Set your own verdict down for a moment and ask what a trusted, tested standard outside your own wanting would say. This is not a call to stop thinking. It is a call to notice how often what parades as judgment is only desire wearing judgment's face, and to let something steadier than that impulse be consulted first.
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.