The two endowments meet their ends, and the divine one is already yours.
Having set the godly qualities beside the demonic ones, Krishna now names where each leads, and turns at once to steady a suddenly worried Arjuna by name.
The divine endowment leads to liberation, the demonic to bondage. Do not grieve, Arjuna, for you are born to the divine endowment.
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
The godly qualities and the demonic ones have just been laid out side by side. Now, before the long account of the demonic nature begins in earnest, Krishna pauses to fix where each side leads, and turns to steady Arjuna by name.
The teaching
The two inner endowments are here fixed to their ends. The divine endowment, the godly inner wealth, is for liberation: release from bondage, the freedom that ends the round of birth and death. The demonic endowment is for bondage: it keeps a person tied to birth after birth. This is not one teacher's private opinion; it is held so by the scriptures and by those who follow them. The lesson that follows is plain: take up the divine, reject the demonic. Then the teaching turns to address, and Arjuna is told directly: do not grieve. Having just heard that one endowment leads to bondage, he might well be shaken about his own standing, and that worry is lifted immediately, by name. The reassurance rests on a fact, not on comfort alone: Arjuna is born to the divine endowment. He already belongs to the godly side, so the demonic catalogue about to unfold gives him no real cause for fear. He is called son of Pandu, and that name is itself part of the consolation, pointing to a lineage of righteousness that could not have produced what has just been described. And the divine endowment is not a finished thing to be congratulated on. It is a tendency already present that qualifies its holder for the very knowledge of truth being taught, a fitness that still has to be drawn forward and lived, not merely owned and set aside.
The doubt that rises
If liberation or bondage already follows from the endowment one is born to, is one's destiny simply a matter of birth and luck? And where the sources for a given voice are thin, as happens here for at least one of the six readings gathered on this page, how much of what follows can honestly be called that voice's own?
Where the paths divide
Read as closing the ledger opened by the two preceding verses.
The divine gift releases from the bondage of wandering through birth after birth; the demonic and fiend-like gifts fix a person in a bondage that does not loosen on its own. Read further through a later Advaita voice, the two endowments widen into a fuller account of action itself: whatever calm, desireless act suits a person's own class and stage of life is divine wealth, ripening through purity, devotion, and steady knowledge into release; whatever restless or dull, scripture-forbidden, ego-driven act belongs to anyone at all is demonic wealth, binding the doer to the round regardless of who performs it.
Read through obedience to the Lord's command.
The divine endowment is the form obedience to the Lord's command takes, and by that obedience it carries a person step by step to the Lord himself; the demonic endowment is the form transgression takes, and it leads instead to the downward course. Arjuna's fear at hearing this stark division, and the Lord's answer through the name Pandava, rest on lineage: as son of Pandu, foremost among the righteous, he could not belong to the type that breaks the Lord's command.
Read honestly as a thin fragment, not filled out.
What survives for this verse in Madhva's own words is a single, precise grammatical note: 'born to the divine endowment' means born toward it, born with reference to it. His wider picture of the self's total dependence on the Lord, well attested elsewhere in his work, is not restated here; it surfaces instead in the exacting grammatical dispute his student Jayatirtha later presses over this very phrase, asking whether one already divine can be said to be merely born 'aiming at' divinity at all.
No distinct 16.5 comment survives; genuine 16.1 words are named as such, and any extension is flagged.
Abhinavagupta addresses verses 16.1 through 16.5 as one continuous passage, with his substantive comment given once at 16.1. What is genuinely his own and bears directly on this verse is this: the divine endowment 'serves your release, since it dispels desire,' and so Arjuna should not fall into grief at what battle may cost him. On a Kashmir Shaiva extension of that stated frame, which is a construction and not his verbatim word on 16.5, liberation would be read as freedom unclenching from a forgetting of itself, and bondage as that same freedom hardened into a defensive, contracted identity.
Read as the small, deciding hinge of the chapter.
The two natures are graded by what they open onto: whoever is joined to the godly nature is, by that very fact, fit for the knowledge of truth already taught; whoever is joined to the demonic nature stays caught in the round of birth and death without a break. The Lord's turn to steady Arjuna's doubt is more than comfort. It is firm proof that the one in whom the godly marks appear is thereby qualified for the saving knowledge already declared to lead to release.
Read as a general rule about how action ripens, applied to one worried person.
The same categories that sort action into calm and desireless against restless, forbidden, and desire-driven decide the fruit for anyone at all, not for Arjuna alone. Seen this way, his consolation is a specific case of a general mechanism: whoever holds the divine endowment, understood as this kind of action actually lived, is moving toward release; whoever holds the demonic endowment is moving toward bondage, and the movement is already underway in the qualities a person carries today.
The readings agree on the verse's shape: divine endowment to liberation, demonic to bondage, and a direct word of reassurance to Arjuna resting on a fact about his own nature. They differ on how much further to press that fact, whether into a full theory of action, a theology of obedience, a grammatical dispute over a single word, or an honest admission that a given voice's own comment on this exact verse simply does not survive at any length. This page does not smooth that unevenness away.
A question to carry
Setting aside what you wish were true of yourself, what godly quality can you actually name in yourself today, plainly, without exaggeration, and does naming it honestly change how much you need to grieve?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
May you see plainly what you already carry, let that plain seeing be reason enough not to grieve, and keep drawing forward whatever in you already leans toward the light.
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.
After the divine and demonic lists of the two preceding verses, Krishna fixes their fruit here and breaks the analysis for a moment of direct reassurance before the long demonic catalogue resumes.
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 divine endowment is fixed to liberation, release from repeated birth; the demonic endowment is fixed to bondage, staying tied to it. This is not private opinion but what the scriptures themselves declare.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhusūdana · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
This verse states the result the two endowments lead to. After listing the divine and demonic qualities in the verses before, the Lord now fixes their fruit: the divine endowment is for liberation, release from the bondage of repeated birth; the demonic endowment is held to be for bondage, keeping a person tied to birth after birth. The word 'held' or 'considered' points to scriptural authority rather than private opinion, so the practical lesson lands plainly: take up the divine, reject the demonic.
Having just drawn this hard line through human nature, the teacher turns to his student directly: do not grieve. The worry is answered by name before the demonic catalogue continues.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Kashmir ŚaivaŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhusūdana · AbhinavaguptaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
Having just drawn this stark line through human nature, the teacher turns at once to Arjuna and reassures him: do not grieve. The commentators agree on the structure even where they differ on the exact texture of the fear: hearing that one whole endowment binds a person to birth after birth, Arjuna is shaken about his own standing, and the worry is lifted immediately, by name, before the long demonic catalogue of the following verses begins.
The reassurance rests on fact, not comfort alone: you are already born to the divine endowment, and the very name you are called by points to an inborn worth that argues against fear.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 1 others’ words
The reassurance rests on a fact, not on comfort alone: Arjuna is born to the divine endowment. Several commentators draw weight from the address 'Pandava', son of Pandu, reading it as a pointer to an inborn, righteous lineage that could not have produced the demonic type just described. The name itself is part of the consolation.
The divine endowment is not a finished certificate. It is a fitness that qualifies you for the knowledge already being taught, and it still has to be brought forward and lived.
Across Bhakti, AdvaitaŚrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śrīdhara and Madhusūdana’s words
The divine endowment is not treated as a finished possession to be congratulated on but as a tendency already present that qualifies its holder for the very knowledge of truth already being taught. To carry the divine marks is, by that fact, to be fit for release; the endowment still has to be lived and brought forward, not merely owned.
One survives here as a thin fragment, not a full portrait: where a source is brief or borrowed from an adjoining verse, that limit is named honestly rather than filled in with invention.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, DvaitaŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhva · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
Underneath the whole verse lies one mechanism common to every reading: the same span of qualities that a person carries settles, on its own terms, which of two destinations that person is already moving toward. Nothing arbitrary decides liberation or bondage; the endowment itself, once fixed, simply ripens into its named fruit.
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 defines the two endowments by their relation to the Lord's command rather than by any independent moral content: the divine endowment is the form obedience takes, and by that obedience it leads step by step to the Lord himself; the demonic endowment is the form transgression takes, and by it a person travels the downward course. Arjuna's fear at hearing this, and the Lord's answer through the name Pandava, rests on lineage: as the son of Pandu, foremost among the righteous, he could not belong to the type that breaks the Lord's command.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
The material preserved for Madhva at this verse is a single grammatical note: 'born to the divine endowment' (abhijāta) means born toward it, born with reference to it. This is offered honestly as a thin fragment rather than filled out with his wider dependence-theology, which is attested more fully elsewhere; his fuller position surfaces instead in the grammatical dispute his student Jayatirtha presses at this same phrase.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara reads the verse as grading the two natures by what each opens onto: whoever is joined to the godly nature is thereby fit for the knowledge of truth already taught, while whoever is joined to the demonic nature stays caught in the round of birth and death without a break. He marks the Lord's turn to steady Arjuna's doubt as the small but deciding hinge of the chapter, more than comfort: firm proof that the one who carries the godly marks is, by that fact, fit for saving knowledge.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Read against the traditional grammar of desireless, class-appropriate action, a modern-facing gloss on Madhusudana stresses the symmetry he draws: the same categories of action, sattvic and desireless against rajasic-or-tamasic and desire-driven, decide the fruit for anyone at all, not for one class of person alone. The consolation to Arjuna follows as a specific case of a general rule about how action ripens.
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, for a moment, which endowment you are actually carrying today, not which one you wish you carried. The verse does not ask you to manufacture virtue you do not have; it asks you to see plainly what you already hold and let that plain seeing settle the question before it becomes anxiety. If you find something godly in yourself, however small, let that be enough reason not to grieve over what remains undone.
So look plainly at what you already carry, let that plain seeing be enough reason not to grieve, and keep doing the kind of action that ripens what is godly in you toward its own release.
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 states the result the two endowments lead to. After listing the divine and demonic qualities in the verses before, the Lord now fixes their fruit: the divine endowment is for liberation, release from the bondage of repeated birth; the demonic endowment is held to be for bondage, keeping a person tied to birth after birth. The word 'held' or 'considered' points to scriptural authority rather than private opinion, so the practical lesson lands plainly: take up the divine, reject the demonic.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Having just drawn this stark line through human nature, the teacher turns at once to Arjuna and reassures him: do not grieve. The commentators agree on the structure even where they differ on the exact texture of the fear: hearing that one whole endowment binds a person to birth after birth, Arjuna is shaken about his own standing, and the worry is lifted immediately, by name, before the long demonic catalogue of the following verses begins.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Ācārya Abhinavagupta
The reassurance rests on a fact, not on comfort alone: Arjuna is born to the divine endowment. Several commentators draw weight from the address 'Pandava', son of Pandu, reading it as a pointer to an inborn, righteous lineage that could not have produced the demonic type just described. The name itself is part of the consolation.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
The divine endowment is not treated as a finished possession to be congratulated on but as a tendency already present that qualifies its holder for the very knowledge of truth already being taught. To carry the divine marks is, by that fact, to be fit for release; the endowment still has to be lived and brought forward, not merely owned.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Underneath the whole verse lies one mechanism common to every reading: the same span of qualities that a person carries settles, on its own terms, which of two destinations that person is already moving toward. Nothing arbitrary decides liberation or bondage; the endowment itself, once fixed, simply ripens into its named fruit.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhvācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Shankara reads the verse as closing a ledger opened by the previous two verses: the divine gift releases from the bondage of repeated birth, the demonic and fiend-like gifts fix a person in bondage, and the Lord then answers Arjuna's unspoken fear directly. Madhusudana sharpens this into a fuller account of action: the divine wealth is any calm, desireless act proper to one's class and stage of life, ripening through purity, devotion, and steady knowledge into release; the demonic wealth is any restless or dull, scripture-forbidden, ego-driven act, binding the doer to the round of birth and death regardless of who performs it.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Ramanuja defines the two endowments by their relation to the Lord's command rather than by any independent moral content: the divine endowment is the form obedience takes, and by that obedience it leads step by step to the Lord himself; the demonic endowment is the form transgression takes, and by it a person travels the downward course. Arjuna's fear at hearing this, and the Lord's answer through the name Pandava, rests on lineage: as the son of Pandu, foremost among the righteous, he could not belong to the type that breaks the Lord's command.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
The material preserved for Madhva at this verse is a single grammatical note: 'born to the divine endowment' (abhijāta) means born toward it, born with reference to it. This is offered honestly as a thin fragment rather than filled out with his wider dependence-theology, which is attested more fully elsewhere; his fuller position surfaces instead in the grammatical dispute his student Jayatirtha presses at this same phrase.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
Abhinavagupta has no comment addressed to this verse by name; his substantive remarks are given at 16.1 for the whole 16.1-16.5 unit. What he does say there bears directly on this verse's content: the divine endowment 'serves your release, since it dispels desire,' and Arjuna should therefore not fall into grief at the thought of what battle will cost him. On a Kashmir Shaiva extension of that stated frame, not itself his verbatim word on 16.5, liberation would be read as the natural unclenching of a freedom never truly lost, and bondage as that same freedom forgetting itself in a contracted identity.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara reads the verse as grading the two natures by what each opens onto: whoever is joined to the godly nature is thereby fit for the knowledge of truth already taught, while whoever is joined to the demonic nature stays caught in the round of birth and death without a break. He marks the Lord's turn to steady Arjuna's doubt as the small but deciding hinge of the chapter, more than comfort: firm proof that the one who carries the godly marks is, by that fact, fit for saving knowledge.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Read against the traditional grammar of desireless, class-appropriate action, a modern-facing gloss on Madhusudana stresses the symmetry he draws: the same categories of action, sattvic and desireless against rajasic-or-tamasic and desire-driven, decide the fruit for anyone at all, not for one class of person alone. The consolation to Arjuna follows as a specific case of a general rule about how action ripens.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
If liberation or bondage already follows from the endowment I was born to, is my destiny just a matter of birth and luck, with nothing left for me to actually do?
The verse does state a fact about where you already stand, and it means that fact as real comfort, not as a technicality to be argued past. Being born to the divine endowment is not nothing; it is the ground the reassurance itself stands on.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya
But the fact is a starting point, not a finish line. Sridhara and Madhusudana both treat the endowment as something that qualifies you for further work, fitness for knowledge, ripening through purity and steady practice, rather than a certificate that ends all effort.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
And the two endowments are themselves made of action, of what you actually do with your class, stage of life, and duty, not of an unchangeable label stamped on you at birth. So the birth you are told not to grieve over is also, in the same breath, a summons to keep doing the kind of action that ripens toward release.
Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Contemplation
Notice, for a moment, which endowment you are actually carrying today, not which one you wish you carried. The verse does not ask you to manufacture virtue you do not have; it asks you to see plainly what you already hold and let that plain seeing settle the question before it becomes anxiety. If you find something godly in yourself, however small, let that be enough reason not to grieve over what remains undone.
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.