A gift becomes clear not by its size but by the meeting of a clean intention with the right recipient, place, and time.
It is easy to picture sattvic giving as a grand, ritual act. This verse locates it instead in a single conviction: it is simply to be given, and nothing is owed back to me for it.
A gift given with the simple conviction that it ought to be given, to one who can offer nothing back, at the right place, the right time, and to a worthy person, is called here a gift of clarity.
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
Krishna has just sorted austerity into three kinds by the motive behind it. He now turns the same threefold lens onto giving, and this verse names the first and clearest of the three, the gift born of sattva.
The teaching
A gift is sattvic when it is given from one settled conviction: it is simply to be given. You give because giving is right, because it is what conduct and scripture ask of you, not to gain anything back, now or in some other reckoning later. It goes to someone who can do nothing for you in return, who has done you no favor before, does none now, and is unlikely to ever do one. When the receiver cannot repay you, the giving cannot quietly hide an exchange inside it. The commentators also fit this gift, where possible, to the right place, the right time, and the right person: a holy site, a sacred occasion such as an eclipse or solstice, someone worthy, learned in scripture or steeped in discipline. More than one source adds that such a worthy person is valued not for learning alone, but because his own knowledge and austerity let him act as a kind of guardian, protecting both himself and the one who gives. What makes the gift sattvic, though, is not any one of these marks by itself, and never its size. It is the meeting of the settled intention with a non-returning recipient and, as far as circumstance allows, a right place, time, and person. Two of the six voices this page draws on say little of their own here: the extant record states plainly that Madhva offers no comment on this verse, and Abhinavagupta's surviving comment reads it chiefly as a marker of contrast against the two flawed gifts described in the verses just after this one, rather than as an independent account of the sattvic gift's own nature. Both gaps are marked honestly rather than filled with invented confidence.
The doubt that rises
If a truly sattvic gift has to be tied to holy sites, eclipse-timed occasions, and learned recipients, does that not turn selfless giving into a ritual luxury, something for pilgrimage and scripture, rather than a way I can practice toward an ordinary person in ordinary need?
Where the paths divide
Read as a spare, sequential naming of four marks.
Shankara names the conditions in order and lets their convergence speak for itself: the settled conviction it is simply to be given, a recipient who can return nothing, a holy place such as Kurukshetra, a holy time such as a solstice, and a worthy person learned in the Veda and its branches. He does not extend the point into a further argument here, resting the teaching on the plain enumeration.
Read as a close paraphrase, without the fuller surrender-doctrine stated here.
The surviving comment stays close to the verse's own words: such gifts ask nothing in return and reach the right place, time, and worthy person. Ramanuja's usual doctrine of handing both doership and fruit to the Lord, developed at length elsewhere in his reading of action, is not spelled out on this particular verse; any tie to it would be a reasonable inference, not this comment's own stated claim.
Read honestly as a silence in the record, not filled in.
The commentary attributed to Madhva states directly that he offers no comment on this verse. Rather than invent a confident Dvaita reading, the honest report is the silence itself. A system-consistent extension, clearly marked as such and not as his word, might read the gift as a passing on of wealth the giver never truly owned, since every self acts and gives only by the Lord's sanction.
Read as a contrast-marker against the two flawed gifts that follow.
Abhinavagupta's surviving comment treats the passage mainly as setting up what comes next: the injunction it is to be given points toward the reluctance that will mark the rajasic gift and the disrespect that will mark the tamasic gift. The sattvic gift is explained here chiefly by what it is not. A fuller Kashmir Shaiva account of giving as awareness loosening its own grasp would be extension, not his stated word on this verse.
Read through the insistence that no single mark suffices alone.
Sridhara holds that intention, recipient, place, time, and fitness must all converge together; none of them makes the gift sattvic by itself. He also considers a grammatical variant in which the worthy recipient is read as a protector, one who through his own knowledge and discipline guards the giver as well as himself from misfortune.
Read as a portable test of genuine fitness rather than status.
Madhusudana lingers longest on the worthy recipient, and his emphasis reframes fitness as real capability rather than fixed status: a gift entrusted to genuine knowledge and discipline does protective work for both giver and receiver. Read this way, worthiness travels with demonstrated capacity in any setting, not with learning or lineage alone.
The schools mostly restate rather than contest the verse's own terms, and two of the six voices here, Madhva and Abhinavagupta, leave little independent comment of their own on this exact verse. What stays open is a question of emphasis: whether the sacred setting, holy site, sacred time, learned recipient, is essential to the gift's clarity or mainly illustrative of a stance that could, in principle, be practiced anywhere, toward anyone in genuine need.
A question to carry
When you next give to someone who can never repay you, can you notice the plain thought this verse asks you to hold, that it is simply to be given, and let the giving be complete in itself?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
Give, then, from that settled place: because giving is simply owed, to one who cannot repay you, and let whatever place, time, or receiver circumstance brings you be enough.
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.
Krishna has just sorted austerity into its three kinds by their inner motive; now the same threefold analysis turns to giving, opening with the clearest, most selfless gift.
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.
Give from the plain conviction it is simply to be given, treating the act as duty, not as a transaction expecting anything in return.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
This verse opens the chapter's threefold sorting of charity by its inner stance rather than its outward size. A sattvic gift is given from the settled conviction, it is simply to be given, treating the act as a duty enjoined by scripture and right conduct, not as a transaction expecting anything back, now or later.
Give to one who can render no return, so the act cannot hide a disguised exchange behind the appearance of charity.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
The gift goes to one who can render no return: someone who has done the giver no prior favor, does none now, and is unlikely to do any in the future. This condition guards the purity of the act, since a recipient who might reciprocate would let the gift shade into disguised exchange.
Where possible, fit the gift to a right place, a right time, and a worthy person; but these illustrate the teaching rather than wall out ordinary compassion.
Across Advaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Śrīdhara, and 1 others’ words
Sattvic giving is also fitted to the right place, the right time, and a worthy recipient. The commentators illustrate place with a holy site such as Kurukshetra, time with a sacred occasion such as an eclipse or solstice, and the worthy recipient with a person learned in the Veda or steeped in austerity and sacred study. The gift is sattvic not by its size but by the meeting of these alignments.
A gift's clarity comes from the meeting of these alignments together, never from any single mark alone, and never from its size.
Across Bhakti, AdvaitaŚrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śrīdhara and Madhusūdana’s words
More than one source adds that the worthy recipient is valued not for learning alone but because, through that same knowledge and discipline, he can protect both himself and the giver from misfortune; scripture is said to direct giving specifically to such a guardian figure.
Where a source falls genuinely silent, as Madhva's does here, or speaks of the verse chiefly as contrast, as Abhinavagupta's does, the honest course is to say so plainly rather than supply a confident reading in a name that gave none.
Across Dvaita, Kashmir ŚaivaMadhva · AbhinavaguptaIn Madhva and Abhinavagupta’s words
The record for this verse also shows a real gap in what survives: Madhva offers no comment at all, and Abhinavagupta's extant comment reads the verse mainly as a contrast-marker against the two flawed gifts that follow rather than as an independent positive account of the sattvic gift's own inner nature.
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
The surviving Ramanuja comment restates the verse's own terms compactly, gifts asking nothing in return, given at the right place and time to a worthy person, without extending here into his usual doctrine of surrendering doership and fruit to the Lord. Any tie to that fuller teaching would be a reasonable inference from his broader system, not something this particular comment itself states.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
The surviving record for this school is silence: the extant commentary states directly that Madhva offers no comment on this verse. No confident Dvaita reading of the verse's specific vocabulary can honestly be reported. A clearly labeled extension, not his word, since he elsewhere holds that every self acts and gives only by the Lord's sanction, a consistent Dvaita reader might see even the wealth given away as never truly the giver's own, only held in trust and passed on.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara insists no single mark suffices alone: right intention, right recipient, right place and time, and right fitness must converge together, and the worthy recipient may further be read, on a grammatical variant he considers, as a protector who guards the giver as well as himself through his own knowledge and discipline.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Madhusudana pauses longest over the protector-recipient, reframing worthiness away from status and toward genuine capability: a gift entrusted to real competence does protective work for both giver and receiver, which is read here as a portable test for judging fitness in any era, not a fixed marker of caste or learning alone.
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 your next act of giving, pause on the plain thought this verse asks you to hold: it is simply to be given, nothing owed back to me for it. Notice whether some quiet part of you is already tracking a return, gratitude, credit, a future favor, and let that noticing be enough; you do not need to force the thought away, only to see it and let the giving continue regardless of what it brings you.
Before your next act of giving, hold the plain thought this verse asks of you: it is simply to be given, and let the giving stand complete in itself, whatever it brings back to you or does not.
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 opens the chapter's threefold sorting of charity by its inner stance rather than its outward size. A sattvic gift is given from the settled conviction, it is simply to be given, treating the act as a duty enjoined by scripture and right conduct, not as a transaction expecting anything back, now or later.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The gift goes to one who can render no return: someone who has done the giver no prior favor, does none now, and is unlikely to do any in the future. This condition guards the purity of the act, since a recipient who might reciprocate would let the gift shade into disguised exchange.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Sattvic giving is also fitted to the right place, the right time, and a worthy recipient. The commentators illustrate place with a holy site such as Kurukshetra, time with a sacred occasion such as an eclipse or solstice, and the worthy recipient with a person learned in the Veda or steeped in austerity and sacred study. The gift is sattvic not by its size but by the meeting of these alignments.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
More than one source adds that the worthy recipient is valued not for learning alone but because, through that same knowledge and discipline, he can protect both himself and the giver from misfortune; scripture is said to direct giving specifically to such a guardian figure.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The record for this verse also shows a real gap in what survives: Madhva offers no comment at all, and Abhinavagupta's extant comment reads the verse mainly as a contrast-marker against the two flawed gifts that follow rather than as an independent positive account of the sattvic gift's own inner nature.
Madhvācārya · Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Shankara keeps close to the verse's own words, naming four plain marks in sequence, the settled conviction, a non-returning recipient, a holy place and time, and a worthy person learned in the Veda and its six branches, and lets their simple convergence define the gift of clarity. He does not extend the point into a wider argument here, trusting the enumeration itself to carry the teaching.
Śaṅkarācārya
Viśiṣṭādvaita
The surviving Ramanuja comment restates the verse's own terms compactly, gifts asking nothing in return, given at the right place and time to a worthy person, without extending here into his usual doctrine of surrendering doership and fruit to the Lord. Any tie to that fuller teaching would be a reasonable inference from his broader system, not something this particular comment itself states.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
The surviving record for this school is silence: the extant commentary states directly that Madhva offers no comment on this verse. No confident Dvaita reading of the verse's specific vocabulary can honestly be reported. A clearly labeled extension, not his word, since he elsewhere holds that every self acts and gives only by the Lord's sanction, a consistent Dvaita reader might see even the wealth given away as never truly the giver's own, only held in trust and passed on.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
Abhinavagupta's surviving comment reads the whole passage chiefly as a contrast-marker: the injunction it is to be given points up the defects named in the two gifts that follow, the reluctance of the rajasic gift and the disrespect of the tamasic gift. The sattvic gift is explained here mainly by what it is not. A further Kashmir Shaiva reading of giving as awareness loosening its own grasp is a labeled extension, not his stated word on this verse.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara insists no single mark suffices alone: right intention, right recipient, right place and time, and right fitness must converge together, and the worthy recipient may further be read, on a grammatical variant he considers, as a protector who guards the giver as well as himself through his own knowledge and discipline.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Madhusudana pauses longest over the protector-recipient, reframing worthiness away from status and toward genuine capability: a gift entrusted to real competence does protective work for both giver and receiver, which is read here as a portable test for judging fitness in any era, not a fixed marker of caste or learning alone.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
If a truly sattvic gift has to be tied to holy sites, eclipse-timed occasions, and learned recipients, does that not turn selfless giving into a ritual luxury rather than something I can practice toward an ordinary person in ordinary need?
The verse's living center is the inner stance, not the sacred backdrop: giving from the settled conviction it is simply to be given, with no aim at reward. That conviction is available anywhere, regardless of calendar or setting, and the commentators return to it before any mention of place or time.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya
The mark of giving to one who can render no return actually points toward ordinary need rather than ritual privilege; it exists precisely to keep the gift free of any expectation of repayment, which is what selflessness means in practice, whoever the recipient happens to be.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Where sources do specify a learned or disciplined recipient, more than one reading reframes this as a question of genuine capability to receive and put the gift to protective use, not a wall of status; read this way, worthiness travels with real fitness for the gift, which an ordinary person in real need can plainly have.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Contemplation
Before your next act of giving, pause on the plain thought this verse asks you to hold: it is simply to be given, nothing owed back to me for it. Notice whether some quiet part of you is already tracking a return, gratitude, credit, a future favor, and let that noticing be enough; you do not need to force the thought away, only to see it and let the giving continue regardless of what it brings you.
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.