Arjuna asks his teacher to name the one clear path to the highest good.
Hearing action praised in one breath and knowledge in another, Arjuna feels the teaching has tangled his mind, and he wants a single, settled course he can act on. The verse holds open whether he is asking which of two paths to choose, or only for one plain restatement of a teaching that was never really two.
You seem to bewilder my mind with words that appear to contradict each other. Tell me for certain the one way by which I may reach the highest good.
After the long second chapter that seemed to praise both engaged action and the steadiness of knowledge, Arjuna stops and confesses he cannot tell which is being asked of him, and he asks Krishna to settle it.
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.
You have heard action praised in one place and the rising beyond it in another, and to a troubled mind these can sound like one tangled message instead of two callings.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Rāmānuja · Vallabha · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · Tilak · JñāneśvarIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 10 others’ words
Arjuna says Krishna's teaching has been 'mixed' (vyamishra) and that it confuses his buddhi, his understanding. The word vyamishra means blended or interwoven: at one moment Krishna seems to praise action, at another he praises knowledge or the giving up of action, so Arjuna cannot tell which is being recommended. Many commentators point to specific lines that pull in opposite directions, for example 'your right is to action alone' urging engagement, set against counsel to rise beyond the three gunas or cross past the thicket of delusion, which sounds like withdrawal. To a hearer Arjuna calls dull, these read as a single self-contradictory message rather than two paths for two kinds of people.
Notice the small word 'as it were': the one who wants to free you has no wish to confuse you, so the muddle lives in how you receive the words, not in the words.
Across Advaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, ViśiṣṭādvaitaŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · Vedānta DeśikaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 7 others’ words
The small word 'iva' ('as it were'), used twice in the verse, is carefully weighted by the commentators: Krishna does not really confuse anyone. The confusion is not in Krishna's words but in Arjuna's own reception of them. Several sources stress that Krishna is supremely compassionate and could have no wish to delude the very person he is trying to free, and that the apparent muddle comes from a defect or dullness in Arjuna's own intellect. So the verse is honest about where the problem lies: the teaching is clear, but the student, clouded by his state of mind, takes the clear for the unclear.
So ask plainly for the one thing: not idle curiosity but a settled course to walk, the single way by which you reach your highest good.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Rāmānuja · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabha · Śrīdhara · Baladeva · Sivananda · Tilak · JñāneśvarIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 11 others’ words
Arjuna's request is therefore for one decisive thing. He asks Krishna to determine it (nishchitya, 'having ascertained') and state that single course, the one by which he will reach shreyas, his highest good or liberation. The commentators read this as a plea to cut through the felt contradiction: stop offering what sounds like two things and name the one path fit for me, so that I can act on it with certainty. The motive is practical, not merely intellectual; Arjuna wants to know what to do.
Behind the asking lies a quiet assumption, that knowledge and action stand opposed like standing still and walking at once, so that one person could take up only one of them.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Bhakti, Śuddhādvaita, and the modern voicesĀnandagiri · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Rāmānuja · Baladeva · Vallabha · Śrīdhara · RamsukhdasIn Ānandagiri, Madhusūdana, and 6 others’ words
Behind Arjuna's question lies a particular reasoning the commentators expose: knowledge and action look mutually opposed, like standing still and walking at once, so one person cannot do both together. On that assumption a single agent must be assigned just one of the two. Some sources also note that Arjuna is half-defending his own earlier preference, having already heard battle called a duty and yet feeling that knowledge sounds higher; he wants the teaching to settle the matter in a way he can accept.
This is the shared ground; it can be carried as it is. Below is where they differ.
Where they differthe divergence
Advaita Vedānta, in their fuller words
These commentators take the 'one thing' Arjuna wants as a genuine either-or between two distinct disciplines, the path of knowledge (jnana-yoga) and the path of action (karma-yoga). Arjuna's underlying premise is that knowledge and action cannot be combined or held as optional alternatives by the same person, since they belong to different kinds of agents; so he asks which single discipline suits him, a warrior of his particular capacity and stage and his imminent battle. On this reading there is no blending of knowledge and action: the pure-minded reach the goal through knowledge and renunciation of action, while those whose inner organ is still impure rise toward that knowledge through desireless action. One discipline appears twofold according to the seeker's purity, which is why Krishna will answer by naming two committed paths rather than one fused practice.
Viśiṣṭādvaita, in their fuller words
Here the 'mixed' statement is pinned to one precise contradiction: Krishna seemed to say that action, which is the very opposite of the steadiness in knowledge that comes from withdrawing the senses, is somehow the means to that steadiness. To call the contrary a means to its own contrary is self-contradictory. So Arjuna asks not to choose between knowledge and action, but for a single unmixed statement: the 'ekam' is read as the one karma-instruction already given, now to be clarified, not as a pick between two paths. One source adds careful grammar: the buddhi, being non-conscious, cannot literally be confused, so 'mam' (me) is a courtesy and 'iva' means 'it merely appears so'; and since the all-knowing Krishna needs no fresh determination, the 'nishchitya' (ascertaining) must be Arjuna's own, asking Krishna to state plainly the one thing to be done.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
On this reading the 'mixed' word is one that blocks the proper means-and-end relation between the Sankhya disposition and the disposition of the yoga of understanding, both of which involve withdrawing the senses; such a statement confuses. Arjuna, knowing Krishna is the Lord of all and his friend, insists there is no real bewildering of him by Krishna; the fault is in his own understanding. He therefore asks for one unmixed statement by which he can ascertain his duty and attain his own good. This reading also leans on scripture that exalts renunciation, citing the Shruti that immortality is reached 'by renunciation alone' and that 'the uncreated is not attained by what is done.'
Śuddhādvaita, in their fuller words
These commentators hear the request resolving toward devotion and grace, not toward a bare choice between knowledge and action. One holds that the surrendered seeker must ask, and that Krishna's coming reply will not deny action but will set it within the order of his command. The other reads Arjuna's plea for 'one decisive word' as a plea for a single teaching that has the form of the highest good and propounds bhakti, devotion, given with the heart of bestowing it on him, by which he may attain Krishna himself; in the earlier mingled speech no single strand stood out as good in its own form, but in a definite teaching of devotion the question is answered. The address 'Janardana' is taken to hint that even Arjuna's confusion is removed by the Lord's own will and grace.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
This stream keeps the request practical while opening it toward devotion. One commentator frames the hidden purport as a graded scale: rajasic action, then superior sattvic action, then far above both, devotion free of the modes, which cannot be won by one's own effort but only by the grace of a great spontaneous devotee; so Arjuna effectively says, if that highest devotion does not yet arise in me, then instruct me in the one thing, sattvic knowledge, by which I would be freed from the suffering of worldly existence. Another reads the verse as a doubt-producing word that throws the buddhi in two directions, and asks Krishna to determine which single course is beneficial, or which when practised brings him to the liberation that is moksha, and tell that one alone. A third, in extended verse, dramatizes Arjuna's distress: a riddle-like utterance leaves the ignorant lost, like a patient poisoned by his own physician; so he begs Krishna, his very divine mother and a wish-granting refuge, to speak in plain, sweet, definite language a dullard can grasp, the complete truth of the deepest meaning, leading to his good in this world and the everlasting life beyond.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
These commentators read the verse partly as a window into Arjuna's psychology. One observes a real weakness in the inner instrument: a person who asks a question often wants, even in the answer, only confirmation of his own view; the true courage is to obey the teacher's instruction whether it is welcome or wholly unwelcome, and everything short of that is weakness. On this view Arjuna's reluctance to fight has cloaked itself as the virtue of non-violence, so he rates knowledge above action and protests being yoked to dreadful battle; the address 'Janardana' carries his hope that Krishna, fulfiller of every petition, will grant his wish. Another simply restates the verse: by this seemingly mixed, double-meaning advice you are confusing my understanding, so tell me definitely the one thing by which I shall attain bliss. A third notes Arjuna's perplexity at being rebuked for faint-heartedness yet seemingly advised to refrain from action, while cautioning that this appearance of contradiction is not in fact the case, as the following verses will show.
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
Watch for the subtle trap this verse exposes. When you bring a real question to a teacher, a teaching, or your own conscience, notice whether you are actually open to the answer, or only waiting for it to confirm what you had already decided. The honest signal is this: the courage is to follow the instruction whether it is agreeable or wholly disagreeable to you; everything short of that is a kind of weakness. The hardest evil to give up is the one wearing the clothes of good. Here Arjuna's wish to avoid battle has put on the dress of non-violence, and so he has begun to rate knowledge above action and to protest the duty in front of him. The contemplation is to catch that move in yourself: when reluctance starts calling itself virtue, and a question starts working to protect a preference, you have found exactly the place where real surrender is being asked of you.
When you carry a question to your teacher or your own conscience, watch whether you are truly open to the answer or only waiting for it to agree with you, and be willing to follow what is asked even when it is unwelcome.
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Convergence
rjuna says Krishna's teaching has been 'mixed' (vyamishra) and that it confuses his buddhi, his understanding. The word vyamishra means blended or interwoven: at one moment Krishna seems to praise action, at another he praises knowledge or the giving up of action, so Arjuna cannot tell which is being recommended. Many commentators point to specific lines that pull in opposite directions, for example 'your right is to action alone' urging engagement, set against counsel to rise beyond the three gunas or cross past the thicket of delusion, which sounds like withdrawal. To a hearer Arjuna calls dull, these read as a single self-contradictory message rather than two paths for two kinds of people.
Braided from 12 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Lokmanya Tilak · Sant Jñāneśvar
The small word 'iva' ('as it were'), used twice in the verse, is carefully weighted by the commentators: Krishna does not really confuse anyone. The confusion is not in Krishna's words but in Arjuna's own reception of them. Several sources stress that Krishna is supremely compassionate and could have no wish to delude the very person he is trying to free, and that the apparent muddle comes from a defect or dullness in Arjuna's own intellect. So the verse is honest about where the problem lies: the teaching is clear, but the student, clouded by his state of mind, takes the clear for the unclear.
Braided from 9 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Vedānta Deśika
Arjuna's request is therefore for one decisive thing. He asks Krishna to determine it (nishchitya, 'having ascertained') and state that single course, the one by which he will reach shreyas, his highest good or liberation. The commentators read this as a plea to cut through the felt contradiction: stop offering what sounds like two things and name the one path fit for me, so that I can act on it with certainty. The motive is practical, not merely intellectual; Arjuna wants to know what to do.
Braided from 13 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Sant Jñāneśvar
Behind Arjuna's question lies a particular reasoning the commentators expose: knowledge and action look mutually opposed, like standing still and walking at once, so one person cannot do both together. On that assumption a single agent must be assigned just one of the two. Some sources also note that Arjuna is half-defending his own earlier preference, having already heard battle called a duty and yet feeling that knowledge sounds higher; he wants the teaching to settle the matter in a way he can accept.
Braided from 8 commentators
Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīla Baladeva · Vallabhācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Ramsukhdas
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators take the 'one thing' Arjuna wants as a genuine either-or between two distinct disciplines, the path of knowledge (jnana-yoga) and the path of action (karma-yoga). Arjuna's underlying premise is that knowledge and action cannot be combined or held as optional alternatives by the same person, since they belong to different kinds of agents; so he asks which single discipline suits him, a warrior of his particular capacity and stage and his imminent battle. On this reading there is no blending of knowledge and action: the pure-minded reach the goal through knowledge and renunciation of action, while those whose inner organ is still impure rise toward that knowledge through desireless action. One discipline appears twofold according to the seeker's purity, which is why Krishna will answer by naming two committed paths rather than one fused practice.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Here the 'mixed' statement is pinned to one precise contradiction: Krishna seemed to say that action, which is the very opposite of the steadiness in knowledge that comes from withdrawing the senses, is somehow the means to that steadiness. To call the contrary a means to its own contrary is self-contradictory. So Arjuna asks not to choose between knowledge and action, but for a single unmixed statement: the 'ekam' is read as the one karma-instruction already given, now to be clarified, not as a pick between two paths. One source adds careful grammar: the buddhi, being non-conscious, cannot literally be confused, so 'mam' (me) is a courtesy and 'iva' means 'it merely appears so'; and since the all-knowing Krishna needs no fresh determination, the 'nishchitya' (ascertaining) must be Arjuna's own, asking Krishna to state plainly the one thing to be done.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Dvaita
On this reading the 'mixed' word is one that blocks the proper means-and-end relation between the Sankhya disposition and the disposition of the yoga of understanding, both of which involve withdrawing the senses; such a statement confuses. Arjuna, knowing Krishna is the Lord of all and his friend, insists there is no real bewildering of him by Krishna; the fault is in his own understanding. He therefore asks for one unmixed statement by which he can ascertain his duty and attain his own good. This reading also leans on scripture that exalts renunciation, citing the Shruti that immortality is reached 'by renunciation alone' and that 'the uncreated is not attained by what is done.'
Śrīla Baladeva
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators hear the request resolving toward devotion and grace, not toward a bare choice between knowledge and action. One holds that the surrendered seeker must ask, and that Krishna's coming reply will not deny action but will set it within the order of his command. The other reads Arjuna's plea for 'one decisive word' as a plea for a single teaching that has the form of the highest good and propounds bhakti, devotion, given with the heart of bestowing it on him, by which he may attain Krishna himself; in the earlier mingled speech no single strand stood out as good in its own form, but in a definite teaching of devotion the question is answered. The address 'Janardana' is taken to hint that even Arjuna's confusion is removed by the Lord's own will and grace.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
This stream keeps the request practical while opening it toward devotion. One commentator frames the hidden purport as a graded scale: rajasic action, then superior sattvic action, then far above both, devotion free of the modes, which cannot be won by one's own effort but only by the grace of a great spontaneous devotee; so Arjuna effectively says, if that highest devotion does not yet arise in me, then instruct me in the one thing, sattvic knowledge, by which I would be freed from the suffering of worldly existence. Another reads the verse as a doubt-producing word that throws the buddhi in two directions, and asks Krishna to determine which single course is beneficial, or which when practised brings him to the liberation that is moksha, and tell that one alone. A third, in extended verse, dramatizes Arjuna's distress: a riddle-like utterance leaves the ignorant lost, like a patient poisoned by his own physician; so he begs Krishna, his very divine mother and a wish-granting refuge, to speak in plain, sweet, definite language a dullard can grasp, the complete truth of the deepest meaning, leading to his good in this world and the everlasting life beyond.
Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
These commentators read the verse partly as a window into Arjuna's psychology. One observes a real weakness in the inner instrument: a person who asks a question often wants, even in the answer, only confirmation of his own view; the true courage is to obey the teacher's instruction whether it is welcome or wholly unwelcome, and everything short of that is weakness. On this view Arjuna's reluctance to fight has cloaked itself as the virtue of non-violence, so he rates knowledge above action and protests being yoked to dreadful battle; the address 'Janardana' carries his hope that Krishna, fulfiller of every petition, will grant his wish. Another simply restates the verse: by this seemingly mixed, double-meaning advice you are confusing my understanding, so tell me definitely the one thing by which I shall attain bliss. A third notes Arjuna's perplexity at being rebuked for faint-heartedness yet seemingly advised to refrain from action, while cautioning that this appearance of contradiction is not in fact the case, as the following verses will show.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Lokmanya Tilak · Mahatma Gandhi
A Seeker Asks
If the teaching really is clear and the confusion is only mine, how do I tell a genuine contradiction in what I am taught from my own clouded mind dressing up the answer I want as a problem with the teaching?
Start by trusting the verse's own diagnosis. The doubled 'as it were' (iva) is the commentators' hinge: a compassionate teacher trying to free you has no motive to confuse you, so when the teaching seems tangled, the first suspect is the dullness or clouding in your own reception, not a defect in what was said. This does not mean every confusion is your fault; it means you should not assume the teaching is broken before you have examined your own state of mind.
Braided from 6 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Vedānta Deśika
Then look closely at what actually looks contradictory. The seeming clash here is between lines urging action and lines urging knowledge or withdrawal, and the resolution the commentators give is that these are not one self-contradictory order but two paths fitted to two different conditions of the seeker, one discipline appearing twofold according to the purity and stage of the person. A real contradiction would remain contradictory under any reading; an apparent one dissolves once you see who each instruction is addressed to and where you yourself stand.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha
Finally, test your own motive, which is where this verse is sharpest. Ask whether your question is genuinely seeking the answer or quietly defending a preference you have already chosen. The telltale sign is reluctance that has dressed itself as virtue, as when avoidance of a hard duty calls itself non-violence; when you notice that, the 'contradiction' is often your own clouded mind at work. The honest test is willingness: a real seeker is prepared to follow the instruction even when it is wholly unwelcome.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrīla Baladeva
Contemplation
Watch for the subtle trap this verse exposes. When you bring a real question to a teacher, a teaching, or your own conscience, notice whether you are actually open to the answer, or only waiting for it to confirm what you had already decided. The honest signal is this: the courage is to follow the instruction whether it is agreeable or wholly disagreeable to you; everything short of that is a kind of weakness. The hardest evil to give up is the one wearing the clothes of good. Here Arjuna's wish to avoid battle has put on the dress of non-violence, and so he has begun to rate knowledge above action and to protest the duty in front of him. The contemplation is to catch that move in yourself: when reluctance starts calling itself virtue, and a question starts working to protect a preference, you have found exactly the place where real surrender is being asked of you.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
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, tap a name in The seating.