Because he never tires, his example becomes the path everyone else walks.
It is tempting to think that someone with nothing left to gain has earned the right to rest. Krishna answers that the conduct of whoever stands as the model quietly becomes the law others live by, so that even a single lapse would spread through everyone who watches.
If I ever stopped acting, even for a moment, never growing tired or careless, people everywhere would follow exactly the path I walk.
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
Krishna has just admitted he has nothing left to gain and no duty binding him, and yet keeps working all the same. Now he tells Arjuna exactly why: what would happen if he ever let that work drop, even once.
The teaching
He works and never tires, never grows slack or careless, not for a single moment. And were he ever to stop, people everywhere would do exactly as he does, because the conduct of whoever stands as the foremost example quietly becomes the rule everyone else lives by. This is not a boast. It follows directly from the verse before it, where Krishna has already said his action brings him nothing personally; because nothing is at stake for him, his continuing to work reads as a clean, disinterested model rather than a performance staged for effect. The weight of the claim falls outward, onto everyone who, without quite noticing it, takes their bearings from someone else's steadiness. Your own ordinary, unremarkable work belongs to that same web. Someone's willingness to keep going may depend on quietly seeing that you did.
The doubt that rises
Is this only a story Krishna tells himself, since nothing genuinely rides on his own action either way? And even granting the logic of example, does it really reach as far as your own small, mostly unnoticed daily work?
Where the paths divide
Read as the plain power of a disinterested example.
Krishna's tirelessness works precisely because it costs him nothing and gains him nothing; that is what makes his continuing to act a trustworthy model rather than a display. If even people with no bond to him would follow his path, his own kinsman Arjuna certainly should not fail to.
Read as the Lord's free descent making his example a teaching duty.
Krishna has freely taken birth as a mortal in order to teach by his own conduct, not to be governed by compulsion. Were he to fail at the action fitting his chosen station, people of only partial knowledge would take that as license, abandon their own duties, and come to real ruin, not merely vague disorder.
Read honestly as a gap in the record.
No comment on this verse survives from Madhva, and his sub-commentator Jayatirtha likewise leaves it unglossed. Rather than invent a confident reading in his name, the honest path is to note the silence and, at most, offer a clearly flagged extension from his broader stress on the Lord's total independence, never presented as his own word.
Read as an inward, psychological harm.
Should a realized one give up action, ordinary people, unable to release action's deep imprint yet not ready to rest securely in knowledge, would lose the one foothold they had. The realized one's continuing to act functions as scaffolding, holding the unready steady until they can stand on knowledge alone.
Read as steadfast care for those who depend on his example.
Krishna walks his own path within the family he was born into exactly as mortals walk theirs, not from any need of his own, but so that everyone who lives by his will does not stray from the conduct proper to them. His tirelessness is an act of devotion toward his own devotees.
Read as the logic of example generalized past Krishna himself.
Strip away the divine setting and the same structure remains: whoever's conduct is watched by others, however little personally rides on it for that person, quietly becomes the rule the watchers live by. Steady, ordinary work is never as private a matter as it feels.
All six readings agree that Krishna's tirelessness matters because others take their cue from it. They part on where the harm of his stopping would actually land: outward social ruin, a specific teaching failure, an inward loss of footing, or devoted care for those who depend on him. And for one voice, the honest answer is simply that the tradition itself is silent here. The fork stays open; no single account of the harm is the whole of it.
A question to carry
Who, without quite telling you, takes their bearings from how steadily you keep at your own work, and where would they drift if you let it fall?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
Stay at your work, unflagging, not because reward awaits you there, but for the sake of everyone who, knowingly or not, is watching to see whether you do.
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 said he has nothing left to gain in the three worlds and no duty binding him, and yet still acts; here he gives the reason, picturing exactly what would follow if he ever let that work drop.
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.
Hear the plain hypothetical he sets before Arjuna: were he, tireless as he is, ever to stop even once, people everywhere would follow that and stop too.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
Krishna states a plain hypothetical: if he himself, ever, even once, stopped acting, everyone would follow that example and stop too. The verse turns on his own tirelessness, that he never grows weary or careless, which is precisely what makes his continued working a trustworthy model rather than a fragile performance.
His acting is not for himself, since he has nothing left to gain; he works so the order others depend on holds, and so no one is misled by his example.
Across Viśiṣṭādvaita, Bhakti, AdvaitaRāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Rāmānuja, Śrīdhara, and 1 others’ words
The verse answers the objection raised just before it: if Krishna has nothing to gain and no duty binding him, why act at all? Because his action is not for himself. He works so the order that others depend on does not collapse, and so ordinary people are not misled by what they see him do.
See how much weight a great example carries: what the one you look up to does becomes, in effect, the law you live by, in every direction it spreads.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 1 others’ words
Underneath the argument is the plain power of a great example. People take their cue from whoever they look up to, so the conduct of the foremost being effectively becomes the law others live by. What he does, in every direction, others will do.
Where the record itself falls silent, as it does for one voice here, let that silence be honestly held rather than papered over with invented certainty.
Across AdvaitaŚaṅkara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara and Madhusūdana’s words
This verse forms the negative half of a two-part case. The prior verse showed duty's worth directly, by simply doing it; this one shows the same thing by consequence, picturing the ruin that would follow if the best example available simply stopped.
And carry the same logic into your own ordinary work: someone's willingness to keep going may depend on quietly seeing that you did.
Across DvaitaMadhvaIn Madhva’s words
Not every reading here is equally full. Madhva's own comment on this verse is absent from the record, a reminder that the tradition itself does not speak with total uniformity, and that honest synthesis has to leave gaps where the sources leave them.
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 reads Krishna's tirelessness as bound up with who he is: the Lord who has freely taken birth to teach by example, not by compulsion. Were he to fail the conduct befitting his chosen station, men of partial knowledge would take that as license, abandon their own duties, and go to real ruin, not merely fall into vague disorder.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
No comment on this verse survives from Madhva in the available record, and his sub-commentator Jayatirtha likewise leaves it unglossed. Extrapolating cautiously from his broader emphasis on the Lord's total independence against every soul's dependence, one might expect this verse to be read as displaying that same asymmetry, but this remains a flagged extension, not Madhva's own word.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara reads the verse as showing how the world would fall apart through Krishna's non-action, his conduct in the Yadu family a model that others, seeing him withdraw from it, would copy by abandoning their own prescribed duties. The devotional weight falls on Krishna walking his own path exactly as mortals do, so that those who live by his will do not stray.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Read for a contemporary sense, Madhusudana's staging of the objection and answer generalizes past Krishna: whoever stands as an example, however fruitless the conduct is for that person personally, quietly becomes the rule others live by, which is exactly why steady work is never a purely private matter, even when nothing rides on it for you.
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, today, who is quietly taking their cue from you, whether they know it or not. Then ask what your own tiredness or carelessness, if you let it show in your work, would give them permission to do. Let that be reason enough to keep steady, not because you will be rewarded for it, but because someone else's willingness to keep going may depend on seeing that you did.
When the pull to let your own work slide arises, remember who takes their bearings from you, and stay at your post, unflagging, for their sake as much as your own.
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
rishna states a plain hypothetical: if he himself, ever, even once, stopped acting, everyone would follow that example and stop too. The verse turns on his own tirelessness, that he never grows weary or careless, which is precisely what makes his continued working a trustworthy model rather than a fragile performance.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The verse answers the objection raised just before it: if Krishna has nothing to gain and no duty binding him, why act at all? Because his action is not for himself. He works so the order that others depend on does not collapse, and so ordinary people are not misled by what they see him do.
Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Underneath the argument is the plain power of a great example. People take their cue from whoever they look up to, so the conduct of the foremost being effectively becomes the law others live by. What he does, in every direction, others will do.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
This verse forms the negative half of a two-part case. The prior verse showed duty's worth directly, by simply doing it; this one shows the same thing by consequence, picturing the ruin that would follow if the best example available simply stopped.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Not every reading here is equally full. Madhva's own comment on this verse is absent from the record, a reminder that the tradition itself does not speak with total uniformity, and that honest synthesis has to leave gaps where the sources leave them.
Madhvācārya
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Shankara reads the verse straightforwardly as the foremost being modeling tireless action precisely because he has no personal stake in acting, which makes his example uncomplicated by self-interest. The address to Arjuna as Partha carries a note of astonishment: if even strangers would follow Krishna's path, his own kinsman certainly should not fail to.
Śaṅkarācārya
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Ramanuja reads Krishna's tirelessness as bound up with who he is: the Lord who has freely taken birth to teach by example, not by compulsion. Were he to fail the conduct befitting his chosen station, men of partial knowledge would take that as license, abandon their own duties, and go to real ruin, not merely fall into vague disorder.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
No comment on this verse survives from Madhva in the available record, and his sub-commentator Jayatirtha likewise leaves it unglossed. Extrapolating cautiously from his broader emphasis on the Lord's total independence against every soul's dependence, one might expect this verse to be read as displaying that same asymmetry, but this remains a flagged extension, not Madhva's own word.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
Abhinavagupta turns the danger inward: if a realized one gave up action, ordinary people, unable to release action's deep imprint yet not ready to rest in knowledge, would lose the one foothold they had and fall away from both. The realized one's continuing to act is read as scaffolding for those not yet able to stand on knowledge alone.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara reads the verse as showing how the world would fall apart through Krishna's non-action, his conduct in the Yadu family a model that others, seeing him withdraw from it, would copy by abandoning their own prescribed duties. The devotional weight falls on Krishna walking his own path exactly as mortals do, so that those who live by his will do not stray.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Read for a contemporary sense, Madhusudana's staging of the objection and answer generalizes past Krishna: whoever stands as an example, however fruitless the conduct is for that person personally, quietly becomes the rule others live by, which is exactly why steady work is never a purely private matter, even when nothing rides on it for you.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
If Krishna has nothing to gain and nothing to lose, isn't his claim that he acts 'for the sake of others' example' really just a story, and does it actually give me any reason to keep at my own small, unnoticed work?
The verse takes that suspicion on directly. The objection it answers is exactly this: if nothing is at stake for him, why act at all? Its answer is that the value of an action need not be measured by what it returns to the one doing it; it can be measured entirely by what it does for those who are watching and following.
Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
And the logic does reach you, precisely because you are never as unwatched as you think. Someone, somewhere, is taking their bearings from how you carry your own work, exactly the way the world is said to take its bearings from the foremost example available to it.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Where the tradition itself falls silent, as it does for Madhva on this verse, the honest answer is simply that not every question gets a full response from every voice; what remains true across the voices that do speak is that tirelessness in your own place is never wasted on you alone.
Madhvācārya
Contemplation
Notice, today, who is quietly taking their cue from you, whether they know it or not. Then ask what your own tiredness or carelessness, if you let it show in your work, would give them permission to do. Let that be reason enough to keep steady, not because you will be rewarded for it, but because someone else's willingness to keep going may depend on seeing that you did.
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.