Do not unsettle the faith that is quietly carrying someone else forward.
It can look like kindness to hand a half-awakened person the whole truth at once. Krishna asks something harder and gentler: let your own steady, faithful work be the only argument you make.
The wise should never unsettle the conviction of those still attached to their work. Rather, let the wise person perform every duty with full devotion, and by that example draw the others to do the same.
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
Krishna has just said that even the one with nothing left to gain still acts, for the sake of holding the world together. Now he turns to something more specific and more delicate: how that free person should behave among those who are not free, those still bound to the fruit of what they do.
The teaching
You know something the person beside you does not yet know. He lives by a settled conviction: this deed is mine to do, and I will enjoy its fruit. Do not break that conviction. He is not ready to stand without it, and knocking it loose before its time would not free him, it would only strand him. So your task is not to argue him out of his attachment. It is to keep him glad in his own work, confirming him in it rather than dismantling it. You do this the only honest way it can be done: by your own example. You perform the very same duties yourself, collected and attentive, with full faith, even though you no longer need the fruit to move you. Watching you, he is drawn toward the same fullness, not because you told him to be, but because he saw it lived. Suppose instead you told him plainly that the self does not act, or that action is unnecessary. His faith in his own work would collapse, and since he is not yet ripe, no higher knowledge would rise fast enough to catch him. He would lose both the ground he stood on and the ground he was not yet ready to reach. This is why the instruction reads as care rather than concealment: the ignorant are already being carried upward, slowly, by their own faithful action, and that timing is not yours to override.
The doubt that rises
Is this really about protecting someone from a truth they cannot yet bear, or does it risk becoming a permanent excuse never to say the harder thing? And where the record itself goes quiet, as it does here for more than one acarya, how much confidence should any reading claim?
Where the paths divide
Read as protection from a real and named ruin.
Shankara states the prohibition directly: do not unsettle the ignorant person's conviction that the deed and its fruit are his own. Madhusudana backs this with a severe citation, that whoever tells the half-awakened 'all is Brahman' is thereby cast into great hells, since faith in action collapses before knowledge has risen to replace it. The unqualified cannot receive the higher truth without ruin; for them, faithful action is itself what purifies, until they are ready.
Read as a rule for seekers already fitted to action.
Ramanuja specifies the exact wrong thought to avoid: that the self might be seen by some way other than the discipline of action. These are seekers of liberation, fixed in action by beginningless disposition, fit for karma-yoga on its own terms rather than for a separate path of knowledge. The wise one, holding this conviction himself, should breed delight in action among them, not suggest an alternate route that does not fit their standing.
Read honestly as a silence in the record.
No comment from Madhva survives on this verse; the source available says this plainly. Extending his wider framework of dependence, one might guess that unsettling a faith presently sustaining someone's ordained progress would overreach what a dependent being is entitled to do, but this is offered only as a marked inference, not as anything Madhva is on record as having said here.
Read from a single surviving fragment, extended only with a clear label.
What survives is one short paragraph: these people are not yet cleansed by right knowledge, and shattering their discerning mind would be the worst harm one could do them, so the wise one refrains from breaking it. A further Shaiva reading might extend this by treating the guarded mind as a still-contracted form of free consciousness whose recognition needs its own unfolding time, but that extension goes beyond the fragment itself and is marked here as such.
Read as guarding against a precise, double loss.
Sridhara names the mechanism exactly: dislodge an unready person's faith in action, and since they are not yet ripe, the knowledge that might replace it does not arise, so they fall from both sides. The remedy offered is not doctrine withheld but a life demonstrated, the same duties performed with full faith, in plain view of whoever is watching.
Read as a question of timing, not concealment.
Set against Madhusudana's own plain question, why hold the world together by action rather than by teaching the truth outright, a modern-facing gloss takes fitness to receive a truth as a real variable, not automatic. The wise one's discretion about when to speak and when simply to act rightly is itself part of acting rightly, not a compromise of honesty toward those not yet ready.
All six readings agree on the rule: do not break the faith of someone it is presently carrying. They differ on what exactly is being protected, a mind not yet fit for knowledge, a seeker fixed in the discipline of action, a still-contracted freedom, or a faith whose collapse would leave a person secure in nothing. And for two of the six voices gathered here, the honest answer is that little or nothing survives to draw on at all. This page does not resolve that gap. It names it.
A question to carry
When you find some freedom from the fruit of your own work, do you say so, or do you keep doing your own duties gladly and let that be the only argument you make?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
Let the one who watches you be carried forward by your example, in his own time, toward whatever freedom you yourself have found.
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 even the one with nothing left to gain still acts for the world's sake, Krishna now turns to how that person should treat those who are not yet free, and says: confirm them, do not break them.
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.
Before reaching for the highest truth, look at who stands in front of you: someone who still lives by 'this deed is mine, its fruit is mine.' That conviction is presently holding them up.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
The verse is an instruction to the wise about how to treat people still attached to action. Such people live by a settled conviction, this deed is mine to do and its fruit is mine to enjoy, and the wise must not unsettle that conviction, not because it is the final truth but because it is presently holding the person up.
Your task is not to pull them away from their work but to confirm them in it, kindling real delight and faith rather than leaving the ground knocked out from under them.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
The word for the wise one's task, joshayet, is read as more than mere permission to keep working. It means causing real delight and faith in the work, actively confirming people in what they do rather than merely tolerating it.
Teach by your own life, not by lecture: perform the very same duties yourself, attentively and with full faith, so that watching you they are drawn to the same fullness.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 1 others’ words
The method is personal example, not instruction. The wise one, himself collected and attentive, performs the very same actions the unready perform, so that watching him they are drawn to do likewise with the same fullness. Teaching happens through the eyes before it happens through the ears.
Dislodge a person's faith before knowledge can rise to replace it, and they fall from both sides at once, secure in neither action nor understanding.
Across Bhakti, AdvaitaŚrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śrīdhara and Madhusūdana’s words
The danger of doing otherwise is a double loss. Teach the unready that the self does not act, or that action may be dropped, and their faith in action collapses while the knowledge that might replace it does not yet arise, so they are left secure in neither.
Where the record itself falls silent, as it does here for more than one voice in this very chorus, the honest path is to say so plainly rather than to invent a certainty no source supports.
Across Advaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Śrīdhara, and 1 others’ words
This is read as protective care rather than as manipulation or delay. The ignorant are already being carried upward, slowly, by their own faithful action, and that ascent has its own timing, one the wise person must not interrupt before it is ready to bear a harder truth.
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 specifies exactly what thought must not be planted: that the self can be seen by some way other than the discipline of action. The people in view are seekers of liberation, fixed in action by beginningless disposition, fit for karma-yoga rather than for jnana-yoga taken on its own; the wise one, holding that conviction himself, should breed delight in action among them.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
No comment from Madhva survives on this verse; the source available states this plainly rather than supplying a reading. A conditional extension from his wider framework of dependence might suggest that unsettling a faith presently sustaining a soul's ordained progress would overreach what any dependent being is entitled to do, but this is clearly marked as inference, not as Madhva's own recorded word.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara is precise about the mechanism of harm: dislodge the unready person's faith in action and, since they are not yet ripe, no replacement knowledge arises, so they fall from both sides. The remedy is not doctrine withheld but a life demonstrated, the same duties performed with full faith, visible to whoever watches.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Read against the plain question Madhusudana poses, why hold the world together by action rather than by teaching the truth directly, the modern-facing gloss is that fitness to receive a truth is not automatic, and the wise one's discretion about when to speak and when to simply act is itself part of right action, not a compromise of it.
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, anyone near you who is still working for the sake of what the work will bring them. Resist the urge to correct them with a truth you have only recently come to hold yourself. Instead, do your own work fully, faithfully, without announcing your freedom from its fruit, and let that steady doing be the only argument you make.
So if some freedom from the fruit of your work has come to you, do not announce it. Keep doing your own duties, gladly, with full faith, and let that quiet doing be the only teaching you offer.
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
he verse is an instruction to the wise about how to treat people still attached to action. Such people live by a settled conviction, this deed is mine to do and its fruit is mine to enjoy, and the wise must not unsettle that conviction, not because it is the final truth but because it is presently holding the person up.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The word for the wise one's task, joshayet, is read as more than mere permission to keep working. It means causing real delight and faith in the work, actively confirming people in what they do rather than merely tolerating it.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The method is personal example, not instruction. The wise one, himself collected and attentive, performs the very same actions the unready perform, so that watching him they are drawn to do likewise with the same fullness. Teaching happens through the eyes before it happens through the ears.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
The danger of doing otherwise is a double loss. Teach the unready that the self does not act, or that action may be dropped, and their faith in action collapses while the knowledge that might replace it does not yet arise, so they are left secure in neither.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
This is read as protective care rather than as manipulation or delay. The ignorant are already being carried upward, slowly, by their own faithful action, and that ascent has its own timing, one the wise person must not interrupt before it is ready to bear a harder truth.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Shankara states the core prohibition directly: do not unsettle the ignorant person's settled thought that the deed and its fruit are his own. Madhusudana sharpens the stakes with a severe citation, that teaching the half-awakened 'all is Brahman' casts the teacher into great hells, since their faith in action would collapse before knowledge has risen to replace it, leaving them secure in neither.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Ramanuja specifies exactly what thought must not be planted: that the self can be seen by some way other than the discipline of action. The people in view are seekers of liberation, fixed in action by beginningless disposition, fit for karma-yoga rather than for jnana-yoga taken on its own; the wise one, holding that conviction himself, should breed delight in action among them.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
No comment from Madhva survives on this verse; the source available states this plainly rather than supplying a reading. A conditional extension from his wider framework of dependence might suggest that unsettling a faith presently sustaining a soul's ordained progress would overreach what any dependent being is entitled to do, but this is clearly marked as inference, not as Madhva's own recorded word.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
The surviving text is a single brief paragraph: these people are not yet cleansed by right knowledge, and shattering their discerning mind would be the worst harm one could do them, so the wise one, understanding this, refrains from breaking it. A further Kashmir Shaiva reading might extend this to the discerning mind as itself a contracted form of free consciousness whose recognition must unfold in its own time, but that extension goes beyond what the fragment itself states.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara is precise about the mechanism of harm: dislodge the unready person's faith in action and, since they are not yet ripe, no replacement knowledge arises, so they fall from both sides. The remedy is not doctrine withheld but a life demonstrated, the same duties performed with full faith, visible to whoever watches.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Read against the plain question Madhusudana poses, why hold the world together by action rather than by teaching the truth directly, the modern-facing gloss is that fitness to receive a truth is not automatic, and the wise one's discretion about when to speak and when to simply act is itself part of right action, not a compromise of it.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
Is this verse asking the wise to keep other people comfortably ignorant, or is it honest care that protects them from a truth they cannot yet bear?
The harm being guarded against is specific and real. Someone not yet ripe who hears that the self does not act, or that action need not be done, loses faith in the very practice presently carrying them, and no replacement knowledge rises fast enough to catch them. They fall from both sides at once, not toward a higher freedom.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The method the wise are asked to use is not concealment but demonstration. Nothing is hidden; the same actions are performed openly, with full faith, so that anyone watching is drawn to the same fullness. The teaching is public, only wordless.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya
Where the record is thin, as with Madhva here, or fragmentary, as with Abhinavagupta, the honest answer keeps to what survives rather than filling the silence with invented certainty. The instruction itself has never claimed to be a full metaphysics of concealment. It claims only that timing matters.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Contemplation
Notice, today, anyone near you who is still working for the sake of what the work will bring them. Resist the urge to correct them with a truth you have only recently come to hold yourself. Instead, do your own work fully, faithfully, without announcing your freedom from its fruit, and let that steady doing be the only argument you make.
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.