Both Krishna and Arjuna have passed through many births; what divides them is knowing and not knowing.
Arjuna had quietly wondered how Krishna, born so recently, could have taught this yoga ages ago. The answer is not that Krishna alone has a past, but that he remembers all of it while Arjuna remembers none, not even his own.
Krishna said: Many births of mine have passed, Arjuna, and so have yours. I know them all, but you do not know them.
In the verse just before, Arjuna had half-asked how one born in his own lifetime could have given this teaching to the sun-god long ago, and here Krishna resolves it by widening the frame to many lives lived by them both.
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.
Your unspoken doubt is not waved away. He widens the frame: both of you have lived through many lives, so the teaching given long ago was given before, simply in another form.
Across Advaita, Bhakti, Śuddhādvaita, Dvaita, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Śrīdhara · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · Jñāneśvar · Vallabha · Ramsukhdas · JayatīrthaIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 7 others’ words
Krishna answers a doubt that Arjuna left half-spoken. In the verse just before, Arjuna had wondered how Krishna, born recently, could have taught this same yoga to the sun-god Vivasvat long ago. Krishna does not dismiss the question; he resolves it by widening the frame. Both he and Arjuna have lived through many past births (janma means birth or lifetime), so there is no contradiction in his having taught the yoga in an earlier life. The teaching was given before, simply in another form. Several commentators add that Krishna replies precisely because Arjuna is his devotee and dear friend, and a teacher cannot stay hidden when a sincere student's longing to know is strong.
Having had many births is shared by you and him, and by every being; so the births alone set no one above another. He remembers each of his, and his and others' too, while you remember none.
Across Advaita, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana · Dhanapati · Śrīdhara · Viśvanātha · Baladeva · Jñāneśvar · Sivananda · Tilak · RamsukhdasIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 9 others’ words
The fact of having had many births is shared between Krishna and Arjuna, and indeed common to all beings. So the many births do not by themselves mark Krishna out as the Lord. What divides the two is not the number of births but the knowledge of them. Krishna remembers every one of his past lives, his own and others', while Arjuna remembers none, not even his own. This single difference, present recollection versus present forgetting, is the heart of the verse.
He knows his past lives because by his very nature his power of knowing is never covered; in you that same power is, for now, veiled by the residue of old action and the eye of wisdom not yet opened.
Across Advaita, Bhakti, Śuddhādvaita, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Dhanapati · Madhusūdana · Śrīdhara · Baladeva · Sivananda · VallabhaIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 6 others’ words
Krishna knows his past births because his power of knowledge is unobstructed. By his very nature he is eternally pure, awake, and free, so his vidya-shakti, his power of knowing, is never covered over. Arjuna does not know his own past births because that same power of knowing is, in him, presently veiled. The veil is explained as the residue of past action: merit and demerit, dharma and adharma, with the attachment and greed that come with them, and the absence of any opened eye of wisdom or inner intuition. This is exactly the line between Ishvara, the Lord, in whom the power of knowing is never eclipsed, and the jiva, the individual soul, in whom it is for now obscured.
Even the names by which he calls you are read as gentle hints: you have imagined foes through the vision of difference and set out to scorch them, and so your knowing is shown both hidden and turned outward.
Across Advaita, BhaktiĀnandagiri · Madhusūdana · Dhanapati · ViśvanāthaIn Ānandagiri, Madhusūdana, and 2 others’ words
The two names Krishna uses for Arjuna are read as deliberate hints rather than mere address. 'Arjuna', and the address 'scorcher of foes' (Parantapa), are taken to point at the very ignorance the verse describes. Because Arjuna has imagined enemies through the vision of difference and set out to defeat them, his knowledge is shown to be both veiled and outward-projecting. Several commentators thus see in the two names the two functions of ignorance: it hides the truth and it throws up a false world of opposed others on top of the hidden truth.
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
For these commentators the verse is the Lord asserting his omniscience in order to clear a doubt rooted in ignorance, and the births are spoken of in a qualified way. They read Krishna's body-takings as 'play-bodies', appearances like the daily risings of the sun, which seem to come and go to the world's view but do not bind the ever-free Lord, whereas the souls' births are real takings of bodies earned by karma. The two vocatives are mined as a teaching about ignorance itself, which both veils the truth and projects a false world of separate enemies. The accent throughout is that the Lord is by nature eternally pure, awake and free, with knowledge that is never obstructed, in pointed contrast to the soul whose knowing is blocked by merit and demerit. One of these voices simply notes that the verse is plain and needs no elaboration.
Viśiṣṭādvaita, in their fuller words
These commentators stress, against any reading that softens the births into mere appearance, that this verse establishes the reality (satya-tva) of the Lord's birth. The very words 'many births of Mine have passed' assert real plurality and a real undergoing of them, and the parallel 'and yours too' only carries weight if both births are equally real. If Arjuna's birth were mere appearance, then Krishna's birth could be no real basis for the doubt that prompted the question, and the whole exchange would be empty. The Lord is here understood to be stating the manner of his descent, the true nature of his body, and the cause of his birth, which the following verse will give.
Bhedābheda, in their fuller words
This commentator reads the many births as real manifestations of the Lord that have come and passed, and presses an additional point: that all these manifestations rest in him, the one Lord. He argues that there must be a distinct Lord at all, for otherwise, with no Lord to whom one offers them, there would be no one to whom one could renounce one's actions. Arjuna does not know these births simply because he is not the Lord. The reading then leads directly into the next verse's claim that, though unborn and imperishable, the Lord governs his own material nature and comes into being through his own power.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
This commentator focuses on why Krishna bothers to add 'and you do not know it.' Knowing Arjuna's real intent behind the question, the Lord removes the difficulty by drawing the contrast in knowledge; the clause is purposeful and not idle, for if it were unconnected to the doubt it would not have been said at all. The reading thus treats the verse as a precise, intent-aware reply rather than a general statement.
Śuddhādvaita, in their fuller words
For these commentators the many births are the Lord's avataras, his descents, and by speaking of them Krishna teaches himself as the avatari, the ground and source of all the avataras, ever full in every portion and at every time. The crucial point is that the Lord is never reduced to the status of a jiva by being born, for what is born is the manifest form of him who is always full. Arjuna's births too are real, understood as his own descents such as Nara, or taken only as an example. The difference of knowing all versus not knowing all displays the very difference of essential nature between soul and Lord. One of these voices reads the births as eternal, never truly lapsing, and turns the name Parantapa into a teaching that the Lord is not known by the force of austerity: the disciple's heat of tapas only prepares the vessel, while the knowing itself is the Lord's gift of grace.
Kashmir Śaiva, in their fuller words
This commentator explains how the birthless Lord can take birth at all. Full in the six perfections and free of any contact with a body, the Lord is yet the cause of the world's standing, so out of compassion he sends forth a portion of himself. He takes up a 'self-portioned' body: the self in it remains full in the six perfections, while the portion, being subordinate and offered in service, is a thing of service to that full self. For just this reason his birth is divine, since it is begun by his own maya, here read as the wisdom that is yoga and his own power of freedom, and not by past actions; and his action too is divine, since it cannot bind by yielding fruit. Whoever knows this truth, and holds the same of himself, truly knows Vasudeva.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
These commentators read the verse warmly through the lens of the divine descent and the devotee's place within it. Krishna speaks 'in another form' because he taught the yoga in an earlier descent. 'And yours too' is given a tender turn: whenever the Lord descends, his eternal associates descend with him, so because Arjuna is the Lord's friend and attendant a manifestation of Arjuna too has certainly occurred each time. The Lord knows all because he is the Lord of all; Arjuna does not know, and crucially the veiling is read as the Lord's own doing, drawn over Arjuna by Krishna himself for the sake of accomplishing his play (leela). One of these voices holds within the Lord, like a cat's-eye gem, many eternally established forms attested by scripture ('I alone, though one, shine forth in many ways'), so that the births are real and not a modification of the Lord. The forgetting is therefore not a flaw in Arjuna but part of the divine drama: it is only by the present conceit of being the son of Kunti that he stands as a warrior scorching his foes.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
These commentators keep close to the plain sense and the practical contrast. Both Krishna and Arjuna have lived through many lives; Krishna knows them all because he is omniscient, while Arjuna does not, because the eye of wisdom has not been opened in him and his intuitional vision is limited by past actions. One voice frames the disclosure relationally: because Krishna had named Arjuna his devotee and dear friend, Arjuna could ask the secret of the Lord's birth without hesitation, and moved by that bond the Lord openly reveals it, since a teacher cannot keep himself hidden when a sincere seeker's longing is strong. The deeper reason for the difference, this voice notes, comes only in the next verse: the Lord's birth is his own free play, not something compelled by karma. One rendering of this group simply carries straight over into that next verse, that the Lord, though unborn and imperishable and Lord of all beings, comes into being by his own mysterious power while governing his nature.
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 how this disclosure is born of relationship. Krishna reveals the secret of his births only because Arjuna is his devotee and dear friend, and because Arjuna's longing to know has grown strong and sincere. The teaching here is gentle: when a seeker's wish to know the truth becomes genuine and steady, the one who can answer cannot stay hidden. So the practice is not to force the answer but to deepen the asking. Bring your real question without hesitation, as a friend brings a thing close to the heart, and let your trust in the teaching be real; it is to such openness that what was veiled begins to unveil itself.
Do not force the answer from the truth; deepen instead the asking, bringing your real question close as a friend brings a thing held dear, and trust that what is veiled begins, to such openness, to unveil itself.
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 answers a doubt that Arjuna left half-spoken. In the verse just before, Arjuna had wondered how Krishna, born recently, could have taught this same yoga to the sun-god Vivasvat long ago. Krishna does not dismiss the question; he resolves it by widening the frame. Both he and Arjuna have lived through many past births (janma means birth or lifetime), so there is no contradiction in his having taught the yoga in an earlier life. The teaching was given before, simply in another form. Several commentators add that Krishna replies precisely because Arjuna is his devotee and dear friend, and a teacher cannot stay hidden when a sincere student's longing to know is strong.
Braided from 9 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Vallabhācārya · Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrī Jayatīrtha
The fact of having had many births is shared between Krishna and Arjuna, and indeed common to all beings. So the many births do not by themselves mark Krishna out as the Lord. What divides the two is not the number of births but the knowledge of them. Krishna remembers every one of his past lives, his own and others', while Arjuna remembers none, not even his own. This single difference, present recollection versus present forgetting, is the heart of the verse.
Braided from 11 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
Krishna knows his past births because his power of knowledge is unobstructed. By his very nature he is eternally pure, awake, and free, so his vidya-shakti, his power of knowing, is never covered over. Arjuna does not know his own past births because that same power of knowing is, in him, presently veiled. The veil is explained as the residue of past action: merit and demerit, dharma and adharma, with the attachment and greed that come with them, and the absence of any opened eye of wisdom or inner intuition. This is exactly the line between Ishvara, the Lord, in whom the power of knowing is never eclipsed, and the jiva, the individual soul, in whom it is for now obscured.
Braided from 8 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Dhanapati Sūri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Vallabhācārya
The two names Krishna uses for Arjuna are read as deliberate hints rather than mere address. 'Arjuna', and the address 'scorcher of foes' (Parantapa), are taken to point at the very ignorance the verse describes. Because Arjuna has imagined enemies through the vision of difference and set out to defeat them, his knowledge is shown to be both veiled and outward-projecting. Several commentators thus see in the two names the two functions of ignorance: it hides the truth and it throws up a false world of opposed others on top of the hidden truth.
Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīla Viśvanātha
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
For these commentators the verse is the Lord asserting his omniscience in order to clear a doubt rooted in ignorance, and the births are spoken of in a qualified way. They read Krishna's body-takings as 'play-bodies', appearances like the daily risings of the sun, which seem to come and go to the world's view but do not bind the ever-free Lord, whereas the souls' births are real takings of bodies earned by karma. The two vocatives are mined as a teaching about ignorance itself, which both veils the truth and projects a false world of separate enemies. The accent throughout is that the Lord is by nature eternally pure, awake and free, with knowledge that is never obstructed, in pointed contrast to the soul whose knowing is blocked by merit and demerit. One of these voices simply notes that the verse is plain and needs no elaboration.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Viśiṣṭādvaita
These commentators stress, against any reading that softens the births into mere appearance, that this verse establishes the reality (satya-tva) of the Lord's birth. The very words 'many births of Mine have passed' assert real plurality and a real undergoing of them, and the parallel 'and yours too' only carries weight if both births are equally real. If Arjuna's birth were mere appearance, then Krishna's birth could be no real basis for the doubt that prompted the question, and the whole exchange would be empty. The Lord is here understood to be stating the manner of his descent, the true nature of his body, and the cause of his birth, which the following verse will give.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Bhedabheda
This commentator reads the many births as real manifestations of the Lord that have come and passed, and presses an additional point: that all these manifestations rest in him, the one Lord. He argues that there must be a distinct Lord at all, for otherwise, with no Lord to whom one offers them, there would be no one to whom one could renounce one's actions. Arjuna does not know these births simply because he is not the Lord. The reading then leads directly into the next verse's claim that, though unborn and imperishable, the Lord governs his own material nature and comes into being through his own power.
Śrī Bhāskara
Dvaita
This commentator focuses on why Krishna bothers to add 'and you do not know it.' Knowing Arjuna's real intent behind the question, the Lord removes the difficulty by drawing the contrast in knowledge; the clause is purposeful and not idle, for if it were unconnected to the doubt it would not have been said at all. The reading thus treats the verse as a precise, intent-aware reply rather than a general statement.
Śrī Jayatīrtha
Śuddhādvaita
For these commentators the many births are the Lord's avataras, his descents, and by speaking of them Krishna teaches himself as the avatari, the ground and source of all the avataras, ever full in every portion and at every time. The crucial point is that the Lord is never reduced to the status of a jiva by being born, for what is born is the manifest form of him who is always full. Arjuna's births too are real, understood as his own descents such as Nara, or taken only as an example. The difference of knowing all versus not knowing all displays the very difference of essential nature between soul and Lord. One of these voices reads the births as eternal, never truly lapsing, and turns the name Parantapa into a teaching that the Lord is not known by the force of austerity: the disciple's heat of tapas only prepares the vessel, while the knowing itself is the Lord's gift of grace.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Kashmir Shaivism
This commentator explains how the birthless Lord can take birth at all. Full in the six perfections and free of any contact with a body, the Lord is yet the cause of the world's standing, so out of compassion he sends forth a portion of himself. He takes up a 'self-portioned' body: the self in it remains full in the six perfections, while the portion, being subordinate and offered in service, is a thing of service to that full self. For just this reason his birth is divine, since it is begun by his own maya, here read as the wisdom that is yoga and his own power of freedom, and not by past actions; and his action too is divine, since it cannot bind by yielding fruit. Whoever knows this truth, and holds the same of himself, truly knows Vasudeva.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
These commentators read the verse warmly through the lens of the divine descent and the devotee's place within it. Krishna speaks 'in another form' because he taught the yoga in an earlier descent. 'And yours too' is given a tender turn: whenever the Lord descends, his eternal associates descend with him, so because Arjuna is the Lord's friend and attendant a manifestation of Arjuna too has certainly occurred each time. The Lord knows all because he is the Lord of all; Arjuna does not know, and crucially the veiling is read as the Lord's own doing, drawn over Arjuna by Krishna himself for the sake of accomplishing his play (leela). One of these voices holds within the Lord, like a cat's-eye gem, many eternally established forms attested by scripture ('I alone, though one, shine forth in many ways'), so that the births are real and not a modification of the Lord. The forgetting is therefore not a flaw in Arjuna but part of the divine drama: it is only by the present conceit of being the son of Kunti that he stands as a warrior scorching his foes.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
These commentators keep close to the plain sense and the practical contrast. Both Krishna and Arjuna have lived through many lives; Krishna knows them all because he is omniscient, while Arjuna does not, because the eye of wisdom has not been opened in him and his intuitional vision is limited by past actions. One voice frames the disclosure relationally: because Krishna had named Arjuna his devotee and dear friend, Arjuna could ask the secret of the Lord's birth without hesitation, and moved by that bond the Lord openly reveals it, since a teacher cannot keep himself hidden when a sincere seeker's longing is strong. The deeper reason for the difference, this voice notes, comes only in the next verse: the Lord's birth is his own free play, not something compelled by karma. One rendering of this group simply carries straight over into that next verse, that the Lord, though unborn and imperishable and Lord of all beings, comes into being by his own mysterious power while governing his nature.
Swami Sivananda · Mahatma Gandhi · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
A Seeker Asks
If Krishna and I have both lived through many lives, why does he remember every one and I remember none, not even my own?
The difference is not in the number of births but in the power of knowing. Krishna's power of knowledge is unobstructed because by his very nature he is eternally pure, awake and free; your same power of knowing is not absent but presently covered over.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda
What covers it is the residue of past action: merit and demerit, dharma and adharma, with the attachment and greed they carry, so that the eye of wisdom has not yet been opened in you. This is exactly the line between the Lord, in whom the power of knowing is never eclipsed, and the individual soul, in whom it is for now obscured.
Śrī Ānandagiri · Dhanapati Sūri · Swami Sivananda
So the forgetting is not a permanent flaw or a sign that the many lives were unreal; the births themselves are shared and real, and only the present recollection differs. Some read this veiling as itself part of a larger play, drawn over you for now, which means it is the kind of covering that can in time be lifted.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīla Baladeva · Śrīla Viśvanātha
Contemplation
Notice how this disclosure is born of relationship. Krishna reveals the secret of his births only because Arjuna is his devotee and dear friend, and because Arjuna's longing to know has grown strong and sincere. The teaching here is gentle: when a seeker's wish to know the truth becomes genuine and steady, the one who can answer cannot stay hidden. So the practice is not to force the answer but to deepen the asking. Bring your real question without hesitation, as a friend brings a thing close to the heart, and let your trust in the teaching be real; it is to such openness that what was veiled begins to unveil itself.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
All the translations and commentary
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