The true seer arrives clear: taint worn away, doubt cut, and care for every being flowing on its own.
This verse names who actually reaches the goal and what falls away along the way. It is easy to hear devotion to all beings as one more duty to add to the list; read closely, it is named here as what a settled mind simply becomes.
The true seers, their impurities worn away, their doubts cut through, their minds subdued, and devoted to the welfare of all beings, attain extinction in Brahman.
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
Krishna has just described the steady one, unmoved by what is pleasant or unpleasant. Now he names who actually reaches the goal: not the clever or the busy, but those in whom a specific, describable clearing has taken place.
The teaching
The ones who arrive are called rishis, seers, and the word is exact: not composers of pretty verse, but those whose sight has reached the subtle reality that ordinary perception passes over. What they reach is called extinction in Brahman, the peace that is Brahman itself. Their impurity is worn away first. This stain is what blocks clear knowing, and it is worn down by the works that are yours to do, offered without craving their fruit. Only once that stain has spent itself does anything clearer become possible. Then their doubt is cut. A mind once divided, wavering between views, is settled by hearing the teaching and sitting with it in reflection, until what remains is not two competing certainties but one clear understanding. Their self is held in check, senses tamed, mind made one-pointed, not by force but as the natural settling of a mind no longer clouded by stain or split by doubt. And such a one delights in the good of every being. This is not read as a further discipline stacked on top of the rest. It is named here as what this settled clarity simply looks like from the outside, care that no longer needs to be summoned by effort.
The doubt that rises
Do you have to force yourself to care about everyone's welfare, or does that care arrive on its own, quietly, once the inner clearing this verse describes has actually taken place?
Where the paths divide
Read as a single ladder of ripening means.
The four marks are stages you climb in order: impurity worn away by selfless action, the inner organ purified enough to discern the subtle, doubt cut as hearing and reflection ripen, the mind steadied as meditation ripens, and finally, through no longer seeing duality, delight in the good of all and extinction in Brahman. Once these means mature, liberation is said to come without further effort. The ceasing of the perception of duality is decisive: for one in whom all beings have become one's own very Self, there is no more delusion or grief.
Read as the Lord's own assurance to one who already carries these qualities.
Here the cut duality is read first as the pairs of opposites, cold and heat, pleasure and pain, the pulls that pattern an ordinary mind. Devotion to the welfare of all beings is care given as if for one's own self, and it is exactly this that lets the pairs of opposites lose their old grip. The verse closes not as a fresh technical claim but as direct reassurance: for one who carries these marks, Brahman is very easy to reach.
Read with careful attention to cause and effect, and to a technical double sense.
The cut duality here is doubt or wrong knowing, severed by the sword of knowledge. The restrained self is given a further, technical sense: a wide-reaching mind, vast in cognition, one that has come to know all, not merely a controlled one, though the plainer reading is allowed too. The order matters: the wearing-away of sin is the cause, and this cut doubleness follows as its companion, so that reaching the goal is, in a real sense, coming to perceive Brahman as sin's effect finally clears.
Read from a single compact surviving remark, honestly flagged as thin.
What remains of comment here is brief: the goal is reached by those in whom two knots are destroyed, the knot of difference and the knot of doubt. This is worth sitting with exactly as it stands, since it names difference itself, not only wavering doubt, as one of the bonds to be cut. The source does not develop this further; any reading connecting it to bondage as the contraction of a free awareness is offered only as a labeled extension, not as words the source itself supplies.
Read from a brief, plain restatement of the verse's own terms.
The surviving comment stays close to the words: the seers see rightly, their taint is worn away, their doubt cut clean off, their minds well reined in, and they stand devoted to the good of all beings, full of compassion, reaching the peace of Brahman. It confirms rather than argues. Read in continuity with a broader tendency to treat action and knowledge as feeding one soil, one might extend this, clearly labeled as extension: this compassion is the same clarity of mind, simply turned outward.
Read as an ordered, practical chain of ripening.
The stages unfold in sequence rather than all at once: sin worn away through selfless action, the subtle discerned as the mind clears, doubt cut as hearing and reflection ripen, the mind steadied as meditation ripens, and only then, as the natural fruit of all of this, care for every being's welfare, without needing to be forced or willed into being.
All six readings agree on the plain sequence: impurity worn away, doubt cut, the mind steadied, and care for all beings following. They part on how tightly to draw the causal chain, on whether cut duality means doubt or the pairs of opposites or difference itself, and on how much the compassion described here is achievement versus simple recognition. The page does not resolve this, and neither does the honestly thin record for Abhinavagupta's own extended view.
A question to carry
Where in your own life does care for another still feel like an effort you must summon, and what would it mean if that effort itself were only a sign the inner clearing is not yet finished?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
So let the old stains wear thin, let the doubts be sat with rather than argued away, and let the mind settle on its own terms. Trust that care for others, when it is real, will not need to be forced; it will simply be what a quiet mind does.
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.
After teaching that the steady one neither exults nor recoils at what life brings, Krishna now names those who complete the path: the seers who arrive, and the marks by which they can be known.
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.
These are the true seers, whose sight has reached what ordinary perception passes over, and what they come to is peace in Brahman itself.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Rāmānuja · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 2 others’ words
The verse names who actually arrives: the rishis, the true seers, whose sight has reached the subtle reality that ordinary perception misses. What they attain is called extinction in Brahman, glossed by more than one commentator simply as liberation, the peace that is Brahman itself.
Their impurity is worn away first, by selfless action, clearing the ground for everything that follows.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Bhakti, DvaitaŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhvaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
Their impurity is worn away first. This stain is read as what blocks knowledge, and it is worn down by selfless action and duties performed without craving their fruit. Only once this taint has spent itself does the clearer work of the mind become possible.
Their doubt is cut next, settled by hearing the teaching and sitting with it until one clear understanding remains.
Across Advaita, Bhakti, DvaitaŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Śrīdhara · MadhvaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 2 others’ words
Their doubt is cut. Once impurity is gone, a divided, wavering mind is settled by hearing the teaching and reflecting on it, so that what remains is not two competing views but one clear understanding.
Their minds are steadied and their senses tamed, not by force but as the natural settling of a mind no longer clouded.
Across Advaita, ViśiṣṭādvaitaŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 1 others’ words
Their self is held in check and their senses tamed, the mind made one-pointed. This restraint is not read as forced or effortful; it is what a mind free of impurity and doubt settles into on its own.
Care for every being's welfare is not a separate task added on; it is what this cleared, settled mind looks like from the outside.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhusūdana · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
Devotion to the welfare of all beings is not a separate achievement laid on top of the rest, but the natural outer face of the same inner clearing. Delighting in the good of every living thing and doing no harm is what this settled seeing looks like from the outside.
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 the cut duality primarily as freedom from the pairs of opposites, heat and cold and the rest, rather than as doubt. Devotion to the welfare of all beings is given to the good of all as if it were one's own self, and it is this that dissolves the grip of gain and loss. The verse closes as a direct assurance: for one who carries these qualities, Brahman is very easy to reach.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
Madhva reads dvaidha technically as doubt or wrong knowing, cut by the sword of knowledge, and draws from the same word a further sense of the restrained self as a wide-reaching mind that has come to know all, not merely a controlled one. He is careful to name the sequence of cause and effect: the wearing-away of sin is the cause, and the cutting of doubleness follows as its companion, though he allows the plainer reading too.
Shaiva, in their fuller words
The one compact remark that survives names two knots that must be destroyed, not one: the knot of difference and the knot of doubt. This places the very perception of difference, not only wavering cognition, among the bonds the seer must cut. The source does not extend this into a developed argument, and any reading of it as bondage-through-contraction is offered here only as a clearly labeled extension, not his stated word.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara's extant comment is a brief, plain restatement: the rishis see rightly, their taint is worn away, their doubt cut clean off, their mind well reined in, and they stand devoted to the good of all beings, full of compassion, reaching the peace of Brahman. The source does not develop this further, so no fuller argument is offered here beyond a clearly labeled extension linking this compassion to the same clarity that underlies knowledge.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Read against a modern-facing emphasis on process, the verse lays out an ordered chain of ripening rather than a sudden event: purification, then discernment, then the cutting of doubt through hearing and reflection, then steadiness through meditation, then the ceasing of the perception of duality, and only then, as its natural fruit, care for all beings and release.
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, before anything else, whether your care for others still feels like an effort you have to summon. This verse suggests it need not stay that way forever: as the mind's own turbulence, its old stains and its wavering doubts, genuinely quiets, concern for another's welfare stops being a discipline and starts being simply how a settled mind sees. Let today's practice be watching for the moments your inner weather calms, and noticing what becomes easier to feel for others right after.
So let your own inner weather quiet first: let old stains wear thin, let doubts be sat with until they settle, and trust that care for others will not have to be forced, but will rise, quietly, on its 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
he verse names who actually arrives: the rishis, the true seers, whose sight has reached the subtle reality that ordinary perception misses. What they attain is called extinction in Brahman, glossed by more than one commentator simply as liberation, the peace that is Brahman itself.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Their impurity is worn away first. This stain is read as what blocks knowledge, and it is worn down by selfless action and duties performed without craving their fruit. Only once this taint has spent itself does the clearer work of the mind become possible.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhvācārya
Their doubt is cut. Once impurity is gone, a divided, wavering mind is settled by hearing the teaching and reflecting on it, so that what remains is not two competing views but one clear understanding.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhvācārya
Their self is held in check and their senses tamed, the mind made one-pointed. This restraint is not read as forced or effortful; it is what a mind free of impurity and doubt settles into on its own.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Devotion to the welfare of all beings is not a separate achievement laid on top of the rest, but the natural outer face of the same inner clearing. Delighting in the good of every living thing and doing no harm is what this settled seeing looks like from the outside.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Read as a single ladder of maturing means: sin worn away by selfless sacrifice, the inner organ purified so the subtle can be discerned, doubt cut as hearing and reflection ripen, the mind steadied as meditation ripens, and finally, through the ceasing of the perception of duality, delight in the good of all and extinction in Brahman. Madhusudana grounds the last step in scripture directly: for one in whom all beings have become the very Self of the knower, there is neither delusion nor grief.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Ramanuja reads the cut duality primarily as freedom from the pairs of opposites, heat and cold and the rest, rather than as doubt. Devotion to the welfare of all beings is given to the good of all as if it were one's own self, and it is this that dissolves the grip of gain and loss. The verse closes as a direct assurance: for one who carries these qualities, Brahman is very easy to reach.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
Madhva reads dvaidha technically as doubt or wrong knowing, cut by the sword of knowledge, and draws from the same word a further sense of the restrained self as a wide-reaching mind that has come to know all, not merely a controlled one. He is careful to name the sequence of cause and effect: the wearing-away of sin is the cause, and the cutting of doubleness follows as its companion, though he allows the plainer reading too.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
The one compact remark that survives names two knots that must be destroyed, not one: the knot of difference and the knot of doubt. This places the very perception of difference, not only wavering cognition, among the bonds the seer must cut. The source does not extend this into a developed argument, and any reading of it as bondage-through-contraction is offered here only as a clearly labeled extension, not his stated word.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara's extant comment is a brief, plain restatement: the rishis see rightly, their taint is worn away, their doubt cut clean off, their mind well reined in, and they stand devoted to the good of all beings, full of compassion, reaching the peace of Brahman. The source does not develop this further, so no fuller argument is offered here beyond a clearly labeled extension linking this compassion to the same clarity that underlies knowledge.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Read against a modern-facing emphasis on process, the verse lays out an ordered chain of ripening rather than a sudden event: purification, then discernment, then the cutting of doubt through hearing and reflection, then steadiness through meditation, then the ceasing of the perception of duality, and only then, as its natural fruit, care for all beings and release.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
Do I have to force myself to care about everyone's welfare, or is this something that should arrive on its own once the inner work is done?
Every reading treats devotion to the welfare of all beings as arising after, and because of, an inner clearing, not as a separate task bolted onto it from outside. The order in the verse itself matters: taint worn away, doubt cut, the self restrained, and only then this outward care named as what naturally follows.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Ramanuja gives the mechanism its sharpest form: devotion to another's good is given as if it were one's own self. Once another's welfare is felt with that same intimacy, caring stops requiring effort, because it is no longer experienced as caring for something separate from oneself.
Rāmānujācārya
So the honest answer is neither pure discipline nor pure passivity. You do the purifying work, the action without craving its fruit, the hearing and reflecting that settles doubt; the care for others is not manufactured on top of that work, it is what that same work looks like once it has matured.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhvācārya
Contemplation
Notice, before anything else, whether your care for others still feels like an effort you have to summon. This verse suggests it need not stay that way forever: as the mind's own turbulence, its old stains and its wavering doubts, genuinely quiets, concern for another's welfare stops being a discipline and starts being simply how a settled mind sees. Let today's practice be watching for the moments your inner weather calms, and noticing what becomes easier to feel for others right after.
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.