Hear how you will come to know me whole, and without any doubt left in you.
It is tempting to think a figure standing in plain sight is already known in full. Krishna answers that a fuller knowing opens only through a mind wholly attached to him, a refuge taken in him alone, and a practice kept up without division.
Krishna says: hear how, with your mind fastened on me, taking refuge in me alone, and keeping up the practice of yoga, you will come to know me completely, with no doubt left over.
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
The sixth chapter closed with Krishna praising the one who worships him with the inmost self gone to him as the most joined of all yogis. Arjuna did not ask what that Lord is actually like. Krishna answers anyway, turning the teaching from the nature of the seeker toward the nature of the one the seeker is to know.
The teaching
Three things are named here, and they are meant to be held as one posture rather than sorted into separate options. Let the mind cling to Krishna, settled on him because every other pull has fallen away. Take him as the only ground and support, with nothing else held in reserve. And keep up the discipline of steadying the mind, already taught in the chapter before this one, now with him as its object. Picture a king's servant: he waits on his master all day, and yet his heart is really elsewhere, on his own family, his own gains. The posture this verse asks for is not that. Here the refuge taken and the thing the mind clings to are the same, with no divided loyalty left over. What follows from this total refuge is a promise about the kind of knowing that becomes possible: a knowing without any doubt left in it, and a knowing that is whole, the entire Lord together with his glory, his strength, his power, his rule, not some thinner acquaintance building slowly toward certainty. And notice the word Krishna chooses: hear. What is coming is not a conclusion Arjuna is meant to reason his own way toward. It is offered as instruction, received rather than derived.
The doubt that rises
Krishna is standing right there, in plain sight. So what exactly is left to know about him, and why should knowing that take a mind's whole attachment and an undivided refuge rather than a clear enough look?
Where the paths divide
Read through the contrast with those who pursue worldly aims by ritual means.
Others who want some worldly prize take up a fire-offering, a hard discipline, or a gift as their means to it. The yogin addressed in this verse sets aside every such means and clings to the Lord alone, with nothing else relied on. What follows from that exclusive refuge is a knowledge rich with the Lord's own glory, strength, power, and rule, not a thin outline of him but the fullness itself. And there is a further turn: this very knowledge has the Lord as its own content, so the completeness on offer is as much the mind's settling into him as it is a fact learned about him.
Read as love so total that refuge becomes the only possibility.
The mind's attachment named here is an excess of love, love so consuming that Arjuna's own nature would crumble at once if parted from the Lord's nature, his qualities, his deeds, his glory. Refuge follows from this not as a chosen practice among several but as the simple, unavoidable consequence of a dependence this deep. What is promised is knowledge of the whole Person, both in his own intrinsic form and in his all-pervading presence, offered as instruction received from the Lord rather than a truth worked out independently.
Read only as far as the surviving comment actually extends.
What remains of the relevant comment marks this verse as the point where the text turns from teaching the means to teaching the greatness of the Lord himself. The mind's attachment is glossed as deep love, and taking refuge is glossed as recognizing that the Lord himself acts through the devotee in everything the devotee does. The surviving remark on 'without doubt' and 'entire' simply notes that these words describe the manner of the knowing; nothing further is elaborated in what has come down to us, and this page declines to invent what is not there.
Read honestly as a thin fragment, not a developed reading.
What survives here is a single terse line, addressing only the pairing of knowledge and activity that the coming chapter promises, and saying that nothing further remains to be known beyond these two. It does not engage the verse's own language of attachment and refuge directly. On a Kashmir Shaiva reading, one might extend this by treating the mind's attachment as consciousness recognizing its own light in the form it calls Krishna, but that extension belongs to this page, offered openly as a conditional gloss, not as a reading Abhinavagupta himself is known to have given.
Read as the servant-and-king contrast, made into a practical test.
None of the verse's three terms, the mind's attachment, the refuge taken, the practice sustained, may be loosened from the other two. Held together, they are read as opening onto the whole Lord, his glory, power, and lordship withheld not even in part. The test offered is the king's servant who serves all day with his heart elsewhere; the seeker here is unlike that servant, holding the Lord as both refuge and the one thing the mind actually clings to.
Read for its structural claim about the shape of the whole text.
This verse is read as a hinge in the architecture of the teaching: the first six chapters unfolded the meaning of 'thou,' the self, through action and self-knowledge, while the middle chapters, beginning here, unfold the meaning of 'that,' the Lord to be worshipped. Read this way, the verse is less a single doctrine to be settled than an announcement that the whole remaining teaching will now orbit a different center of gravity.
The readings agree on the shape of the posture asked for, mind attached, refuge taken, practice sustained, and on the fullness of what is promised. They differ on how directly that posture reaches the promised knowing: whether it settles the mind into an identity with what is known, whether it is the necessary response to an already-total love, or whether, on the thinnest sources here, more honestly remains unclear than clear. This page leaves that difference standing rather than resolving it.
A question to carry
If someone were watching your mind for a single ordinary day, unprompted, where would they see it keep returning: to one clear refuge, or to several competing ones you have not yet noticed dividing your attention?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
So let your mind come to rest on him today, not measured out as one loyalty among several, but as the one place it already wants to settle; and let whatever knowing follows arrive whole, in its own time, without your having to force it into doubt or certainty ahead of schedule.
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 just finished showing Arjuna the nature of his own self, Krishna now turns, unasked, to the nature of the Lord in whom that self's devotion is meant to come to rest.
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.
A new movement opens here: having settled who you are, the teaching now turns, unasked and out of compassion, to who the Lord is.
Across Advaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 1 others’ words
This verse turns a corner in the text's own architecture. The commentators who address the chapter's design agree that the first six chapters chiefly settled the nature of the seeker, the self, while from here the focus shifts to the Lord who is to be worshipped. Krishna answers a question Arjuna never voiced, taking up on his own what kind of being it is in whom the devotion praised at the end of the sixth chapter comes to rest.
Three things are asked together, not three choices: the mind attached, the refuge taken, the practice sustained, as a single posture.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhva · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 3 others’ words
Three conditions are named together, and the readings that engage them closely treat all three as one posture rather than separate options: the mind attached to Krishna, refuge taken in him alone, and the discipline of yoga kept up as already taught. None of the three, on this reading, may be loosened from the other two without losing the whole.
Unlike the king's servant whose heart drifts to his own family and gains, the refuge asked for here holds nothing back and divides nothing.
Across Advaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 1 others’ words
The refuge asked for here is read as exclusive rather than partial. More than one commentator contrasts it with a king's servant, who serves all day yet keeps his heart on his own family and gains; the seeker addressed in this verse is unlike that servant, since for him the Lord is both the refuge taken and the very thing the mind clings to.
What is promised is not a partial glimpse but a knowing that is whole, the Lord's own glory and power included, and free of all leftover doubt.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhusūdana · ŚrīdharaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
The promised knowing is read as both total and certain. 'Without doubt' is taken to mean no uncertainty left over at all, and 'in full' is taken to mean the entire Lord together with his glory, strength, power, and lordship, not some diminished or partial acquaintance with him.
This knowing is to be received as the Lord's own instruction, not reasoned out alone; the very word 'hear' marks the difference.
Across Viśiṣṭādvaita, Advaita, BhaktiRāmānuja · Madhusūdana · ŚrīdharaIn Rāmānuja, Madhusūdana, and 1 others’ words
What is offered is treated as instruction to be heard from the Lord himself, not a conclusion reasoned out independently. Krishna's own word, 'hear,' marks the knowing that follows as something received rather than something worked out by inference alone.
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 attachment of mind as an excess of love so consuming that Arjuna's own nature would crumble if parted from the Lord's nature, qualities, deeds, and glory; refuge follows as the simple consequence of that dependence. The completeness promised is knowledge of the whole Person, both in his own intrinsic form and in his all-pervading presence, received as instruction rather than reasoned out.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
What survives of Madhva's comment marks this verse as the point where the text turns to teach the Lord's own greatness first, after the means were taught earlier; he glosses the mind's attachment as deep love and taking refuge as recognizing that the Lord himself acts through the devotee in everything done. His extant remark on 'without doubt' and 'entire' simply notes that these describe how the knowing is to be carried out, without further elaboration in the material available here.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara insists that none of the verse's three terms, attachment, refuge, and practice, may be loosened from the other two; held together, they open onto the whole Lord with his glory, power, and lordship withheld not even in part. He frames the verse as Krishna's own unfolding of his majestic nature, answering the question of what the Lord praised at the chapter's close is actually like.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Read for its structural claim, Madhusudana's placement of this verse at the hinge between the meaning of 'thou' and the meaning of 'that' suggests a chapter-level shift from self-knowledge toward the object of devotion, with the servant-and-king contrast offered as a practical test: is the Lord merely one refuge among competing loyalties, or the sole thing the mind actually clings to.
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, for a moment, where your mind actually rests when nothing is demanding your attention. Is it one refuge among several, quietly returning to old worries and old wants, or does it have a single place it settles? This verse does not ask you to force the answer; it only asks you to keep bringing the mind back toward one center, again and again, and let the settling happen on its own schedule.
So let your mind come to rest on him today, not as one refuge among several, but as the one thing it already wants to cling to; and let the knowing that follows arrive whole, in its own time.
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
his verse turns a corner in the text's own architecture. The commentators who address the chapter's design agree that the first six chapters chiefly settled the nature of the seeker, the self, while from here the focus shifts to the Lord who is to be worshipped. Krishna answers a question Arjuna never voiced, taking up on his own what kind of being it is in whom the devotion praised at the end of the sixth chapter comes to rest.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Three conditions are named together, and the readings that engage them closely treat all three as one posture rather than separate options: the mind attached to Krishna, refuge taken in him alone, and the discipline of yoga kept up as already taught. None of the three, on this reading, may be loosened from the other two without losing the whole.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhvācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The refuge asked for here is read as exclusive rather than partial. More than one commentator contrasts it with a king's servant, who serves all day yet keeps his heart on his own family and gains; the seeker addressed in this verse is unlike that servant, since for him the Lord is both the refuge taken and the very thing the mind clings to.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
The promised knowing is read as both total and certain. 'Without doubt' is taken to mean no uncertainty left over at all, and 'in full' is taken to mean the entire Lord together with his glory, strength, power, and lordship, not some diminished or partial acquaintance with him.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
What is offered is treated as instruction to be heard from the Lord himself, not a conclusion reasoned out independently. Krishna's own word, 'hear,' marks the knowing that follows as something received rather than something worked out by inference alone.
Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Shankara reads the exclusive refuge through contrast with those who pursue worldly prizes by a fire-offering, austerity, or a gift; the yogin here sets aside every such means and clings to the Lord alone. The knowledge promised is rich with the Lord's glory, strength, power, and rule, and Shankara adds that this very knowledge has the Lord himself as its content, so that the completeness in view is as much the mind's settling into him as it is information about him.
Śaṅkarācārya
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Ramanuja reads the attachment of mind as an excess of love so consuming that Arjuna's own nature would crumble if parted from the Lord's nature, qualities, deeds, and glory; refuge follows as the simple consequence of that dependence. The completeness promised is knowledge of the whole Person, both in his own intrinsic form and in his all-pervading presence, received as instruction rather than reasoned out.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
What survives of Madhva's comment marks this verse as the point where the text turns to teach the Lord's own greatness first, after the means were taught earlier; he glosses the mind's attachment as deep love and taking refuge as recognizing that the Lord himself acts through the devotee in everything done. His extant remark on 'without doubt' and 'entire' simply notes that these describe how the knowing is to be carried out, without further elaboration in the material available here.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
What remains of Abhinavagupta's comment on this verse is a single terse line reducing the coming teaching to knowledge and activity, with nothing said directly about the verse's own devotional terms. No confident Kashmir Shaiva reading of the mind's attachment or the taking of refuge can honestly be drawn from this fragment; any fuller Shaiva reading offered here is explicitly this writer's own conditional extension, not Abhinavagupta's stated position.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara insists that none of the verse's three terms, attachment, refuge, and practice, may be loosened from the other two; held together, they open onto the whole Lord with his glory, power, and lordship withheld not even in part. He frames the verse as Krishna's own unfolding of his majestic nature, answering the question of what the Lord praised at the chapter's close is actually like.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Read for its structural claim, Madhusudana's placement of this verse at the hinge between the meaning of 'thou' and the meaning of 'that' suggests a chapter-level shift from self-knowledge toward the object of devotion, with the servant-and-king contrast offered as a practical test: is the Lord merely one refuge among competing loyalties, or the sole thing the mind actually clings to.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
Krishna is standing right in front of Arjuna. What is left to know about him that isn't already plainly visible?
What stands visibly in front of Arjuna is not read, across these commentators, as the whole of what there is to know. The figure seen is one thing; the glory, power, and lordship bound up in that figure are read as reaching further than sight alone can register.
Śaṅkarācārya
The knowing promised here is treated as something other than an accumulation of facts seen with the eyes. It is read as a settling of the mind itself, so total that the one who is known and the mind that knows are no longer felt as separate.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
This is also why the verse asks for more than looking: attachment, refuge, and sustained practice. Ramanuja's reading suggests that a love intense enough to make separation unbearable opens a way of knowing that mere observation, however careful, does not reach on its own.
Rāmānujācārya
Contemplation
Notice, for a moment, where your mind actually rests when nothing is demanding your attention. Is it one refuge among several, quietly returning to old worries and old wants, or does it have a single place it settles? This verse does not ask you to force the answer; it only asks you to keep bringing the mind back toward one center, again and again, and let the settling happen on its own schedule.
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.