The power that deludes you is his own; refuge in him alone is what carries you across it.
It is tempting to hear this as a call to fight harder against what binds you. It says something different: the binding power is not yours to defeat by force, because it belongs to the very one you are asked to turn toward instead.
This power of mine that deludes, woven from the three qualities of nature, is my own and hard indeed to get past. But those who turn to me alone, and only to me, cross beyond it.
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
Krishna has just said how few truly know him and how easily the world, absorbed in its own qualities, misses him altogether. Now he names the very thing doing the misleading, and in the same breath gives the single way past it.
The teaching
This power that deludes is called divine, and it is called his own, in the same line, because both point to the same fact: it is not some ownerless force loose in the world, it belongs to the Lord and unfolds out of his own nature. It is woven from the three gunas, sattva, rajas, and tamas, which is exactly what lets it veil what is real and make what is not real look convincing. And because it belongs to so great a Lord, it is hard, genuinely hard, to get past. Not hard in the way a difficult task is hard, but hard in a way that undercuts the very attempt: any effort raised against this power is raised from within the field it governs, so the struggling mind can never quite step outside what it is trying to escape. This could be read as despair, and it very nearly says so, except that the verse does not stop there. It names one door. Those who take refuge in the Lord alone cross beyond this power, and the word alone is not decoration. It excludes reliance on your own merit, your own cleverness, any other power you might muster, and points to the one being who actually owns what would count as this power's key. Refuge, understood this way, is not a smaller effort than struggle, it is effort aimed correctly for the first time, turned away from the wall and toward the one who holds the door. And to cross this power is no small thing either: the bondage of birth after birth loosens, the delusion it produced comes apart, and the one who crosses comes finally to know the Lord that the deluded world, caught in that very same power, never could.
The doubt that rises
If this power truly belongs to the Lord and not to me, in what sense is my turning toward him actually mine at all, and why does that turning succeed where every effort I raise on my own keeps failing?
Where the paths divide
Read as beginningless ignorance over pure awareness, crossed by direct knowing.
Here the deluding power is ignorance without beginning, laid over pure, undivided awareness; it is called divine with reference to that awareness and his own with reference to the Lord who is that same awareness reflected as its original. On the fuller picture, the Lord occupies the place of the original and the living being the place of the reflection, so that as long as the living being does not know its oneness with that original, it keeps suffering changes that belong only to the covering, not to itself. What finally crosses this power is not effort or ritual but the direct, non-conceptual knowing I am Brahman, arising from the great teaching that thou art after real purification; that knowing tears out the ignorance at its very root, the way a lamp tears out darkness, and the whole display falls with it. Worship offered without ceasing is not set aside here, it is what refines the mind to the point where that knowing can finally dawn.
Read as the Lord's real power, never an illusion, crossed by whole-being refuge.
The word maya does not name something false here. It is the Lord's real power, made of the three qualities, called maya because it produces genuine wonders, the way old maya-weapons and even a conjuror's craft were called maya for their marvelous effects while remaining entirely real. What this power does is conceal the Lord's own boundless bliss and convince embodied beings that their own nature is a thing to be enjoyed, so the whole world, deluded, fails to know him as he is. It is hard to cross because any effort against it proceeds from within the very field it controls. But those who turn to the Lord with their whole being, trusting his unfailing resolve and his mercy that shelters every being without exception, do cross it; that turning is not preparation for the crossing, it is the crossing itself.
Read as a power exceeding even the great gods, crossed only by grace.
This power is called divine because it belongs to the Lord in his very nature as deva, the one whose being is play and surpassing splendor; it is dear to him and wholly his own. Known by such names as Shri, Bhu, and Durga, it exceeds even beings as great as Brahma and Rudra, who cross it, when they do, only through the Lord's own grace. The word alone in take refuge in me alone rules out every rival reliance, yet it does not forbid reverence for the teacher and other worthy figures, since the highest devotees come to see the Lord himself abiding within them, so that reverence offered there is, in the end, reverence for him and for no one set apart from him.
Read from the brief surviving fragment, as difference itself mistaken for bondage.
On what remains of this reading, the deluding play is called divine because it arises within deva, the maker of play, so the sense is simply that this play is his own. The deeper turn is that the three gunas are, in truth, never separate from the one pure consciousness that is Brahman; what makes them into binding qualities is nothing but the very perceiving of them as separate, a perceiving that manufactures the whole appearance of an enjoyer bound to things meant for enjoyment. To cross this power, on this account, is to see the world as never distinct from that one consciousness. The comment on file for this verse is only this fragment, and it should be read as exactly that, not stretched into a fuller system the source itself does not lay out.
Read as one key fitted to one lock: unswerving devotion alone.
This power is marvelous beyond ordinary expectation, woven from the transformations of sattva and its companions, and it is genuinely impossible to cross by any means devised on one's own. But those who take refuge precisely in the Lord, through devotion that never strays toward any other object of worship, do cross it, hard as it is. The doctrine here runs squarely along devotional lines: the power is the Lord's own shakti, and devotion to that very Lord is the one key that fits its one lock, with no second door standing anywhere else and no self-effort short of that devotion sufficing on its own.
Read as one continuous discipline joining refuge and knowledge.
Take seriously the standing worry this verse answers: if the world has been bound from beginningless time, with no strength of its own to break free, self-liberation looks structurally impossible from the start. The verse's own claim is more exact and more useful than a metaphysical proof of freedom. Worship offered without ceasing refines the very instrument, the mind itself, that must eventually see past the veil; refuge and the knowledge that crosses this power are, on this reading, not two separate paths for two separate kinds of seeker, but one continuous discipline unfolding in stages.
Every reading agrees the power is his and that refuge in him alone carries you across it. They part on what the power actually is and on what crossing amounts to. For Advaita it is beginningless ignorance over pure awareness, and crossing is a direct, non-conceptual knowing that uproots it entirely. For Vishishtadvaita, Dvaita, and the Bhakti reading it is real, the Lord's genuine power, never an illusion, and crossing is his grace answering whole-being surrender. Kashmir Shaivism, on the fragment that survives, locates the binding power in the very perceiving of difference within one consciousness. And the modern-facing reading treats refuge and knowledge as one continuous discipline rather than two rival paths. This page does not choose among these. It leaves the fork standing, exactly where the sources leave it.
A question to carry
If what binds you is not yours to break by force, can you let your whole effort go, for now, into the turning itself, and leave the crossing to the one this power belongs to?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
So do not spend yourself struggling against a power that was never yours to defeat alone. Turn, exactly as you are, toward the one who holds its key, and let the crossing be his to give, in his own time and by his own grace.
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 named how rare true knowers of him are and how the deluded world misses him entirely; here he names what does the deluding, and gives the one way past it.
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.
See clearly what holds you: a power that is his, not an ownerless force, and woven from the very qualities that veil ordinary seeing.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, Kashmir Śaiva, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhva · Abhinavagupta · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 4 others’ words
Every reading takes the word divine seriously: this power that deludes is not an orphaned force loose in the world, it belongs to the Lord and issues from his own nature. Calling it daivi and calling it mama, mine, are read as making the same point twice, once from the side of what it rests on and once from the side of whose it is.
Notice why struggle alone keeps failing: any effort raised against this power is raised from within the very field it governs.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhva · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 3 others’ words
The power is woven from the three gunas, sattva, rajas, and tamas, and this is exactly what makes it able to veil and to project, to hide what is real and make what is not real appear convincing. Whatever else divides the commentators, none treats this power as a trivial obstacle.
There is one door, and the word alone marks it precisely: not your own merit, not any other reliance, but the one who owns the power's key.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
Because the power belongs to so great a Lord, it is duratyaya, hard to cross, and hard for a precise reason repeated across the readings: any effort raised against it is raised from within the very field it governs. Self-effort, in other words, cannot get outside what it is trying to escape.
Whole-being turning is real work asked of you, even while the actual crossing is finally his to grant, not a feat you accomplish unaided.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhva · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 3 others’ words
The single way past it is refuge in the Lord, and the word alone is read as doing real work: not merit, not discernment, not any other power, but only the one who owns and wields the power in question, since only he holds what would count as its key.
To cross is to be freed: the round of birth loosens, delusion ends, and the one who crosses comes at last to know the Lord the deluded could not see.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
To cross this power is to be freed. Bondage to birth after birth loosens, the delusion it produced comes apart, and the one who crosses comes at last to know the Lord that the deluded world, caught inside the very same power, could never see.
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 insists the word maya never means something false: it names the Lord's real, quality-made power, called maya because it works wonders, the way maya-weapons and a conjuror's craft are called maya for their marvelous effects while remaining entirely real. Its one operation is to conceal the Lord's own blissful nature and to make embodied beings mistake their own nature for something to enjoy; refuge is a whole-being turning toward the Lord whose resolve is unfailing and whose mercy shelters everyone without exception.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
Madhva reads divine as belonging to deva in the sense of surpassing splendor and play, so the power is called divine because it is the Lord's very own and dear to him; it exceeds even Brahma and Rudra, who cross it, when they do, only by the Lord's grace. He reads the word alone as excluding every rival reliance while explicitly not forbidding reverence for the teacher and other worthy figures, since the highest devotees see the Lord himself abiding within them and so revere him even there.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara reads daivi hi as marvelous beyond ordinary expectation and treats the crossing as impossible by any means except unswerving, single-pointed devotion, avyabhicarini bhakti, directed to the very Lord whose shakti this power is. His doctrine runs squarely along Bhagavata lines: the power is the Lord's own, and devotion to that Lord is the one key fitted to the one lock, with no second door available anywhere else.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Read against Madhusudana's own careful mechanism, a modern-facing gloss stresses that this verse answers a real, standing worry: if the world has been bound from beginningless time with no strength of its own to break free, self-liberation looks structurally impossible. The verse's actual claim is narrower and more useful than a metaphysical proof: worship offered without ceasing refines the very instrument that must eventually see past the veil, so refuge and knowledge are not two paths but one continuous discipline.
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 this verse refuses to place the weight. You are not told to out-think this power, defeat it by force, or perfect yourself before you qualify for help. You are told to turn, as you are, toward the one this power belongs to. Try holding that plainly: whatever has you caught today is not, on this verse's own account, yours to break by main strength. Let the turning itself be the whole of your effort, and see what shifts when effort stops aiming at the wall and starts aiming at the one who holds its key.
So do not spend yourself trying to break what was never yours to break; turn, as you are, toward the one who holds its key, and let the crossing be his to give.
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
very reading takes the word divine seriously: this power that deludes is not an orphaned force loose in the world, it belongs to the Lord and issues from his own nature. Calling it daivi and calling it mama, mine, are read as making the same point twice, once from the side of what it rests on and once from the side of whose it is.
Braided from 6 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhvācārya · Ācārya Abhinavagupta · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The power is woven from the three gunas, sattva, rajas, and tamas, and this is exactly what makes it able to veil and to project, to hide what is real and make what is not real appear convincing. Whatever else divides the commentators, none treats this power as a trivial obstacle.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhvācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Because the power belongs to so great a Lord, it is duratyaya, hard to cross, and hard for a precise reason repeated across the readings: any effort raised against it is raised from within the very field it governs. Self-effort, in other words, cannot get outside what it is trying to escape.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The single way past it is refuge in the Lord, and the word alone is read as doing real work: not merit, not discernment, not any other power, but only the one who owns and wields the power in question, since only he holds what would count as its key.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhvācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
To cross this power is to be freed. Bondage to birth after birth loosens, the delusion it produced comes apart, and the one who crosses comes at last to know the Lord that the deluded world, caught inside the very same power, could never see.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Shankara reads the power as beginningless ignorance superimposed on pure awareness, called divine with reference to the awareness it rests on and mine with reference to the Lord who is that awareness reflected as its original; taking refuge is renouncing every other duty and turning one's whole being toward the Lord who is also one's own Self. Madhusudana sharpens this into a mechanism: a mirror-model in which the Lord occupies the place of the original face and the living being the place of its reflection, so that only the direct, non-conceptual knowing I am Brahman tears out the ignorance that is the power's root, though worship offered without ceasing is what refines the mind to the point where that knowing can dawn.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Ramanuja insists the word maya never means something false: it names the Lord's real, quality-made power, called maya because it works wonders, the way maya-weapons and a conjuror's craft are called maya for their marvelous effects while remaining entirely real. Its one operation is to conceal the Lord's own blissful nature and to make embodied beings mistake their own nature for something to enjoy; refuge is a whole-being turning toward the Lord whose resolve is unfailing and whose mercy shelters everyone without exception.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
Madhva reads divine as belonging to deva in the sense of surpassing splendor and play, so the power is called divine because it is the Lord's very own and dear to him; it exceeds even Brahma and Rudra, who cross it, when they do, only by the Lord's grace. He reads the word alone as excluding every rival reliance while explicitly not forbidding reverence for the teacher and other worthy figures, since the highest devotees see the Lord himself abiding within them and so revere him even there.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
On the surviving fragment of Abhinavagupta's reading, the three gunas are, in truth, never separate from the one pure consciousness that is Brahman; what makes them binding qualities is nothing but the very perceiving of them as separate, a perceiving that manufactures the whole appearance of an enjoyer bound to things to be enjoyed. Crossing this power is simply seeing the world as never distinct from that one consciousness. The comment on file is brief, and this reading should be taken as exactly that fragment, not extended into a fuller doctrine the source does not supply.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara reads daivi hi as marvelous beyond ordinary expectation and treats the crossing as impossible by any means except unswerving, single-pointed devotion, avyabhicarini bhakti, directed to the very Lord whose shakti this power is. His doctrine runs squarely along Bhagavata lines: the power is the Lord's own, and devotion to that Lord is the one key fitted to the one lock, with no second door available anywhere else.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Read against Madhusudana's own careful mechanism, a modern-facing gloss stresses that this verse answers a real, standing worry: if the world has been bound from beginningless time with no strength of its own to break free, self-liberation looks structurally impossible. The verse's actual claim is narrower and more useful than a metaphysical proof: worship offered without ceasing refines the very instrument that must eventually see past the veil, so refuge and knowledge are not two paths but one continuous discipline.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
If this deluding power belongs to the Lord and not to me, why should I be the one struggling against it at all, and what does my turning to him actually change?
Because the power is his and exceedingly great, any effort you raise against it is raised from within the very field it governs; you cannot pry loose, with hands shaped by the power, a grip that includes your hands. This is not a reason for despair, it is a diagnosis of why struggle alone keeps failing.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Turning toward him is not one more effort of the same kind, it is a change of direction entirely: away from fighting the power and toward the one who owns it. Since the power yields only to the one whose power it is, going to him is not a weaker move dressed up as humility, it is the only move actually aimed at the lock rather than at the wall around it.
Madhvācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
What changes is not that the power vanishes the instant you wish it gone, but that the direction of your whole effort changes, from trying to break something by yourself to letting worship refine the very mind that must eventually see past it. That refining is real work, asked of you continuously, even while the crossing itself is finally his to grant.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Contemplation
Notice, for a moment, where this verse refuses to place the weight. You are not told to out-think this power, defeat it by force, or perfect yourself before you qualify for help. You are told to turn, as you are, toward the one this power belongs to. Try holding that plainly: whatever has you caught today is not, on this verse's own account, yours to break by main strength. Let the turning itself be the whole of your effort, and see what shifts when effort stops aiming at the wall and starts aiming at the one who holds its key.
Sit with this · sonnet-5-authored
All the translations and commentary
Pull up a chair.
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Also hear this verse, tradition by tradition.