Every support a life can lean on, Krishna names as himself.
Krishna names, one by one, the supports a life is built around: a goal to reach, a provider, a master, a witness, a home, a shelter, a friend who wishes you well. Then the list widens to the world itself, its origin, its end, the ground it stands on, the store it is kept in, the imperishable seed it grows from; and each of these, he says, is himself.
I am the goal, the supporter, the lord, the witness, the abode, the refuge, and the friend. I am the origin, the dissolution, the foundation, the storehouse, and the imperishable seed.
It continues the litany begun at verse sixteen, where Krishna has already named himself the rite, the offering, the Vedas, and the world's father and mother; now the list widens from the altar and the household to every role a being can lean on, and to the world's own rise and return.
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.
Name anything you lean on, a goal, a provider, a master, a shelter, a friend; each of these, finally, is the Lord himself.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhedābheda, Bhakti, Dvaita, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Rāmānuja · Vedānta Deśika · Puruṣottama · Bhāskara · Śrīdhara · Sivananda · Ramsukhdas · Madhva · VallabhaIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 12 others’ words
Krishna piles up a long list of roles and says he is each one: the goal, the sustainer, the lord, the witness, the dwelling, the refuge, the friend, and then the cosmic functions of origin, dissolution, resting-place, treasure-store, and imperishable seed. The commentators take these terms one at a time and give a steady, shared set of glosses. The 'sustainer' (bharta) is the nourisher, the one who gives the fruit of action. The 'lord' (prabhu) is the master or ruler. The 'witness' (sakshi) is the one who directly sees the good and bad that creatures do and leave undone. The 'dwelling' (nivasa) is the place in which living beings dwell and enjoy. The 'refuge' (sharana) is the one who removes the suffering of those who take shelter. The cumulative point is plain: there is no role a being can stand in relation to, and no person a being can lean on, that is not finally the Lord himself.
The world rises from him, stands in him, and returns into him; not three different powers, but one Lord, named for the moment you are watching.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhedābheda, Bhakti, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Rāmānuja · Puruṣottama · Bhāskara · Śrīdhara · Sivananda · JñāneśvarIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 9 others’ words
Several of these names are read together as a single thought about how the world rises and falls and is held. The 'origin' (prabhava) is that from which the world emerges, the creator. The 'dissolution' (pralaya) is that into which it all dissolves, the withdrawer. The 'station' or 'support' (sthana) is that in which the world stands and abides during its continuance. So one and the same reality is the source of the world, the place it returns to, and the ground that holds it up in between. The commentators stress that these are not three different powers but three faces of the one Lord, named according to which moment of the world's life you are looking at.
He is the seed the world keeps sprouting from, and unlike a grain of rice it never rots; that cause does not run dry.
Across Advaita, Bhakti, ViśiṣṭādvaitaŚaṅkara · Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Śrīdhara · RāmānujaIn Śaṅkara, Ānandagiri, and 5 others’ words
The verse ends with 'the imperishable seed' (bijam avyayam), and the commentators draw out a careful argument here. A seed is the cause from which things sprout. To call this seed imperishable is to say the Lord is the world's root cause that never wears out. The reasoning is that nothing seedless sprouts, and since sprouting goes on without end, the supply of seed must never run dry. The qualifier 'imperishable' guards against two mistakes: it tells us this seed is not like a grain of rice that rots once it has sprouted, and it tells us the effect never arises without a cause. As long as the cycle of birth and death lasts, the seed-stream is unbroken.
He is the storehouse too: whatever is not yet ripe for you is laid up in him and kept until its time comes.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, Dvaita, and the modern voicesŚaṅkara · Madhusūdana · Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati · Rāmānuja · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · Sivananda · MadhvaIn Śaṅkara, Madhusūdana, and 7 others’ words
Most commentators read the 'treasure-store' (nidhana) as a place where something is laid up for later. It is that in which the karma-fruit of beings, or things not yet fit to be enjoyed, are deposited and kept until their time comes. Some take it specifically as the place where the world is laid down at dissolution and from which it will be drawn out again. Either way, the Lord is the storehouse that keeps the seeds of future enjoyment and future worlds safe across the gap between one cycle and the next.
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
The Advaita commentators read 'goal' (gati) as the fruit of action, the destination one reaches by works, such as the heavenly worlds or the supreme course named in scripture. The deeper weight falls on the verse establishing the Lord as the world's one material cause, the imperishable seed. These commentators take the most natural reading to be that the supreme reality is itself the ever-imperishable stuff out of which the world is made, present as one or another manifestation at every moment so that no time is ever empty of it. The whole list, on this reading, supports the Lord being the very Self of everything.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
These commentators reject reading 'goal' (gati) as the mere fruit of action. They insist it means that which is reached by those who seek liberation, the destination of the freed, and they back each term with a cited scriptural branch: a Samaveda passage that Brahman alone is the goal reached by those cleansed of sin, a passage establishing the Lord's witness-hood from his direct beholding, and the Mahanarayana verse naming Narayana the supreme resort. 'Resting-place' (nidhana) is given a precise sense: at the time of dissolution the world is laid down here by means of material nature, the beings first going to prakriti and afterward being deposited in the Lord. Each role is grounded in a named source rather than in derivation alone.
Viśiṣṭādvaita, in their fuller words
Here the refrain is personal and relational: of every role in the list, the Lord says 'that is I myself.' The 'refuge' is specifically the conscious being one resorts to as the bringer of what is wished and the warder-off of what is unwished, and that conscious helper is the Lord. The verse is read as exhausting the whole inner-and-outer field of a person's relations: wherever the candidate for liberation looks, the Lord stands as the corresponding role, not as one role among many but as the inner ground of all roles.
Śuddhādvaita, in their fuller words
Vallabha reads the entire list through the frame of sacrifice (yajna): the dwelling is the sacrificial ground, the refuge is both the hall and its protector, the friend is the kindred-circle of the sacrificer, the origin is the deity who gives the fruit, the dissolution is the destroyer of sins, the station is the holy place or pilgrimage-site, the treasure-store is the sacrificial post and the ritual vessels, the seed is barley and the like, and even 'imperishable' is read as the herd of sacrificial animals by the etymology 'that which does not go away.' Every limb of the rite, the goal it moves toward, the support, the friends around it, the source of its fruit, and the seed it grows from, is just the Purushottama himself taking these forms by his own will. Purushottama keeps the more direct devotional sense, reading the dwelling as the very form of every body and 'imperishable seed' as the root cause.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Jnaneshwar expands the verse into a portrait of the Lord as sovereign over prakriti and all the cosmic powers. By his command the wind blows, the fire burns, the clouds rain, the mountains hold still, the seas keep their limits, the sun moves, the vital breath stirs, and even death lays its hand on mortals; the gods themselves are servants at his behest. Yet over all this he remains the universal spectator, like the sky, the inward spirit and dearest friend of all alike. He gives the seed image its fullest form: as a seed buds into a tree whose whole life is again stored in the seed, the universe arises from the primeval Will and is reabsorbed into it, and the treasure-house is the antechamber where the gods and the rolled-up powers of desire retire to recoup themselves for the next creation.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Ramsukhdas reads the list as the closure of every other dependence: where the Lord himself is goal, sustainer, lord, witness, dwelling, refuge and loving friend, no other goal, sustainer, lord or refuge remains to be sought anywhere. He sets the verse inside the run from verses sixteen to nineteen, which describe the Lord's all-pervadingness in cause-and-effect form, and urges the seeker to hold without the smallest doubt that whatever is seen, heard or accepted in gross or subtle form is the Lord alone. Sivananda turns the same list into a direct call, ending 'therefore, take shelter under My feet.'
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
Ramsukhdas reads this verse as the place where you can finally set down every scattered dependence. Notice what the list does: it names the very things you spend your life chasing and leaning on. A goal to reach. Someone to provide for you. An authority over you. A place to belong. A protector. A friend who wishes you well with nothing wanted back. The verse says each of these is the Lord himself. So the practice is to let that recognition close the search: where he is already your goal, there is no other goal to hunt for; where he is already your refuge, there is no other shelter to win; where he is already your friend, you are not finally alone. He counsels holding this firmly, with not the smallest doubt, that whatever you see, hear, or accept, in gross or subtle form, is the Lord alone, because the nagging thought 'but how can all of this be God?' is precisely what robs the seeker of the truth. Carry the verse, then, not as a list to admire but as a quiet release of every other place you were trying to anchor.
A heart that knows its goal, its shelter, and its friend are one need not anchor anywhere else.
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 piles up a long list of roles and says he is each one: the goal, the sustainer, the lord, the witness, the dwelling, the refuge, the friend, and then the cosmic functions of origin, dissolution, resting-place, treasure-store, and imperishable seed. The commentators take these terms one at a time and give a steady, shared set of glosses. The 'sustainer' (bharta) is the nourisher, the one who gives the fruit of action. The 'lord' (prabhu) is the master or ruler. The 'witness' (sakshi) is the one who directly sees the good and bad that creatures do and leave undone. The 'dwelling' (nivasa) is the place in which living beings dwell and enjoy. The 'refuge' (sharana) is the one who removes the suffering of those who take shelter. The cumulative point is plain: there is no role a being can stand in relation to, and no person a being can lean on, that is not finally the Lord himself.
Braided from 14 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrī Bhāskara · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas · Madhvācārya · Vallabhācārya
Several of these names are read together as a single thought about how the world rises and falls and is held. The 'origin' (prabhava) is that from which the world emerges, the creator. The 'dissolution' (pralaya) is that into which it all dissolves, the withdrawer. The 'station' or 'support' (sthana) is that in which the world stands and abides during its continuance. So one and the same reality is the source of the world, the place it returns to, and the ground that holds it up in between. The commentators stress that these are not three different powers but three faces of the one Lord, named according to which moment of the world's life you are looking at.
Braided from 11 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrī Bhāskara · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda · Sant Jñāneśvar
The verse ends with 'the imperishable seed' (bijam avyayam), and the commentators draw out a careful argument here. A seed is the cause from which things sprout. To call this seed imperishable is to say the Lord is the world's root cause that never wears out. The reasoning is that nothing seedless sprouts, and since sprouting goes on without end, the supply of seed must never run dry. The qualifier 'imperishable' guards against two mistakes: it tells us this seed is not like a grain of rice that rots once it has sprouted, and it tells us the effect never arises without a cause. As long as the cycle of birth and death lasts, the seed-stream is unbroken.
Braided from 7 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Rāmānujācārya
Most commentators read the 'treasure-store' (nidhana) as a place where something is laid up for later. It is that in which the karma-fruit of beings, or things not yet fit to be enjoyed, are deposited and kept until their time comes. Some take it specifically as the place where the world is laid down at dissolution and from which it will be drawn out again. Either way, the Lord is the storehouse that keeps the seeds of future enjoyment and future worlds safe across the gap between one cycle and the next.
Braided from 9 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda · Madhvācārya
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
The Advaita commentators read 'goal' (gati) as the fruit of action, the destination one reaches by works, such as the heavenly worlds or the supreme course named in scripture. The deeper weight falls on the verse establishing the Lord as the world's one material cause, the imperishable seed. These commentators take the most natural reading to be that the supreme reality is itself the ever-imperishable stuff out of which the world is made, present as one or another manifestation at every moment so that no time is ever empty of it. The whole list, on this reading, supports the Lord being the very Self of everything.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Dvaita
These commentators reject reading 'goal' (gati) as the mere fruit of action. They insist it means that which is reached by those who seek liberation, the destination of the freed, and they back each term with a cited scriptural branch: a Samaveda passage that Brahman alone is the goal reached by those cleansed of sin, a passage establishing the Lord's witness-hood from his direct beholding, and the Mahanarayana verse naming Narayana the supreme resort. 'Resting-place' (nidhana) is given a precise sense: at the time of dissolution the world is laid down here by means of material nature, the beings first going to prakriti and afterward being deposited in the Lord. Each role is grounded in a named source rather than in derivation alone.
Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Here the refrain is personal and relational: of every role in the list, the Lord says 'that is I myself.' The 'refuge' is specifically the conscious being one resorts to as the bringer of what is wished and the warder-off of what is unwished, and that conscious helper is the Lord. The verse is read as exhausting the whole inner-and-outer field of a person's relations: wherever the candidate for liberation looks, the Lord stands as the corresponding role, not as one role among many but as the inner ground of all roles.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Śuddhādvaita
Vallabha reads the entire list through the frame of sacrifice (yajna): the dwelling is the sacrificial ground, the refuge is both the hall and its protector, the friend is the kindred-circle of the sacrificer, the origin is the deity who gives the fruit, the dissolution is the destroyer of sins, the station is the holy place or pilgrimage-site, the treasure-store is the sacrificial post and the ritual vessels, the seed is barley and the like, and even 'imperishable' is read as the herd of sacrificial animals by the etymology 'that which does not go away.' Every limb of the rite, the goal it moves toward, the support, the friends around it, the source of its fruit, and the seed it grows from, is just the Purushottama himself taking these forms by his own will. Purushottama keeps the more direct devotional sense, reading the dwelling as the very form of every body and 'imperishable seed' as the root cause.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
Jnaneshwar expands the verse into a portrait of the Lord as sovereign over prakriti and all the cosmic powers. By his command the wind blows, the fire burns, the clouds rain, the mountains hold still, the seas keep their limits, the sun moves, the vital breath stirs, and even death lays its hand on mortals; the gods themselves are servants at his behest. Yet over all this he remains the universal spectator, like the sky, the inward spirit and dearest friend of all alike. He gives the seed image its fullest form: as a seed buds into a tree whose whole life is again stored in the seed, the universe arises from the primeval Will and is reabsorbed into it, and the treasure-house is the antechamber where the gods and the rolled-up powers of desire retire to recoup themselves for the next creation.
Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
Ramsukhdas reads the list as the closure of every other dependence: where the Lord himself is goal, sustainer, lord, witness, dwelling, refuge and loving friend, no other goal, sustainer, lord or refuge remains to be sought anywhere. He sets the verse inside the run from verses sixteen to nineteen, which describe the Lord's all-pervadingness in cause-and-effect form, and urges the seeker to hold without the smallest doubt that whatever is seen, heard or accepted in gross or subtle form is the Lord alone. Sivananda turns the same list into a direct call, ending 'therefore, take shelter under My feet.'
Swami Ramsukhdas · Swami Sivananda
A Seeker Asks
If the same one reality is called my goal, my lord, my witness, my refuge and my friend all at once, is this just a poetic pile-up of titles, or does it actually change how I should live and where I place my trust?
It is not decoration; it is a deliberate closing of every door you might lean on. The commentators read the list as exhausting the whole field of your relations: wherever you look, in inner life or outer life, the role you are standing in front of is finally the Lord himself, not one helper among many but the ground of all of them.
Vedānta Deśika · Rāmānujācārya
That is exactly why it changes where you place your trust. If he is already your goal, your sustainer, your lord, your refuge and your loving friend, then no other goal, sustainer, lord or refuge remains to be sought, and the seeking itself can come to rest. The right response is to take shelter rather than keep shopping for one.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Swami Sivananda
And it is grounded, not sentimental. The same reality is named the origin you came from, the support that holds you now, the dissolution you return to, and the imperishable seed that never wears out. Trust placed there is placed in the one cause that does not perish like a grain of rice once it has sprouted, the storehouse that keeps your future safe across every cycle.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Contemplation
Ramsukhdas reads this verse as the place where you can finally set down every scattered dependence. Notice what the list does: it names the very things you spend your life chasing and leaning on. A goal to reach. Someone to provide for you. An authority over you. A place to belong. A protector. A friend who wishes you well with nothing wanted back. The verse says each of these is the Lord himself. So the practice is to let that recognition close the search: where he is already your goal, there is no other goal to hunt for; where he is already your refuge, there is no other shelter to win; where he is already your friend, you are not finally alone. He counsels holding this firmly, with not the smallest doubt, that whatever you see, hear, or accept, in gross or subtle form, is the Lord alone, because the nagging thought 'but how can all of this be God?' is precisely what robs the seeker of the truth. Carry the verse, then, not as a list to admire but as a quiet release of every other place you were trying to anchor.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
All the translations and commentary
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