Chapter 10 · Verse 17·Spoken by Arjuna
कथं विद्यामहं योगिंस्त्वां सदा परिचिन्तयन्। केषु केषु च भावेषु चिन्त्योऽसि भगवन्मया
kathaṁ vidyām ahaṁ yogins tvāṁ sadā parichintayan keṣhu keṣhu cha bhāveṣhu chintyo ’si bhagavan mayā
How shall I know you, always meditating on you? In what forms should I contemplate you, Krishna?
Word by Word
Saved for this reading session
Three movements · tap a label to switch
Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
Audio from the Gītā Supersite, IIT Kanpur
Synthesis · a glossed leaf
machine-assisted draft, pending review
Convergence
n this verse Arjuna asks a practical question, not a metaphysical one. He has just heard the Lord declare himself the source of all (the prior verses settle who Krishna is), so he does not ask 'who are you.' He asks 'how am I to know you.' The Sanskrit 'katham vidyam aham' means literally 'how shall I come to know, understand, realize you.' Several commentators stress that this is a question about the *manner* and *means* of realization: Arjuna wants the method by which a person can actually arrive at this knowledge, not a further statement of doctrine.
Braided from 7 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Ramsukhdas · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Sivananda
Arjuna addresses Krishna as 'yogin,' and the commentators unpack this address carefully. 'Yoga' here is taken as lordship, sovereign power, the unsurpassed mastery by which the Lord governs and brings about what is not yet brought about; the one who possesses such yoga is the 'yogin.' For the bhakti voices this 'yoga' is specifically the power of yogamaya, the Lord's own divine power of manifestation. By naming Krishna 'yogin,' Arjuna appeals to the very power by which the Lord can both be known and can make an unfit seeker fit to know him.
Braided from 8 commentators
Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Śrī Puruṣottama · Vallabhācārya
The verse pairs constant contemplation with the difficulty of the task. 'Sada parichintayan' means 'ever contemplating, always meditating on you,' and 'parichintayan' carries the sense of pondering you fully, on every side. Yet several commentators have Arjuna confess his own limitation: he calls himself dull of intellect, of gross mind, and notes that the Lord cannot be known even by the gods. So the question carries real humility: even with ceaseless meditation, how can one of limited capacity reach the unconditioned, infinite Lord?
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha
The second line asks where, in what objects, the Lord is to be meditated upon: 'keshu keshu cha bhaveshu chintyo si.' 'Bhavas' is read as states of being, objects, things, or substances, both sentient and insentient. The doubling 'keshu keshu' ('in which and which') signals plurality and variety, the many limiting forms among which the Lord can be tracked. Most commentators agree this second question is precisely what sets up the chapter that follows: Arjuna is asking for the list of glories (vibhutis) so that he has concrete points in the world on which to fix his meditation.
Braided from 12 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Sant Jñāneśvar · Lokmanya Tilak · Śrī Puruṣottama
The deeper purpose behind the request is to make meditation possible and oneness perceivable. Several commentators tie this verse back to the Lord's earlier promise (10.7) that whoever truly knows his glory and power becomes joined to him in unshaking devotion. Arjuna wants a detailed knowledge of the glories so that even ordinary objects in the world become supports for remembering the Lord, and so that he can finally behold the one presence everywhere. He asks not for titles but for usable handholds for a steadied devotional mind.
Braided from 6 commentators
Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda · Sant Jñāneśvar · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators read Arjuna's two questions as aimed at knowing the one unconditioned Lord through his many limiting adjuncts. The plural 'in which and which' is explained by the multiplicity of limiting conditions, the difference between sentient and insentient, which veil the single reality. Arjuna confesses he is dull of intellect and that the Lord cannot be known even by the gods; the prayer is that, by ever meditating on the Lord through his glories, his own intellect (buddhi) be purified so that the unconditioned can be realized. One voice in this school notes that the bodily eye cannot see the Lord at all, so only a few places or supports are fit for fixing the mind toward the higher vision the chapter will lead to.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Here Arjuna speaks as one already settled in the discipline of devotion (bhakti-yoga), ever pondering the Lord with devotion. The Lord he seeks to know is the host of auspicious qualities possessing full lordship. The second question asks among which states of being, not yet spoken of and distinct from the inner faculties already named, the Lord is to be contemplated as their indwelling governor. The question is read as plainly practical: the prior verses have already established who the Lord is, so what remains is the objective field, the list of beings and things in which he can be contemplated, which the long vibhuti list will supply.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators hear two questions folded into one. By the address 'yogin,' Arjuna's request widens to include both the Lord's glories (vibhuti) and the Lord's yoga itself: how am I to know your power too. They note the glories were spoken earlier only in summary, so Arjuna now asks for them in full extension, by loka, by state, by substance. One voice draws out an inner tension: in directly contemplating the blissful form of the Lord, if the mind also fixes on knowing the glories, the direct contemplation could be broken; so Arjuna asks, in keeping with his own qualification, only for what is needful for himself, what serves his own attaining of the Lord as promised in 10.7.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
For these commentators the verse is a devotee's plea for a practical aid to loving remembrance. The 'yoga' Arjuna invokes is the power of yogamaya, the Lord's own divine power of manifestation. Arjuna does not want a roster of titles; he wants the very objects in the world among which the Lord's glory can be tracked by a steadied devotional heart (bhakta-citta). One voice grounds the request in the teaching that it is by devotion that one truly comes to know how great the Lord is and who he is. The aim is to make meditation easy by unfolding in detail the emanations spoken of only briefly, so the path of union becomes walkable.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
These commentators keep the verse close to lived practice. Arjuna asks how, by constant meditation, he may realize the Lord, and in what different objects he should meditate. One voice explains the everyday payoff: even when the mind turns to external objects, a detailed knowledge of the Lord's glories lets one meditate on him in his particular manifestations within those very objects, so that one can finally behold oneness everywhere. Another ties the question directly to the Lord's promise in 10.7 that knowing his glory and power in truth joins one to unshaking devotion, which is why Arjuna now asks how, contemplating the Lord at every moment, he is to know him.
Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
A Seeker Asks
If the goal is to know the one infinite Lord, why does Arjuna ask for a long list of particular objects rather than simply meditating on the One?
Because the question is about method, not doctrine. Arjuna already accepts who the Lord is; what he lacks is a way for a limited mind to actually reach that knowledge. He even confesses he is dull of intellect and that the Lord cannot be known even by the gods, so 'just meditate on the One' is exactly the difficulty, not the solution.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A mind needs concrete supports. Arjuna asks not for titles but for the actual objects in the world among which the Lord's glory can be tracked by a steadied heart; naming particular forms makes meditation easy where contemplating the bare All would leave the mind little to hold.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Sant Jñāneśvar · Śrīla Viśvanātha
The particulars are a path to the One, not a turning away from it. With detailed knowledge of the glories, even ordinary external objects become occasions to meet the Lord in his manifestation within them, until one beholds the single presence everywhere; this also fulfills the Lord's own promise that truly knowing his glory and power binds one to unshaking devotion.
Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrīla Baladeva
Contemplation
Take Arjuna's question as your own training. The mind will not stay on an abstract infinite for long, but it can rest on something it can actually see. So when your attention lands on an external object, do not treat that as a distraction from the Lord; let it become a place to meet him. With even a little knowledge of his glories, you can recognize his particular presence shining in that very thing. Practiced patiently, this is how the many stop competing with the One: you begin to behold the same presence everywhere, and ordinary attention quietly turns into remembrance.
Sit with this · Swami Sivananda
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, tap a name in The seating.