Krishna keeps naming his vibhutis, his divine glories, the high points in which his presence shows most clearly. Here he names four. He is the danda, the rod or staff of punishment, of those who chastise. He is the niti, the statecraft or policy, of those who wish to conquer. He is the mauna, the silence, among secrets. And he is the jnana, the knowledge, of those who know. Across the commentators the verse is read as a single list of four such peaks: wherever any of these four appears at its best, that is Krishna himself.

The danda, the rod, is not brute force but the corrective power that brings the wayward back to the right path. The commentators explain it as the cause by which even the unrestrained become restrained: those who go on wrong paths are turned around, the wicked are saved from their own wickedness and set straight. So the rod stands for righteous correction, the means of taming what is untamed, and it is Krishna because that power to set crooked conduct right is his.

The niti is the right method of those who seek victory: the policy, the just procedure, the means that actually leads to winning. Several commentators specify it as the means of victory itself, the standard by which good and evil in conduct are judged, and one names it as the upayas (the recognized methods such as conciliation and the rest). It is Krishna because the right way to prevail, the wisdom behind a true conquest, is his.

Mauna, silence, is named as the glory among secrets, among things meant to be kept hidden. At its plainest the commentators explain why: the one who holds his speech cannot be read, the intention of a silent person is not known, so silence is the very thing that keeps a secret a secret. Krishna is that protecting silence.

Finally, Krishna is the jnana, the knowledge, of the jnanis, those who truly know. This is read as the genuine, ripened knowledge that the knowers possess, the very knowing by which they know. It is Krishna because the highest knowledge in any knower is his presence in them.