Chapter 10 · Verse 7·Spoken by Krishna
एतां विभूतिं योगं च मम यो वेत्ति तत्त्वतः। सोऽविकम्पेन योगेन युज्यते नात्र संशयः
etāṁ vibhūtiṁ yogaṁ cha mama yo vetti tattvataḥ so ’vikampena yogena yujyate nātra sanśhayaḥ
One who truly knows this glory and yoga of mine becomes established in unwavering yoga. There is no doubt about it.
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
Audio from the Gītā Supersite, IIT Kanpur
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machine-assisted draft, pending review
Convergence
his verse names the reward of knowing what the chapter is about to display. Krishna has been speaking of his 'vibhūti', a word that means his glory, his lordly extent, his manifold display in the world. He has also spoken of his 'yoga', his power. Now he states plainly: whoever knows these two truly, 'tattvataḥ', that is, as they really are and not just as words, gains something real. The commentators agree the verse is a hinge or transition stanza. It announces a fruit and so prepares the reader for the catalogue of glories that follows in the next verses.
Braided from 12 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
Two things must be known together: the 'vibhūti', the manifold display through which the Lord appears in many forms and beings, and the 'yoga', the power by which he produces and holds that display together. The commentators gloss vibhūti as the manifold being or lordship of the Lord, the forms named from the fifth verse onward, of which figures like Bhṛgu are the mark. They gloss yoga as the Lord's capacity or power to fashion this and that thing, the supreme lordship or sovereignty by which the display is brought about. Knowing both as one composite object, not the display alone and not the power alone, is what the verse asks for. Knowing how the world depends on him, and knowing the power by which it so depends, are a single act of right knowledge.
Braided from 13 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak
The fruit of this true knowing is 'avikampena yogena', an unwavering, unshakable yoga. The word avikampa means not trembling, not swaying, steady. So the one who knows the Lord's glory and power truly is fixed in a yoga that does not waver. The commentators stress the certainty Krishna attaches to this: 'na atra saṁśayaḥ', there is no doubt in this matter, no obstruction whatever. Several note that since this is the Lord's own word, doubt about it is impossible; the phrase functions to deepen the seeker's earnestness and remove any fear that the practice might fail.
Braided from 14 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Sant Jñāneśvar
The verse sets up a clear chain: right knowledge of the Lord's glory grows into firm union with him. Knowing the vibhūti is described as the door, the grower, the producer of the steady yoga that follows. The point is not information for its own sake but transformation: contemplating how everything depends on the Lord ripens into a settled, unshaken bond with him. As one tradition puts it, the candidate need not fear that the contemplation will leave him in his prior wavering; the very act of holding the glories in truth is what makes the yoga steady.
Braided from 6 commentators
Śrī Ānandagiri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrīla Baladeva · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Swami Sivananda
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators read the unwavering yoga as the steadiness of right vision, 'samyag-darśana', the firm realization of the non-dual Brahman. The yoga one is joined with is marked as the unswerving steadiness of true seeing. One source is explicit that the conditioned glory of the Lord, his display with attributes, is the door to the unconditioned, attributeless knowledge: knowing the Lord as he appears in his powers leads on to knowing the one non-dual reality. The fruit is thus the firm, doubt-free realization of the non-dual Brahman, not a relationship maintained between two parties.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Viśiṣṭādvaita
These commentators read the unwavering yoga as 'bhakti', devotion that does not tremble. Vibhūti is the Lord's lordship seen as the origination, the standing, and the activity of all things in dependence on him; yoga is his host of auspicious qualities, the opposite of everything to be shunned. Knowing the Lord's glory and his auspicious qualities is precisely what grows and ripens the discipline of devotion. The fruit is firm devotion to a Lord who remains distinct from the devotee and full of good qualities, and the seeker is told he will see this growth in himself.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators read the joining yoga as itself the very form of bhakti, not a separate technique. One marks the verse as the brief transition stanza naming bhakti-yoga as the fruit of rightly knowing the vibhūti. The other locates the chapter's grace-centered heart here: the vibhūti is the display made of the Lord's own experience and made for the sake of his play, his 'līlā'; to know it truly is to see the Supreme Person behind every excellence and so be brought into an unshakable conjunction with him, a yoga free of separation from him. Where doubt stands, this joining does not come about.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
These commentators read the verse through devotion grounded in firm faith in Krishna's word. One holds that the vibhūti of the earlier verses and the lordly yoga taught in the preceding chapters together form one composite object, and knowing both together yields the unshaken right vision. Others stress that because this is the word of the Lord himself, only one devoted to him without deviation, holding the firmest faith that this alone is supreme reality, comes by his grace to know his true nature; the unwavering yoga is then characterized as devotion to the Lord, or as the very knowledge of his true nature. One of these voices also sounds a non-dual note: from Brahmā down to the tiny ant there is nothing except the divine Self, and the yogin who sees this unity has his mind become one with the Lord's spirit, and the Lord makes his home in the sanctuary such a devotee builds.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Dvaita
On the firm dependence of all things on the Lord, one commentator usually voicing the Dvaita-adjacent reading spells out the hierarchy in detail: the entire created order, headed by Brahmā and Rudra, the great seers like Sanaka, and the Manus, becomes dependent on the Lord for its existence, activity, knowledge, majesty, and power, while the Lord's own 'yoga' is his connection through his jewels of auspicious qualities such as being beginningless and unborn. Knowledge of the Lord in this manner is what produces and increases devotion to him. (Note: the dedicated Dvaita commentator Jayatīrtha did not comment on this verse.)
Śrīla Baladeva
Modern
These commentators keep the verse practical and broad. One reads yoga as standing for what is born of yoga, the infinite yogic powers and omniscience by which the Lord causes the manifestations, and draws out the lived result: the knower beholds the Lord in all beings and all beings in the Lord, is free of superiority and inferiority complexes, hates no creature, and keeps balance of mind in every circumstance. The other reads vibhūti as manifestation and yoga as the device or power by which the Lord causes that manifestation, and states the fruit simply as the permanent, that is, the steady karma-yoga.
Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak
A Seeker Asks
If just understanding that everything depends on God is enough to make my devotion or insight unshakable, why does mere intellectual agreement with that idea so often leave me still wavering?
The verse does not promise its fruit to mere agreement. The key word is 'tattvataḥ', truly, as it really is. The commentators draw a line between holding the idea as words and knowing it as fact. The wavering you feel is the natural state of knowledge that has not yet become real seeing; the steadiness comes only when the knowing is true through and through.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Vedānta Deśika
Notice also that two things must be known together, and known as one: the manifold display itself and the power by which the Lord produces and holds it. Many of us grasp half of this, that the world is glorious, or that there is a God, but do not hold both as a single dependence of everything on him. The composite knowing, not the display alone and not the power alone, is what yields the unshaken vision.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Ānandagiri · Rāmānujācārya
Finally, the steadiness is described as something that grows, not something switched on by one act of assent. Right knowledge of the Lord's glory is called the door, the grower, the ripening of firm union. So the gap you feel between agreeing and being steady is exactly the distance the practice is meant to close: the more truly and habitually you see how all things depend on the Lord, the more the trembling gives way to the unwavering yoga the verse names, until, as Krishna himself insists, no doubt remains.
Śrī Ānandagiri · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda
Contemplation
Take this verse as an invitation to actually look, not just to agree. The teaching is that from the ant to the Creator there is nothing except the Lord, that the Lord and his manifestations are one. Practice seeing it. When you meet any being, however small, let the eye rest on the one presence shining through it; behold the Lord in all beings and all beings in the Lord. As this seeing settles, something steadies in you. You stop ranking creatures as higher and lower, you stop hating any of them, and you find you can hold your balance of mind in whatever circumstance you are placed, acting without losing the sense of your oneness with the Supreme Self. This is described as a rare living cosmic experience, not a doctrine to be filed away. Begin where you are, with whatever is in front of you, and let the recognition grow into the unwavering, doubt-free steadiness the verse promises.
Sit with this · Swami Sivananda
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