Chapter 11 · Verse 55·Spoken by Krishna
मत्कर्मकृन्मत्परमो मद्भक्तः सङ्गवर्जितः। निर्वैरः सर्वभूतेषु यः स मामेति पाण्डव
mat-karma-kṛin mat-paramo mad-bhaktaḥ saṅga-varjitaḥ nirvairaḥ sarva-bhūteṣhu yaḥ sa mām eti pāṇḍava
The one who works for me, who holds me as the highest, who is devoted to me, free of attachment and free of enmity toward all beings: that one comes to me, Arjuna.
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
his verse is the deliberate summing-up of the whole Gita's practical teaching, gathered into one compact rule of life. Krishna does not add a new doctrine here. He collects everything taught so far and hands it to the seeker as something to actually do. Several commentators say this verse holds the essence or heart of every scripture, the supreme secret, condensed for the person who wants the highest good. One notes that even the great Advaita commentator Shankara called this verse the summary of the entire philosophy of the Gita.
Braided from 9 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
Krishna lists five marks of the devotee who reaches Him, and the commentators read them as a single integrated stance, not five separate disciplines. First, 'mat-karma-krit', the doer of My work: one performs his actions, including the duties enjoined by scripture, for the Lord's sake and dedicated to Him. Second, 'mat-paramah', having Me as supreme: he takes the Lord alone as the highest goal to be attained, not heaven or any lesser reward. Several commentators sharpen the contrast: a servant does his master's work but does not make the master his final goal, whereas this devotee both works for the Lord and aims at the Lord alone. Third, 'mad-bhaktah', My devotee: he worships the Lord with his whole self and full zeal, having taken refuge in Him alone. Fourth, 'sanga-varjitah', free of attachment: he has dropped the clinging to wealth, sons, wife, friends and kin. Fifth, 'nirvairah sarva-bhuteshu', free of enmity toward all beings: he bears no hostility even toward those who harm him.
Braided from 15 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
The freedom from enmity is grounded in vision, not mere forbearance. The devotee does not simply tolerate his enemies; he genuinely has no ground for enmity. Two reasons recur. One is that he sees all beings as held within or pervaded by the Lord, so to hate any being makes no sense once the whole world is seen as the Lord's. Some say enmity would be impossible to drop while one still views beings through a mind of difference; only seeing the universe as the Lord's own self removes its root. The other reason is that he traces his own suffering back to his own past wrongdoing, so there is simply no one outside himself to blame or to hate.
Braided from 8 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīla Baladeva · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda
The reward of living these five marks is the highest attainment: 'sa mam eti', he comes to Me. The Lord alone is his goal and no other goal remains. The commentators stress that this attainment is direct and real: he reaches the Lord as He truly is, the whole trace of ignorance and fault cast out, becoming one whose single experience is of the Lord.
Braided from 13 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Sivananda
The verse caps the entire Cosmic Form chapter and reorients it. The vision of the universal form was not given for spectacle but to turn the seeker's whole life toward the Lord whose form was seen. Krishna began the chapter answering Arjuna's prayer to behold His greatness, and He ends not in the cosmic display but as the familiar two-armed Krishna giving a plain rule for actually coming to Him. The address 'Pandava' is read warmly: Krishna speaks as a near kinsman and friend handing His dear one the practical formula, and some add it hints at Arjuna's pure lineage and his fitness to receive and live this teaching.
Braided from 8 commentators
Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators read 'he comes to Me' as attainment in non-difference: the devotee realizes the Lord directly as not other than himself. The freedom from enmity is read as seeing the universe as the Lord's own self, the all-Self, so that the apparent other beings are not finally separate. One frames the five marks as gathering both karma-yoga and meditation aimed at purifying the seeker (the 'tvam' or 'you' aspect) and the worship-section, so that the verse fixes the meaning of the great identity pointed to by 'that' (the partless mass of bliss). The goal is realization of non-difference from the supreme, partless Self.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Viśiṣṭādvaita
These commentators read the marks as the candidate's loving worship of the Lord who remains distinct from him. 'Doing My work' means performing all action, including Vedic study, as worship of the Lord. The devotee's love is so great that he cannot hold himself up without praising, meditating on, and saluting the Lord. He is free of enmity because his joys and pains arise only from union with and separation from the Lord, because he blames his own wrongdoing for his suffering, and because he sees all beings as dependent on the supreme Person. 'He comes to Me' means he attains the Lord as He truly is, ignorance cast out, with the Lord as his single experience, the devotee remaining the Lord's own.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Dvaita
Read here in the devotional register, 'doing My work' is given concrete, loving content: building the Lord's temple, cleaning it, tending His flower-garden and tulasi-grove, and serving these. Being My devotee means being absorbed in the nine kinds of the flavor of devotion, hearing of the Lord and the rest. He is free of attachment in that he cannot bear the company of those averse to the Lord, yet free of enmity even toward such hostile people, since he reflects that his own affliction comes from his own former deeds. 'He comes to Me' means he attains the human-formed Krishna Himself and no other. (Baladeva is a Gaudiya devotional voice closely allied with this school's stress on the Lord's distinctness.)
Śrīla Baladeva
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators read the verse as the rule of life of the 'pushti' (grace-nourished) devotee, and the five marks as five faces of the one undivided ('ananya') devotion named just before in the chapter. Action is done by one's innate servant-nature, not from desire, in the form of service ('seva'). A distinctive point: whether to act at all is itself dependent on the Lord's will. One who decides 'the Lord wills my doing of action' acts; one who decides otherwise refrains, as with certain renunciate sages. Because this deciding rests on the Lord and not on fixed rule, even among devotees there is no uniform rule, yet in general the appointed action is to be done. 'Sanga-varjita' is read as freedom from worldly ties and also from non-devotee company. The fruit is gaining the Purushottama, the supreme Person, Himself.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Modern
This commentator reads the verse as decisive proof that the Gita's path of devotion is active, not idle. 'Doer of My work' is deliberately added so that 'free of enmity' (nirvaira) cannot be misread as 'actionless' (nishkriya) in the way renunciation-minded readers might take it. The devotee should perform all worldly actions with a prideless mind, holding that the entire activity of the world belongs to the supreme Lord who is the true doer and who gets these actions done through us as nominal causes. Done this way, action obstructs neither tranquility nor liberation. Devotion does not mean sitting still merely repeating the divine name; it means doing all acts desirelessly and enthusiastically alongside ardent devotion.
Lokmanya Tilak
A Seeker Asks
Are these five marks five impossible demands to meet all at once, or one achievable life?
The commentators treat the five marks as one integrated stance, not five separate disciplines you must perfect independently. They are five faces of a single undivided devotion: the action belongs to the Lord, the supreme aim is the Lord, the love is for the Lord, the worldly clinging is set aside, and the enmity toward beings is dropped. When the heart is genuinely turned toward the Lord, the other marks follow from that one turning rather than each being conquered on its own.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Ramsukhdas
The hardest-looking mark, freedom from all enmity, is not strained tolerance but the natural result of how the devotee sees. Seeing all beings as held within or pervaded by the Lord, he has no ground left for hatred; and tracing his own suffering to his own past deeds, he finds no one outside himself to blame. So this is not willpower against your feelings; it is a vision that removes the root of the feeling.
Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda
This is meant as a livable rule, not a far-off ideal, which is why it is given as the practical summary of the whole teaching. It does not ask you to abandon activity or sit idle repeating the divine name; it asks you to do all your ordinary acts desirelessly and wholeheartedly, dedicating them to the Lord and holding that the real doer is He. Lived this way, the five marks are simply one devoted life, and the promise attached to it is direct: such a one comes to the Lord.
Lokmanya Tilak · Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Swami Ramsukhdas
Contemplation
Carry this verse as a portrait of a whole life, not a checklist to grade yourself against. The five marks describe one integrated way of living: do your duties as offerings to the Lord, consecrating each action to Him; serve Him with heart and soul; hold Him as your supreme goal and live and work for Him alone; loosen your grip on wealth, family and friends as ultimate ends; and see the Lord in everything, so that even when others injure you, you cherish no hatred or enmity toward any creature. One who lives this way, seeking nothing but the Lord, realizes Him and enters into His being, becoming one with Him. Read this not as five separate burdens but as a single reorientation of the heart, the quiet human shape that the whole vision of the Cosmic Form was meant to leave in you.
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.