The all-pervading Lord does not take up, does not receive, the sin of anyone, even of a devotee; nor does He receive the merit offered by His devotees. Why, then, do devotees engage in merit, in worship and the rest, in sacrifice, gift, oblation and the like? He says: knowledge, discerning insight, is veiled by ignorance, and thereby creatures are deluded; the undiscerning, the beings in transmigration, fall into delusion, thinking 'I do', 'I cause to be done', 'I shall enjoy', 'I shall cause to be enjoyed'.

Of someone held to be one's own, a son and the rest, the lord does not take on the sin, the pain, does not take it away; of someone held to be hostile, he does not take on the merit, the happiness, does not take it away. Since this self is all-pervading, not confined to a place, not in a place peculiar to the body of a god and the rest, for that very reason it is no one's kinsman and no one's foe. All this is made by the impress. How does this contrary impress arise for one whose nature is such? Knowledge is veiled by ignorance: by the earlier and earlier action that is contrary to knowledge, this self's knowledge is veiled, contracted, so that it may become fit to experience that action's fruit. By that action which is the veiling of knowledge come the connection with the body of a god and the rest, and the delusion that is the conceit of self toward this and that being; and from that come the impress of such a conceit of self and the impress of the action suited to it. From the impress come the contrary conceit of self and the undertaking of action. The Lord brings to its proper place what was said before: 'you will cross over all wrong by the boat of knowledge alone', 'the fire of knowledge reduces all actions to ashes', 'there is no purifier equal to knowledge'.

This is a brief sub-gloss. For a fuller reading of this verse, see Madhusūdana, Śaṅkara, or Rāmānuja above.

Madhvacharya does not comment on this verse.