Sanskrit
भोक्तारं यज्ञतपसां सर्वलोकमहेश्वरम् । सुहृदं सर्वभूतानां ज्ञात्वा मां शान्तिमृच्छति ॥
bhoktāraṃ yajñatapasāṃ sarvalokamaheśvaram suhṛdaṃ sarvabhūtānāṃ jñātvā māṃ śāntim ṛcchati
Translation
Having known Me, as the Enjoyer of sacrifice and of austerity, the mighty Ruler of all the worlds, and the Lover of all beings, he goeth to Peace.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
After more than twenty verses of largely impersonal language — Brahman, the Self, the Eternal, the Supreme — the chapter’s final verse pivots hard back to the first person, with Krishna naming himself directly as the recipient of sacrifice and austerity, the great Lord of all worlds, and suhṛt, friend, of all beings. Besant’s translation reaches for “the Lover of all beings” for suhṛd, a warmer word than the literal “friend” or “well-wisher,” and either way the term matters: it names a relational, non-transactional bond, and the same epithet resurfaces among Krishna’s self-descriptions later in the text, at 9.18’s śaraṇaṃ suhṛt, refuge and friend. Coming right after two verses of concrete meditation instruction, this final verse quietly reframes the entire preceding technique — sense-withdrawal, steadied breath, a stilled mind — as ultimately in service of recognizing a relationship rather than merely achieving a state, and with that the chapter closes on the word peace that has been its refrain since verse 12.