Sarva Dharman Parityajya — the charama shloka

Known in Vaishnava tradition as the charama shloka — the final verse, in the sense of the last word on the matter. It comes near the close of the Gita, after seventeen chapters of instruction, and appears to set that instruction aside. How far it actually does so has been the central dispute of Vedanta commentary for a thousand years. Shankara reads sarva-dharmān narrowly, as the ritual acts that produce results. Ramanuja reads the surrender as itself the highest dharma rather than an abandonment of dharma. Madhva reads it differently again. The verse is short; the literature on it is not. The last two words, mā śucaḥ, are addressed to a man sitting in a chariot refusing to fight. They are the reason the verse is recited as consolation as much as instruction.