Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13, Verse 14

Chapter 13 – Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga · Speaker: Krishna

Sanskrit verse

सर्वतः पाणिपादं तत्सर्वतोऽक्षिशिरोमुखम् ।
सर्वतः श्रुतिमल्लोके सर्वमावृत्य तिष्ठति ॥

Transliteration

sarvataḥ pāṇipādaṃ tatsarvato.akṣiśiromukham .
sarvataḥ śrutimalloke sarvamāvṛtya tiṣṭhati ॥

Meaning

With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads and mouths everywhere, with ears everywhere, That abides in the world, enveloping all.

Word meanings

सर्वतः – everywhere, on all sides
पाणिपादम् – having hands and feet
तत् – That (Brahman)
अक्षि – eyes
शिरः – heads
मुखम् – mouths, faces
श्रुतिमत् – having ears, endowed with hearing
लोके – in the world
सर्वम् – all
आवृत्य – pervading, enveloping
तिष्ठति – abides, exists

Anvaya (word order)

तत् सर्वतः पाणि-पादम्, सर्वतः अक्षि-शिरः-मुखम्, सर्वतः श्रुतिमत्; लोके सर्वम् आवृत्य तिष्ठति ।

Explanation

In the previous verse Brahman was called neither being nor non-being, and a listener might fear that it was simply a void. To remove that doubt Krishna now describes its all-pervading presence. The verse echoes a famous mantra of the Shvetashvatara Upanishad (3.16).

Shankara explains that the existence of the knower of the field is inferred through the adjuncts of the field — the bodies and senses of living beings. Every hand and foot in creation functions by the presence of that one consciousness, and so, from the standpoint of these adjuncts, it is said to have hands and feet everywhere. This is adhyaropa, provisional attribution: qualities are first ascribed to Brahman, and in the next verse they are withdrawn through apavada, negation. This is the classical teaching method of Vedanta.

Ramanuja applies the description to the nature of the liberated self: freed from bodily limitation, the pure self is capable of acting, seeing and hearing everywhere. Devotional traditions also read it directly as a portrait of the Lord's cosmic form, which Arjuna beheld in chapter 11.

The heart of the verse is that the Supreme is not far away. It is present in the working of every hand, the seeing of every eye and the hearing of every ear. Sarvam avritya tishthati: it stands enveloping and filling everything.

Context

Having introduced the knowable Brahman in 13.13, Krishna here shows its all-pervasiveness so that the phrase ‘neither being nor non-being’ is not mistaken for emptiness. The next verse (13.15) adds that though it appears to have all these senses, it is in truth free from them.

Life lesson

Practise seeing the same consciousness at work in every living being. When we sense the Divine behind every hand and every eye, respect and compassion for others arise naturally.

Key terms

सर्वतःपाणिपाद: having hands and feet everywhere; all-pervading consciousness
अध्यारोप-अपवाद: attribution followed by negation — the teaching method of Vedanta
सर्वमावृत्य: enveloping and pervading all