Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13, Verse 29

Chapter 13 – Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga · Speaker: Krishna

Sanskrit verse

समं पश्यन्हि सर्वत्र समवस्थितमीश्वरम् ।
न हिनस्त्यात्मनात्मानं ततो याति परां गतिम् ॥

Transliteration

samaṃ paśyanhi sarvatra samavasthitamīśvaram .
na hinastyātmanātmānaṃ tato yāti parāṃ gatim ॥

Meaning

For one who sees the Lord equally present everywhere does not injure the Self by the self; therefore he reaches the highest goal.

Word meanings

समम् – equally
पश्यन् – seeing
हि – indeed, because
सर्वत्र – everywhere
समवस्थितम् – evenly established
ईश्वरम् – the Lord
न – not
हिनस्ति – injures, destroys
आत्मना – by the self, by the mind
आत्मानम् – the Self
ततः – therefore
याति – goes, attains
पराम् – the highest
गतिम् – goal, destination

Anvaya (word order)

हि सर्वत्र समवस्थितम् ईश्वरं समं पश्यन् आत्मना आत्मानं न हिनस्ति, ततः परां गतिं याति ।

Explanation

This verse gives both the reason and the result of the vision described in the previous one. The person who sees the one Lord evenly established everywhere does not injure the Self by the self, atmana atmanam na hinasti. The phrase seems puzzling at first, since the Self has just been called imperishable. How could anyone destroy it?

Shankara offers a penetrating answer. The ignorant person forgets his true nature and takes the body to be himself. This forgetting is a kind of self-slaughter, because it hides the deathless Self and binds one to repeated birth and death. In effect, the ignorant kill their own Self again and again by identifying with what dies. One who sees the one Self in all is freed from this error, and so no longer strikes at himself.

A second meaning follows naturally. One who sees the Lord in every being cannot willingly harm another, because to wound another is to wound that same Lord, one's own Self. The Isha Upanishad says that one who sees all beings in the Self and the Self in all beings no longer recoils from anyone. Ethics here flows directly from metaphysics.

Ramanuja reads the verse as describing one who sees all selves as alike in being knowledge, beyond differences of body; such a person is not swept into attraction and aversion based on bodily distinctions, and therefore does not drag the self down into samsara. For every school, the outcome is the same: param gatim, the supreme destination, liberation.

Context

Krishna continues explaining to Arjuna the fruit of the equal vision described in verse 28; the word hi links this verse causally to the previous one. In the next verse he turns to another side of true seeing: that Nature performs all actions and the Self is not the doer.

Life lesson

Reducing ourselves to a body, a role or a name does injustice to who we really are. Seeing the one Lord in all keeps us from degrading ourselves and from hurting others. Compassion and self-knowledge grow from the same vision.

Key terms

Atmana atmanam na hinasti: not injuring the Self by the self, not losing sight of one's true nature
Para gati: the highest goal, liberation
Samavasthita: evenly established everywhere