Bhagavad Gita · 13.29 · Yoga through Distinguishing the Field and the Knower of the Field·29 of 35
समं पश्यन्हि सर्वत्र समवस्थितमीश्वरम्।न हिनस्त्यात्मनाऽऽत्मानं ततो याति परां गतिम् ॥
samaṁ paśhyan hi sarvatra samavasthitam
īśhvaram na hinasty ātmanātmānaṁ tato yāti parāṁ gatim
Sanskrit recitation
Matter, spirit, and freedom · 13.19–13.35 · Teaching
Translation
For he who truly sees the same Lord dwelling everywhere does not destroy the Self by the self; rather, he attains the highest goal.
Meaning
This is the vision of a liberated sage. The Supreme Self abides in all forms. There is nothing apart from It.An ignorant man destroyes the Self by identifying himself with the body and the modifications of the mind and by not seeing the one Self in all beings. He has a blurred vision. His mind is very gross. He cannot think of the subtle Self. He is swayed by the force of ignorance. He mistakes the impure body for the pure Self. He has false knowledge. But the sage has knowledge of the Self or true knowledge and so he beholds the one Self in all beings. An ignorant man is the slayer of his Self. He destroys this body and takes another body and so on. But he who beholds the one Self in all beings does not destroy the Self by the self. Therefore he attains the Supreme Goal, i.e., he attains release from the round of birth and death. Knowledge of the Self leads to liberation or salvation. Knowledge of the Absolute annihilates the ignorance in toto. If the ignorance is destroyed and false knowledge is also destroyed, all evils are simultaneously destroyed.Those who have realised that unity of the Self in all these diverse forms are never caught in the meshes of birth and death. They attain the state of Turiya (the fourth state beyond waking, dreaming and deep sleep) where form and sound do not exist.The self is everybodys friend and also his enemy as well
After Swami Sivananda
Matter, spirit, and freedom· 13.19–13.35→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 13.19Thus, the field, as well as knowledge and the knowable, have been briefly stated. My devotee, knowing this, enters into My being.
- 13.20Know that Nature (matter) and the Spirit are both beginningless, and know also that all modifications and qualities are born from Nature.
- 13.21In the production of the effect and the cause, Nature (matter) is said to be the cause; in the experience of pleasure and pain, the soul is said to be the one responsible.
- 13.22The soul seated in Nature experiences the qualities born of Nature; attachment to the qualities is the cause of its birth in good and evil wombs.
- 13.23The Supreme Soul in this body is also called the observer, the permitter, the sustainer, the enjoyer, the great Lord, and the Supreme Self.
- 13.24He who thus knows the Spirit and Matter together with their qualities, in whatever condition he may be, he is not reborn.
- 13.25Some behold the Self within themselves through meditation, others through the Yoga of knowledge, and still others through the Yoga of action.
- 13.26Others, too, who do not know thus, worship, having heard of It from others; they, too, cross beyond death, regarding what they have heard as the supreme refuge.
- 13.27Wherever a being is born, whether unmoving or moving, know thou, O best of the Bharatas (Arjuna), that it is from the union of the field and its knower.
- 13.28He who sees the Supreme Lord existing truly in all beings, the imperishable within the perishable, sees indeed.
13.29For he who truly sees the same Lord dwelling everywhere does not destroy the Self by the self; rather, he attains the highest goal.
- 13.30He sees, who sees that all actions are performed solely by Nature and that the Self is without action.
- 13.31When a person sees all beings as resting in the One and emanating from the One alone, they then become Brahman.
- 13.32Being without beginning, devoid of any qualities, the Supreme Self, imperishable, though dwelling in the body, O Arjuna, neither acts nor is tainted.
- 13.33As the all-pervading ether is not tainted, due to its subtlety, so the Self seated everywhere in the body is not tainted either.
- 13.34Just as the one sun illuminates the entire world, so too does the Lord of the field (Supreme Self) illuminate the entire field, O Arjuna.
- 13.35They who, by the eye of knowledge, perceive the distinction between the field and its knower, as well as the liberation from the Nature of being, go to the Supreme.
Word-by-word→
- hi
- indeed
- na
- do not
- gatim
- destination
- samam
- equally
- yāti
- reach
- parām
- the supreme
- hinasti
- degrade
- tataḥ
- thereby
- paśhyan
- see
- sarvatra
- everywhere
- ātmanā
- by one’s mind
- ātmānam
- the self
- īśhvaram
- God as the Supreme soul
- samavasthitam
- equally present
Related verses
- 5.6But, O mighty-armed Arjuna, renunciation is hard to attain without Yoga; the sage who is…
- 5.10He who does actions, offering them to Brahman and abandoning attachment, is not tainted by…
- 5.16But to those whose ignorance is destroyed by knowledge of the Self, like the sun,…
- 5.17Their intellect absorbed in That, their self being That, established in That, with That as…