Gita 13.14 The knowable’s all-pervasiveness points to its transcendence of our capacity to know
Transcript
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Bhagavad Gita 13.14 सर्वतः पानिपादम्तत सर्वतो अक्षिषिरोमुखम् सर्वतः शुतिमलोके सर्वमावृत्यतिष्ठति Krishna is speaking here about the गिया in this section from 13.13 to 19. गिया is that which is to be known. The object of knowledge.
सर्वतः पानिपादम्तत Everywhere are the hands and legs of that object of knowledge, that गिया. सर्वतः अक्षिषिरोमुखम् Everywhere are the eyes, the head, the face, the mouth in cursive. सर्वतः शुतिमलोके Everywhere are the ears.
सर्वमावृत्यतिष्ठति That, in this way, that truth pervades everything. सर्वमावृत्य So what exactly is going on in this verse? What is being spoken? Actually, here, Krishna is speaking that, what is the object that he is referring to? This is reminiscent of the description of the universal form that was talked about in the 11th chapter that सर्वम् समाप्नोः शिर्तो सिसर्वः Arjuna speaks that, you pervade everything, thus you are everything. नान्तम्नमद्यम्नपुनस्तवादिं पश्यामिनिष्वेष्वरविष्वरूप There is no beginning, there is no middle, there is no end.
You pervade all of reality, O Lord. पश्यामिनिष्वेष्वरविष्वरूप So when this is being spoken like, when it is being spoken like this, what actually is going on here? So, now certainly, Krishna is not talking about the Vishwaroopa here. Vishwaroopa has already been revealed two chapters earlier.
And Arjuna’s question is about something else, about the aspects of Sankhya. Specifically, Krishna is answering about Gain. Now, of course, there is a dissimilarity.
In this description, in the description of the Vishwaroopa, it was अनेकबाहुदरवक्तनेत्रम् So there are many hands, there are many legs, there are many bellies, there are many mouths, there are many eyes. So there, there was अनेक, here it was सर्वत. अनेक means many, सर्वत means everywhere.
So everywhere is a far stronger describer than many. It means that whereas, you could say that there are many describers here and there. But there are many, but there are many, many people there, but there are people everywhere, we say.
So many people and people everywhere, they don’t convey the same thing. So when Arjuna saw, he saw the Vishwaroopa pervading whichever direction he could see. And in that, he saw hands and legs everywhere.
So he saw many hands and legs. Whereas here, when Krishna is describing, he is talking about सर्वत. So, the absolute truth, the object of knowledge, is being described in a very, very personal way, or in a very specific, or rather in a very form-specific way.
That when you talk about the hands, the legs, the eyes, the ears, the nose, that definitely refers to a person or an entity that has all these things. Now, who or what is that entity? सर्वतापाणिपादं तत् Everywhere are the hands and the legs. सर्वताअक्षिष्युरोभुकम् This, if you consider the three-level manifestation of the absolute truth, as Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagawan, Brahman is the manifestation of the absolute truth, wherein form and personality are not manifested.
As Krishna is the absolute truth. And He is manifested in His highest, fullest manifestation as the all-attractive Supreme Person. And He exists in His abode.
Now, that same absence of Brahman and Bhagawan are not different. That is to say, Paramatma is not different. तत्तम्यत् वदन्तितत्त्विदस् तत्तम्यत् अव्वयम् तत्तम्य ज्ञानम् अव्वयम् अध्वयम्, sorry.
अध्वयम्, non-dual. It’s all one. It’s many features.
Three features of the same one absolute truth. The Paramatma is present everywhere. अन्दान्तरस्त परमानुचयान्तरस्तम् He is present in the in each universe.
He is present in each atom. And He is present everywhere in this way. So now, a Paramatma is of course has a personal form.
Four-handed. Eyes, ears. It’s Vishnu manifesting.
Specifically the Shudraksha Vishnu manifesting as the Paramatma. So the point becomes clear that the Paramatma is all-pervading. The Paramatma is all-pervading.
Paramatma is a being, is an entity who exists everywhere. And then Paramatma also has eyes, ears and the various attributes that are being talked over here. सर्वताशुति मलोके सर्वमावृत्यतिश्ठति In this way, pervading everything that absolute truth exists.
The point of this description of the pervasive existence of the absolute truth is to underscore the foundational reality that that the absolute truth has many manifestations and that no manifestation is to be denied as inherently anti-spiritual, anti-devotional. And thus it is that one should not let one’s devotion blind one’s to one’s human values. The Supersoul is the all-pervasive manifestation of the absolute truth.
And here Bhagavad Gita talks about the all-pervasiveness of the absolute truth while also listing the personal features. And thus what actually helps us to see the light of love coming from Krishna and Prabhupada that is that is going on in this material world. So after ascribing various forms of this absolute truth various names and then here if we look at the look at the concept of what is described over here from the perspective of the Gaudiya Vaishnava Hermeneutic of a three-level absolute truth then we understand that this we can clearly easily understand that this refers to this refers to Brahman this refers to, sorry, Karmatma, not Brahman.
Now the word Brahma doesn’t necessarily refer to the impersonal absolute. Brahma simply refers to the spiritual reality, that which is great. And one aspect of that greatness is talked about here that absolute truth is all-pervading.
It is this all-pervading truth that we are to know. This is the Genya. Now if we look at the flow of the verses we will say that stress of the Gita is not on not just on the all-pervasiveness of the absolute truth especially if we read the next verse we will see that stress is on the transcendence of the absolute truth and the all-pervasiveness is talked about as a means to help us to move towards transcendence as we will see in the next verse.
Thank you.