Chapter 13 · Verse 16·Spoken by Arjuna
बहिरन्तश्च भूतानामचरं चरमेव च।सूक्ष्मत्वात्तदविज्ञेयं दूरस्थं चान्तिके च तत्
bahir antaśh cha bhūtānām acharaṁ charam eva cha sūkṣhmatvāt tad avijñeyaṁ dūra-sthaṁ chāntike cha tat
It is outside all beings and within them. It is unmoving, yet it moves. It is so subtle that it cannot be known. It is far away, yet near.
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
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Convergence
he verse first locates the thing to be known (the jneya, Brahman, the supreme Self) everywhere in relation to beings: it is both outside and inside them. Several commentators read 'outside' and 'inside' through the body taken mistakenly as the Self: looking to the body that ends with the skin, that skin is the boundary and what is beyond it is called 'outside'; looking to the inmost Self with the body as boundary, what is within is called 'inside'. The point of saying both is that nothing is left out: when only outside and inside are named, one might suppose a gap or non-existence in the middle, so the verse adds that it is unmoving and moving too. Brahman is thus the abode and substrate of both apparent sides.
Śaṅkarācārya · Dhanapati Sūri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Swami Ramsukhdas
Saying it is both 'unmoving and moving' means that Brahman is the very being of all things, the still and the going alike. The commentators reason that the effect is of the very form of its cause, so whatever class of beings exists, Brahman is that very class. They press this with illustrations: as the snake, the streak of water, and the rest are only the rope on which they are imagined, so the moving and unmoving world is only that one substrate; as gold is inside and outside a bangle or an earring, and as water is inside and outside the waves of the sea, so Brahman is inside and outside its own products. The moving body that appears is itself the very thing to be known, just as a snake seen is really the rope.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri
Though it is the Self of all and the appearance of everything, it is unknowable because of its subtlety. Subtle here means free of form and the like, formless as space or the ether; because of this it cannot be grasped by the senses and is not fit for the plain, pointing knowledge that says 'this is thus, this is that'. So to the ignorant, who lack the means of self-knowledge, it remains unknown in its own form even though it stands as the appearance of all. To the wise it is ever known, through scriptural means such as 'all this is the Self' and 'all this is Brahman'.
Braided from 6 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Swami Ramsukhdas
Because of this, the same one thing is at once far and near, and the two are not a contradiction; the difference lies in the seer, not in Brahman. It is far off for the ignorant, unreachable even in millions of years, like something separated by countless leagues, because their attention is turned outward on objects and worldly pleasure. It is near, the very nearest, for the wise, because it is their own inmost Self, utterly without any intervening gap. Several commentators anchor this in the Upanishadic mantra 'It moves and It moves not, It is far and It is near, It is within all this and It is outside all this' (Isha 5, also echoed in the Mundaka).
Braided from 7 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda · Vallabhācārya · Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators read the verse as describing one non-dual substrate on which all division is only imagined by ignorance. Outside and inside are the apparent senses caused by taking the skin-bound body as the Self; the moving and unmoving world is the rope on which the snake of plurality is superimposed, so nothing imagined is distinct from it. The very perception of difference between body and Self is by imagination, not by any real division; to say 'it does not exist' in the middle is utter rashness, since the non-dual inmost Self is everywhere. Its unknowability is not distance but subtlety, like space; one of these voices adds the image of a clear crystal that, though near, is not seen distinctly because a colored flower is overlaid on it, just so the ever-present Brahman is not grasped distinctly because of the conditioning cover, until the learned dissolve that cover. The far-and-near is likened to the sun and its reflection in water: the deluded take the reflected sun (the jiva) as far from the real sun, while the learned, tracing the rays back, know the original standing near.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Ānandagiri · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha
Viśiṣṭādvaita
These commentators read the verse as the inner ruler (antaryamin) who is genuinely other than the body, not a substrate dissolving all difference. The self-thing abides undivided everywhere by the single form of being the knower, yet for the ignorant seems divided into 'this is a god, this is a man'. It is outside as the encompasser and inside as the inner ruler; unmoving in its own nature and moving in respect of its pervading presence in moving beings; far for the unprepared and near for the prepared; unknowable by ordinary categories and knowable by the bhakti-yoga the chapter teaches. One of these voices argues that the self can be known as a thing other than the body because it is the supporter of beings (earth and the rest gathered as the body), the devourer of what is made of the elements (food and the like), and the bringer-into-being that transforms them; since in a dead body none of this supporting, devouring, or producing is seen, the field of elements cannot itself be their cause, so the knower is established as other than the field.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Śuddhādvaita
These commentators read the verse as the Lord who holds within his single being every opposite the world presents, marking it as a master-key of the passage on the knowable. The inert (acharam) and the moving jiva-form (charam) are both grounded in him, backed by 'being alone was this in the beginning', 'all this is verily Brahman', and 'that thou art', and by the Isha mantra of the moving-yet-unmoving, far-yet-near one. One of these voices unfolds the far-and-near devotionally: to the outward-facing it is far-standing, to the devotees it stands close by; or, to those on the path of rule (maryada) far, to those on the path of grace (pushti) near; or again, even for the grace-path devotee in the state of separation (viraha), made foremost by its great heat, it is far by way of viraha yet near in the heart by an indirect manner, hiding itself for the sake of their living by it, in the manner of 'hidden by the screen of his own maya'.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
These commentators read the one to be known as the personal Supreme, of the nature of the glorious Narayana or Vishnu, present in beings as gold in its ornaments or as the sea in its waves. He abides undivided among beings yet appears as if divided in each, like one moon reflected without distinction in thousands of water-pots, or one salt-taste in every grain of a heap; one of these voices cites 'being one, it is seen as many', comparing it to the one sun whose form appears many. Reading on into the field-knower's roles, these voices say he is the supporter or protector of beings during their continuance, the devourer or destroyer at dissolution, and the producer or bringer-forth at creation; one names these three offices as Brahmadeva creating, Vishnu maintaining, and Rudra destroying, with the Supreme abiding the same uninterruptedly through all three stages as the body is one through childhood and the rest, or the sky one through morning, noon, and evening.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Dvaita
This reading (here voiced by a commentator who also speaks in the devotional register) stresses that among the living beings, who are genuinely divided and mutually distinct, Brahman alone abides as one, only seemingly divided as if distinct in each. It grounds this in the scriptural 'being one, it is seen as many' and the remembered verse that the supreme Vishnu is one alone everywhere, his one form seen as many through his sovereign majesty, like the sun. It then identifies him as protector in maintenance, destroyer by the power of time in dissolution, and producer in creation by the powers of primordial matter and of the living beings, sealing it with the Taittiriya text 'that from which these beings are born, by which they live, into which they enter, that is Brahman; seek to know it'.
Śrīla Baladeva
Modern
These modern commentators keep the verse close to the seeker's own experience. One argues that 'far' and 'near' are not a contradiction at all and that distance is never in Brahman but only in the seeker's seeing (drishti): he is far for one whose mind is turned outward on objects, on rage, on the world, and near, the very nearest, for one whose mind has turned inward, since he is one's own true nature; indeed he cannot be known by the senses not because he is distant but because he is so close and unpartitioned that no sense organ can stand at the gap that knowing presupposes. Another keeps the gloss spare: though essentially unbroken, it is as if divided among all beings by diversity, and is to be looked upon as that which supports, swallows up, and creates all beings. A third frames the unknowability as a matter of qualification: it is incomprehensible to the unillumined because of its extreme subtlety and unattainable even in millions of years, but realized by the first-class aspirant equipped with the four means of salvation, for to such a one it is his very Self.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Sivananda
A Seeker Asks
If Brahman is my own innermost Self and nearer than anything, why does it remain unknown to me, and what would actually close the gap the verse calls 'far'?
The verse itself answers that the gap is not real distance but a matter of subtlety and of who is looking. Brahman is unknowable not because it is remote but because it is formless and subtle as space, so the senses, which are built to grasp shapes and qualities, cannot catch it; it is not fit for the plain pointing knowledge 'this is that'. It is far for the ignorant and near for the wise, and the same one thing is both at once.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda
So what closes the gap is not motion but a change in the seer. It is the very Self of the knower, utterly without any intervening distance, and it is known through the scriptural recognition 'all this is the Self', 'all this is Brahman'; to the wise it stands ever near, ever at hand, because it is the inmost Self.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī
Put in the seeker's own terms, distance lives in the drishti, the seeing, not in him: he is far for a mind turned outward on objects and near for a mind turned inward, far for the rage-laden and near for the love-laden; the same nearness is reached when the aspirant is inwardly equipped to recognize what is already one's own true nature.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Swami Sivananda
Contemplation
Take the verse's promise seriously: the distance is not in him, it is in your own seeing. He is not far away; he is so close, so present, so without partition that the senses cannot reach him, because knowing usually needs a gap and here there is none. So the work is not to travel toward him but to turn the attention around. When the mind is turned outward, fixed on objects, on grievance and craving, he stands far; when the mind turns inward, he is the very nearest, for he is your own true nature. Do not measure your progress by how much closer he has come, but by where your seeing rests. Let the love-laden, inward-turned gaze do quietly what no straining of the senses can do.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
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