Word meanings
- sarvataḥ
- everywhere
- pāṇi
- hands
- pādam
- feet
- tat
- that
- sarvataḥ
- everywhere
- akṣi
- eyes
- śiraḥ
- heads
- mukham
- faces
- sarvataḥ
- everywhere
- śruti-mat
- having ears
- loke
- in the universe
- sarvam
- everything
- āvṛtya
- pervades
- tiṣṭhati
- exists
Translations
With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads, and mouths everywhere, with ears everywhere, He exists in the worlds, enveloping all.
Everywhere are Its hands and feet; everywhere It has eyes that see, heads that think, and mouths that speak; everywhere It listens; It dwells in all the worlds and envelops them all.
That Knowable, which has hands and feet everywhere, which has eyes, heads, and mouths everywhere, which has ears everywhere, exists in creatures by pervading them all.
वे (परमात्मा) सब जगह हाथों और पैरोंवाले, सब जगह नेत्रों, सिरों और मुखोंवाले तथा सब जगह कानोंवाले हैं। वे संसारमें सबको व्याप्त करके स्थित हैं।Commentary
He (the knower of the field or Para Brahman) pervades everything in this world. He fills and surrounds this world with Himself. He abides in the universe enveloping everything. In the previous verse it is said that the Brahman Which is to be known is neither being nor nonbeing. One may think that It is nonentity or void or nothing. In order to remove this misapprehension, the Lord says in this verse that the knowable has hands and feet everywhere, etc. It directs the mind and the senses to do their proper functions.
This is only the manifest aspect of Saguna Brahman (Brahman with attributes). Just as the enginedriver drives the engine, so also the knowable or the knower of the field drieves the bodyengine. It is the Inner Ruler. It is the innermost Self. It is the support, substratum or basis for this world, body, mind, lifeforce and the senses. The existence of Brahman is determined or ascertained or indicated by the existence of the limiting adjuncts, viz., body, mind and senses, because there must be selfconsciousness behind their activities.
How can you call It nonexistence then. Just as the rope is not affected by the alities or the defects of the illusory superimposed snake, so also Para Brahman (the knower of the field) is not affected by the superimposed world, body, senses, mind and the lifeforce. There is only one common consciousness is eternal, selfluminous and allpervading. That common consciousness is Para Brahman. The body, mind, senses and the lifeforce are by nature insentient. But they are moved by Brahman to action.
They act on account of the mere presence of Brahman or the knower of the field. (The limiting adjuncts are illusory.) Hence they put on the semblance of consciousness, just as the iron piece puts on the semblance of a magnet when it is in the presence of a magnet. The whole world is superimposed on Brahman like the snake on the rope. This is called Adhyaropa. It is sublated by the method (Yukti) of Apavada (negation or denial). This verse is taken from the Svetasvataropanishad 3.16.