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Chapter 13 · Nature, the Enjoyer and Consciousness · 35 verses

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How to study this verse, in six steps

1Remember who is speaking. Kṛṣṇa is speaking. Take the verse as He directs.
2Say the verse and its words. Read the Sanskrit, then each word with its meaning.
3Read the translation as it is. Let the translation say what it says, without adding your own meaning.
4Read the purport. Hear the verse through the disciplic succession.
5Bring your own question. Ask: where does this verse meet my life, my trouble, my doubt?
6Act on it, remembering Kṛṣṇa. Carry one instruction into your work today.

Read the full guide: how to read the Bhagavad-gītā ›

Krishna’s natureChapter 13 · Nature, the Enjoyer and Consciousness

13.14 13.16

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is · Text 13.15

The supreme knower and all-pervading Supersoul

Īśvara · God

सर्वेन्द्रियगुणाभासं सर्वेन्द्रियविवर्जितम् ।

असक्तं सर्वभृच्च‍ैव निर्गुणं गुणभोक्तृ च ॥ १५ ॥

sarvendriya-guṇābhāsaṁ

sarvendriya-vivarjitam

asaktaṁ sarva-bhṛc caiva

nirguṇaṁ guṇa-bhoktṛ ca

Translation

The Supersoul is the original source of all senses, yet He is without senses. He is unattached, although He is the maintainer of all living beings. He transcends the modes of nature, and at the same time He is the master of all the modes of material nature.

Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.io

Understand it

What this verse is saying, and where it sits in the story.

3 study points

The Lord’s Spiritual Senses

1
The Supersoul is the source of all senses, yet is without senses. He maintains everyone without attachment and rules material nature while remaining beyond it.
2
Prabhupāda explains that the Lord has spiritual senses, not material ones. He is a person with an eternal spiritual form, untouched by material nature.
3
Remember that the Lord lives in your heart and knows your actions in the past, present and future.

Key points from the purport

Supersoul is “Transcendental”

Supreme Lord is the source of all senses of the living entities

Does not have material senses like ours

Ref. Svetasvatara Upanisad 3.19: Distinction between Supersoul and conditioned soul

Supreme Lord has no hands which are materially contaminated but has transcendental hands – accepts whatever sacrifice offered to Him

Has no material eyes – but has spiritual eyes because He can see past, present and future (e.g. Bg. 7.26)

Has no material legs but has spiritual legs – can travel throughout the universe

Conclusion – The Lord is not impersonal but definitely has spiritual senses

How can we expect ‘part and parcel’ to have something which the Lord (the original source) does not have

Lord appears by His internal potency and not contaminated by material energy (Ref. Bg. 4.6)

Vedic literatures explains His whole embodiment is ‘spiritual’ – some of the symptoms of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are as follows

Full of all opulences

Proprietor of all wealth and all energies

Most intelligent and full of knowledge

Maintainer of all living entities and witness of all activities

Why we cannot see Him — Because He is transcendental

We are materially contaminated; even the impersonalists are materially affected

Only by transcendental elevation, one can see the Lord’s form Text 13.16 * THEME: Supersoul is “All-Reconciling” FOCUS OF LEARNING: PURPORT 13.16

Supreme Truth is outside and inside of all living beings

Ref. Vedic Literatures explains that “Narayana is residing both outside and inside of every living entity”; present in both the spiritual world and the material world and He is far away, but also near

Because He is subtle, He is beyond the power of the material senses to see or to know

Material mind and senses cannot understand Him

Only possible, if senses are purified by Krishna consciousness

Ref. Bg. 11.54: “bhaktya tv….” and Brahma Samhita: “premanjana…”

That Krishna described the knowable in Text 13.16 as avijneyam, unknowable, indicates that the Supersoul cannot be understood by the material senses. Only by hearing with devotion from transcendental sources can He be understood