Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 13, Verse 14
सर्वेन्द्रियगुणाभासं सर्वेन्द्रियविवर्जितम्।असक्तं सर्वभृच्चैव निर्गुणं गुणभोक्तृ च।।
sarvendriya-guṇābhāsaṁ sarvendriya-vivarjitam
asaktaṁ sarva-bhṛc caiva nirguṇaṁ guṇa-bhoktṛ ca
also searched as "sarvendriya gunabhasam sarvendriya vivarjitam"
Translation
Shining by the functions of the senses, yet devoid of the senses, detached yet supporting all, devoid of the Gunas yet experiencing the Gunas;
Vāṇi's rendering
The eternal lights up every sense, yet has none. Detached, it carries all. Beyond nature's strands, it tastes them.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| सर्वेन्द्रियगुणाभासम्sarva-indriya-guṇa-ābhāsam | shining out through the workings of every sense (joined by sandhi as sarvendriya-guṇābhāsaṁ) |
| सर्वेन्द्रियविवर्जितम्sarva-indriya-vivarjitam | and yet wholly without senses of its own |
| असक्तम्asaktam | unattached, holding on to nothing |
| सर्वभृत्sarva-bhṛt | carrier of everything (bhṛt becomes bhṛc before the following ca) |
| चca | and |
| एवeva | indeed, all the same |
| निर्गुणम्nirguṇam | free of nature's three strands |
| गुणभोक्तृguṇa-bhoktṛ | yet the one who tastes those strands |
| चca | and |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13 Verse 14 mean?
Krishna describes the knower of every field by contradiction. It lends light to each sense while owning not one of them. It holds everything up while leaning on nothing. Nature's strands pass through its tasting and leave no mark. Four impossibilities, spoken plainly — because anything describable in ordinary terms would be field, not knower.
What does sarvendriya gunabhasam sarvendriya vivarjitam mean?
It means the eternal shines by the working of all the senses and is at the same time devoid of them. Your eye does not see; seeing happens in the eye because something lends it light. Take that away and the eye is only tissue. Take the eye away and the light is undiminished.
How can something be detached and still support everything?
Attachment is needing a thing to stay as it is. A pillar does not need the roof; it simply holds it. So with the eternal: it carries every body and every world, bound to none. Support without need — that is asaktaṁ sarva-bhṛt, and it is why the carrying never tires.
What does it mean to be beyond the gunas yet taste them?
Clarity, restlessness, heaviness move through you all day. They are not made of you, and you are not made of them. Still they are tasted; there is someone for whom the heaviness feels heavy. That taster stands outside the strands. Feel the mood completely, and notice that you are not the mood.
Themes in this verse
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Four contradictions, said without apology. No eyes, yet all seeing happens through it. Untouched, yet nothing would stand without it. Beyond the strands of nature, yet it is the one who tastes them. Krishna is not being obscure. Every plain description would turn the knower into one more object in the field, and the field is exactly what it is not. So he describes by collision. Notice this the next time you are tired: the tiredness is in the body, the knowing of it is not tired. Something in you carries the day and is not spent by it.