Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 13, Verse 17
ज्योतिषामपि तज्ज्योतिस्तमसः परमुच्यते।ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं ज्ञानगम्यं हृदि सर्वस्य विष्ठितम्।।
jyotiṣām api taj jyotis tamasaḥ param ucyate
jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ jñāna-gamyaṁ hṛdi sarvasya viṣṭhitam
also searched as "jyotisham api taj jyotis tamasah param uchyate"
Translation
The light of all lights is said to be beyond Tamas (darkness); it is known to be knowledge, to be attained through knowledge, and to be present in the hearts of all.
Vāṇi's rendering
It is the light behind all lights, beyond darkness — knowing, known, and the goal of knowing, seated in every heart.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ज्योतिषाम्jyotiṣām | of all the lights — sun, moon, fire, the mind's own brightness |
| अपिapi | even |
| तत्tat | that (sandhi: tat + jyotiḥ becomes taj jyotis) |
| ज्योतिःjyotiḥ | the light |
| तमसःtamasaḥ | than darkness |
| परम्param | beyond, farther than |
| उच्यतेucyate | is said to be, is called |
| ज्ञानम्jñānam | knowing itself |
| ज्ञेयम्jñeyam | what is to be known |
| ज्ञानगम्यम्jñāna-gamyam | reached by knowing; the goal knowing walks toward |
| हृदिhṛdi | in the heart |
| सर्वस्यsarvasya | of everyone, of all |
| विष्ठितम्viṣṭhitam | seated, firmly established |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13 Verse 17 mean?
It names the light that makes other lights possible. Sun, fire, thought — each shines because something shines through it. That light is beyond tamas, untouched by any darkness. And Krishna adds the surprise: it is the knowing, the thing known, and the end of all knowing, and it sits in every heart already.
What does jyotisham api taj jyotis tamasah param uchyate mean?
The light even of lights, said to be beyond darkness. Not a brighter flame in the same room — something on the far side of the whole distinction between lit and unlit. Darkness cannot dim it because darkness never touches it. Whatever you have called illumination in your life borrowed itself from this.
How can something be knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the goal of knowledge at once?
Because at the end the three stop being separate. In ordinary looking there is a looker, a looked-at, and the act between them. Here the light you look with, the thing you look for, and the looking are one. That is why no amount of searching outward will find it. It is what searches.
If it is seated in every heart, why do I not know it?
You do not fail to have it; you fail to notice it. The eye sees the room and never the eye. Krishna says hṛdi sarvasya viṣṭhitam — firmly seated in everyone, not visiting occasionally. Learn to turn attention back along its own beam. What you find there was never absent.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Light does not shine on itself. The sun lights the room; what lights the sun? Krishna does not answer with a bigger sun. He answers with a light beyond darkness altogether, one that darkness cannot reach or dilute. Then: knowing, known, and the goal of knowing — whatever you use to look, whatever you look at, and the looking itself, one thing. And it is not far away. Hṛdi sarvasya — seated in every heart, including the heart of the man Arjuna must fight tomorrow, including yours as you read this. You have been searching outward with the very lamp you were looking for.