Verse 13.15
Speaker: Krishna
Sanskrit
सर्वेन्द्रियगुणाभासं सर्वेन्द्रियविवर्जितम् | असक्तं सर्वभृच्चैव निर्गुणं गुणभोक्तृ च ||१५||
Transliteration (IAST)
sarvendriya-guṇābhāsaṁ sarvendriya-vivarjitam | asaktaṁ sarva-bhṛc caiva nirguṇaṁ guṇa-bhoktṛ ca ||15||
Word-by-Word Meanings
Translation
Illuminating the functions of all the senses, yet devoid of all senses; unattached yet sustaining all; free from the gunas yet the experiencer of the gunas.
Commentary
This verse presents a series of paradoxes that characterize Brahman's transcendent nature. It illumines sense experience without itself being a sense organ; it supports all existence without attachment; it is beyond the three gunas yet appears to experience them. Shankaracharya resolves these paradoxes through the distinction between the absolute (paramārthika) and empirical (vyāvahārika) levels of reality.