Punyo gandhah prithivyam ca tejas casmi vibhavasau, jivanam sarva-bhutesu tapas casmi tapasvishu
I am the pure fragrance of the earth, the brightness in fire. I am the life in all living beings and the austerity in ascetics. Krishna continues enumerating His divine manifestations in the natural world, showing how the Divine pervades all sensory and vital experiences.
- •God is the essential quality in every natural phenomenon
- •Vitality and life-force are expressions of the Divine
- •Spiritual discipline itself is a manifestation of God
Purushah sa parah partha bhaktya labhyas tv ananyaya, yasyantah-sthani bhutani yena sarvam idam tatam
The Supreme Person, O Partha, is attainable only through exclusive devotion. Within that Supreme Person all beings dwell, and by Him all this world is pervaded. The Supreme is attainable not by intellectual effort alone but through single-pointed, exclusive devotion (ananya bhakti). The entire universe exists within and is pervaded by this Supreme.
- •The Supreme is attained only through exclusive, undivided devotion
- •All beings dwell within the Supreme Person
- •God pervades all of creation while remaining transcendent
Maya tatam idam sarvam jagad avyakta-murtina, mat-sthani sarva-bhutani na chaham teshv avasthitah
I pervade this entire universe in My unmanifest form. All beings exist in Me, but I am not limited to them.
- •Divine presence in all things
- •God transcends creation while pervading it
- •The mystery of immanence and transcendence
Na ca mat-sthani bhutani pashya me yogam aishvaram, bhuta-bhrn na ca bhuta-stho mamatma bhuta-bhavanah
And yet beings do not rest in Me — behold My divine mystery! My Self, which sustains all beings and brings them into existence, does not actually dwell in them. Just as the mighty wind, blowing everywhere, always rests in space, so do all beings rest in Me.
- •God sustains creation without being confined by it
- •The divine is both immanent and transcendent simultaneously
- •Understanding divine mystery requires contemplative perception
Sarvendriya-gunabhasam sarvendriya-vivarjitam, asaktam sarva-bhric caiva nirgunam guna-bhoktri cha
The knowable is the source of all sense functions yet is itself without any senses. It is unattached yet sustains all; it is without qualities yet experiences all qualities. This apparent paradox reveals the transcendent nature of the Absolute.
- •Brahman transcends the senses yet illuminates them
- •The Absolute is unattached yet sustains everything
- •Transcendence and immanence coexist in the Supreme