Chapter 13 - Verse 15

Without : What lies outside the body which is inclusive of the skin and which is regarded through ignorance as one’s own self. And’within’refers to the Inner Self, Pratyagātman, lying inside the body.—The statement that It is’without and within’may imply Its absence in the middle.* To prevent this implication, the Lord says that It is’the unmoving as also the moving.’ It is Brahman, the Knowable, that appears as the bodies, moving and unmoving, just as a rope appears as a snake.

i.e., in the body which intervenes between the Pratyagatman and external objects.

Brahman is comprehended only by the wise.

(Objection) :—If all things we perceive, the moving and the unmoving, were the Knowable, then how is it that Brahman is not directly comprehended by everybody, as ‘This It is’?

(Answer) :—True, It manifests Itself as everything; but It is subtle † like the akasa. Wherefore, on account of Its subtlety, It is incomprehensible to the unenlightened, though knowable in Itself. It is, however, always known to the enlightened, as revealed in the following texts :

Beyond the reach of the senses.

‘All this is the Self and the Self alone’ (Bri. Up. 2-4-6.).

‘All this is Brahman and Brahman alone.’ (Ibid. 2-5-1.)

It is far away when unknown; for It is unattainable by the unenlightened even in millions of years. And to the enlightened It is very near, because It is their own Self.