Sanskrit
बहिरन्तश्च भूतानामचरं चरमेव च । सूक्ष्मत्वात्तदविज्ञेयं दूरस्थं चान्तिके च तत् ॥
bahir antaś ca bhūtānām acaraṃ caram eva ca sūkṣmatvāt tad avijñeyaṃ dūrasthaṃ cāntike ca tat
Translation
Without and within all beings, immovable and also movable; by reason of His subtlety imperceptible; at hand and far away is That.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
More paradox pairs — inside and outside all beings, unmoving and moving at once — before the verse names the actual mechanism behind the paradox: its imperceptibility is due to subtlety (saukshmya). That single word does real work; it reframes the preceding two verses’ contradictions as a limit of ordinary perception rather than a defect in the thing being described, a distinction verse 33’s ether simile will make fully concrete. Sūkṣmatvāt — “because of subtlety” — is the one word that does real work: it reframes the preceding contradictions as a limit of ordinary perception, not a defect in the thing. BG 13.33’s ether simile makes this concrete.
Study deeper
Word by word
- bahir antaś ca bhūtānāmबहिः अन्तश् च भूतानां
- outside and inside beings (bahiḥ + antaḥ + ca + bhūtānām)
- acaraṃ caram eva caअचरं चरं एव च
- unmoving and moving (acaram + caram + eva + ca)
- sūkṣmatvāt tad avijñeyaṃसूक्ष्मत्वात् तद् अविज्ञेयं
- unknowable through its subtlety (sūkṣmatvāt + tat + avijñeyam)
- dūrasthaṃ cāntike ca tatदूरस्थं चान्तिके च तत्
- far away, and near at hand (dūra-stham + ca + antike + ca + tat)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The pairing “far away and at hand” does something the earlier paradoxes don’t quite manage: it forecloses the idea that reaching this reality is a matter of distance — of going somewhere special, cultivating extraordinary circumstances, or waiting for the right conditions. Whatever’s true of its subtlety, it’s claimed to be exactly as near as it is far, which means the usual logic of needing to travel toward a goal doesn’t apply to this one.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Stop treating peace of mind or clarity as something waiting at the far end of the right conditions — the retreat you haven't taken, the phase of life you haven't reached yet. If it's real, it's exactly as available right now as it ever will be at some imagined distance.
Professional
- Stop treating mature observability or reliability practice as something that only becomes possible once you have better tooling or more headcount — the discipline that actually matters is exactly as available with what you have now as it would be with everything you're waiting for.
Family & Social
- Stop deferring real closeness with family to 'someday when things settle down' — if it's genuinely available, it's exactly as near right now, in an ordinary evening, as it would be in some imagined future with more time.
Ask yourself
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