Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 13, Verse 13

सर्वतः पाणिपादं तत्सर्वतोऽक्षिशिरोमुखम् । सर्वतः श्रुतिमल्लोके सर्वमावृत्य तिष्ठति

sarvataḥ pāṇipādaṃ tatsarvato'kṣiśiromukham | sarvataḥ śrutimalloke sarvamāvṛtya tiṣṭhati

Translation

With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes and heads and mouths everywhere, with hearing everywhere, That exists enveloping all.

— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri

Word meanings

sarvataḥ

everywhere

pāṇipādam

hands, and, feet, and, whose, that

tat

that

sarvato'kṣiśiromukham

everywhere, eyes, and, heads, and, mouths, and, whose, that

sarvataḥ

everywhere

śrutimat

possessing ears

loke

in the world

sarvam

all

āvṛtya

having enveloped

tiṣṭhati

sits

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary

The Knowable has hands and feet everywhere. The existence of Kṣetrajña is indicated by the upādhis of the sense-organs of all living beings. All the variety caused in Kṣetrajña by the variety in the upādhis of Kṣetra is but illusory. Though what is caused in Kṣetrajña by upādhis is illusory, still it is spoken of — in the words that 'It has hands and feet everywhere' — as though it were an attribute of the Knowable, only with a view to indicate Its existence. Hands, feet and the like, constituting the limbs of all bodies in all places, derive their activity from the Energy inherent in the Knowable, and as such they are mere marks of Its existence.