Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 13, Verse 28

समं पश्यन्हि सर्वत्र समवस्थितमीश्वरम् । न हिनस्त्यात्मनात्मानं ततो याति परां गतिम्

samaṃ paśyanhi sarvatra samavasthitamīśvaram | na hinastyātmanātmānaṃ tato yāti parāṃ gatim

Translation

Because he who sees the Lord, seated the same everywhere, destroys not the self by the self, therefore he reaches the Supreme Goal.

— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri

Word meanings

samam

equal

paśyan

seeing

hi

indeed

sarvatra

everywhere

samavasthitam

equally dwelling

īśvaram

lord

na

not

hinasti

slays

ātmanā

by the self

ātmānam

the Self

tataḥ

then

yāti

goes

parām

the highest

gatim

path

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary

He who realises that the Īśvara described in the last preceding verse is the same — i.e., he who sees that He dwells in all creatures alike — destroys not his own self by himself. Because he does not destroy the self, he reaches the Supreme Goal, he attains mokṣa. An ignorant man ignores the Self who is quite manifest, self-manifested, and directly visible, and he regards the not-Self (physical body, etc.) as himself. Having performed good and evil works, he kills even this self which he had accepted and accepts another new self; he kills this again and accepts another, and so on. An ignorant man is, accordingly, a slayer of the self. He who, on the other hand, sees the Self as described above, kills not self by self in either of the ways shown above.