Chapter 13, Verse 17
अविभक्तं च भूतेषु विभक्तमिव च स्थितम् | भूतभर्तृ च तज्ज्ञेयं ग्रसिष्णु प्रभविष्णु च ||१३-१७||
avibhaktaṃ ca bhūteṣu vibhaktamiva ca sthitam . bhūtabhartṛ ca tajjñeyaṃ grasiṣṇu prabhaviṣṇu ca ||13-17||
Meaning
13.17 And undivided, yet It exists as if divided in beings; It is to be known as the supporter of being; It devours and It generates.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Krishna offers one of the Gita's most important insights: the Absolute is undivided (avibhakta), yet appears as if divided among countless beings (vibhaktam iva). The 'iva' — 'as if' — is decisive. The one consciousness seems to be split into separate selves the way the single sun appears multiplied in many pools of water, but the division is only apparent. In reality there is one Self wearing innumerable masks.
This same reality is the sustainer of all beings (bhuta-bhartri), and it is both grasishnu and prabhavishnu — that which dissolves and that which brings forth. Creation, preservation, and dissolution are all movements within the one being. To know this is liberating on two fronts: it reveals our essential unity with all life, undoing the loneliness of separateness, and it reassures us that the same power which gives rise to forms also gracefully receives them back. Birth and death are not catastrophes but the rhythmic breathing of the one indivisible reality.
💡 Key Takeaway
The one undivided Self only appears as countless separate beings — beneath the many, all is one.
Related Verses
क्षेत्रज्ञं चापि मां विद्धि सर्वक्षेत्रेषु भारत | क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोर्ज्ञानं यत्तज्ज्ञानं मतं मम ||१३-३||
kṣetrajñaṃ cāpi māṃ viddhi sarvakṣetreṣu bhārata . kṣetrakṣetrajñayorjñānaṃ yattajjñānaṃ mataṃ mama ||13-3||
13.3 Do thou also know Me as the knower of the field in all fields, O Arjuna. Knowledge of both the field and the knower of the field is considered by Me to be ï1the ï1 knowledge.
ज्ञेयं यत्तत्प्रवक्ष्यामि यज्ज्ञात्वामृतमश्नुते | अनादिमत्परं ब्रह्म न सत्तन्नासदुच्यते ||१३-१३||
jñeyaṃ yattatpravakṣyāmi yajjñātvāmṛtamaśnute . anādi matparaṃ brahma na sattannāsaducyate ||13-13||
13.13 I will declare that which has to be known, knowing which one attains to immortality, the beginningless supreme Brahman, called neither being nor non-being.
सर्वतः पाणिपादं तत्सर्वतोऽक्षिशिरोमुखम् | सर्वतः श्रुतिमल्लोके सर्वमावृत्य तिष्ठति ||१३-१४||
sarvataḥ pāṇipādaṃ tatsarvato.akṣiśiromukham . sarvataḥ śrutimalloke sarvamāvṛtya tiṣṭhati ||13-14||
13.14 With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads and mouths everywhere, with ears everywhere, He exists in the worlds enveloping all.