Shloka

सर्वतः पाणिपादं तत्सर्वतोऽक्षिशिरोमुखम् |
सर्वतः श्रुतिमल्लोके सर्वमावृत्य तिष्ठति ||१३-१४||

Transliteration

sarvataḥ pāṇipādaṃ tatsarvato.akṣiśiromukham .
sarvataḥ śrutimalloke sarvamāvṛtya tiṣṭhati ||13-14||

Translations

Dr.S.Sankaranarayan

13.14. It has hands and feet of all, has eyes, heads and faces of all, has ears of all in the world; It remains enveloping all.

Shri Purohit Swami

13.14 Everywhere are Its hands and Its feet; everywhere It has eyes that see, heads that think and mouths that speak; everywhere It listens; It dwells in all the worlds; It envelops them all.

Sri Abhinav Gupta

13.14 See Comment under 13.18

Sri Ramanuja

13.14 Everywhere are Its hands and feet i.e., the self in Its pure form is able to perform everywhere the works of hands and feet. Its eyes, heads and mouths are everywhere; It performs everywhere the task of eyes etc. The Sruti declares; ‘Without feet or hands, He moves swiftly and seizes things; He sees without eyes, He hears without ears? (Sve. U., 3.19). It may be said that it means that the Supreme Brahman performs everywhere the task of hands, feet etc., even though He is devoid of hands and feet. If ‘Brahman’ is taken to mean the self, it can be asked how this power of the Supreme Brahman (namely, having hand, feet, eyes, etc., everywhere) can be attributed to the self, then the answer is that it is established in the Srutis that the pure individual self has the capacity of performing the task of hands, feet etc., because It is eal to Him. Sruti also declares: ‘Then, the wise seer, shaking off good and evil, stainless, attains the supreme eality with Him’ (Mun. U., 3.1.3). Sri Krsna will also teach later on: ‘Resorting to this knowledge, It partakes of My nature’ (14.2). It exists encompassing all things, whatever aggregate of things that exist in the world; It encompasses them. The sense is that in Its pure state, It is all-pervasive, as It has no limitation of space etc.

Sri Shankaracharya

13.14 Tat, That-the Knowable; sarvatah-pani-padam, which has hands and feet everywhere-. The existence of the Knower of the field is revealed through th adjuncts in the form of the organs of all creatures. And the Knower of the field is spoken of as such because of the limiting adjuncts of the field. The field, too, is diversely differentiated as hands, feet, etc. All diversity in the Knower of the field, caused by the differences in the adjunct-the field-, is certainly unreal. Hence, by denying it, the nature of the Knowable has been stated, in, ‘That is called neither being nor non-being.’ Although the unreal form is caused by the limiting adjuncts, still, for the comprehension of Its existence it is said, ‘(It) has hands and feet everywhere, etc., by assuming this as a ality of the Knowable. Thus, as is well known, there is saying of the people versed in tradition, ‘The Transcendental is described with the help of superimposition and its refutation’. Everywhere the hands, feet, etc., which are perceived as limbs of all bodies, perform, their duties due to the presence of the power of the Knowable (Brahman). Thus the grounds for the inference of the existence of the Knowable are metaphorically spoken of as belonging to the Knowable. The others have to be explained similarly. That Knowable has hands and feet everwhere. That which has eyes, heads, and mouths everywhere is sarvatoksi-siro-mukham. That which has ears every-where is sarvatah-srutimat: sruti means the organs of hearing; that which has it is sruti-mat. Tisthati, It exists, remains established; loke, in the multititude of creatures; avrtya, by pervading; sarvam, them all. With this purpose is view, that as a result of the superimposition of the organs like hands, feet, etc., which are adjuncts, there may not be the misconception that the Knowable is possessed of them (adjuncts), the (next) verse is begun:

Swami Adidevananda

13.14 Everywhere are Its hands and feet; Its eyes, heads and mouths are everywhere; Its ears are on all sides; and It exists encompassing all things.

Swami Gambirananda

13.14 That (Knowable), which has hands and feet everwhere, which has eyes, heads and mouths everywhere, which has ears everywhere, exists in creatures by pervading them all.

Swami Sivananda

13.14 With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads and mouths everywhere, with ears everywhere, He exists in the worlds enveloping all.

Commentaries

Swami Sivananda

13.14 सर्वतः everywhere? पाणिपादम् with hands and feet? तत् that? सर्वतः everywhere? अक्षिशिरोमुखम् with eyes? heads and mouths? सर्वतः everywhere? श्रुतिमत् with ears? लोके in the world? सर्वम् all? आवृत्य having enveloped? तिष्ठति exists.Commentary He (the knower of the field or Para Brahman) pervades everything in this world. He fills and surrounds this world with Himself. He abides in the universe enveloping everything.In the previous verse it is said that the Brahman Which is to be known is neither being nor nonbeing. One may think that It is nonentity or void or nothing. In order to remove this misapprehension? the Lord says in this verse that the knowable has hands and feet everywhere? etc. It directs the mind and the senses to do their proper functions. This is only the manifest aspect of Saguna Brahman (Brahman with attributes).Just as the enginedriver drives the engine? so also the knowable or the knower of the field drieves the bodyengine. It is the Inner Ruler. It is the innermost Self. It is the support? substratum or basis for this world? body? mind? lifeforce and the senses. The existence of Brahman is determined or ascertained or indicated by the existence of the limiting adjuncts? viz.? body? mind and senses? because there must be selfconsciousness behind their activities. How can you call It nonexistence thenJust as the rope is not affected by the alities or the defects of the illusory superimposed snake? so also Para Brahman (the knower of the field) is not affected by the superimposed world? body? senses? mind and the lifeforce. There is only one common consciousness is eternal? selfluminous and allpervading. That common consciousness is Para Brahman.The body? mind? senses and the lifeforce are by nature insentient. But they are moved by Brahman to action. They act on account of the mere presence of Brahman or the knower of the field. (The limiting adjuncts are illusory.) Hence they put on the semblance of consciousness? just as the iron piece puts on the semblance of a magnet when it is in the presence of a magnet.The whole world is superimposed on Brahman like the snake on the rope. This is called Adhyaropa. It is sublated by the method (Yukti) of Apavada (negation or denial).This verse is taken from the Svetasvataropanishad 3.16.