Verse 15.10-11

Verse 15.10: “As he departs (from the body), or sojourns (within it), or has the sense-experiences in association with the Gunas, the deluded ones do not perceive him: (but) those with the eye of wisdom perceive.

Verse 15.11: “The Sages, striving (through concentrated meditation), likewise behold Him as dwelling within; but those, the thoughtless ones, that have not redeemed their self, are not able, although striving to behold Him. (373)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

But with the bundle (frame) of the body standing erect, with the sentiency visible in its movements, the world says that the soul has come (to birth): Similarly the senses, in association with the body, function in their respective objects, and this is called the enjoyment, Oh husband of Subhadra. Then the body getting infirm and feeble through exhaustion consequent on the enjoyment (of sense-objects), becomes still and then they loudly lament that the soul (active principle) has gone.

Would it be right to believe that the wind is blowing only if the tree is seen shaking and fluttering, and to say that there is no wind because the tree is not shaking, Oh son of Pandu? With a mirror placed in front, one sees his (external) appearance (reflected) in it. Is it right to suppose that the appearance came into existence only then, and did not exist before? Similarly, with the removal of the mirror, one’s reflection naturally disappears: is it to be deduced (from this) that the (original) thing has ceased to exist? The sound is the property of the sky; but it is imposed on the clouds giving it the name ‘thunder’: the clouds pass with great speed over the Moon, but it is commonly believed that it is the Moon that runs (and not the clouds). In these ways the coming (into being) and departing (perishing) of the body is, through illusion, imposed by the ignorant (the blind) on the powerful, attributeless soul (without any just cause). There is a separate class of (right) thinking persons, who discern that the soul ever abides in its own (right) place, while the bodily functions abide in the body itself. (Such) persons, whose vision is not shrouded in the body-case owing to the attainment of knowledge by them, and whose awakened mind—inspiration (sphūrti)—is firmly fixed in Supreme Self, their discerning power having spread out like the scorching rays of the summer sun, such men of knowledge alone view the Soul in this light.

The sky packed with stars gets reflected in the sea; yet the fact that it has not broken and collapsed into the sea is evident. The sky remains in the sky itself, its semblance in the sea being unreal. In that way the encasement of the soul in the body is also a semblance. The roar and bellow of water remains restricted to the water itself and does not affect the Moon, who remains all still where she is, even though her reflection appears oscillating in the water; or a puddle may get full of water or may get dried up, and the Sun’s reflection (appearing in it) may accordingly appear or disappear; yet the Sun remains unaffected where he is. In that way, the knowing ones view me as I am even though the body comes into existence or ceases to exist. An earthen pot and a cottage may be fashioned and then smashed; the sky (which appears or ceases to appear in the pot and the cottage), remains self-same as and where it is: in that way, the existence of the soul is unending and everlasting: while the body’s (existence) conceived through nescience gets into being and ends, and this the men of knowledge do perceive.

The men of knowledge perceive with the help of pure knowledge that sentiency neither floods nor ebbs—also neither does it any action nor cause any to be done. One may secure knowledge, possess keen intellect to be able to account even for an atom, or may be throughly versed in all sciences,—yet, were he, with all this, wanting in asceticism (lit. if asceticism does not penetrate and permeate the mind) he would not be able to attain Me—the Omnipresent. One may talk volumes of reason, yet if the sense-objects have taken complete hold of his heart, he will, I affirm emphatically, Oh Dhanurdhara, never attain me, (I repeat it thrice). Would the composition of one’s talk in a dream, ever help to disentangle, the tangle of the worldly existence; or could it amount to reading a book were one merely to touch it? Could any man, applying a bandage to his eyes, appraise the worth of (a set of) pearls merely by putting them to his nose? In that way, one cannot attain me, even after a crore of rebirths, simply by repeating with his tongue the different Scriptures, but with the heart full of egotism. Now I make clear to you (how) I pervade the aggregate of beings all single as I am.