Bhagavad Gita 6.29
Spoken by Krishna ☆ Key verse · Verse 29 of 47
सर्वभूतस्थमात्मानं सर्वभूतानि चात्मनि | ईक्षते योगयुक्तात्मा सर्वत्र समदर्शनः ||२९||
sarvabhūtastham ātmānaṃ sarvabhūtāni cātmani | īkṣate yogayuktātmā sarvatra samadarśanaḥ || 29 ||
Equal vision everywhere: the yogi sees the Self in all beings, and all beings within the Self — the same, everywhere.
Word by word (3)
- sarva-bhūta-stham ātmānaṃ sarva-bhūtāni ca ātmani
- — the Self abiding in all beings, and all beings in the Self · sarva-bhūta-stha = abiding in all beings (sarva = all, bhūta = beings, stha = abiding/stationed in). ātmānaṃ = the Self. sarva-bhūtāni = all beings. ātmani = in the Self. The structure is reciprocal: the Self is in all beings AND all beings are in the Self. This is not a one-way relationship but a mutual pervasion — the same Advaita truth from both directions simultaneously. The ātman pervades all beings (omnipresence) AND all beings are contained within the ātman (the ātman is the only reality; beings are appearances in it).
- īkṣate yoga-yukta-ātmā sarvatra sama-darśanaḥ
- — the yoga-yoked yogi sees — one of equal vision everywhere · īkṣate = sees, beholds (from √īkṣ, to see — used in the Gita for higher seeing, inner vision, not ordinary eye-sight). yoga-yukta-ātmā = the yogi whose self is yoked to yoga (yoga-yukta = yoked, joined; ātmā = self). sarvatra = everywhere. sama-darśana = seeing equally, same-sighted (sama = same/equal, darśana = seeing/vision). The compound sama-darśana is one of the Gita's defining epithets for the realised yogi: same vision in all directions, all beings, all conditions. V29 is the experiential consequence of V27-28's brahma-bhūta state: when one has become Brahman, one sees Brahman everywhere.
- sarva-bhūta-stha / ātmani / sarvatra (structural triad)
- — Self-in-all / all-in-Self / everywhere — the three axes of sama-darśana · V29 is structured around three spatial/relational terms: (1) sarva-bhūta-stha — the ātman is in all beings (ātman pervades creation: immanence); (2) ātmani (sarva-bhūtāni) — all beings are in the ātman (creation exists within Brahman: transcendence); (3) sarvatra — everywhere (the quality of the yogi's perception: sama-darśana). The three together constitute the Advaita vision: the one is in the many (immanence), the many are in the one (transcendence), and this is seen equally everywhere (sama). V29 is thus a complete non-dual metaphysics compressed into half a verse.
He whose self is yoked in yoga, who sees the same everywhere, beholds the Self abiding in all beings and all beings in the Self.
A modern analogy
Before you understand water chemistry, a glass of water and an ocean are fundamentally different things. Once you understand H₂O, you see the same molecular structure in the glass and the ocean — they are different quantities of the same thing. This verse's sama-darśana is like that: the yogi who knows ātman sees the same ātman in the ant, the human, the god — different forms of the one Reality.
What it does NOT mean
This verse does NOT describe a poetic sentiment ('I feel connected to nature'). It describes a direct perceptual shift: the yogi literally SEES (īkṣate) the same ātman in all beings. This is not metaphor or philosophy — it is direct cognition that follows from the realisation of supreme bliss and Brahman-contact.
Take with you
- Sama-darśana (equal vision) is the practical test of the brahma-bhūta realisation — the supreme bliss of becoming Brahman: can you see the same essential dignity/reality in the person who irritates you as in the person you admire? Not as a philosophical position but as direct seeing?
- This verse pairs with the famous teaching in Chapter 5 that the wise see the same ātman in a learned Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and an outcaste — the great sama-darśana verse. The present verse confirms: this is the natural vision of the yogi who has completed the dhyana-yoga practice.
- The perception of 'all beings in the Self' — everything is happening within consciousness, not outside it — is a direct experiential pointer for meditation: 'where are all these experiences appearing?' They appear in the ātman/consciousness that you are. This verse is a meditation on the nature of experience.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
The yoga-yoked yogi, one of equal vision everywhere, sees the Self abiding in all beings and all beings in the Self. [1]
With the heart concentrated by Yoga, with the eye of evenness for all things, he beholds the Self in all beings and all beings in the Self. [4]
With his self harmonised by yoga he seeth the Self abiding in all beings, all beings in the Self; he seeth the same in all things. [5]
He who sees Me everywhere, and sees all things in Me — I am not lost to him, nor is he lost to Me. [6]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
The yogi, constantly engaging thus and freed from taint, attains infinite bliss of Brahman-contact — with ease.
Who sees Me everywhere and all in Me — I am never lost to that one, nor that one to Me.
The paṇḍita sees equally in a learned Brahmin, cow, elephant, dog, and outcaste — sama-darśana.
Your own mind is your best friend when mastered; your worst enemy when not.
The self-conquered yogi finds the Supreme Self equally present through cold, heat, joy, pain, honour and dishonour.
Satisfied by knowledge and realisation, senses mastered, gold and mud equally seen — this is the true steadfast yogi.
Verse 29 of 47 · back to Chapter 6