Bahir Antash Cha Bhutanam

Brahman is outside every being and inside every being. It is in the moving creatures — animals, birds, humans — and in the unmoving ones — trees, mountains, stones. It is so subtle that the senses cannot detect it.

And it is both far away and very near. This is not a contradiction. Something that pervades everything is simultaneously the most distant thing and the most intimate. Air is like this — we cannot grab it, yet it flows inside our own lungs with every breath.

This verse directly echoes the Isha Upanishad (verse 5): 'Tad ejati tan naijati, tad dure tad vantike' — it moves and it moves not, it is far and it is near. The resonance is unmistakable.

In the Gita Press edition, this is the sixteenth shloka. The phrase 'sukshmavat avigyeyam' — too subtle to be known by the senses — points to the limit of reason and perception.