📿 Shloka Collection

Sarvasya Chaham Hridi Sannivishtah

Gita 15.15 Bhagavad Gita
📖 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 15 — Purushottama Yoga
सर्वस्य चाहं हृदि सन्निविष्टो मत्तः स्मृतिर्ज्ञानमपोहनं च ।
वेदैश्च सर्वैरहमेव वेद्यो वेदान्तकृद्वेदविदेव चाहम् ॥
Sarvasya chaham hridi sannivishto mattah smritir jnanam apohanam cha,
Vedaish cha sarvair aham eva vedyo vedantakrid vedavid eva chaham.
सर्वस्य च अहम्
and I, of all beings
हृदि सन्निविष्टः
am seated in the heart
मत्तः
from me
स्मृतिः
memory
ज्ञानम्
knowledge
अपोहनम् च
and also forgetting
वेदैः च सर्वैः
through all the Vedas
अहम् एव वेद्यः
I alone am to be known
वेदान्तकृत्
the author of Vedanta
वेदवित् एव च अहम्
and I am indeed the knower of the Vedas

If 15.14 was about the fire in the belly, this shloka goes to the very center of being. Krishna declares: I am seated in the heart of every creature. From me comes memory. From me comes knowledge. And from me comes forgetting as well.

Even forgetting is his gift. An elder once said: what needs to go, let it go. The ability to release an old memory that blocks the way forward — that too is a grace. Memory, knowledge, and the capacity to let go: all three flow from the divine presence within the heart.

And what do all the Vedas ultimately seek? Him. Who composed the Vedanta? He did. Who truly knows the Vedas? He alone. This shloka draws a full circle: the one seated in the heart is the same one the Vedas search for, the same one who authored them, and the only one who fully understands them.

This shloka is widely considered the heart of Chapter 15. The vibhuti sequence (15.12-14) moved from outer light to inner fire. Now, in 15.15, Krishna arrives at the innermost point: the heart. The Vedanta tradition regards 'sarvasya chaham hridi sannivishtah' as the supreme statement of divine immanence (antaryamita). The same idea appears in elaborate form in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (3.7), the Antaryami Brahmana.

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