📿 Shloka Collection

Sarvabhuteshu Yenaikam

Gita 18.20 Bhagavad Gita
📖 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 18 — Moksha Sannyasa Yoga
सर्वभूतेषु येनैकं भावमव्ययमीक्षते ।
अविभक्तं विभक्तेषु तज्ज्ञानं विद्धि सात्त्विकम् ॥
Sarvabhuteshu yenaikam bhavam avyayam ikshate
Avibhaktam vibhakteshu taj jnanam viddhi sattvikam
सर्वभूतेषु
in all beings
एकम् भावम्
one reality — one essence
अव्ययम्
imperishable — unchanging
ईक्षते
sees — perceives
अविभक्तम्
undivided
विभक्तेषु
among the divided — among separate beings
सात्त्विकम्
sattvic — born of sattva

What is sattvic knowledge? Krishna defines it with luminous clarity. It is the knowledge that sees one imperishable reality running through all beings. Bodies are different. Names are different. Forms are countless. But beneath all that diversity, something undivided and unchanging connects everything.

Think of a thread running through a garland of different flowers. The jasmine, the marigold, the rose — each distinct in color and fragrance. But the same single thread holds them all. Sattvic knowledge is the ability to see that thread while still appreciating each flower.

This is not abstract philosophy for the scholar's desk. When you feel someone else's pain as if it were your own, when a stranger's joy lifts your heart without reason — that is a glimpse of sattvic knowledge at work. The boundaries between 'self' and 'other' thin out, and what remains is recognition.

This shloka expresses the core insight of Advaita (non-dual) philosophy in simple, accessible language: unity within diversity, one imperishable essence within countless perishable forms.

Chapter 13 of the Gita explored this same theme through the framework of kshetra (field) and kshetrajna (knower of the field). The sattvic knowledge described here is the same vision of oneness.

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