Chapter 6, Verses 29-32

The block

Four verses extending samadarshana (5.18) into its fullest form: the yogi with the self united-in-yoga sees the Self in all beings and all beings in the Self (6.29); sees Krishna in all and all in Krishna (6.30); worships Krishna established-in-all-beings (6.31); sees equality-of-all-beings’ pleasure and pain as one’s own (6.32).

Translation

• 29. sarva-bhūta-stham ātmānaṁ sarva-bhūtāni cātmani; īkṣate yoga-yuktātmā sarvatra sama-darśanaḥ. One whose self is united in yoga sees the Self in all beings and all beings in the Self — seeing with equal vision everywhere.
• 30. One who sees Me in all, and all in Me — for such a one I am not lost, and that one is not lost to Me.
• 31. The yogi who, established in oneness, worships Me abiding in all beings — that yogi abides in Me, however engaged.
• 32. ātmaupamyena sarvatra samaṁ paśyati yo ‘rjuna; sukhaṁ vā yadi vā duḥkhaṁ sa yogī paramo mataḥ. The yogi who, by likening others to oneself, sees everywhere alike — whether pleasure or sorrow — that yogi is considered supreme, O Arjuna.

Concepts discussed

• samadarshana — Ch 6’s extension of Ch 5.18; see concept page for core treatment
• atman / brahman — the referent of “Self in all beings”
• bhakti-yoga — 6.30–6.31’s Krishna-in-all formulation as bhakti’s metaphysical ground (red link)
• shiva-jnana-jiva-seva — the Ramakrishna Order’s doctrine grounded partly in 6.32’s ātmaupamyena
• jivanmukta — the one described

Swami’s commentary

6.29 — the abstract form of samadarshana. Sarva-bhūta-stham ātmānaṁ sarva-bhūtāni cātmani. The Self (atman) is seen in all beings and all beings are seen in the Self. Two directions:

• The Self is present in every being (immanent in all).
• All beings are present in the Self (all of them subsist in the one consciousness).

Both claims are the single non-dual recognition stated from two sides. This is the Ch 5 samadarshana made explicit in atman-terms; 5.18 stated the fact (“the wise see with equal vision brahmin, cow, elephant, dog, outcaste”), 6.29 states the metaphysics (the Self is present in all; all is present in the Self).

6.30 — the Krishna-in-all formulation. Yo māṁ paśyati sarvatra sarvaṁ ca mayi paśyati; tasyāhaṁ na praṇaśyāmi sa ca me na praṇaśyati. “One who sees Me in all, and all in Me — I am not lost to them, and they are not lost to Me.”

The same structure as 6.29 but personalized: substitute mām (Me, Krishna, Ishvara) for ātman. This is Ch 6’s bhakti-meditation formulation. For the devotee, seeing the Self in all is the same recognition as seeing the Beloved in all; the Beloved’s reality fills every being. The promise is reciprocal: the one who maintains this seeing is never separated from Krishna, nor Krishna from them. Inseparability made explicit.

6.31 — the practice-formulation. Sarva-bhūta-sthitaṁ yo māṁ bhajaty ekatvam āsthitaḥ; sarvathā vartamāno ‘pi sa yogī mayi vartate. “The yogi who, established in oneness (ekatvam āsthitaḥ), worships Me abiding in all beings — that yogi, however engaged, abides in Me.”

Sarvathā vartamāno ‘pi — “however engaged” — is the liberating phrase. No matter what the yogi is doing — meditating, working, eating, sleeping — they abide in Krishna because their seeing has become continuous. Worship (bhajati) here is not ritual but the sustained recognitive attention.

6.32 — the ātmaupamyena verse. Ātmaupamyena sarvatra samaṁ paśyati yo ‘rjuna; sukhaṁ vā yadi vā duḥkhaṁ sa yogī paramo mataḥ. “The one who, by taking himself as the analogy, sees everywhere alike — whether in pleasure or pain — is considered the supreme yogi.”

Ātmaupamyena — “by oneself-as-analogy.” I do not want to be in pain; therefore I do not wish others to be in pain. I want my own happiness; therefore I wish others happiness. The simple psychological root of ethical action: extending to others what one instinctively wishes for oneself.

But 6.32 goes further: samaṁ paśyati — sees equally. Not “treats equally” as a moral rule imposed on top of differential feeling; sees equally, because the ontology (6.29, 6.30) makes it clear that they are the same Self. Seeing the other’s pain as one’s own is not sentiment but accurate perception. The ethical follows from the ontological.

This verse, Swami notes, is the Gita’s grounding of ahimsa (non-injury) and compassion: not as commandment but as recognition. One does not injure the other because the other is oneself; the recognition makes the injury literally self-injurious.

Relationship to shiva-jnana-jiva-seva. The Ramakrishna Order’s doctrine of spiritualized service finds its Gita-text grounding in 6.29–6.32. Vivekananda’s “serve man as God” becomes philosophically legible when read alongside 6.30 (“one who sees Me in all”) and 6.32 (“sees equally by oneself-as-analogy”). Service to the other is worship of the Self-Beloved, because they are not-two.

Episode 86 [entire]: 6.29–6.32 as the Ch 6 expansion of Ch 5’s samadarshana; the abstract (6.29), bhakti (6.30), practice (6.31), and compassion (6.32) formulations of the same non-dual seeing.