Bhagavad Gita 13.14

sarvataḥ pāṇi-pādaḿ tat
sarvato ’kṣi-śiro-mukham
sarvataḥ śrutimal loke
sarvam āvṛtya tiṣṭhati

Translation of Bhagavad Gita 13.8-14

Everywhere are His hands and legs, His eyes, heads and faces, and He has ears everywhere. In this way the Supersoul exists, pervading everything.

Commentary by Sri A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada of Gaudiya Sampradaya:

As the sun exists diffusing its unlimited rays, so does the Supersoul, or Supreme Personality of Godhead. He exists in His all-pervading form, and in Him exist all the individual living entities, beginning from the first great teacher, Brahma, down to the small ants. There are unlimited heads, legs, hands and eyes, and unlimited living entities. All are existing in and on the Supersoul.

Therefore the Supersoul is all-pervading. The individual soul, however, cannot say that he has his hands, legs and eyes everywhere. That is not possible. If he thinks that under ignorance he is not conscious that his hands and legs are diffused all over but when he attains to proper knowledge he will come to that stage, his thinking is contradictory. This means that the individual soul, having become conditioned by material nature, is not supreme.

The Supreme is different from the individual soul. The Supreme Lord can extend His hand without limit; the individual soul cannot. In Bhagavad-gita the Lord says that if anyone offers Him a flower, or a fruit, or a little water, He accepts it. If the Lord is a far distance away, how can He accept things? This is the omnipotence of the Lord: even though He is situated in His own abode, far, far away from earth, He can extend His hand to accept what anyone offers. That is His potency. In the Brahma-samhita (5.37) it is stated, goloka eva nivasaty akhilatma-bhutah: although He is always engaged in pastimes in His transcendental planet, He is all-pervading. The individual soul cannot claim that he is all-pervading. Therefore this verse describes the Supreme Soul, the Personality of Godhead, not the individual soul.

Commentary by Sri Vishvanatha Chakravarthi Thakur of Gaudiya Sampradaya:

The doubt may arise that if this brahman is without cause and effect, then that contradicts the statements of sruti such as sarvam khalv idam brahma (Chandogya Upanisad 3.14) and brahmaivedam sarvam (Mundaka Upanisad 2.2.12): everything is brahman.

Though brahman in its essential nature is beyond cause and effect, because of non- difference of the energy and the source of energy, this brahman (paramatma) is also cause and effect. That is stated in this verse. This brahman has his hands and feet everywhere. By the manifestation everywhere of hands and feet of creatures from Lord Brahma down to the ant (his effects), one can say that brahman is endowed with countless hands and feet. Similarly, his eyes, head, and face are everywhere.

Commentary by Sri Ramanuja of Sri Sampradaya:

13.14 Everywhere are Its hands and feet i.e., the self in Its pure form is able to perform everywhere the works of hands and feet. Its eyes, heads and mouths are everywhere; It performs everywhere the task of eyes etc. The Sruti declares; ‘Without feet or hands, He moves swiftly and seizes things; He sees without eyes, He hears without ears? (Sve. U., 3.19). It may be said that it means that the Supreme Brahman performs everywhere the task of hands, feet etc., even though He is devoid of hands and feet. If ‘Brahman’ is taken to mean the self, it can be asked how this power of the Supreme Brahman (namely, having hand, feet, eyes, etc., everywhere) can be attributed to the self, then the answer is that it is established in the Srutis that the pure individual self has the capacity of performing the task of hands, feet etc., because It is equal to Him. Sruti also declares: ‘Then, the wise seer, shaking off good and evil, stainless, attains the supreme equality with Him’ (Mun. U., 3.1.3). Sri Krsna will also teach later on: ‘Resorting to this knowledge, It partakes of My nature’ (14.2). It exists encompassing all things, whatever aggregate of things that exist in the world; It encompasses them. The sense is that in Its pure state, It is all-pervasive, as It has no limitation of space etc.

Commentary by Sri Sridhara Swami of Rudra Sampradaya:

The question may arise that if the brahman or spiritual substratum pervading all existence is neither existing or non-existing then there seems to be a contradiction with Vedic scriptures such as the Chandogya Upanisad III.XIV.I which state: Everything is nothing but the brahman and the Narasingha Upanisad VII.III which state: All this is nothing but the brahman. Apprehending such doubts the nature and qualities of the brahman are revealed by Lord Krishna as being omnipresent, with heads, faces, eyes, ears, hands and feet everywhere. This manifests through the inconceivable potency and incomprehensible power of the Supreme Lord as confirmed in the Svetavastara Upanisad VI.VIII which states: The Supreme Lords transcendental power is unlimited and manifold and His knowledge, strength and action are inherent within Himself. The Supreme Lord who manifesting in all jivas or embodied beings has head, faces, eyes, ears, hands and feet everywhere is pervading everything in creation and is the basis of all activity as these selfsame organs of perception and locomotion belong to all beings.

Commentary by Sri Madhvacharya of Brahma Sampradaya:

Sri Madhvacharya did not comment on this sloka.

Commentary by Sri Keshava Kashmiri of Kumara Sampradaya:

The question may arise that if the brahman or spiritual substratum pervading all existence is neither existing or non-existing then there seems to be a contradiction with Vedic scriptures such as the Chandogya Upanisad III.XIV.I which state: Everything is nothing but the brahman and the Narasingha Upanisad VII.III which state: All this is nothing but the brahman. Apprehending such doubts the nature and qualities of the brahman are revealed by Lord Krishna as being omnipresent, with heads, faces, eyes, ears, hands and feet everywhere. This manifests through the inconceivable potency and incomprehensible power of the Supreme Lord as confirmed in the Svetavastara Upanisad VI.VIII which states: The Supreme Lords transcendental power is unlimited and manifold and His knowledge, strength and action are inherent within Himself. The Supreme Lord who manifesting in all jivas or embodied beings has head, faces, eyes, ears, hands and feet everywhere is pervading everything in creation and is the basis of all activity as these selfsame organs of perception and locomotion belong to all beings.

Commentary by Sri Adi Shankaracharya of Advaita Sampradaya:

13.14 Tat, That-the Knowable; sarvatah-pani-padam, which has hands and feet everywhere-. The existence of the Knower of the field is revealed through th adjuncts in the form of the organs of all creatures. And the Knower of the field is spoken of as such because of the limiting adjuncts of the field. The field, too, is diversely differentiated as hands, feet, etc. All diversity in the Knower of the field, caused by the differences in the adjunct-the field-, is certainly unreal. Hence, by denying it, the nature of the Knowable has been stated, in, ‘That is called neither being nor non-being.’ Although the unreal form is caused by the limiting adjuncts, still, for the comprehension of Its existence it is said, ‘(It) has hands and feet everywhere, etc., by assuming this as a quality of the Knowable. Thus, as is well known, there is saying of the people versed in tradition, ‘The Transcendental is described with the help of superimposition and its refutation’. Everywhere the hands, feet, etc., which are perceived as limbs of all bodies, perform, their duties due to the presence of the power of the Knowable (Brahman). Thus the grounds for the inference of the existence of the Knowable are metaphorically spoken of as belonging to the Knowable. The others have to be explained similarly. That Knowable has hands and feet everwhere. That which has eyes, heads, and mouths everywhere is sarvatoksi-siro-mukham. That which has ears every-where is sarvatah-srutimat: sruti means the organs of hearing; that which has it is sruti-mat. Tisthati, It exists, remains established; loke, in the multititude of creatures; avrtya, by pervading; sarvam, them all. With this purpose is view, that as a result of the superimposition of the organs like hands, feet, etc., which are adjuncts, there may not be the misconception that the Knowable is possessed of them (adjuncts), the (next) verse is begun:

Commentary by Sri Abhinavagupta of Kaula Tantra Sampradaya:

13.13-18 Jneyam etc. upto visthitam. Beginningless is the Supreme Brahman : by means of the attributes (descriptions) like these, [the Bhagavat] describes the Brahman as being not separate from the Supreme Consciousness (or action) expressed in every utterance and [thus] gracing [the seeker] to infer his [or Its] own nature. These attributes however have already been explained. Hence what is the use of a fruitless repetition ?

Sanskrit Shloka Without Transliteration Marks:

sarvatah pani-padam tat
sarvato ’ksi-siro-mukham
sarvatah srutimal loke
sarvam avrtya tisthati

Sanskrit to English Word for Word Meanings:

sarvataḥ — everywhere; pāṇi — hands; pādam — legs; tat — that; sarvataḥ — everywhere; akṣi — eyes; śiraḥ — heads; mukham — faces; sarvataḥ — everywhere; śruti-mat — having ears; loke — in the world; sarvam — everything; āvṛtya — covering; tiṣṭhati — exists.