Bhagwad Gita - Post 167

Verse 15

Sarvendriyagunaabhaasam

Sarvendriyavivarjitam;

Asaktam sarvabhricchaiva

Nirgunam gunabhoktru cha.

Shining by the functions of all the senses, yet without the senses; unattached, yet supporting all; devoid of qualities, yet their experiencer.

Sarva indriya guṇā bhāsaṁ sarva indriya vivarjitam 

That which we cognize through the sense organs as objects of sense is also a manifestation of this Brahman, conditioned by the sense organs. 

But it is free from all sense organs. It can be cast into the mold of sensory perception in the form of objects, but it is not an object, because it has no relationship with any sense organ.

Asaktaṁ: It has no relation to anything in the world. Transcendent is the Reality. 

Sarvabhṛc caiva: Though it is transcendent, it supports everything by also being immanent at the same time. 

Nirguṇaṁ guṇabhoktṛ ca: It has no quality by itself, because to say that a thing has quality would be to compare it to something else. 

It is blue, it is red, it is tall, it is short—we cannot say anything about it because all these definitions, all these descriptions, require a comparison of it with something else; and because something else external to it does not exist, it cannot be regarded as having any quality at all. Therefore, it is called nirguna. 

Guṇabhoktṛ ca: But all qualities reside in it. Though it has no quality by itself, whatever beauty we see, whatever color we see, whatever sound we hear, whatever sensations we have, everything is on account of its existence. 

Every kind of statue can be found inside a block of stone, but actually there is no statue at all inside a block of stone.

In the brief exposition of Drik Drsya viveka 1^st verse, we learnt various steps in the seer - seen, thus:-

Seer/Illuminor        Seen/illumined

Eyes/ senses          -       Objects of world

Mind/Intellect       -       Eyes/senses

Consciousness       -       Mind/Intellect

And, consciousness is not illumined by any other illumining power.

Thus, in the above flow, it can be understood that it is consciousness, through intellect/mind, illumines senses. 

However, Brahman/Consciousness is just a witness and is not involved in any of the sense perceptions. This is what is emphasized in this verse.

Verse 16

Bahirantashcha bhootaanaam

Acharam charameva cha;

Sookshmatwaat tadavijneyam

Doorastham chaantike cha tat.

Without and within (all) beings, the unmoving and also the moving; because of His subtlety, unknowable; and near and far away is That.

It is everywhere—outside us, as well as inside us, like a pot that is sunk in the ocean has water outside it as well as inside it. 

This Brahman is flooding us: inwardly as the Atman, and outwardly as Brahman. 

Bahir antaś ca bhūtānām: Everywhere it is, outside and inside. 

Acaraṁ: It does not shake or move; and it does not fluctuate like the world of the three gunas. 

Caram eva ca: It moves, and nobody can move faster than it; and yet it is totally immovable. These are the tremendous contradictory qualities of God. Nobody can be faster than He, nobody can be quicker in action than He, and yet He does nothing; He is stable, remaining in His own abode. 

Sūkṣmatvāt tad avijñeyaṁ: Because of its subtlety, because it is subtler than even the mind, subtler than even the intellect, it is impossible to know it through these instruments of mind and intellect. 

Dūrasthaṁ: It is very far. It looks as if it is infinitely far away from us, beyond the stars, because we cannot see it anywhere. We always imagine that the Supreme Being is very far away—many millions of light years away—yet it is very near, in our throat itself. 

Dūrasthaṁ cāntike ca tat: Nothing can be farther than That, because of its vastness and infinitude; and nothing can be nearer than That, because it is the Selfhood of all beings.

Love.