10-20

अहम् आत्मा गुडाकेश सर्व भूताशय स्थितः ।
अहम् आदिश्च मध्यम् च भूतानाम् अन्त एव च ॥ २० ॥

aham AtmA guDAkeza sarva bhUtAzaya sthitaH |
aham Adizca madhyam ca bhUtAnAm anta eva ca || 20 ||

गुडाकेश [guDAkeza] Arjuna, अहम् [aham] I am स्थितः [sthitaH] situated in सर्व भूत [sarva bhUta] all beings आशय [Azaya] at their core आत्मा [AtmA] as the Self. च अहम् [ca aham] Moreover, I am आदिः [AdiH] the beginning, अन्त्य च [antya ca] as well as the end मध्यम् एव च [madhyam eva ca] and everything in-between.

All beings are present as My body . I am present at the core of all beings, inside the region of their heart. I am present as their Self. By ‘Self’, I mean the basis of existence, the controller and owner of the body in every way.

The Lord elaborates this in further chapters as well. In 15-15: I am at the heart of everything. Knowledge, memory and the ability to reason come from Me’.

In 18-61, He says: ‘Arjuna, the Supreme Lord sits at the heart of every being, spinning all beings, mounting them in the mechanism of the environment’.

बृहदारण्यक [bRhadAraNyaka] , 5-7-15 describes everything as the Lord’s body: ‘The One who is present in all beings, who is distinct from all of them, the One whom all beings do not know, the One who has all beings as His body , the One who controls all beings while being inside them - He is inside you too; He is the Self that doesn’t perish’.

शतपथ [zatapatha] , 14-5-30 states that the Self is also the Lord’s body: ‘The One who is present inside the Self, who is distinct from the Self, the One whom the Self does not know, the One who has the Self as his body , the One who controls the Self while being inside it - He is the One who is within you and regulates your feelings; He is the Self that does not experience death.

In this way, being present as the Self in all beings, I am their beginning, their end, as well as everything in-between. Meaning - I am the ultimate cause of their creation, sustenance and destruction.

In the same way, the Lord explains that every word is synonymous with the Lord, since He is present as the Self inside everything. Knowing that every word addresses the Lord is a way to establish the uniqueness of His mighty expanse.

Indeed, all words ultimately conclude in the Lord, since they have the Lord as their ‘Self’. They have the Lord as the basis and essence of their existence. While words such as ‘person’, ‘bird’, ‘tree’ are used to describe the material forms of those things, they address the ‘essence’ that constitute their being - their Self.

The Lord says that all words are bound to address Him, due to the fact that the Lord is present as the Self - the essence and the basis inside everything.

The Lord sums up His expanse in 10-39: ‘An object in which I’m not present as its Self does not exist’. This is a statement of fact- it’s impossible for anything to exist without the Lord being its basis.

Further, He states that this existence is subject to His will in 10-8: Each and every entity gets stimulated with the initiative given by Me.

From the next Shloka till the end of this chapter, the Lord illustrates several ways to relate to His greatness.

You experience the Lord whenever you experience something special.