Sanskrit
यथा सर्वगतं सौक्ष्म्यादाकाशं नोपलिप्यते । सर्वत्रावस्थितो देहे तथाऽऽत्मा नोपलिप्यते ॥
yathā sarvagataṃ saukṣmyād ākāśaṃ nopalipyate sarvatrāvasthito dehe tathātmā nopalipyate
Translation
As the omnipresent ether is not affected, by reason of its subtlety, so seated everywhere in the body the Self is not affected.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The chapter’s first extended simile: as the all-pervading ether (akasha) is unaffected by what it pervades because of its subtlety, so the self, seated everywhere in the body, is unaffected. This makes concrete what verse 16 only asserted in passing — that imperceptibility and subtlety are why the self escapes being altered by what it inhabits — the same logic chapter 2 uses for why fire, water, and weapons can’t touch it (2.23), now generalized to explain why action itself can’t touch it either.
Concepts