In plain words
One who sees the Supreme Lord equally present in all beings, the imperishable within the perishing, truly sees.
Word for word
Him who abides the same in all beings, the supreme Lord, not perishing among the perishing: who sees [him], he sees.
समं सर्वेषु भूतेषु तिष्ठन्तं परमेश्वरम्विनश्यत्स्वविनश्यन्तं यः पश्यति स पश्यति
Other commentaries
The commentators
▸Bhagavadgītābhāṣyam
‘न स भूयोऽभिजायते’(भ. गी. १३ । २३) इति सम्यग्दर्शनफलम् अविद्यादिसंसारबीजनिवृत्तिद्वारेण जन्माभावः उक्तः । जन्मकारणं च अविद्यानिमित्तकः क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञसंयोगः उक्तः ; अतः तस्याः अविद्यायाः निवर्तकं सम्यग्दर्शनम् उक्तमपि पुनः शब्दान्तरेण उच्यते —
समं निर्विशेषं तिष्ठन्तं स्थितिं कुर्वन्तम् ; क्व ? सर्वेषु समस्तेषु भूतेषु ब्रह्मादिस्थावरान्तेषु प्राणिषु ; कम् ? परमेश्वरं देहेन्द्रियमनोबुद्ध्यव्यक्तात्मनः अपेक्ष्य परमेश्वरः, तं सर्वेषु भूतेषु समं तिष्ठन्तम् । तानि विशिनष्टि विनश्यत्सु इति, तं च परमेश्वरम् अविनश्यन्तम् इति, भूतानां परमेश्वरस्य च अत्यन्तवैलक्षण्यप्रदर्शनार्थम् । कथम् ? सर्वेषां हि भावविकाराणां जनिलक्षणः भावविकारो मूलम् ; जन्मोत्तरकालभाविनः अन्ये सर्वे भावविकाराः विनाशान्ताः ; विनाशात् परो न कश्चित् अस्ति भावविकारः, भावाभावात् । सति हि धर्मिणि धर्माः भवन्ति । अतः अन्त्यभावविकाराभावानुवादेन पूर्वभाविनः सर्वे भावविकाराः प्रतिषिद्धाः भवन्ति सह कार्यैः । तस्मात् सर्वभूतैः वैलक्षण्यम् अत्यन्तमेव परमेश्वरस्य सिद्धम् , निर्विशेषत्वम् एकत्वं च । यः एवं यथोक्तं परमेश्वरं पश्यति, सः पश्यति ॥
ननु सर्वोऽपि लोकः पश्यति, किं विशेषणेन इति । सत्यं पश्यति ; किं तु विपरीतं पश्यति । अतः विशिनष्टि — स एव पश्यतीति । यथा तिमिरदृष्टिः अनेकं चन्द्रं पश्यति, तमपेक्ष्य एकचन्द्रदर्शी विशिष्यते — स एव पश्यतीति ; तथा इहापि एकम् अविभक्तं यथोक्तं आत्मानं यः पश्यति, सः विभक्तानेकात्मविपरीतदर्शिभ्यः विशिष्यते — स एव पश्यतीति । इतरे पश्यन्तोऽपि न पश्यन्ति, विपरीतदर्शित्वात् अनेकचन्द्रदर्शिवत् इत्यर्थः ॥ २७ ॥
In plain words
Remember what was already established: 'he is not born again' — and that freedom comes precisely from right seeing, because right seeing pulls out the very root of saṃsāra, which is ignorance. And we've also seen what causes birth in the first place: this ignorance-born mixing-up of the field and the one who knows it. So it follows naturally that the very thing capable of dissolving that ignorance is right seeing itself. That's already been said — but it's worth saying once more, this time in different words.
Equal, undivided, simply abiding — but where, and in whom? Everywhere, in every single being, from Brahmā at the very top down to the plants that never move at all. And who is it that abides this way? The Supreme Lord — supreme, that is, compared to body, senses, mind, intellect, even the subtlest unmanifest layer of things. He is the one present equally in every being, without exception. Calling him 'equal' does real work here: it sets him apart from everything that is subject to decay, and affirms, in the same breath, that he himself never decays at all. The whole point is to make the difference between ordinary beings and the Supreme Lord absolutely unmistakable. Why does this follow? Because every kind of change a thing goes through has one root: birth. Everything that happens after birth eventually ends in destruction — that's simply how change works. And nothing comes after destruction, because once something is destroyed, there's no longer any 'thing' left for further change to happen to. Properties, after all, can only exist where something exists to carry them. So once we've established that nothing at all follows destruction, that same fact rules out every earlier stage of change too, along with everything those changes ever produced — none of it can apply to the Supreme Lord. Which means his difference from every single being is not partial but absolute: he has no internal divisions, and he is simply one. And whoever truly sees the Supreme Lord exactly this way — that person, and only that person, actually sees.
But wait, someone might object — everyone already sees, don't they? Why does the verse need to say 'he alone'? True enough, they do see — but what they see is upside down. That's exactly why the verse has to single someone out: 'he alone truly sees.' Think of someone with blurred vision who looks at the moon and sees two of them. Compared to him, the person who simply sees one moon — the moon as it actually is — stands apart: he alone really sees. It's the same here. Someone who sees the Self as one, undivided, exactly as it's been described, stands apart from everyone else who sees a scattered, multiplied self where there is really only one. He alone truly sees. Everyone else may be 'seeing' in some technical sense, but they're not really seeing at all — because what they're looking at is inverted, just like that person seeing two moons instead of one.
Close to the Sanskrit
'He is not born again' (Bhagavad Gītā 13.23) — thus, the absence of birth, as the fruit of correct vision, through the gateway of the removal of the seed of saṃsāra beginning with ignorance, has been stated. And the cause of birth — the conjunction of field and field-knower, grounded in ignorance — has also been stated. Therefore, correct vision, which removes that ignorance, although already stated, is now stated again, in other words —
Equal, without distinction, abiding, maintaining a state — where? In all, in every being, among living creatures ranging from Brahmā down to the unmoving. Whom? The Supreme Lord — 'supreme' relative to body, senses, mind, intellect, and the unmanifest — the Supreme Lord: him, abiding equally in all beings. This distinguishes him from those beings which are perishing, and it affirms that very Supreme Lord as non-perishing — for the purpose of showing the utter distinctness of beings and the Supreme Lord. How so? Of all modifications of existence, indeed, the modification characterized as birth is the root; all the other modifications, occurring in the time after birth, end in destruction; beyond destruction, no further modification of existence exists, because existence itself is then absent. For properties exist only where a substrate exists. Therefore, on the strength of this statement of the absence of any final modification, all the prior modifications, together with their effects, are excluded from applying to him. Therefore the utter distinctness of the Supreme Lord from all beings is established — his being free of internal distinction, and his oneness. He who thus sees the Supreme Lord as described — he truly sees.
Objection: everyone in the world sees — what need, then, for the qualifying word? Reply: true, he sees; but he sees wrongly. Therefore it specifies — 'he alone sees'. Just as one with blurred vision sees the moon as many, and relative to him, the seer of a single moon is distinguished — 'he alone sees'; likewise here too, whoever sees the one, undivided Self, as already described, is distinguished from those who see, wrongly, a divided, manifold self — 'he alone sees'. The others, though seeing, do not [truly] see, because they see wrongly, like the seer of many moons: that is the meaning.