yathā sarva-gataṁ saukṣhmyād ākāśhaṁ nopalipyate
sarvatrāvasthito dehe tathātmā nopalipyate
yathā — as;
sarva-gatam — all-pervading;
saukṣhmyāt — due to subtlety;
ākāśham — the space;
na — not;
upalipyate — is contaminated;
sarvatra — everywhere;
avasthitaḥ — situated;
dehe — the body;
tathā — similarly;
ātmā — the soul;
na — not;
upalipyate — is contaminated
This verse compares the soul to the sky. Just like the sky or air can be everywhere without sticking to anything—like how it can move through water or mud without getting mixed up—the soul is separate from the body it lives in, even though it is inside of it.
Think of how air can fill a room but doesn’t change or mix with the furniture or walls. Similarly, the soul lives in the body but doesn’t become part of it. This idea might be hard to see because our usual ways of thinking make us focus on what we can touch or see. For example, when we look at someone, we see their body, but we don’t see the soul or the essence that is really them. We might think that we are just our bodies, but this verse reminds us that there is something deeper, something more subtle at work.
After a body dies, we can’t see what happens to the soul using our eyes or instruments. This separation is not something that scientists can easily discover or explain. They might study the body, but they cannot fully understand this invisible connection and separation. The key point here is understanding that, just as the sky remains unaffected and pure, the soul also remains untouched and pure, no matter what happens around it or to it.
This verse encourages us to look beyond physical appearances and recognize that the real 'us' exists on a deeper level, beyond what we can perceive with our senses. Inside every body is a soul that stands apart from the physical and remains intact, no matter the conditions of the body.