Bhagavad Gita 13.16

bahir antaś ca bhūtānām

acaraṁ caram eva ca

sūkṣmatvāt tad avijñeyaṁ

dūra-sthaṁ cāntike ca tat

 

Outside all beings, yet residing within,

Moving and still—beneath every skin;

So subtle you elude our sight,

Far away—yet close and tight.

 

My dear Lord, I am deluded as long as I think that the material world is a place where I will soon become happy if just one or two things work out. In my deluded state, you seem far away—either irrelevant to my material pursuits or indifferent when you do not appear to listen to my prayers or fulfill my desires.

O supreme enlightener, please bless me to realize that I am in a fundamentally incompatible place, where even the best pleasures are short-lived while my heart longs for enduring fulfillment. Only when I accept my existential incompatibility with this world of matter do I begin to seriously contemplate the question: where do I truly want to be?

O infallible Lord, you mercifully illumine me with the answer: I want to be with you, for you alone are the source of lasting satisfaction and, ultimately, the supreme love. Once I begin seeking and savoring your presence, you mercifully reveal to me that you were never far away; you have always been with me, within me, as my indwelling companion. Indeed, you are nearer to me than the person nearest to me can ever be, even when they hold me in the tightest of embraces.

Grant me, O benevolent Lord, the twin realizations of the futility of worldly pursuits and the intimacy of your personal presence.

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13.16 The Supreme Truth exists outside and inside of all living beings, the moving and the nonmoving. Because He is subtle, He is beyond the power of the material senses to see or to know. Although far, far away, He is also near to all.