सर्वेन्द्रियगुणाभासं सर्वेन्द्रियविवर्जितम् ।असक्तं सर्वभृच्चैव निर्गुणं गुणभोक्तृ च ॥
sarvendriyaguṇābhāsaṃ sarvendriyavivarjitam |asaktaṃ sarvabhṛccaiva nirguṇaṃ guṇabhoktṛ ca ||
It shines with the qualities of all the senses, yet is free of every sense. Unattached, it still sustains everything; free of the gunas, it still experiences the gunas.
Explanation
Krishna is still describing Brahman, the knowable reality (jñeya), which he began describing in the previous verse. He uses seeming paradoxes: it appears to act through the senses (indriya) without having any, and it is unattached (asakta) yet supports all. It has no gunas (the three strands of nature: sattva, rajas, tamas) yet experiences them. Traditions differ on this: Advaita reads it as the apparent appearance of qualities on a quality-free reality, while theistic schools read it as God's real presence within nature without being bound by it.