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Bhagavad Gita · 8.19 · Path of the Eternal God·19 of 28

भूतग्रामः स एवायं भूत्वा भूत्वा प्रलीयतेरात्र्यागमेऽवशः पार्थ प्रभवत्यहरागमे

bhūta-grāmaḥ sa evāyaṁ bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate

rātryāgame ’vaśhaḥ pārtha prabhavatyahar-āgame

Sanskrit recitation

The path of light · 8.14–8.22 · Teaching

Translation

This same multitude of beings, being born again and again, helplessly dissolves, O Arjuna, into the Unmanifested at the coming of the night and comes forth at the coming of the day.

Meaning

Avidya (ignorance), Kama (desire) and Karma (action) are the three knots that bind the individual to Samsara. Desire is born of Avidya. Man exerts to attain and enjoy the objects of his desires. During this activity he favours some and injures others through the force of RagaDvesha (love and hatred or attraction and repulsion). Therefore he is caught in the wheel of Samsara or transmigration. He has to take birth again and again to reap the fruits of his own actions. He repeatedly comes forths and dissolves through the force of his own Karma.The individual souls have lost their independence as they are bound by ignorance, desire and activity. Therefore they are subject to the sorrows, miseries and pains of this Samsara. In order to create dispassion in their minds and a longing for liberation in their hearts, and to remove the fallacious belief that a man reaps the fruits of what he has not done or that he does not reap the fruits of what he has done, the Lord has said that all creatures involuntarily come into being again and again at the coming of the day and dissolve at the coming of the night (on account of the actions or Karmas caused by desire born of ignorance).

After Swami Sivananda

The path of light· 8.14–8.22

Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.

Word-by-word
eva
certainly
ayam
this
saḥ
these
pārtha
Arjun, the son of Pritha
avaśhaḥ
helpless
prabhavati
become manifest
pralīyate
dissolves
ahaḥ-āgame
with the advent of day
rātri-āgame
with the advent of night
bhūta-grāmaḥ
the multitude of beings
bhūtvā bhūtvā
repeatedly taking birth

Related verses

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