Bhagavad Gita · 9.4 · Yoga through the King of Sciences·4 of 34
मया ततमिदं सर्वं जगदव्यक्तमूर्तिना।मत्स्थानि सर्वभूतानि न चाहं तेष्ववस्थितः ॥
mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā
mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni na chāhaṁ teṣhvavasthitaḥ
Sanskrit recitation
A royal secret, simply held · 9.1–9.10 · Teaching
Translation
All of this world is pervaded by Me in My unmanifest aspect; all beings exist within Me, but I do not dwell within them.
Meaning
Avyaktamurti is Para Brahman or the Supreme Unmanifested Being invisible to the senses but cognisable through intuition. All beings from Brahma, the Creator, down to the blade of grass or an ant, dwell in the transcendental Para Brahman. They have no independent existence they exist through the Self which is the support for everythin, which underlies them all.Nothing here contains It. As Brahman is the Self of all beings, one may imagine that It dwells in them. But it is not so. How could it be How can the Infinite be contained in a finite object Brahman has no connection or contact with any material object, just as a chair or a table has contact with the ground or a man or a book. So It does not dwell in those beings. That which has no connection or contact with objects or beings cannot be contained anywhere as if in a vessel, trunk, room or receptacle. The Self is not rooted in all these forms. It is not contained by any of these forms just as the ether is not contained in any form though all forms are derived from the ether.All beings appear to be living in Brahman, but this is an illusion. If this illusion vanishes, nothing remains anywhere except Brahman
After Swami Sivananda
A royal secret, simply held· 9.1–9.10→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 9.1The Blessed Lord said, "I shall now declare to thee, who does not cavil, the greatest secret—the knowledge combined with experience (Self-realisation). Having known this, thou shalt be free from evil."
- 9.2This is the royal science, the royal secret, the supreme purifier, realizable by direct intuitive knowledge, according to righteousness, very easy to perform and imperishable.
- 9.3Those who have no faith in this Dharma, O Parantapa, return to the path of this world without attaining Me.
9.4All of this world is pervaded by Me in My unmanifest aspect; all beings exist within Me, but I do not dwell within them.
- 9.5Nor do beings exist in Me (in reality); behold, My divine Yoga, which supports all beings, but does not dwell in them, is My Self, the efficient cause of beings.
- 9.6As the mighty wind, moving everywhere, always rests in the ether, so too, know that all beings rest in Me.
- 9.7All beings, O Arjuna, go into My Nature at the end of a Kalpa; I send them forth again at the beginning of the next Kalpa.
- 9.8Animating My Nature, I again and again send forth all this multitude of beings, helpless under the force of Nature.
- 9.9These acts do not bind Me, O Arjuna, sitting as one indifferent, unattached to those acts.
- 9.10Under Me, as supervisor, Nature produces the moving and the unmoving; therefore, O Arjuna, the world revolves.
Word-by-word→
- na
- not
- cha
- and
- aham
- I
- idam
- this
- jagat
- cosmic manifestation
- mayā
- by me
- tatam
- pervaded
- sarvam
- entire
- teṣhu
- in them
- mat-sthāni
- in me
- avasthitaḥ
- dwell
- sarva-bhūtāni
- all living beings
- avyakta-mūrtinā
- the unmanifested form
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