Bhagavad Gita · 9.8 · Yoga through the King of Sciences·8 of 34
प्रकृतिं स्वामवष्टभ्य विसृजामि पुनः पुनः।भूतग्राममिमं कृत्स्नमवशं प्रकृतेर्वशात् ॥
prakṛitiṁ svām avaṣhṭabhya visṛijāmi punaḥ punaḥ
bhūta-grāmam imaṁ kṛitsnam avaśhaṁ prakṛiter vaśhāt
Sanskrit recitation
A royal secret, simply held · 9.1–9.10 · Teaching
Translation
Animating My Nature, I again and again send forth all this multitude of beings, helpless under the force of Nature.
Meaning
The Lord leans on, presses or embraces Nature. He invigorates and fertilises Nature which had gone to sleep at the end of the Mahakalpa or universal dissolution and projects again and again this whole multitude of beings. He gazes at each level and plane after plane comes into being.The term Prakriti denotes or indicates the five Kleshas or afflictions, viz., Avidya (ignorance), Asmita (egoism), Raga (likes), Dvesha (dislikes) and Abhinivesa (clinging to earthly life). (Cf.IV.6)
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→
- imam
- these
- svām
- my own
- avaśham
- beyond their control
- vaśhāt
- force
- kṛitsnam
- all
- prakṛitim
- the material energy
- visṛijāmi
- generate
- prakṛiteḥ
- nature
- bhūta-grāmam
- myriad forms
- avaṣhṭabhya
- presiding over
- punaḥ punaḥ
- again and again
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