Bhagavad Gita · 14.3 · Yoga through Understanding the Three Modes of Material Nature·3 of 27
मम योनिर्महद्ब्रह्म तस्मिन् गर्भं दधाम्यहम्।संभवः सर्वभूतानां ततो भवति भारत ॥
mama yonir mahad brahma tasmin garbhaṁ dadhāmy
aham sambhavaḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ tato bhavati bhārata
Sanskrit recitation
Three moods of nature · 14.1–14.18 · Teaching
Translation
My womb is the great Brahma; in it I place the germ; thence, O Arjuna, is the birth of all beings.
Meaning
My womb is the great Nature. The cosmos is evolved out of His Nature. Nature is called the great Brahma for She is the resting place of the five subtle elements and also the Mahat (cosmic mind). She is callled the great Brahma, because through Her the whole manifestation takes place.All changes arise out of this great Nature. So She has got the name Mulaprakriti or Primordial Nature or the original principle. From the point of view of the Unmanifest She is called Avyakta. The Vedantins call Her Maya (illusion). The Sankhyas call Her Prakriti.This Prakriti is called great because She is greater than all Her effects. This Nature, made of the three alities, is the material cause of all beings. As She is the source or cause of all Her,modifications and also nourishes all the modifications with Her energy, She is called Brahma.I place in it (the Mahabrahma) the embryo of life then all beings begin to come to life therefrom. In the great Brahma or Nature I place the germ or the seed for the birth of Hiranyagarbha and the seed gives birth to all beings. The birth of Hiranyagarbha or Brahma (the Creator) gives rise to the birth of beings. The Primordial Nature is like the clay. She cannot create the forms Herself. She gives birth to Brahma Who creates all beings just as the potter creates various forms from the clay
After Swami Sivananda
Three moods of nature· 14.1–14.18→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 14.1The Blessed Lord said, "I will again declare to thee that supreme knowledge, the best of all knowledge, having known which all the sages have gone to supreme perfection after this life."
- 14.2Those who, having taken refuge in this knowledge, have attained unity with Me, are neither born at the time of creation nor disturbed at the time of dissolution.
14.3My womb is the great Brahma; in it I place the germ; thence, O Arjuna, is the birth of all beings.
- 14.4Whatever forms are produced, O Arjuna, in any womb whatsoever, the great Brahma is their womb, and I am the seed-giving father.
- 14.5These qualities, O Arjuna, born of Nature, bind fast in the body of the embodied, the indestructible: purity, passion, and inertia.
- 14.6Of these, sattva, which is luminous and healthy due to its stainlessness, binds one by attachment to happiness and knowledge, O sinless one.
- 14.7Know, O Arjuna, that Rajas is of the nature of passion, the source of thirst and attachment; it binds fast the embodied one by attachment to action.
- 14.8But know thou Tamas to be born of ignorance, deluding all embodied beings; it binds fast, O Arjuna, through heedlessness, indolence, and sleep.
- 14.9Sattva attaches to happiness, Rajas to action, O Arjuna, while Tamas, verily shrouding knowledge, attaches to heedlessness.
- 14.10Now, O Arjuna, Sattva prevails, having overpowered Rajas and Tamas; then Rajas, having overpowered Sattva and Tamas; and then Tamas, having overpowered Sattva and Rajas.
- 14.11When the wisdom-light shines through every gate of this body, then it may be known that Sattva is predominant.
- 14.12Greed, activity, the undertaking of actions, restlessness, and longing—these arise when Rajas is predominant, O Arjuna.
- 14.13Darkness, inertia, carelessness, and delusion—these arise when Tamas is predominant, O Arjuna.
- 14.14If the embodied one meets death when Sattva is predominant, then they attain the spotless worlds of the knowers of the Highest.
- 14.15Meeting death in Rajas, he is born among those who are attached to action; and dying in Tamas, he is born in the womb of the thoughtless.
- 14.16They say that the fruit of good action is Sattvic and pure; indeed, the fruit of Rajas is pain, and the fruit of Tamas is ignorance.
- 14.17From Sattva arises knowledge, and greed from Rajas; heedlessness and delusion arise from Tamas, and also ignorance.
- 14.18Those seated in Sattva ascend; those of Rajasic nature dwell in the middle; and those of Tamasic nature, abiding in the function of the lowest Guna, descend.
Word-by-word→
- aham
- I
- mama
- my
- tasmin
- in that
- bhavati
- becomes
- garbham
- womb
- tataḥ
- thereby
- yoniḥ
- womb
- bhārata
- Arjun, the son of Bharat
- dadhāmi
- impregnate
- sambhavaḥ
- birth
- mahat brahma
- the total material substance, prakṛiti
- sarva-bhūtānām
- of all living beings
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