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Knowing the nature of Prakrti

prakritim svām avastabhya visrjāmi punah punah |

bhūtagrāmam imam krtsnam avaśam prakrtervaśat ||9.8||

Keeping my own prakrti under control, again and again I create this entire group of beings necessarily, by the force of prakrti.


Superimposition of mithyā world on satyam brahma is there because of ignorance, therefore only with the wake of knowledge, one can be free from the spell of this appearance world. Status of brahman being the creator is also a superimposition since there is no real world created. Brahman doesn't have will to create, he only lends existence to the world. All these names and forms manifest because of the nature of prakrti / māyā which only follows the law of nature where ignorance (avidya) of oneself causes desire for fulfilment, and desire (kāma) causes action, and action (karma) causes punya-pāpa which is the seeds for next manifestation. And it is a creation of great variety because jīvas have to undergo many different kinds of experience according to the karma they have earned, thus varieties of bodies are there. Therefore beings are created because of necessarily (inevitability) - avaśam, because of the force of prakrti alone -prakrtervaśat, where the nature of prakrti is endowed with names and forms, which we called it creation.


Māyā upādhi made brahman carries the name of Īśvara as the creator of the world. Since having the status of Īśvara, brahman is all-knowing and all-powerful. Due to a similar type of upādhi in the much smaller scale, we the human beings carries the name jīvas which have limited knowledge and limited power. But as ātmā my nature is limitless. Therefore having controlling my own prakrti - prakritim svām avastabhya

not under the spell of māyā, Īśvara as though created this world. Therefore he says in next verses.


na ca mām tāni karmāni nibadhnanti dhananjaya |

udāsīnavad āsīnam asaktam tesu karmasu ||9.9.||

Dhananjaya (Arjuna)! These karmas do not bind Me who is seated as though indifferent, who is unconnected with reference to these karmas.


mayādhyaksena prakrtih sūyate sacarācaram |

hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate ||9.10||

With me as the presiding presence, the prakrti creates (the world of) the movables and immovables. Because of this reason, Kaunteya (Arjuna)! the world undergoes changes.


Brahman is said to be presiding / rule over prakrti (creation), therefore the role of creator is imposed upon Īśvara (brahman), thus three karmas of creation, sustenance, and dissolution which are continuously taking place don't bind him at all as though he is not connected to them whatsoever. How can we say that? When the will is not involved on the part of brahman in this creation, which happened naturally, how can he assumes responsibility for it? When the rope appears as a snake, can we put this responsibility upon the rope? Whenever ignorance of true nature of rope is there, but its existence couldn't be denied, then projection to be something else happened. It is natural.


In the same way when a given thought is born in my mind which is born out of contact between senses and sense objects, which I don't will to create this given thought. It takes place naturally as the nature of prakrti, because mind is also the product of prakrti. This situation happens for a wise person and an ignorance person. Both have nothing to do with the thought that occurs without any willing. The wise person understand clearly that he has nothing to do with it, even though ātmā lending it's consciousness to the thought. He just lets the mithyā thought comes and goes (not entertain them). But in the case of the ignorance person, because of I-ness, he takes the thought as his, accordingly based on his likes and dislikes he will acts according to his will. This is called doership and enjoyership which bound one into the life of samsāra. In the case of the wise person even he/she is seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting, going, reclining, breathing, he/she knows "I am not doing anything" (Gītā 5.8), because he/she knows it is the nature of prakrti (Gītā 5.9).

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