Bhagavagd Gita - Session 31- Track 3103

sarvabhūtāni kaunteya prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām |
kalpakṣaye punas tāni kalpādau visṛjāṁy aham ||7|| (IX)

O kaunteya, O Arjuna, sarva-bhūtāni prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām: māmikām prakṛtiṁ, My own Prakriti, (that is Para Prakriti), sarvabhūtāni, all the creatures are moving in My supreme Prakriti; they are manifestations of My own supreme Prakriti. At the end of every kalpa, kalpa is a period of time, at the end of a very long period of time…the longest period of time in calculation is called kalpa…)

So, kalpa, is a period of time, longest period of time, when that period is over then, they all dissolved, all creatures are dissolved, but kalpādau visṛjāṁy aham, but in the other kalpa, in the other period of time they all come into existence once again, manifestation again.

Then, in the 8th verse, there is a further explanation of this, what is in the 7th verse:

prakṛtiṁ svām avaṣṭabhya visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ |
bhūtagrāmam imaṁ kṛtsaṁ avaśam prakṛter vaśāt ||8|| (IX)

prakṛtiṁ svām avaṣṭabhya, ‘I lean down upon My nature and then I create all the creatures of the world’.

There is a difference between two kinds of creations. When all the creatures are created and the Avatar Himself is created, there are two kinds of creations; when He Himself comes on this earth, and when He creates creatures, there is a different kind of process. If you turn to chapter n°4, and turn to verse n°6, when Sri Krishna explains the process of Avatarhood, how the Avatar takes birth, you see, the language which is used is very important. For purposes of comparative study, the word that used here is, in chapter n°4, verse n°6; prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya, it is almost the same terms excepting this word prakṛtiṁ svām avaṣṭabhya, and there it is prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya, when the supreme Lord comes on this earth, He does not becomes avaṣṭabhya, He does not lean down, He remains above, adhiṣṭhāya, He remains supreme; so, when He comes down Himself, although He assumes the Lord’s nature, He does not become overpowered by the lower nature. He remains supreme, prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya, presiding over My nature, My own nature Para Prakriti, I take sambhavāmy ātma māyayā, I take birth Myself, I keep Myself presiding over the nature’. Whereas here when the creatures are created then prakṛtiṁ svām avaṣṭabhya, (ava means leaning down), adhiṣṭhāya means keeping above; avaṣṭabhya, means going down, leaning down; therefore, there is a downward movement, when the lower creatures are created and they become prakṛter vaśāt, they become subject to Prakriti, they become deluded by Prakriti.

So, prakṛtiṁ svām avaṣṭabhya visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ |, I create the whole world in which bhūta-grāmam imaṁ, all these creatures, bhūta-grāmam, grāmam is like a village, collectivity, collectivity of all the bhūta(s), all the creatures, all those who are born here, all of them, kṛtsnam avaśaṁ prakṛter vaśāt, they become helpless, (avaśaṁ means helpless) because being subject to Prakriti, prakṛter vaśāt.

But in spite of this in verse n°9, Sri Krishna says:

na ca māṁ tāni karmāṇi nibadhnanti dhanañjaya |

In spite of all this, when creatures become completely subject to Prakriti, I Myself remain above Prakriti’s movement and I do not become bound.

na ca māṁ tāni karmāṇi nibadhnanti dhanañjaya | Why?
udāsīnavad āsīnaṁ asaktaṁ teṣu karmasu ||9|| (IX)

Because ‘I am seated above and from above without attachment, I work upon those works; teṣu karmasu, among all these works, while engaged I remain still asakta, non-attached. I am seated above them and therefore I do not become bound by these actions.’ The creatures are bound, prakṛter vaśāt, they are all subject to the Prakriti, but I remain above.