Bhagavagd Gita - Session 14- Track 1403

He declares the secret. He says, and this is a very important statement before coming to the most famous sentence, this particular statement is very important:

ajo ’pi sann avyayātmā bhūtānām īśvaro ’pi san |
prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā ||6|| (IV)

He says: “I am ajo, I am unborn, avyayātmā, I am imperishable; bhūtānām īśvaro ’pi, I am also the Ishwara of all the bhūtā(s); sarvo bhūtānaṁ, of all the creatures; in spite of all this, prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya, I have my own Prakriti, svām prakṛtiṁ.” Not the ordinary Prakriti of three Gunas, but beyond these three Gunas there is a higher Prakriti: prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya: adhiṣṭhā, is one of the most important words in the Bhagavad Gita, in this context.

adhiṣṭhātā is the one who dwells and yet presides: dwells inside and presides, that is called adhiṣṭhātā. When you are a ruler of a kingdom, you dwell in the kingdom, and yet you overpower the kingdom, you supervise it: this is the meaning of the word adhiṣṭhā; adhiṣṭhātā or adhiṣṭhātṛ, feminine is adhiṣṭhātṛ, the masculine is adhiṣṭhātā. When somebody is given the designation of adhiṣṭhātā or adhiṣṭhātṛ, it means that you dwell in a kingdom or in a household or wherever you are, you dwell in the field and yet you supervise that field; you are not under the control of the field, you are not controlled by the field, but you control the field.

prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya, “I dwell, I come to dwell in my Prakriti, but adhiṣṭhā, I remain the powerful master of that Prakriti, of my own Prakriti. I do not get clouded, I do not get possessed: I possess that Prakriti.”

This is something different from what happens to us, the individuals. Later on Sri Krishna will tell us as, how all the creatures, all of us happen to be where we are. There, the word used is avaṣṭhāya, that is to say: we enter into the Prakriti, but then we become overpowered, it is the word ava, here the word is adhiṣṭhāya; that is avaṣṭhāya. Here it is adhiṣṭhāya.

All the other creatures when they are born, they become overpowered by the Prakriti, but in the case of this particular birth, the Divine is not overpowered by the Prakriti, but adhiṣṭhāya: He remains, overpowers, He remains the possessor and overpowers his Prakriti, therefore He is not clouded, he does not become subject to anything. Even while entering into the, even the lower Prakriti afterwards, when it assumes the body, life, and mind of human consciousness, even then it does not get overpowered. This supreme consciousness remains intact.

This is one of the most important statements in the Bhagavad Gita:

prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā ||

“By my own Maya, which is the higher Prakriti, with that power, I sambhavāmi, I become. Although I remain unborn and yet I assume, I take birth, sambhavāmi, I become, and I come into this birth.”

We shall come back to this verse afterwards because there is so much to be said about this, and without this we will not be able to understand a very important element of the Bhagavad Gita itself.

It is after this that Sri Krishna gives us the conditions, when He comes into this human body, and the purpose for which He comes, and the declaration that, “I myself”, (that is the supreme Lord Himself) enters into the human body.

And then, He concludes, (in a sense concludes, although it is still longer), but in the next verse, that is (IV, 9):

janma karma ca me divyam evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ |
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti so ’rjuna ||9||

This is divyam janma karma: divya janma, and divya karma. In other words in these verses, He has already declared the secret of the Divine birth and Divine action. In Karmayoga, while you are doing work for the Divine, there is a certain kind of action that you can do. But when you attain to a condition where Divine Himself acts, then, what kind of action He does? What is the nature of Divine work? How do you recognize the Divine work? Sri Krishna says: “I have already explained to you”. Although in two words or five words, only in one verse the conditions of His birth, and purpose of His birth, and purpose tells you the divine work, why, what is the divine work for which the Divine comes and assumes this human body.

He says, janma karma ca me divyam: whoever, yo vetti tattvataḥ, who ever understands tattvataḥ, fundamentally, basically, in principle, truthfully, in his essence, essentially; yo vetti tattvataḥ, who ever understands this divya janma, and divya karma, the divine birth and the divine action, he gets free from the cycle of birth and death, mām eti so ’rjuna, and he comes to me.