Chapter 14, Verse 3
मम योनिर्महद् ब्रह्म तस्मिन्गर्भं दधाम्यहम् | सम्भवः सर्वभूतानां ततो भवति भारत ||१४-३||
mama yonirmahad brahma tasmingarbhaṃ dadhāmyaham . sambhavaḥ sarvabhūtānāṃ tato bhavati bhārata ||14-3||
Meaning
14.3 My womb is the great Brahma; in that I place the germ; thence, O Arjuna, is the birth of all beings.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Having promised the knowledge that frees, Krishna now describes how the bound world is born. He uses the intimate image of conception: mahad brahma — primordial Nature, the unmanifest matrix of all material existence — is the womb, and into it the Lord places the garbha, the seed of consciousness. From the union of spirit and matter, every living form arises.
This is the Gita's quiet answer to the question of origins. Creation is neither blind accident nor matter acting alone; it is the meeting of the conscious Divine with the field of Nature. By calling Nature His 'womb' and Himself the seed-giver, Krishna affirms that He is the impartial source of all, while remaining untouched by what is produced. To grasp this is to begin to see the difference between the changing forms and the changeless Self that animates them.
💡 Key Takeaway
Every living being is born from the meeting of conscious spirit and material nature — neither is the whole story alone.
Related Verses
सर्वयोनिषु कौन्तेय मूर्तयः सम्भवन्ति याः | तासां ब्रह्म महद्योनिरहं बीजप्रदः पिता ||१४-४||
sarvayoniṣu kaunteya mūrtayaḥ sambhavanti yāḥ . tāsāṃ brahma mahadyonirahaṃ bījapradaḥ pitā ||14-4||
14.4 Whatever forms are produced, O Arjuna, in any womb whatsoever, the great Brahma is their womb and I am the seed-giving father.
सत्त्वं रजस्तम इति गुणाः प्रकृतिसम्भवाः | निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो देहे देहिनमव्ययम् ||१४-५||
sattvaṃ rajastama iti guṇāḥ prakṛtisambhavāḥ . nibadhnanti mahābāho dehe dehinamavyayam ||14-5||
14.5 Purity, passion and inertia these alities, O Arjuna, born of Nature, bind fast in the body, the embodied, the indestructible.