Chapter 9, Verse 8
प्रकृतिं स्वामवष्टभ्य विसृजामि पुनः पुनः | भूतग्राममिमं कृत्स्नमवशं प्रकृतेर्वशात् ||९-८||
prakṛtiṃ svāmavaṣṭabhya visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ . bhūtagrāmamimaṃ kṛtsnamavaśaṃ prakṛtervaśāt ||9-8||
Meaning
9.8 Animating My Nature, I again and again send forth all this multitude of beings, helpless by the force of the Nature.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Krishna explains the mechanism of creation. Presiding over his own prakriti — animating and energising it — he projects forth, again and again, the whole community of beings. The Divine does not labour to create as a craftsman does; he simply enlivens Nature, and Nature unfolds the worlds.
The poignant word is avasha: 'helpless.' Driven by the momentum of their own past tendencies and the gunas of Nature, beings arise without choosing the conditions of their birth. This is the bondage from which the chapter offers escape. We are swept along by prakriti's currents — our conditioning, our habits, our karmic inertia — until we awaken. Recognising how much of ordinary life runs on this automatic force is the first step toward reclaiming inner freedom through devotion and self-knowledge.
💡 Key Takeaway
So much of life runs on the automatic momentum of conditioning; awakening to that pull is the first step toward genuine freedom.
Related Verses
सर्वभूतानि कौन्तेय प्रकृतिं यान्ति मामिकाम् | कल्पक्षये पुनस्तानि कल्पादौ विसृजाम्यहम् ||९-७||
sarvabhūtāni kaunteya prakṛtiṃ yānti māmikām . kalpakṣaye punastāni kalpādau visṛjāmyaham ||9-7||
9.7 All beings, O Arjuna, go into My Nature at the end of a Kalpa; I send them forth again at the beginning of (the next) Kalpa.
न च मां तानि कर्माणि निबध्नन्ति धनञ्जय | उदासीनवदासीनमसक्तं तेषु कर्मसु ||९-९||
na ca māṃ tāni karmāṇi nibadhnanti dhanañjaya . udāsīnavadāsīnamasaktaṃ teṣu karmasu ||9-9||
9.9 These acts do not bind Me, O Arjuna, sitting like one indifferent, unattached to those acts.
मयाध्यक्षेण प्रकृतिः सूयते सचराचरम् | हेतुनानेन कौन्तेय जगद्विपरिवर्तते ||९-१०||
mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sacarācaram . hetunānena kaunteya jagadviparivartate ||9-10||
9.10 Under Me as supervisor, Nature produces the moving and the unmoving; because of this, O Arjuna, the world revolves.