A core teaching · expansive in mood · a little context helps
“Life unfolds through a power larger than individual will.”
Taking hold of my own nature, I repeatedly create this entire multitude of beings, helpless under the sway of nature.
The verse in reading order — each Sanskrit word with its meaning beneath. Tap a word to focus on it.
Read literallynature · my own · taking hold of · I create, send forth · again and again · multitude of beings · this · entire · helpless, not independent · of nature · under the sway
Krishna says he keeps bringing forth the whole world again and again through his own nature, while beings remain bound by nature’s power.
Krishna speaks this verse, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the chapter titled "Raja Vidya Raja Guhya Yoga" (The Royal Knowledge).
Verse 8 sits in Chapter 9 of the Bhagavad Gita — Raja Vidya Raja Guhya Yoga, "The Royal Knowledge". The chapter has 34 verses in total.
You see your father's short temper appear in your own son, and feel powerless to stop it. Krishna describes beings carried along by nature's sway, cycle after cycle, which is why such patterns feel so strong.
Did you like this verse?
Taking hold of his own prakriti, Krishna sends forth the multitude of beings again and again, helpless under nature's sway.
What this verse means
Krishna says he keeps bringing forth the whole world again and again through his own nature, while beings remain bound by nature’s power.
Context & commentary
Krishna widens the lens: creation itself moves in cycles, and beings are carried by nature’s force. This verse explains how the world keeps unfolding under a power greater than individual control.
What it looks like today
You see your father's short temper appear in your own son, and feel powerless to stop it. Krishna describes beings carried along by nature's sway, cycle after cycle, which is why such patterns feel so strong.
“The world is not random. A deeper order is moving through every cycle of creation.”
Explore related themes: prakriti (31 verses)