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. Hover 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 watch the same family pattern repeat in a new generation and feel helpless to stop it. This verse points to a larger force shaping the cycle, even when you cannot yet see it clearly.
Did you like this verse?
It shifts attention from personal control to the larger forces that shape repeated patterns.
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
On the battlefield, Arjuna is frozen between duty and grief. 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.
Why this verse still matters
You watch the same family pattern repeat in a new generation and feel helpless to stop it. This verse points to a larger force shaping the cycle, even when you cannot yet see it clearly.
“The world is not random. A deeper order is moving through every cycle of creation.”
Explore related themes: prakriti (31 verses)