Bhagavad Gita Chapter 8, Verse 18

Chapter 8 – Akshara Brahma Yoga · Speaker: Krishna

Sanskrit verse

अव्यक्ताद् व्यक्तयः सर्वाः प्रभवन्त्यहरागमे ।
रात्र्यागमे प्रलीयन्ते तत्रैवाव्यक्तसंज्ञके ॥

Transliteration

avyaktād vyaktayaḥ sarvāḥ prabhavantyaharāgame .
rātryāgame pralīyante tatraivāvyaktasaṃjñake ॥

Meaning

At the coming of Brahma's day all the manifest forms arise from the unmanifest, and at the coming of night they dissolve into that very thing called the unmanifest.

Word meanings

अव्यक्तात् – from the unmanifest
व्यक्तयः सर्वाः – all manifest things
प्रभवन्ति – come forth
अहरागमे – at the coming of day
रात्र्यागमे – at the coming of night
प्रलीयन्ते – dissolve
तत्र एव – into that very
अव्यक्तसंज्ञके – called the unmanifest

Anvaya (word order)

अहरागमे अव्यक्तात् सर्वाः व्यक्तयः प्रभवन्ति; रात्र्यागमे तत्र एव अव्यक्तसंज्ञके प्रलीयन्ते ।

Explanation

The cycle of creation is given here. When Brahma's day begins, all beings and things, called vyaktayah, come forth from the avyakta, the unmanifest; when night arrives they return into that same unmanifest. Avyakta means what is not manifest to the senses, that is, the seed state of creation.

It can be compared with waking and sleeping. When we sleep at night the experience of the world dissolves for us, and on waking the same world of forms appears again. In the same way during the period of dissolution the whole world rests in its subtle cause, and appears again when the new day comes.

Shankara takes avyakta here as the Lord's maya-shakti, the unmanifest prakriti, which keeps the world asleep and awake in effect. Ramanuja takes it as the prakriti which exists as the Lord's body. Whichever explanation is followed, it is clear that creation is not a one-time event but a continually turning cycle.

The lesson is that clinging to manifest forms is clinging to something temporary. What is manifest today is dissolved tomorrow, so attention should turn to the causal Reality within and behind all these forms.

Context

Verse 8.17 gave the time-scale of Brahma's day and night. Here creation and dissolution in that day and night are described, and the next verse says this same multitude of beings is born again and again.

Life lesson

What seems very solid today is also going to return to seed form. This understanding loosens attachment to objects and the mind looks for the steady basis that remains unchanged amid these changes.

Key terms

अव्यक्त: the unmanifest causal state of creation
व्यक्ति: the manifest forms of the world
प्रलय: dissolution of creation into the unmanifest