Bhagavad Gita Chapter 9, Verse 4

Chapter 9 – Raja Vidya Raja Guhya Yoga · Speaker: Krishna

Sanskrit verse

मया ततमिदं सर्वं जगदव्यक्तमूर्तिना ।
मत्स्थानि सर्वभूतानि न चाहं तेष्ववस्थितः ॥

Transliteration

mayā tatamidaṃ sarvaṃ jagadavyaktamūrtinā .
matsthāni sarvabhūtāni na cāhaṃ teṣvavasthitaḥ ॥

Meaning

This entire universe is pervaded by Me in My unmanifest form. All beings abide in Me, but I do not abide in them.

Word meanings

मया – by Me
ततम् – pervaded
इदम् – this
सर्वम् – entire
जगत् – universe
अव्यक्तमूर्तिना – in unmanifest form
मत्स्थानि – abiding in Me
सर्वभूतानि – all beings
न – not
च – and
अहम् – I
तेषु – in them
अवस्थितः – abide

Anvaya (word order)

अव्यक्तमूर्तिना मया इदं सर्वं जगत् ततम्; सर्वभूतानि मत्स्थानि, अहं च तेषु न अवस्थितः ।

Explanation

Here the royal knowledge proper begins, and its first statement is profound. ‘By Me, in My unmanifest form, this whole world is pervaded.’ The Lord does not pervade the world as one more object among objects, visible to the eye or graspable by the mind. He pervades it as clay pervades every pot, cup and brick made of it, present in all of them yet confined to none.

Then comes a striking paradox: ‘All beings abide in Me, but I do not abide in them.’ Beings depend upon the Lord for their very existence, but the Lord does not depend upon any being. Waves rest on the ocean, not the ocean on the waves; whether waves rise or fall, the ocean remains what it is. The relationship is one-sided dependence: the world needs God, God does not need the world.

Shankara explains that, like space, the Self is untouched and unattached; nothing can contain it, and the beings that seem to exist in it are appearances projected by maya upon it. Ramanuja reads the verse through his doctrine of the world as the Lord’s body: as the inner controller He supports all things, yet His being and bliss owe nothing to them; He sustains them by His will alone. Madhva too stresses the Lord’s complete independence over a wholly dependent creation.

For the seeker this verse is transforming. If everything rests in God, nothing in the world is truly alien or profane, and every creature deserves reverence. And if God is confined to nothing, we must not shrink Him into a single image, place or experience. This is the mystery Krishna calls His ‘divine yoga’ in the next verse.

Context

After describing the fate of the faithless, Krishna now states the core of the royal knowledge: the Lord pervades everything yet is bound by nothing. In the next verse He pushes the paradox further, saying that in truth beings do not even abide in Him, and calls this His sovereign yoga.

Life lesson

Because all things rest in God, every being and place deserves respect. Because God is bound by nothing, we too can learn to live fully in the world without being imprisoned by attachment to it.

Key terms

Avyakta-murti: the unmanifest form, beyond the senses
Tatam: pervaded, spread through
Matsthani: abiding in Me, dependent on Me
Asanga: unattached, untouched by what it supports