Gita Series – 101: Bhagavad Gita Chapter IX. Verses 7 – 10:

“Arjuna, at the time of dissolution, all beings enter My Prakriti and at the commencement of creation, I send them back. Managing My Prakriti, I again and again send this multitude of beings, subject to their karmas. But, Arjuna, these actions of Mine do not affect Me, as I am unattached and indifferent to such actions. Having Me as Her supervisor, Prakriti produces both sentient and insentient beings and because of this the world revolves.”

Prakriti is the Primordial Nature, where creation unfolds. Prakriti is the Mother Nature. A soul is a part of the Supreme Soul or the Brahman. When a soul has to manifest, it has to conjugate with Prakriti. At the time of this colligation, karma embedded in a soul gets imbedded in that gross form along with the soul, ready to manifest at the appropriate time. Karma and soul can never be separated. At the time of death, the soul leaves the body along with the embedded karma and the body is absorbed by Prakriti. But, Prakriti is not something different from the Lord, but part of the Lord. If Prakriti is considered as different from the Lord, the omnipresent nature of the Lord would be lost. Lord is the static energy and Prakriti is the kinetic energy originated from the Static Energy. That is why Krishna says ‘My Prakriti’. At the time of creation souls are sent to impregnate Prakriti. At the time of annihilation everything gets dissolved into Prakriti which goes back to the Lord. When the annihilation is complete, there remains the Lord alone, all alone, as He is always.

At the time of re-creation, the reverse process happens. The Lord first segregates Prakriti from Himself. He then creates souls yet again to impregnate Prakriti and the process of creation continues for millions of years to get annihilated again. Creation and dissolution are like child’s play to the Lord. Krishna says though He creates all the beings, their nature and quality is determined by their past actions that get embedded in their karmic accounts. It is not the Lord who determines the quality of a person. A person’s thoughts and actions get recorded in his karmic account. Karma can be compared to an aircraft’s black box, where every minute detail of the flight gets recorded. The common saying ‘what you sow is what you reap’ is nothing but the reflection of one’s karmic account. If one thinks good and does good, his karmic account does not give him pains and miseries. Evil thoughts and actions cause serious affliction in karmic account that manifest as pains and miseries either in this life or in subsequent lives. Having associated with evil thoughts and actions, an ignorant man prays to the Lord for eradication of his pains and miseries. He fails to understand that he alone is responsible for his miserable state. Brahman offers only liberation and He does not answer prayers. Only one’s thoughts and actions are answers to his prayers. This is the divine law and the whole universe is bound by this law. Devotion is the best way to seek His mercy. That is why Krishna says all beings are subjected to karmic law. Though the Lord is the Supreme, still according to the karmic law, He is bound by His own acts. Karmic law does not bind Him, but for the sake of argument, He does not get Himself attached to His own actions. Though He performs creations, sustenance and dissolution, He remains indifferent to His actions. Hence, His own actions do not affect Him.

Krishna also says that He is not directly responsible for creation and sustenance as He supervises these acts through His own creation Prakriti. Prakriti derives energy from the Brahman. The energy derived by Prakriti is the Lord’s own energy and none other than the Lord has that kind of potent energy. Lord has merely transferred His own energy to Prakriti to effectively administer the universe. If one desires to merge with the Lord, he has to necessarily go through Prakriti, who alone is endowed with power to reveal the Lord. Prakriti on its turn produces both sentient and insentient things that are born and dissolved alternatively, till Prakriti considers that a soul is ripe enough to merge with the Brahman. Prakriti herself takes that soul to the Lord to merge with Him forever, though Prakriti is not different from the Brahman Himself. Otherwise, Krishna would not have said ‘My Prakriti’.

Further Readings:

Bhagavad Gita Chapter IX. 4 - 6

Bhagavad Gita Chapter IX. 11 - 14

Bhagavad Gita Chapter IX. 15