Chapter 14 Shlokas 3, 4

मम योनिर्महद्ब्रह्म तस्मिन्गर्भं दधाम्यहम्।

सम्भव: सर्वभूतानां ततो भवति भारत।।३।।

सर्वयोनिषु कौन्तेय मूर्तय: सम्भवन्ति या:।

तासां ब्रह्म महद्योनिरहं बीजप्रद: पिता।।४।।

Arjuna! My womb is the Mahat Brahm, wherein I implant

the seed of life. All beings are created therefrom.

O Arjuna! All the forms, born of myriad wombs,

are conceived within Mahat Brahm,

and I am the procreating father of them all.

Chapter 14 Shlokas 3, 4

मम योनिर्महद्ब्रह्म तस्मिन्गर्भं दधाम्यहम्।

सम्भव: सर्वभूतानां ततो भवति भारत।।३।।

सर्वयोनिषु कौन्तेय मूर्तय: सम्भवन्ति या:।

तासां ब्रह्म महद्योनिरहं बीजप्रद: पिता।।४।।

Speaking of the origin of this Universe, the Lord says:

Arjuna! My womb is the Mahat Brahm, wherein I implant the seed of life. All beings are created therefrom. O Arjuna! All the forms, born of myriad wombs, are conceived within Mahat Brahm, and I am the procreating father of them all.

The Lord says, “Mahat Brahm is My Yoni.”

Yoni (योनि)

1. The womb;

2. The birthplace;

3. The place of origin;

4. Where reality takes form.

The Lord says that Mahat Brahm is His womb – this entire creation is His womb.

Mahat Brahm (महद्ब्रह्म)

a) This vast creation rests in His womb.

b) He is the originating source of this entire creation.

c) Whosoever takes birth in this creation, verily takes birth from His womb.

d) The creation and the sustenance of the entire Universe is from the Mahat Brahm.

e) Every object of this creation springs forth from a womb. It is thence that its form, its attributes and its shape evolve.

The Lord is thus saying that He Himself constitutes the womb of this entirety.

The womb of Prakriti

1. Prakriti itself is a great womb.

2. The five elements are a great womb in themselves.

3. The threefold power of Prakriti is also a great originating source wherein energy itself is born.

4. This threefold energy of the gunas also nurtures the seed in all wombs.

All beings are born in this one womb and the seeds of all beings are also nurtured therein. Or one can also say that the Lord gathers together the fruits of actions of all beings in this integral womb.

The Lord now says that all the species of this universe, manifesting themselves in varied forms, spring forth from the Mahat Brahm in the form of Prakriti; the procreating father, who implants the seed therein, is the Lord Himself.

You can understand it this way, that the threefold energy of Prakriti:

a) possesses the energy of the qualities from Brahm;

b) receives its driving force from Brahm;

c) obtains its ability to perform from Brahm Himself;

d) obtains the power to instil life in all beings from Brahm Himself.

Thus are the three attributes of Prakriti enabled to give birth and form to this entire universe.

Hence we can say that the threefold power of the gunas of Prakriti are:

a) the creative force;

b) Mahat Brahm;

c) the womb of the Supreme;

d) the golden womb of illusion – the Hiranya Garbh (ref. Ish Upanishad).

Hiranya Garbh

This womb is described as the ‘golden womb’ because:

a) the three gunas entice one towards attachment;

b) the three gunas blind one’s vision and prevent one from witnessing the Truth;

c) the three gunas delude man and make him oblivious to reality;

d) those who lay claim to these three gunas, obliterate Brahm from their memory.

When the Atma fragment of the Supreme Atma is introduced into this womb of the three qualities of sattva, rajas and tamas, that is, when an image of the Supreme is reflected in this womb, then it becomes a seed. Myriad new images thus spring forth from the union of the gross and the conscious, the Prakriti and the Purusha. However, the father of all these remains – That Supreme Purusha – Brahm Himself.

It is the Atma that breathes life into the seeds of the fruits of action. Only that seed of the fruit of one’s karma sprouts, which one has justified as the truth.

If seen from another point of view, one will discover that all is the Atma. From this point of view, that Atma Itself constitutes every seed and every subsequent form.

Little one, when the seed of the fruit of one’s actions sprouts, then the ‘I’ is born. The ‘I’ springs forth from one’s identification with the body, mind and intellect unit and it is eradicated with the cessation of that body, mind and intellect unit. When a new body takes birth, a new ‘I’ is also born which claims that body. The new ‘I’ does not know:

a) why that body has taken birth;

b) what were the actions performed in the previous life, which gave rise to such fruit;

c) which were those actions which resulted in the present body self and life; in this destiny and these circumstances.

The present ‘I’:

a) manufactures the present fruit and its seeds;

b) relishes the sap of the situations provided by destiny and continues to colour the present life with the hues of raag and dvesh – attachment and revulsion;

c) vitiates the seeds of one’s next life; whatever it received from previous lives, it continues to endure in the present.

Look little one, all that is happening presently, is carrying on from one’s previous birth. Whatever the ‘I’ is presently doing within you is on account of the conjunction of the mind and the intellect, and is resulting in the accumulation of seeds of one’s future births. Therefore the Scriptures say, “Learn to live in the present and cease to worry about the past and the future.” Be at peace and learn to live as a detached witness of the present life.

The Lord also says, “It is the Supreme Lord who fills the hues of consciousness into all these seeds.”

Little one, from this point of view, Prakriti is the mother of man, and the Supreme Atma his father.