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Slogam 20

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Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13.20

prakṛtiḿ puruṣaḿ caiva

viddhy anādī ubhāv api

vikārāḿś ca guṇāḿś caiva

viddhi prakṛti-sambhavān

Translation

Material nature and the living entities should be understood to be beginningless. Their transformations and the modes of matter are products of material nature.

Author Name:-Sri Ramanuja

Purport

Sri Ramanuja

13.20 Know this Prakrti and Purusa (self) are uncreated and are beginningless. Know that the modifications, desire, hatred etc., which cause bondage, and the qualities of modesty etc., which cause release, originate from Prakrti. The Prakrti, having no beginning, develops into the form of the body, and conjoint with the self, causes bondage through its own transformations such as desire and hatred. The same Prakrti, through its transformations like modesty etc., causes release. Such is the meaning. The difference in the functions of Prakrti and Purusa in combination is stated —

Author Name:-Sri Adi Shankaracharya

Purport

Sri Adi Shankaracharya

13.20 Viddhi, know; ubhau, both; prakrtim Nature; and also the purusam, individual soul;-these two; Nature and the soul. the aspects of God-to be api, verily; anadi, without beginning. Those two that have no beginning (adi), are anadi. Since the godhood of God is eternal, therefore it is logical that even His aspects also should have eternality. For God’s god-hood consists verily in having the two aspects. Those two aspects through which God becomes the cause of creation, continuance and dissolution of the Universe, and which are beginningless, are the sources of mundane existence. Some interpret the phrase anadi in the tatpurusa [Tatpurusa: Name of a class of compounds in which the first member determines the sense of the other members, or in which the last member is defined or qualified by the first, without losing its original independence.-V.S.A.] sense of na adi, not primeval (not cause). (According to them) thereby indeed is established the causality of God. Again, if Nature and soul themselves be eternal, the mundane existence would surely be their creation, and the causality of the mundane existence would not be God’s. That is wrong because, there being nothing to rule over before the emergence of Nature and soul, there will arise the contingency of God ceasing to be God! And if the mundane state be uncaused [Uncaused, i.e. not caused by Nature and soul, but by God independently of those two aspects.] there arises the contingency of the absence of Liberation, [If God were. Himself the sole cause of mundane existence, independently of His two aspects, then it would be endless because there would be nothing to prevent liberated souls from being put under bondage again.] the scriptures becoming useless, and the absence of bondage and freedom. On the other hand, all these become justifiable if God and the two aspects be eternal. How? Viddhi, know; the vikaran, modifications that will be spoken of-the intellect etc., the body and the organs; ca eva, as also; gunan, the qualities (sattva etc.)-manifest in the form of the mental states of happiness, sorrow and attachment; as prakriti-sambhavan, born of Nature. Nature, Maya, is the power of God, which is the cause of the modifications and which consists of the three qualities. Those modifications and qualities, which have that Nature as their source,-know those modifications and qualities as ‘born of Nature’, as transformations of Nature. Which again, are those modifications and qualities born of Nature?

Author Name:-Sri Madhvacharya

Purport

Sri Madhvacharya

Before Lord Krishna explained in detail the questions posed in verse four concerning the characteristics and nature of the ksetra. Now He describes in brief the modifications of prakriti or the material substratum pervading material existence and purusa the supreme in the form of the atma or immortal soul. The modifications of prakriti are the three gunas or modes of goodness, passion and ignorance. At the time of universal dissolution whatever accumulation is remaining from prakriti a small part of that will be from these gunas. In the Madhuchanda section it has been mentioned that this small portion of accumulation will constitute action as well as inaction. As desires are modifications of the jiva or embodied being the gunas are modifications of prakriti. Even though prakriti is the source of the gunas it is uninfluenced by them as they are in seed form and ready to burst into sprout once they enter the material manifestation. They do not come into existence like transient desires but are potentially established in the act of dissolution. The entire material creation which cyclically manifests and dissolves has inherent within it traces of the potentiality of recreation programmed into its atomic substratum. Thus all phenomena in manifestation and dissolution is influenced by the gunas and reabsorbed by its potentiality back into the matrix of existence exactly the way it was previously.

Now begins the summation.

The separation of the words prakritim purusancaiva differentiates the animate and sentient purusa and its immortal soul from the inanimate and insentient prakriti. The modifications such as desire and attraction along with the attributes of goodness, passion and ignorance being different are mentioned separately although both arise solely from prakriti. The purusa which exemplifies the Supreme Lord is completely independent of prakriti and thus is exclusively referred to as the witness, the monitor, the ordainer, etc.

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Slogam 20

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13.20

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