Verse 9.8-9

Verse 9.8: “Thus, holding my Cosmic Nature under my domination, I again and again send into being this entire aggregate of beings, which is rendered helpless under the control of that Cosmic Nature.

Verse 9.9: “These (generative) acts, however, do not, O Dhanamjaya, occasion any bondage for Me, who remain like one unconcerned, and not attached to those acts. (106)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

Oh Kiriti, when I rule over the Prakriti as my own, then like a band of threads getting woven into a web by the warp and woof of small squares of the fibres, the Prakriti herself changes over into the five gross elements with name and form of the universe. Just as milk mixed with leaven clots into curds, in the same way the Prakriti bodies forth as the created universe. As the seed by contact with moisture in soil blossoms forth and gets spread out into a tree, with branches and sub-branches, in that way the universe created by the Prakriti owes its being to Me. As the saying is, the king verily makes the town, do the royal hands ever toil at that work? And indeed I rule over the Prakriti not otherwise than one who is raised from a dream into wakefulness. Now pray tell me, Oh son of Pandu, if one feels footsore in going from his dream into waking. Does one feel like being tired with anything like a journey in a dream? The truth of all this is that in the creation of all beings, not the slightest touch of action ever reaches me. As a king rules over his subjects, and each toils and carries out his task, so do I rule over the Prakriti.

All action is the doing of the Prakriti: it cannot touch me. Just see, on the fullmoon night, with the meeting of the moon, the sea bursts into full tide: Oh Kiriti, has the moon ever to drudge for this? The iron inert as it is, when placed near a magnet, does it not move? Does the magnet ever suffer in any way, in making the iron move? Even so, as soon as I behold the Prakriti to rule over it, the universe of created things begins to come into being. Oh Pandav, the mass of created beings is born of the Prakriti as this Earth, becomes the breeding place for the seed to germinate and issue forth creepers, leaves, etc. or as being attached to the body is the cause of childhood, youth and old age, or the clouds are the cause for sending down rains from the sky, or sleep is the cause of dream—in all these ways, Prakriti is the cause of all the aggregate of beings.

Prakriti is the root cause of all moveable, immoveable, big and small, in fact of the entire mass of created universe. Therefore, acts like those of creation of the beings or sustenance can never touch My Divine Essence. Although the rays of the moon appear as spread out over the water-surface like creepers, yet the moon is not the maker of this abundance; in the same way, although all these actions in one sense have their being in Me, yet they remain distinct from me. Just as a salt dam cannot resist the rising tide of the ocean, in that way all the actions having their end in Me, cannot affect My own Personal Being.

Can a cage of smoke stop the blowing wind, or can darkness pierce into the Sun’s rays? Just as rain showers cannot break through the mountain valleys, in that way the acts of the Prakriti do not touch Me. Although I am the mover of all doings on the part of Prakriti, My essential being is above all actions; I neither do anything Myself nor cause anything to be done. A (burning) lamp in a house neither prompts nor prevents any one from doing a thing. It is unconcerned as to who is doing, and what is being done; it is a mere spectator, and yet it is the condition of all that is being done: Even so, though I am the source of the being of created things, still I am severally unconcerned in their actions. Enough of this repetition, Oh husband of Subhadra, of this one simple truth! Know it now once for all.