Verse 13.21

Verse 13.21: “For, it is when the Purusha dwells within the Prakriti that he experiences the Prakriti-born (modifications of the) Constituent-aspects, It is his attachment to these Constituent-aspects that becomes the cause in the matter of his births into good or evil orders of beings. (981)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

He (Purusha) is bodiless and crippled; (He) is poverty-stricken, worn-out, and the oldest of all (the old). He is male only in name, is neither a female nor a neuter, in short we cannot predicate anything definite about him. He has neither ears nor eyes, neither hands nor feet, neither any form nor any colour, and exists only in name. Oh Arjuna, but mark that (this one) however, has nothing (that is cognisable); in him is the husband of Prakriti. Yet he has got to experience pleasure and pain inspite of his nature described above. As for himself he is non-active, apathetic, and non-enjoyer, yet his faithful wife (Maya) makes him enjoy all. She makes some movements with the small proportion of form and quality she possesses, and makes a display of queer (wonderful) games.

This Prakriti is called “Guna-mayi” (guṇamayī—Consisting of qualities)- nay she is the Gunas incarnate. She makes herself felt in diverse fo??[form?] and qualities, and changing every moment, makes the material world arrogant through her arrogance. She gives publicity to names, creates love through (her) affection, and awakens the senses. It is quite absurd to call the mind neuter, since Prakriti makes it enjoy all the three worlds. She is as it were a big island of hallucination and she is pervasion incarnate and from her are created innumerable mental disorders (vikāra). She is the very bower of the creeper-plant in the form of desires, the very spring season in the woods of infatuation, and is well known by the name of ‘Divine Illusion’. She develops literature, creates this universe of forms and (names), brings perpetual raids of mundane existence (makes it possible to have an unbroken experience of this world).

The arts emanate from her, the lores are made by her, while the desires, perception, and actions are born of her. She is the very mint of all the sounds as also the abode of all miracles-nay she is the very author of the entire world-drama. The creation and dissolution (of the universe) are her morning and evening occupations. This apart-she is a wonderful fascination (mohana) in the world. She is the helpmate to the unique-Brahman (advayāce dusare) and the kith and kin of the unattached (brahma), since she herself stays in a house in the sphere of zero (void). Such being the enormity of her power (of her saubhāgya—the glorious state of wifehood), she can control the uncontrollable (Purusha). In fact, there are no attributes (upādhi) to Purusha. There exists nothing in him: he is perfectly apathetic: yet Prakriti herself entirely becomes all (that pertains) to him.

Prakriti herself becomes the origin of the self-bom, the form of the formless, and his state and position. She also becomes the desires of the desireless, the. contentment of the complete, the race and kindred of the raceless (and kinless). (She also becomes) the symbol of the indescribable, the measure of the measureless, the mind of the mindless and also his intellect. She stands as the form of the formless, action of the actionless, and the egotism of the non-egoist. She becomes the name of the nameless, the birth of the birthless, as also the processes of the action itself. (She also becomes) the quality of the qualityless, the feet of the feetless, the ears of the earless and the eyes of the eyeless.

(She is) the feelings of the unfeeling, limbs of the limbless—in fact she becomes all (the attributes) of Purusha. Such is Prakriti, that pervades and drags the attributeless into attributes. Whatever the inherent quality exists in him (Purusha) is eclipsed and transfigured into the quality of Prakriti. Just as the Moon gets invisible on the Amavasya day, or just as pure gold mixed with one ‘Val’ (vāla)—alloy, gets reduced to five from fifteen points of fineness, or just as the pious one gets deluded (and defiled) when possessed by a ghost, or just as the clouds arising in the sky transform a good (bright) day into a bad (dull and gloomy) one, or like the milk in the abdomen (udder) of the cow or the fire remaining latent in the firewood or like the brilliance (light) of a jewel covered in a linen, or like a king reduced to the state of helplessness, or like a lion overwhelmed by malady,—in all these ways Purusha loses all his splendour, after identifying himself with Prakriti.

A man wide awake, after suddenly falling asleep, is compelled to experience various events during his dream state; in that way Purusha has got to experience the Gunas because he identifies himself with Prakriti. Just as one indifferent to worldly affairs, gets fettered on account of his association with a woman, so becomes the state of the birthless and eternal Purusha and he has to bear the blows of births and deaths on account of his association with the Gunas. But, Oh Son of Pandu, it is just like this viz—when red hot iron is hammered on, it is said that the hammer blows are suffered by the fire; or with the disturbance of water, the moon-reflections in it appear more than one, and this plurality, the ignorant attribute to the moon; or when there is a mirror near by, there appear two faces (one the original and the other its reflection in the mirror); or as the surface of a crystal appears to be of reddish colour in the proximity of red turmeric powder. In that way, the birthless one appears to have diverse births on account of his association with the Gunas, but in reality he transcends them (births).

In that manner take it that he (Purusha) too feels he is getting births in high and low (good or evil) orders (in the social scale and the world of lower animals), in the way a (casteless) ascetic, while in a dream should feel that he is of the lowest caste. Therefore, Purusha in his pristine nature, (who is one with the Supreme Essence) has never to experience becoming and vicissitudes (births and deaths), the whole conception of his experiencing (these births and deaths) having its origin in his association with the Gunas.