Verse 14.4

Verse 14.4: “In all the (several) wombs, O Son of Kunti, the concrete manifestations that spring up: of them the “Gross-Brahman" is the (Primal) Womb, and I the seed-implanting Father. (H6)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

For this reason, Oh Son of Pandu, I am the Father, and the Gross-Brahman (Maya) the mother, and the entire universe, the off-spring. Don’t get confounded in your mind at seeing the diverse bodies in the world, since the mind and the intellect in all the beings, are in principle one and the same. Are there not different organs in one and the same body? In that way this universe, although manifested in different forms, is in principle all one and the same. Branches high and low, even and uneven, (of a tree) are all created from one and the same seed: or an earthen pot is the child of clay or the (checkered) cloth the grand-child of cotton; or in the way the diverse waves become the progeny of the sea-in a similar relationship I stand to the entire universe. In the way fire and flames are but one fire, in that same relationship, I stand towards the entire universe.

Were my form (essence) suppressed as a result of the creation of the universe, then by whose glory (splendour) does the world expand and project itself? Can a ruby be lost in its own lustre? Does gold lose its gold-properties by its conversion into ornaments? Or does a lotus lose its lotus-qualities by its getting fully opened? Do tell me, Oh Dhananjaya does the body (possessor of organs) cease to be perceptible because of its organs or does it (body) exist in the body-form (with the organs) by itself? When a grain of Jvari (a kind food grain) is sown and it germinates and sprouts, yielding an ear of com, can we say it has exhausted itself; is it not rather that it has multiplied (expanded) itself? My form (essence) is not such as could be viewed separately by laying aside (the curtain of) the universe. This entire universe, in and out, is all my own self. Keep this pure and definite knowledge firmly fixed in your mind.

(True) I make myself felt as abiding separately in different body-forms, but it is because I have (by my own doings) got myself fettered by the Gunas, Oh, you having a monkey-banner hoisted on your chariot, just as one gets up in a dream and experiences his own death (in the dream itself), or just as one suffering from jaundice, has his eyes turned yellow and everything he sees appears to him yellow, or just as the clouds could be seen with the rising of the Sun, while the screening of the Sun himself by the clouds also becomes perceptible with the same sunlight, or as one should feel afraid of the shadow cast by himself, raising the question if he himself is distinct from the shadow-in all these ways, I give rise to diversities by displaying myself in different body-forms. There is also one restriction in this and hear about it. The question whether I am fettered or emancipated arises out of ignorance as regards the form of one’s own self. Therefore, O divine Arjuna, do hear by what Guna I get myself fettered. You do hear the secret of all this viz. how many Gunas there are, what are their properties, their characteristic colour and names, and also from where they come into being.