Verse 18.61

Verse 18.61: “The Lord, O Arjuna, dwells within the heart-region of all beings, causing, through (His) Wonderous Power (Maya), all the beings to whirl round (as though) machine-mounted. (1299)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

The Sun, in the form of God, with thousands of rays in the form of sentience, rises in the great sky in the form of heart region of all the beings. He sheds light on all the three worlds in the form of the different states of life (wakefulness, dream and deep slumber), and awakens the wandering beings (souls) deluded through the wondrous power,—Maya. He sheds his light on the fully blown lotus flowers in the form of sense-objects, springing in the lake in the form of all visible objects in the universe, and makes the black bee, in the form of the being, with six feet in the form of five senses and the mind, feed itself on the lotus. This metaphor apart, God abides in the hearts of all the beings and shines (manifests Himself) there under the cover in the form of egotism of the beings. Staying inside behind the curtain in the form of delusion (Maya), he plays the wire-puller and makes dance outside, the shadow-pictures of all the diverse orders numbering 84 lakhs. He invests all beings—from the very God Brahmadev [Brahmadeva] down to the lowest insect—with body-forms according to their respective merit.

The body-form which is displayed before the creature (soul) and which is commensurate to his merit, assumes ‘I’-ness and it (the ‘I’ notion) gets complete hold over that body. A thread should get entangled into another or a grass blade should bind another one, or a child should try to grasp its own reflection in water: in that way, the soul develops and a sense of identity with its own shadow in the shape of the body-form and the feeling that the body-form is the soul starts pulsating.

Thus He (God Almighty) makes the being hold fast to the mechanism of his body-form and then he moves the thread in the form of action in past lives. Then the being gets momentum (i.e. begins to act) by virtue of (the notion of) particular thread in the form of actions of the past lives, with which he is independently connected. In that way, Oh Dhananjaya, God makes the beings whirl round and round between the Heaven and the Earth, in the way the wind makes hay whirl round and round in the sky. The beings set about their activity (in the world) as willed by the Divine authority, in the way (a piece of) iron is set in motion (moves in a circle) following the attractive power of the loadstone.

The ocean and the others indulge in their frolic through their proximity to the Moon, Oh Dhananjaya, viz. the ocean gets in full tide, the Moon-stone begins to ooze out, the night lotus begins to blow itself open, while the bird Chakora feels jubilant. In that way God Almighty makes the beings dance in different ways following the primal nature (as determined by their respective destiny) and that very God abides in your heart. That inner urge, which not allowing itself to be identified with Arjuna, rises up in you—that feeling of I-ness—is the real aspect of God. Therefore, that God will (as of certainty) set the Prakriti to action and that Prakriti will make you fight, even though you may (wish to) fight. Therefore, God is the sole Lord—master, and he directs the Prakriti, (it is but proper that) you should permit your organs to function freely in harmony with the constitution of your Prakriti. Thus whether you should or should not act (fight), you should leave it all to the Prakriti—that Prakriti which works under the authority of God that dwells in your own heart.