🪷 Bhagavad-Gītā · 9.7

Chapter 9 · राजविद्याराजगुह्ययोग · Rāja-Vidyā-Rāja-Guhya-Yoga · "The Royal Knowledge & Royal Secret" · Verse 7 of 34

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सर्वभूतानि कौन्तेय प्रकृतिं यान्ति मामिकाम्।

कल्पक्षये पुनस्तानि कल्पादौ विसृजाम्यहम्।।9.7।।
— Bhagavad-Gītā 9.7 · the yathārtha śloka (Devanāgarī Sanskrit · canonical)

🪷 English Translations

Five authentic English voices · each from a distinct sampradāya · together revealing the verse's full śabda-tattva.

Shri Purohit Swami · Poetic English · 1935 · public domain · Cosmo Press tradition
9.7 All beings, O Arjuna, return at the close of every cosmic cycle into the realm of Nature, which is a part of Me, and at the beginning of the next I send them forth again.
Swami Sivananda · Direct prose · Divine Life Society
9.7 All beings, O Arjuna, go into My Nature at the end of a Kalpa; I send them forth again at the beginning of (the next) Kalpa.
Swami Gambīrānanda · Word-key glosses · Advaita Ashrama · Śaṅkara-school
9.7 Kaunteya, O son of Kunti; sarva-bhutani, all the beings-all the beings which, like wind abiding in space, abide thus in Me during their period of existence; yanti, go back; kalpa-ksaye, at the end of a cycle, at the time of dissolution; mamikam prakrtim, to My Prakrti which consists of the three gunas (alities; see 7.13) and is (called My) lower Nature. Punah, again; aham, I; visrjami, project forth, create; tani, them, the beings, as before [As before: as in previous cycles of creation.]; kalpadau, at the beginning of a cycle, at the time of creation.
Swami Ādidevānanda · Śrī-Vaiṣṇava perspective · Rāmānuja school
9.7 All the mobile and immobile entities enter into My Prakrti at the end of a cycle, namely at the end of Brahma's life in accordance with My will. This Prakrti, constituting My body, is designated by the term Tamas, as it cannot be differentiated into name and form. I again send forth the very same beings at the beginning of a cycle. Manu declares accordingly: 'This universe became Tamas ৷৷. by an act of will. He produced it out of His body' (Manu, 1.5.8). The Srutis also declare thus: 'He whose body is Avyakta' (Su. U., 7); 'The Avyakta merges into Aksara, the Aksara into Tamas' (Ibid., 2); and also 'There was Tamas; the intelligence was concealed by Tamas' (Tai. Br., 1.8.9).
Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Academic precision · modern scholarly
9.7. O son of Kunti, all beings pass into the nature [of Mine] at the end of the Kalpa (the age of universe); I send them forth again at the beginning of the [next] Kalpa.

🪷 English Commentaries · The Ācārya Voices

The classical commentary tradition rendered in English · each ācārya speaks from their own sampradāya · the seer chooses the depth of darśana.

Swami Sivananda · Verse-by-verse word-keys with Sanskrit anchors
9.7 सर्वभूतानि all beings? कौन्तेय O Kaunteya? प्रकृतिम् to Nature? यान्ति go? मामिकाम् My? कल्पक्षये at the end of the Kalpa? पुनः again? तानि them? कल्पादौ at the beginning of the Kalpa? विसृजामि send forth? अहम् I.Commentary Prakriti The inferior one or the lower Nature composed of the three alities? Sattva? Rajas and Tamas.Just as the grass grows from the earth and dries up in the earth? just as the ripples and waves rise from the ocean and disappear in the ocean itself? just as the dreams proceed from the mind and melt away in the mind itself when the dreamer comes back to the waking state? so also the beings which arise from Nature merge into it during dissolution or Pralaya.Pralaya is the period of dissolution. MahaUtpatti is the time of creation. (Cf.VIII.18?19)
Swami Gambīrānanda · Advaita-school commentary (Śaṅkara tradition)
9.7 Kaunteya, O son of Kunti; sarva-bhutani, all the beings-all the beings which, like wind abiding in space, abide thus in Me during their period of existence; yanti, go back; kalpa-ksaye, at the end of a cycle, at the time of dissolution; mamikam prakrtim, to My Prakrti which consists of the three gunas (alities; see 7.13) and is (called My) lower Nature. Punah, again; aham, I; visrjami, project forth, create; tani, them, the beings, as before [As before: as in previous cycles of creation.]; kalpadau, at the beginning of a cycle, at the time of creation.
Swami Ādidevānanda · Rāmānuja Śrī-Vaiṣṇava commentary
9.7 All the mobile and immobile entities enter into My Prakrti at the end of a cycle, namely at the end of Brahma's life in accordance with My will. This Prakrti, constituting My body, is designated by the term Tamas, as it cannot be differentiated into name and form. I again send forth the very same beings at the beginning of a cycle. Manu declares accordingly: 'This universe became Tamas ৷৷. by an act of will. He produced it out of His body' (Manu, 1.5.8). The Srutis also declare thus: 'He whose body is Avyakta' (Su. U., 7); 'The Avyakta merges into Aksara, the Aksara into Tamas' (Ibid., 2); and also 'There was Tamas; the intelligence was concealed by Tamas' (Tai. Br., 1.8.9).
Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Modern academic scholarship
9.7 Sarva- etc. Nature : unmanifest form.
Swami Chinmayānanda · Chinmaya Mission · modern Vedantic teaching
।।9.7।। See commentary under 9.8.

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सर्वम् कृष्णार्पणम् — this verse is one maṇi (jewel) on Krishna's thread (BG 7.7)