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Chapter 13 · Verse 20
🪈 Krishna speaks
Illustration for Chapter 13, Verse 20

प्रकृतिं पुरुषं चैव विद्ध्यनादी उभावपि। विकारांश्च गुणांश्चैव विद्धि प्रकृतिसम्भवान्॥

prakṛtiṁ puruṣaṁ caiva viddhy anādī ubhāv api | vikārāṁś ca guṇāṁś caiva viddhi prakṛtisambhavān ||

Word by Word 15 words
प्रकृतिम्
pra forth kṛ to make, to do

nature, the changing stuff of the world

पुरुषम्
puruṣa the dweller in the body, the Self

the conscious Self, the witness

च
ca and

and

एव
eva indeed

indeed

विद्धि
vid to know

know!

अनादी
an without ādi beginning

without beginning, beginningless

उभौ
ubha both

both of them

अपि
api also

also, equally

विकारान्
vi apart kṛ to make, to change

the changes, the modifications

च
ca and

and

गुणान्
guṇa quality, strand of nature

the gunas, nature's three strands

च
ca and

and

एव
eva indeed

indeed

विद्धि
vid to know

know!

प्रकृतिसम्भवान्
prakṛti nature sam together bhū to be born, to arise

born from nature

names two great things that have always existed, with no beginning at all: , which is nature — all the changing stuff that things are made of — and , which is the Self, the quiet one who watches. And know this too: every change you see, and the three "gunas" (the strands or moods of nature), all come out of prakriti, not out of the watching Self.

कथा

Kapila Teaches His Mother the Two

From the bhagavata

In a quiet ashram beside a wide river, the sage Kapila sat with his mother, Devahuti. He had grown into a great teacher, and she had come, humbly, as his student.

"My son," she said, "the world spins around me — birth and death, joy and sorrow, things made and things broken. Help me see what is really going on."

Kapila scooped up a handful of river clay and set it on a flat stone between them. "Watch, Mother." With his thumbs he shaped the clay quickly — first a little pot, then he crushed it and made a tiny elephant, then crushed that and rolled it into a ball, then flattened the ball into a leaf.

"How many things did I just make?" he asked.

"Four," she said. "A pot, an elephant, a ball, a leaf."

"And how many lumps of clay?"

Devahuti smiled. "One. Always the same clay. Only the shapes changed."

"This is ," said Kapila. "Nature. The one clay that everything is shaped from — bodies, mountains, seas, thoughts, feelings. It is forever being made into new shapes and crushed and made again. The pot, the elephant, the ball — those are the changes, the modifications. And the way the clay can be heavy or light or sticky — those are the gunas, nature's three moods. Changes and gunas, all born from this one clay. It has no beginning. It was always here."

"And the other thing you spoke of?" she asked.

Kapila set down the clay and went still. "Now look at us. Who watched the clay change from pot to elephant to leaf? You did. I did. The shapes came and went, but the watcher stayed the same the whole time. That watcher is — the Self, the conscious one. It does not get shaped or crushed. It only knows. And it too has no beginning."

Devahuti looked at the little flattened leaf of clay, then at her own hands, then at her son's calm eyes. "So all my life," she said slowly, "the clay of me has been changing — baby, girl, mother, old woman — but the watcher inside has been the same all along."

"Yes, Mother," said Kapila. "Two things, both beginningless. The clay that changes. The one who watches it change. Knowing them apart is the start of freedom."

The river slid past them, carrying its endless clay to the sea, while the two of them sat unchanged on the bank, watching.

चिन्तनम्

Your body has changed a lot since you were a baby, but the 'you' who remembers being little is still here. What part of you do you think has stayed the same all along?