Bhagavad Gita 14.3
Spoken by Krishna · Verse 3 of 27
मम योनिर् महद् ब्रह्म तस्मिन् गर्भं दधाम्य् अहम् । सम्भवः सर्वभूतानां ततो भवति भारत ॥
mama yonir mahad brahma tasmin garbhaṃ dadhāmy aham | sambhavaḥ sarva-bhūtānāṃ tato bhavati bhārata ||
Mahat-brahma is the universal womb; Krishna plants the seed — from that union, all beings are born.
Word by word (3)
- mama yoniḥ mahad brahma
- — My womb is Mahat-brahma — the Great Brahman (Prakṛti in its cosmic, unmanifest form; yoni = womb, matrix, source)
- tasmin garbham dadhāmi aham
- — in that (womb) I place the seed/embryo (garbha) — Krishna as Puruṣa fertilizing Prakṛti
- sambhavaḥ sarva-bhūtānāṃ tataḥ bhavati bhārata
- — from that union, the birth (sambhava) of all beings (sarva-bhūtānāṃ) arises, O Bharata
The Great Brahman (Mahat-brahma — the primordial Prakṛti) is My womb. In that I place the seed. From that union arises the birth of all beings, O Bharata.
A modern analogy
All rivers are born from the union of rain (sky-father) and earth (earth-mother). All beings arise from the union of Puruṣa-consciousness (Krishna) and Prakṛti-nature — a cosmic parentage that every creature inherits.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
My womb is the great Brahman; in that I place the germ; thence, O Bharata, is the birth of all beings. [1]
[Truncated in index — 30 chars only] My womb is the great Prakriti (in that I place the seed; thence is the birth of all beings, O Bharata). [4]
The great Brahman is a womb for me, in which I cast the seed. From that, O descendant of Bharata, is the birth of all things. [9]
The mighty Brahma is a womb for me. Therein I place the (living) germ. Thence, O Bharata, the birth of all beings takes place. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Those who resort to this knowledge attain My own nature — neither reborn at creation nor disturbed at dissolution.
Whenever dharma declines and adharma rises — I project Myself forth. The divine responds to every crisis.
I am the ātman, O Guḍākeśa, seated in the heart of all beings — their beginning, middle, and end.
But why such detail, O Arjuna? With a single fragment of Myself I establish and uphold this entire universe.
Sattva, rajas, tamas — three guṇas born of Prakṛti — bind the indestructible ātman in every body.
I am in every heart — source of memory, knowledge, and forgetting; all Vedas point to Me, their author and knower.
Verse 3 of 27 · back to Chapter 14