Bhagavad Gita 7.5
Spoken by Krishna ☆ Key verse · Verse 5 of 30
अपरेयमितस्त्वन्यां प्रकृतिं विद्धि मे पराम् | जीवभूतां महाबाहो ययेदं धार्यते जगत् ||५||
apareyam itas tv anyāṃ prakṛtiṃ viddhi me parām | jīva-bhūtāṃ mahābāho yayedaṃ dhāryate jagat || 5 ||
Know My higher nature — the life-element (jīva-bhūtā) distinct from the lower — by which this world is sustained.
Word by word (3)
- aparā iyam — itas tu anyāṃ prakṛtiṃ viddhi me parām
- — this is the lower (aparā) — but know My other, higher nature (parā), distinct from this · aparā = lower (the opposite of parā = higher; a-parā = not-the-highest). iyam = this (the eight-element aparā-prakṛti of V4). itas = from this, distinct from this. tu = but (contrast particle — the pivot between V4 and V5). anyāṃ = other, different. prakṛtiṃ = nature, creative power. viddhi = know (imperative of √vid — a direct instruction: 'know thou, recognize'). me = My (genitive). parām = higher, supreme (the superlative of parā — the higher, the more fundamental). The structure: V4 gave aparā (lower nature); V5 now discloses parā (higher nature). The tu (but) marks the crucial distinction: the world is aparā, but there is a parā that is distinct from it.
- jīva-bhūtāṃ mahābāho yayā idaṃ dhāryate jagat
- — the life-element, O mighty-armed — by which this world is sustained · jīva-bhūtā = become-life, the life-element (jīva = the living principle, the conscious being; bhūta = become, existing as — the parā-prakṛti IS jīva). mahābāho = O mighty-armed (mahā-bāhu = great-armed — an epithet of strength for Arjuna; appropriate here as the parā-prakṛti is the most powerful of all). yayā = by which (instrumental feminine — 'by means of which'). idam = this (the universe). dhāryate = is sustained, is upheld (passive of √dhṛ — held up, maintained, carried). jagat = the world, the universe. The definition of parā-prakṛti: it is jīva-bhūtā (the life-element) by which the entire universe is sustained. Without the parā, the aparā would have no capacity for existence — consciousness is what sustains and animates the entire field of matter.
- parā-prakṛti / jīva-bhūtā — the two-nature cosmology complete
- — the higher nature as conscious life-principle: the aparā/parā structure is the Gita's answer to the mind-body problem · V4-5 together state the Gita's fundamental cosmological duality: (1) aparā-prakṛti = the eight-element material-mental field; (2) parā-prakṛti = the jīva-bhūtā, the conscious life-principle that sustains the material field. This is not a Cartesian dualism (two independent substances) but a hierarchical emanation: both aparā and parā are Krishna's prakṛti (ME = Krishna owns both), but the parā is 'higher' — more fundamental, more real, the sustaining principle. The jīva-bhūtā (life-element) is what Vedanta calls the ātman — the conscious principle that inhabits and animates the aparā field. The Gita's non-dualism: both natures are ultimately Krishna's, unified in V6's 'I am the origin and dissolution of all.'
This is My lower nature. But know My other, higher nature, O mighty-armed — the living principle by which this whole world is sustained.
A modern analogy
A river has both the visible water (the aparā — material, flowing, measurable) and the force of gravity and the geological channel-shape that gives the water its direction and sustains its flow (the parā — the organizing principle that sustains the water's existence as a river). Without the channel (parā), the water (aparā) has no form. The higher nature of this verse is the 'channel' of cosmic consciousness that gives the material world its form and sustains its existence.
What it does NOT mean
This higher nature (parā-prakṛti) is NOT a separate God above Krishna — it is still Krishna's own higher nature (me parām). The consciousness that sustains the world (jīva-bhūtā) is not alien to the Divine — it IS the Divine's higher self-expression. The duality of lower and higher nature is within Krishna, not between Krishna and something external.
Take with you
- This verse establishes that consciousness (jīva-bhūtā) is higher than matter — not because matter is bad, but because consciousness is what sustains and animates matter. This has direct implications for self-understanding: you are not primarily the body-mind (aparā) but the conscious life-principle (parā).
- The phrase 'by which this world is sustained' (yayedaṃ dhāryate jagat) is practical: if you remove consciousness from any piece of matter, the matter remains matter but it loses the quality of 'world' — it becomes inert. The 'world' (jagat, literally 'that which moves') is what it is because consciousness animates it.
- Taken with the lower nature described just before, this verse gives the practitioner a complete cosmological orientation: everything is either aparā (the eightfold material-mental field) or parā (the conscious life-principle). Knowing which is which — and knowing both as Krishna's — is the knowledge that the chapter's opening promised would leave nothing more to be known.
Public-domain translations (6) compare all →
This is My lower nature. But know My other, higher nature — the jīva-bhūtā, O mighty-armed — by which this world is sustained. [1]
This is the lower (Prakriti). But different from it, know thou, O mighty-armed, My higher Prakriti — the principle of self-consciousness, by which this universe is sustained. [4]
This is my lower nature. Know my other, higher Nature — the life-element — O mighty-armed, by which this universe is sustained. [5]
This is my lower nature; but know that my higher nature is different from this, O mighty-armed, and is the chief principle which sustains this universe. [6]
Know that my lower Nature is this; but different from it, learn my Higher Nature, the Life by which the universe is sustained. [7]
This is my lower nature. But know that my other nature — the highest — O you of mighty arms, is this: it is the life-principle, by which this universe is upheld. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, ego — these eight are the divisions of My lower nature.
All beings arise from these two natures as their womb — and I am the origin and dissolution of the entire universe.
This body is called kṣetra (the field); the one who knows it is called kṣetrajña — the field-knower!
You grieve for those who should not be grieved for — and call it wisdom.
Your body changed from childhood to age without 'you' dying — changing bodies is no different.
The wisdom-yoked person rises above good and bad karma alike. Yoga is supreme skill in action.
Verse 5 of 30 · back to Chapter 7