Chapter 7: Jñāna Vijñāna Yoga – Knowledge and its Actualization: Verse 5
अपरेयमितस्त्वन्यां प्रकृतिं विद्धि मे पराम् ।
जीवभूतां महाबाहो ययेदं धार्यते जगत् ॥
apareyam-itastvanyāṃ
prakṛtiṃ viddhi me parām
jīva-bhūtāṃ mahābāho
yayedaṃ dhāryate jagat – 7.5
This is My lower nature. The higher nature represents sentience, consciousness, the life element, by which this whole Universe is sustained.
Chapter 7: Jñāna Vijñāna Yoga – Knowledge and its Actualization - Verse 5
Ma Gurupriya
The one with these eight constituents, says Krishna, is his lower nature, the inferior one. There is the superior one, as the jeeva in the human personality. The body, consisting of matter and energy, both of which are inert, is not capable of acting by itself. In order to act, it has to be activated by something sentient, which has the power to feel, think, sense, will and wish. The great nature, the world, too is inert. It has to depend upon some other presence to be active and vibrant.
This higher Nature, says Krishna, is sentience, life, which sustains all pulsation, activity and interaction.
Our body is breathing, remaining hot, circulating air and blood, digesting, absorbing and assimilating food through a set of well-designed processes due to this sentience. Krishna describes it as jeeva-bhūta, that which has become life, the power and process by which the Creation gives rise to all gross and subtle vibrations, movements and processes.
