Sanskrit
एतद्योनीनि भूतानि सर्वाणीत्युपधारय । अहं कृत्स्नस्य जगतः प्रभवः प्रलयस्तथा ॥ ६ ॥
etadyonīni bhūtāni sarvāṇīty upadhāraya ahaṃ kṛtsnasya jagataḥ prabhavaḥ pralayas tathā
Translation
Know this to be the womb of all beings. I am the source of the forthgoing of the whole universe and likewise the place of its dissolving.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna collapses origin and destruction into a single claim: he is both the womb all beings arise from and the place they dissolve back into. This resolves any worry that verses 4-5’s two natures might imply two separate sources — matter and life-principle alike originate from and return to the same one reality, stated directly rather than left implicit. Prabhava and pralaya — coming-forth and folding-back — name Īśvara as the single terminus at both ends of the cosmic cycle. The two natures of verses 4–5 are two aspects of one source, not two.
Study deeper
Word by word
- etadyonīni bhūtāniएतद्योनीनि भूतानि
- beings have these two as their womb (etat-yonīni + bhūtāni)
- sarvāṇīty upadhārayaसर्वाणीत्य् उपधारय
- all of them — know this for certain (sarvāṇi + iti + upadhāraya)
- ahaṃ kṛtsnasya jagataḥअहं कृत्स्नस्य जगतः
- I am, of the whole world (aham + kṛtsnasya + jagataḥ)
- prabhavaḥ pralayas tathāप्रभवः प्रलयस् तथा
- the origin and likewise the dissolution (prabhavaḥ + pralayaḥ + tathā)
Commentary
Site Commentary
“Womb” is the first concrete image the cosmological section offers, arriving right after two verses of fairly dry classification. Origin and dissolution are usually treated as separate questions requiring separate answers — a creation story and an apocalypse — but here one word covers both without strain, treating them as a single continuous process rather than two events with different causes.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Where something in your life came from and where it's headed are often the same question, not two separate ones — the habits or relationships that built you are frequently the same forces that will eventually dissolve or transform you. Look for that single thread instead of treating beginnings and endings as unrelated.
Professional
- The forces that built a system's early success and the forces that will eventually make it obsolete are often the same forces, just further along — don't treat growth and decline as separate problems requiring separate explanations. Trace them to one continuous cause.
Family & Social
- In a long relationship, what originally drew two people together and what eventually strains them apart are often the same trait, expressed differently over time — the intensity that felt like passion early can read as volatility later. Recognize it as one thread, not two unrelated stories.
Ask yourself
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