Continuing the general idea that the Lord is the MATERIAL cause as well as the EFFICIENT cause of the world-of-plurality within and without an individual, Krishna is enumerating in these two stanzas the various qualities expressed by the mind-and-intellect of man.
Ordinarily, when we talk of Creation, we are apt to mean only the world of physical forms. All the said qualities indicate a larger comprehensiveness of the term ‘Creation,’ and clearly indicate that it means also our mental and our intellectual lives.
Again, men and beings are usually classified under these qualities, and each individual is bound up with his own mental qualities. As the mind, so the man. It is to be noted that here only the POSITIVE qualities are enumerated. Following the traditional style of Sanskrit commentators, we can interpret the second conjunction, the indeclinable ‘cha,’ as denoting the opposite of these qualities also. However, the Lord is directly mentioning only the positive qualities inasmuch as, in a man who has these noble qualities, his essential divinity will be more available for perception.
These different types of emotions and thoughts, which provide for each individual different patterns of life, and whip him forward to act and live in the external world accordingly — all arise from “ME ALONE.” Whether the ghost be pleasantly smiling, or angrily grinning, or vengefully threatening, its smiles, grins and threats are all qualities
that have no other substratum than the post. If the Pure Awareness were not there to illumine all the qualities in the bosom, they would have no existence for us.
These qualities are almost a complete classification of the entire world-of-beings and their fields of experiences, and therefore, as Shankara observes, we can consider these two stanzas as an exhaustive commentary upon the Self’s status as the Lord of the worlds (Sarva-loka-maheshwarah).
