Earlier Krishna had described the World-of-Matter (Prakriti) as falling under two groups, the Higher and the Lower. Both these are explained in this chapter as the KNOWER and the FIELD. During the discussion of the Higher and the Lower Prakritis, it was said that they together constitute the source of Creation. Continuing the same thought in this chapter, in a fresh phraseology as the “Field” and its “Knower,” it is repeated that they together constitute the womb-of-all-beings.

Matter (Prakriti) and Spirit (Purusha) are both beginningless. Matter and Spirit are the two aspects of Ishwara, the Lord. As the Lord is Eternal, it is but natural that His nature — Matter and Spirit — should also be Eternal, meaning beginningless. It is these two, in their inter-play, that project Creation, continue to preserve it, and dissolve the Universe created by them. Thus, the play of Matter and Spirit is the cause of samsara and the Substratum for both of them is the Lord, the Light of lights.

Subjectively, when the creative power in me, ordered by my vasanas (avidya), comes to play in the field of its expression, dynamised by its “Knower,” it projects a world of experience, which I maintain and destroy according to the nature, the condition and qualities governing the Matter-Spirit factors in me.

All forms and qualities are born of Matter. All forms and emanations (vikaras) which have been explained (XIII-6 and 7) already and all qualities (gunas) such as those which express themselves as pleasure, pain, delusion and such other mental states, spring from Matter (Prakriti). In short, ‘Matter’ is that out of which all forms and qualities come into existence. All changes and modifications belong to the realm of ‘Matter’ and the Atman is the Changeless Substratum (Kutasthah), in the presence of which, all these changes take place.

WHAT THEN ARE THESE FORMS AND QUALITIES WHICH ARE DESCRIBED HERE AS BORN OF PRAKRITI?

Viddhi, know; ubhau, both; prakrtim Nature; and also the purusam, individual soul;-these two; Nature and the soul. the aspects of God-to be api, verily; anadi, without beginning. Those two that have no beginning (adi), are anadi. Since the godhood of God is eternal, therefore it is logical that even His aspects also should have eternality. For God’s god-hood consists verily in having the two aspects. Those two aspects through which God becomes the cause of creation, continuance and dissolution of the Universe, and which are beginningless, are the sources of mundane existence. Some interpret the phrase anadi in the tatpurusa [Tatpurusa: Name of a class of compounds in which the first member determines the sense of the other members, or in which the last member is defined or qualified by the first, without losing its original independence.-V.S.A.] sense of na adi, not primeval (not cause). (According to them) thereby indeed is established the causality of God. Again, if Nature and soul themselves be eternal, the mundane existence would surely be their creation, and the causality of the mundane existence would not be God’s. That is wrong because, there being nothing to rule over before the emergence of Nature and soul, there will arise the contingency of God ceasing to be God! And if the mundane state be uncaused [Uncaused, i.e. not caused by Nature and soul, but by God independently of those two aspects.] there arises the contingency of the absence of Liberation, [If God were. Himself the sole cause of mundane existence, independently of His two aspects, then it would be endless because there would be nothing to prevent liberated souls from being put under bondage again.] the scriptures becoming useless, and the absence of bondage and freedom. On the other hand, all these become justifiable if God and the two aspects be eternal. How? Viddhi, know; the vikaran, modifications that will be spoken of-the intellect etc., the body and the organs; ca eva, as also; gunan, the qualities (sattva etc.)-manifest in the form of the mental states of happiness, sorrow and attachment; as prakriti-sambhavan, born of Nature. Nature, Maya, is the power of God, which is the cause of the modifications and which consists of the three qualities. Those modifications and qualities, which have that Nature as their source,-know those modifications and qualities as ‘born of Nature’, as transformations of Nature. Which again, are those modifications and qualities born of Nature?