Bg. 18.61 · Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Devanagari

ईश्वर: सर्वभूतानां हृद्देशेऽर्जुन तिष्ठति । भ्रामयन्सर्वभूतानि यन्‍त्रारूढानि मायया ॥ ६१ ॥

Verse text

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe ’rjuna tiṣṭhati bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā

Synonyms

īśvaraḥ — the Supreme Lord ; sarva-bhūtānām — of all living entities ; hṛt-deśe — in the location of the heart ; arjuna — O Arjuna ; tiṣṭhati — resides ; bhrāmayan — causing to travel ; sarva-bhūtāni — all living entities ; yantra — on a machine ; ārūḍhani — being placed ; māyayā — under the spell of material energy.

Translation

The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

61. O Arjuna, the Lord is situated in the heart of all living entities. He engages them in action by His energy, like dolls moving by strings.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

61. O Arjuna, the Lord is situated in the heart of all living entities. By His energy, He engages them, mounted in their bodies, in action.

Purport

Arjuna was not the supreme knower, and his decision to fight or not to fight was confined to his limited discretion. Lord Kṛṣṇa instructed that the individual is not all in all. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, or He Himself, Kṛṣṇa, as the localized Supersoul, sits in the heart directing the living being. After changing bodies, the living entity forgets his past deeds, but the Supersoul, as the knower of the past, present and future, remains the witness of all his activities. Therefore all the activities of living entities are directed by this Supersoul. The living entity gets what he deserves and is carried by the material body, which is created in the material energy under the direction of the Supersoul. As soon as a living entity is placed in a particular type of body, he has to work under the spell of that bodily situation. A person seated in a high-speed motorcar goes faster than one seated in a slower car, though the living entities, the drivers, may be the same. Similarly, by the order of the Supreme Soul, material nature fashions a particular type of body to a particular type of living entity so that he may work according to his past desires. The living entity is not independent. One should not think himself independent of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The individual is always under the Lord’s control. Therefore one’s duty is to surrender, and that is the injunction of the next verse.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Having stated the views of the advocates of innate nature (svabhāva) [Note: According to the theory of Svabhāva-vāda, nature and its properties are the cause of everything.] in two verses, the Lord now states His own view. The Lord, Nārāyaṇa, is the antaryāmī. yaḥ pṛthivyāṁ tiṣṭhan pṛthivyā antaro, yaṁ pṛthivī na veda, yasya pṛthivī śarīraṁ, yaḥ pṛthivīm antaro yamayati He is situated within the earth. The earth does not know Him. The earth is His body. He controls the earth from within. Bṛhad Āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 3.6.3 yac ca kiṣcij jagaty asmin dṛśyate śrūyate’pi vā antar-bahiś ca tat sarvaṁ vyāpya nārāyaṇaḥ sthitaḥ Nārāyaṇa is spread everywhere inside and outside of everything seen or heard of in the universe. Mahānārāyaṇa Upaniṣad 13.5 As is stated in these śrutis, the Lord is situated in the heart. What does He do? By His own śakti (māyayā) He makes all living entities engage in their respective actions (bhrāmayan). [Note: Svabhāva by itself cannot make the living entities do anything.] The living entities, like artificial dolls attached to a device with strings, are made to move by māyā. Or another meaning is: all living entities mounted in their bodies are made to move by māyā.

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

Seeing that Arjuna still seemed to have the false concept of thinking he knew everything, and because of Arjuna’s inability to give that up, the Lord then teaches in a different way in two verses O Arjuna, though you think that your knowledge is your own, you know that onlyh through the Supreme Lord as the antaryāmi. That Lord is situated in the hearts of all beings from Brahmā down to the non-moving creatures, and He makes them wander about by His śakti (māyayā). He describes these living entities. They are mounted on the apparatus characterized by body, senses and prāṇas (yantra ārūḍhāni), constructed by māyā according to their karmas (māyayā). A comparison is suggested using the ornament called rūpaka (metaphor). The Lord makes the living entities move about just as a puppeteer mounts artificial beings on wooden devices with strings attached (yantra ārūḍhāni) and makes them move about.