Gita 07.05 – The Absolute Truth is immutable, but its energies are mutable
apareyam itas tv anyāṁ
prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām
jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho
yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat
(BG 07.05)
Word-for-word
aparā — inferior; iyam — this; itaḥ — besides this; tu — but; anyām — another; prakṛtim — energy; viddhi — just try to understand; me — My; parām — superior; jīva-bhūtām — comprising the living entities; mahā-bāho — O mighty-armed one; yayā — by whom; idam — this; dhāryate — is utilized or exploited; jagat — the material world.
Translation
Besides these, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature.
Explanation
From this verse onward, Krishna continues to describe His relationship with material nature, explaining how He is ultimately the soul and sustainer of the entire material cosmos.
In the previous verse (7.4), Krishna described the eight elements—earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and ego—as His energy, calling them bhinna prakṛti, His “separated material energy.” Although He did not explicitly call it inferior in 7.4, here He clarifies this point by using the word apara.
These terms para and apara are well-known from the Upanishads, where:
– Apara-vidyā refers to Vedic knowledge of rituals (karma-kāṇḍa), which keeps one within saṁsāra.
– Para-vidyā refers to spiritual knowledge leading to liberation, found especially in the Upanishads.
Since the Bhagavad Gītā is itself revered as the Gītā Upanishad, Krishna here uses the same Upanishadic terminology to classify His energies.
Krishna defines His para prakṛti:
jīva-bhūtā — the aggregate of all living beings, the conscious selves.
Thus the para prakṛti is the jīva-śakti, the living entities themselves.
He says:
yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat — “By this superior energy the entire world is sustained.”
It is the presence of consciousness—of living beings—that allows the world to function, be organized, and have meaning.
The difference between para and apara prakṛti is ultimately the difference between spirit and matter:
– Para Prakriti (Jīva / Ātman)
sat-cit-ānanda — eternal, conscious, and blissful.
– Apara Prakriti (Matter)
asat-acit-nirānanda — temporary, unconscious, and devoid of bliss.
Thus, while matter is Krishna’s energy, it is inferior because it lacks consciousness.
The living entities, though small and conditioned, belong to Krishna’s superior, spiritual energy.
One of the fundamental questions addressed in Vedantic philosophy is this:
If Brahman is śuddha—pure, transcendental, blissful—then how does suffering exist in this world?
If the Absolute Truth is full of bliss (ānanda), and if we are emanations or parts of that Absolute Truth, then how do we experience misery? How does duḥkha arise from a source that is only ānanda?
To address this, Vedānta presents two major explanatory frameworks: Pariṇāma-vāda and Vivarta-vāda.
– Pariṇāma-vāda holds that the Absolute Truth undergoes a real transformation, and the world is an outcome of that transformation.
– Vivarta-vāda says that the world is not a real transformation but merely an illusion; suffering exists only as long as we are under illusion. When illusion ends, suffering ends.
Now, both views face philosophical challenges.
For Pariṇāma-vāda, the difficulty is that the Absolute Truth is understood to be unchangeable. If Brahman is immutable, how can it undergo transformation to produce the material world?
On the other hand, Vivarta-vāda has a different problem: if everything is Brahman, then how does illusion arise in the first place?
If Brahman is the only reality, then what is the source of the illusion that covers Brahman?
How can something non-existent overpower the Absolute?
There is no satisfactory answer in that system.
Vaishnava Vedānta offers a more nuanced synthesis, described in the doctrine of acintya-bhedābheda—the principle of simultaneous oneness and difference between the Lord and His energies. This leads to a refined form of Pariṇāma-vāda, where:
– The energies of the Lord transform,
– but the Lord Himself does not undergo transformation.
Thus, creation is a transformation of the Lord’s energies, not of the Lord’s essence.
This idea is expressed in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, which classifies the energies of the Lord:
viṣṇu-śaktiḥ parā proktā
kṣetra-jñākhya tathā parā
avidyā-karma-saṁjñānyā
tṛtīyā śaktir iṣyate
“There is the superior spiritual energy (parā-śakti), the marginal conscious energy (kṣetra-jña), and the third, material energy (avidyā-śakti).”
The same terminology—para and apara—is used in the Bhagavad-gītā as well, illustrating that the Lord possesses multiple energies, each distinct yet inseparably connected with Him.
Through this framework, Vaishnava Vedānta explains suffering without compromising the purity, immutability, or transcendence of the Absolute Truth.
Here, Krishna uses the term prakriti. Although prakriti and śakti carry different connotations—prakriti meaning “nature” and śakti meaning “energy”—their conceptual roles often overlap. When Śrīla Prabhupāda translates prakriti as “energy,” he is not using the term “energy” in the modern, physical sense we discussed earlier. Rather, he uses “energy” to emphasize the relationship between the energetic source and its potency.
The word nature does not immediately remind us of its origin. But the moment we hear energy, we instinctively think of an energetic source. Krishna uses this to His advantage by connecting both prakritis—the inferior (apara) and superior (para)—directly with Himself. Thus, in the terminology familiar to us, the word energy naturally and clearly links us to the energetic, the Supreme Lord.
Śrīla Prabhupāda therefore translates prakriti as energy.
Now, the energies of the Absolute Truth are simultaneously one with and different from the Absolute Truth. The Lord Himself does not undergo transformation, but His energies do. This is how the immutability of the Absolute is harmonized with the mutability of the world.
The world is mutable:
– the material energy shifts and transforms,
– and even the souls appear to undergo change as they pass through different species and bodies within this prakriti.
Of course, the soul does not undergo the six material transformations—Krishna already clarified in the Sixth Chapter that the soul remains unchanged. Yet, the consciousness expressed by the soul does vary. In a human being, the soul’s presence is vivid; in animals or trees, it is barely perceptible. Thus, the doctrine of simultaneous difference and non-difference (acintya-bhedābheda) helps us reconcile the changing manifestations of the soul’s consciousness with the changeless nature of the soul itself.
Both the para and apara prakriti are mutable in their expressions, but the Absolute Truth remains immutable.
Later in the chapter, Krishna will explain how the para prakriti—the living entity—can reconnect with the Para Īśvara, the Supreme Lord. The jiva may currently be entangled and illusioned, but it can rise above illusion by taking shelter of Krishna, of whom it is an eternal part.
How we, as souls, can take shelter of Krishna—and how He is our ultimate refuge—is something Krishna will elaborate in the verses that follow.
Thank you.
Leave A Comment