Gita 07.12 – The Gita’s vision of God is not pantheistic but panentheistic
ye caiva sāttvikā bhāvā
rājasās tāmasāś ca ye
matta eveti tān viddhi
na tv ahaṁ teṣu te mayi (Bg 7.12)
Word-for-word:
ye — all which; ca — and; eva — certainly; sāttvikāḥ — in goodness; bhāvāḥ — states of being; rājasāḥ — in the mode of passion; tāmasāḥ — in the mode of ignorance; ca — also; ye — all which; mattaḥ — from Me; eva — certainly; iti — thus; tān — those; viddhi — try to know; na — not; tu — but; aham — I; teṣu — in them; te — they; mayi — in Me.
Translation:
Know that all states of being – be they of goodness, passion or ignorance – are manifested by My energy. I am, in one sense, everything, but I am independent. I am not under the modes of material nature, for they, on the contrary, are within Me.
Explanation:
Kṛṣṇa says:
ye caiva sāttvikā bhāvā: Whatever exists in the mode of goodness,
rājasās tāmasāś ca ye: and whatever exists in the modes of passion and ignorance,
matta eveti tān viddhi: know them all to have arisen from Me alone;
na tv ahaṁ teṣu te mayi: yet I am not in them; they are in Me.
Here, Kṛṣṇa makes several significant points. He speaks about the three modes, which not only pervade existence but also constitute it. Everything that exists falls within the category of these three modes. They are not merely analytical classifications used to understand the state of existence; they are the very compositional ingredients of existence itself.
Kṛṣṇa declares that whatever exists in any of the three modes—goodness, passion, or ignorance—has originated from Him (matta eveti). Yet, He remains beyond them (na tv ahaṁ teṣu).
Earlier, Kṛṣṇa stated, mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva (Bhagavad-gītā 7.7)—“All that exists is strung upon Me like pearls on a thread.” Just as a thread runs through a necklace, He pervades and underlies all of existence. In that verse, Kṛṣṇa explained that He is within everything. Now, however, He says, “Everything is within Me, but I am not within everything.”
What does He mean by matta eveti—“it all comes from Me”? Here, two important aspects of divinity are being discussed: the immanence of God and His transcendence. Until now, Kṛṣṇa has been emphasizing His immanence—His presence within nature. In this verse, He introduces His transcendence—His existence beyond nature.
Is God immanent or transcendent? The answer is that God is both. He is immanent in the sense that He is present within nature, and He is transcendent in the sense that He exists beyond nature.
If one asks how He can be both, the answer lies in His inconceivable potency. In the previous four verses, Kṛṣṇa illustrated how He is immanent within nature. Now, He establishes the principle of His transcendence—that He exists beyond material nature.
Kṛṣṇa will make this even clearer in the next two verses, where He explains that those deluded by the three modes cannot perceive Him. However, those who surrender to Him become liberated from the influence of the three modes, because He controls the very energy—māyā—through which these modes operate.
Only because Kṛṣṇa is transcendent—beyond the workings of material nature—does He have the power to free us from its bondage. Being unbound Himself, He alone can unbind us.
In the previous verse, Kṛṣṇa gave examples showing how He is the essence of various things. Now, He presents the general principle: everything comes from Him (matta eveti). He further declares, na tv ahaṁ teṣu te mayi—“I am not in them, but they are in Me.”
In this way, Kṛṣṇa reminds us of our great fortune: God is so near that we can perceive Him in the simplest acts of daily life. When we drink water and feel our thirst quenched, we can recognize that it is Kṛṣṇa mercifully manifesting as water to sustain us. When we see light guiding our path, we can remember that light, too, is His manifestation. By perceiving Kṛṣṇa’s presence in this way, we can experience His merciful accessibility in every moment of life—and draw strength from His immanence.
However, beyond His immanence lies His transcendence, and we can draw strength from that transcendence by contemplating how He eternally exists beyond this world—and thus can take us beyond it as well. If He were bound within this world, we could not have complete faith in His ability to free us from it. But because He is the Creator and the Supreme Lord who exists beyond nature, He alone has the power to deliver us from material entanglement.
What we need to understand is that everything ultimately originates from Him. However, when Kṛṣṇa says He is not in this nature, we should not assume that because He is the essence and underlying thread of all existence, He is therefore confined or exhausted within it. No—He always exists beyond nature; His existence extends far beyond it.
Two related philosophical ideas help clarify this distinction: pantheism and panentheism. The prefix ‘pan’ means “all.” Pantheism holds that God is everything—that God and nature are one and the same. Panentheism, however, teaches that God pervades nature while also existing beyond it.
The Bhagavad-gītā endorses a worldview that can, with reasonable accuracy, be described as panentheistic. It teaches that God is not only present within nature but also exists beyond it. Because He transcends nature, He alone has the power to liberate us from its grip. This is the theme Kṛṣṇa will soon elaborate upon in the following verses. In conclusion, He states here that all states of being originate from Him and exist within Him, yet He remains beyond them.
Thank you.
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