Gita 09.10 – Nature is not causally complete without an ultimate cause

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mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ
sūyate sa-carācaram
hetunānena kaunteya
jagad viparivartate (Bg 9.10)

Word-to-word:
mayā — by Me; adhyakṣeṇa — by superintendence; prakṛtiḥ — material nature; sūyate — manifests; sa — both; cara-acaram — the moving and the nonmoving; hetunā — for the reason; anena — this; kaunteya — O son of Kuntī; jagat — the cosmic manifestation; viparivartate — is working.

Translation:
This material nature, which is one of My energies, is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, producing all moving and non moving beings. Under its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.

Explanation:
Kṛṣṇa speaks a much-quoted verse here from the Bhagavad-gītā. In the section from 9.4 to 9.10, Kṛṣṇa explains His relationship with the material world. Here He says:
mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ: Material nature works under My supervision
sūyate sa-carācaram: producing all moving and non-moving beings (the entire manifestation);
hetunānena kaunteya: for this reason, O son of Kuntī,
jagad viparivartate: the universe undergoes its transformations.

What is Kṛṣṇa saying in this verse that has not been spoken earlier? In one sense, Kṛṣṇa is giving a concise summary of His relationship with the world. Is Kṛṣṇa directly involved in the workings of the world? No. His involvement is in the form of supervision—mayā adhyakṣeṇa.

The word akṣa means ‘eyes,’ mayā means ‘by Me’ or ‘My,’ and adhi means ‘from above.’ Adhyakṣa therefore means one who sees from above, one who oversees or supervises. Later, in 13.23, Kṛṣṇa uses a similar term, upadraṣṭā. Draṣṭā means ‘seer,’ and upadraṣṭā refers to one who sees from above—an overseer, as we commonly say.

The material world functions under Kṛṣṇa’s supervision—mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ—and it manifests all moving and non-moving existence, sūyate sa-carācaram. The difference between the living entities and Kṛṣṇa is that although both are transcendental, the living entities are presently under material nature, whereas Kṛṣṇa is above material nature.

In 9.8, Kṛṣṇa says, avaśaṁ prakṛter vaśāt, meaning that the living beings are under the control of material nature, while He Himself remains beyond it (mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ). Jagad viparivartate refers to the continual change that takes place in the world. Hetunānena indicates that these changes occur according to this principle or rule.

One of the common arguments atheists raise against the existence of God is what they call the causal completeness of nature. By causal completeness, they mean that all natural phenomena can be explained entirely in terms of events occurring within material nature itself.

For example, if there is a flood, they argue that its cause can be explained by excessive rainfall. Because of heavy rains, the river overflows, and as a result, a flood occurs. According to this view, there is no need to invoke any supernatural being or higher agency as a cause. Causal completeness, therefore, is the claim that nature alone can fully explain the phenomena that occur within nature.

As far as the causal completeness of nature is concerned, Kṛṣṇa also acknowledges it here. He says, hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate—the changes in material nature take place according to its own rule. Thus, the Bhagavad-gītā does not deny the orderliness or regularity of material nature.

For example, if someone says that a car runs because of fuel and the mechanism by which fuel is converted in the engine into kinetic energy, causing the wheels to move, this explanation does not contradict the fact that there is a driver who wanted to go somewhere and therefore drove the car. The two explanations belong to different categories. They are not contradictory; rather, they are complementary.

Spiritual knowledge in the Bhagavad-gītā does not deny the order of material nature. Material nature functions according to definite laws, and science seeks to uncover that order. To a large extent, science will succeed in doing so. In fact, the more science uncovers order within nature, the more the question arises: why does this order exist at all?

The orderliness of material nature, rather than making God redundant, points to God as the foundation of that very order.

One may say that nature is causally complete, and even if, for the sake of argument, one agrees with this claim, the central point still remains: the causal completeness of nature itself requires an explanation. If nature were the result of unguided chance—if there were simply some primeval event or explosion from which everything emerged—then why should what emerged be so orderly?

Why should this order be so precise that it can be accurately described by mathematical equations? Such a remarkable orderliness calls for a deeper explanation beyond mere chance.

The causal completeness of nature itself requires a cause to be truly complete. One may say that natural phenomena can be explained by natural causes, and that is acceptable. But why is there such precise correlation and mathematical accuracy in the behavior of things if they were merely the products of random chance?

Causal connections, and the very causal completeness of material nature, point toward the existence of God, by whose arrangement and under whose supervision nature functions in an orderly and causally complete manner. Those who view science and religion as contradictory often argue that because science has explained many phenomena, God is no longer necessary.

For instance, in earlier times people believed that rains were caused by certain gods, whereas today we understand that rain occurs through the condensation of clouds and related processes. However, when the Bhāgavatam states that rains are caused by Indra, it does not deny that rains come from clouds. Rather, it explains that Indra sends the clouds.

An illustration often given is that just as a cloud takes water from the ocean and returns it to the land, similarly a king collects taxes and redistributes resources to the people in need. The essential point is that the scriptural explanation does not deny the physical process of rain arising from clouds. Therefore, the causal completeness of material nature is acknowledged here as well—that the changes in material nature occur according to its own order (hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate).

And Kṛṣṇa is the overseer. It is a separate question that Kṛṣṇa can intervene within material nature, should He desire, through miraculous or supernatural means. However, He does not do so on a regular basis. As stated in the previous verse, Kṛṣṇa remains udāsīna-vad āsīnam asaktaṁ teṣu karmasu—seated as if indifferent and detached.

He allows material nature to function according to its own order. It is this very orderliness that science seeks to uncover. And the more science discovers the order inherent in nature, the more that order itself calls for an explanation. The explanation for that orderliness is God. Thus, Kṛṣṇa says, mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ—the material nature works under My supervision.

Thank you.