मम योनिर् महद् ब्रह्म तस्मिन् गर्भं दधाम्य् अहम् । सम्भवः सर्वभूतानां ततो भवति भारत ॥
mama yonir mahad brahma tasmin garbhaṃ dadhāmy aham | sambhavaḥ sarva-bhūtānāṃ tato bhavati bhārata ||
Mahat-brahma is the universal womb; Krishna plants the seed — from that union, all beings are born.
Word by word (3)
- mama yoniḥ mahad brahma
- — My womb is Mahat-brahma — the Great Brahman (Prakṛti in its cosmic, unmanifest form; yoni = womb, matrix, source)
- tasmin garbham dadhāmi aham
- — in that (womb) I place the seed/embryo (garbha) — Krishna as Puruṣa fertilizing Prakṛti
- sambhavaḥ sarva-bhūtānāṃ tataḥ bhavati bhārata
- — from that union, the birth (sambhava) of all beings (sarva-bhūtānāṃ) arises, O Bharata
The Great Brahman (Mahat-brahma — the primordial Prakṛti) is My womb. In that I place the seed. From that union arises the birth of all beings, O Bharata.
A modern analogy
All rivers are born from the union of rain (sky-father) and earth (earth-mother). All beings arise from the union of Puruṣa-consciousness (Krishna) and Prakṛti-nature — a cosmic parentage that every creature inherits.
This verse presents the cosmogony (creation account) that grounds the guṇa-teaching. Mahat-brahma = Prakṛti as the universal mother; Krishna as the Puruṣa placing the seed. Together they account for ALL species. This is the metaphysical background to the claim: 'the guṇas BIND the ātman in the body' — because the body itself is born from this cosmic Puruṣa-Prakṛti union.
mahad brahma is a technical Sāṃkhya-Vedānta term: Mahat (the Great One) = the first evolute of Prakṛti (cosmic buddhi, universal intelligence). By using it as His 'womb,' Krishna identifies Prakṛti's first product as the creative ground. SH's and Ganguli's 'Great Brahman' should not be confused with the ultimate Nirguṇa Brahman of Advaita — here it is synonymous with mahā-Prakṛti.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
My womb is the great Brahman; in that I place the germ; thence, O Bharata, is the birth of all beings. [1]
[Truncated in index — 30 chars only] My womb is the great Prakriti (in that I place the seed; thence is the birth of all beings, O Bharata). [4]
The great Brahman is a womb for me, in which I cast the seed. From that, O descendant of Bharata, is the birth of all things. [9]
The mighty Brahma is a womb for me. Therein I place the (living) germ. Thence, O Bharata, the birth of all beings takes place. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Whenever dharma declines and adharma rises — I project Myself forth. The divine responds to every crisis.
I am the ātman, O Guḍākeśa, seated in the heart of all beings — their beginning, middle, and end.
But why such detail, O Arjuna? With a single fragment of Myself I establish and uphold this entire universe.
Sattva, rajas, tamas — three guṇas born of Prakṛti — bind the indestructible ātman in every body.
I am in every heart — source of memory, knowledge, and forgetting; all Vedas point to Me, their author and knower.
Beyond both stands the uttama Puruṣa — Paramātmā, the inexhaustible Lord pervading and sustaining all three worlds.