दैवी ह्येषा गुणमयी मम माया दुरत्यया | मामेव ये प्रपद्यन्ते मायामेतां तरन्ति ते ||१४||
daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā | mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṃ taranti te || 14 ||
This divine māyā of Mine, made of the guṇas, is hard to cross — but those who take refuge in Me alone do cross it.
Word by word (3)
- daivī hi eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā
- — verily, this divine māyā of Mine, made of the guṇas, is difficult to cross · daivī = divine, belonging to the Divine (from deva = god; daivī = divine, divine-natured — not dark or malevolent but the Divine's own creative power). hi = verily, indeed (emphatic). eṣā = this (referring to the māyā just described through its effects in V13). guṇamayī = made of the guṇas (guṇa + mayī = pervaded by the guṇas — the same guṇamayaiḥ bhāvaiḥ of V13). mama = Mine (genitive of mad — My māyā, belonging to Me). māyā = the creative power, the illusive force (from √māy = to measure, to create; māyā = the measuring/creating power that produces the phenomenal world; the word has strong connotations of creative magic, of things appearing as other than they are). duratyayā = difficult to cross over, hard to transcend (dur = difficult; atyaya = crossing over, transcending — from ati + √i = to go beyond; duratyayā = the one who is hard to get beyond).
- mām eva ye prapadyante — māyām etāṃ taranti te
- — those who take refuge in Me alone — they cross over this māyā · mām = Me (accusative). eva = alone, exclusively (emphatic — not partially, not alongside other refuges). ye = who (relative pronoun — those who). prapadyante = take refuge, surrender completely (pra + √pad = to throw oneself forward into, to fall toward; prapatti = complete surrender/refuge — a strong devotional act: the complete offering of the self to the Divine). māyām etāṃ = this māyā (accusative, object of taranti). taranti = they cross over (from √tṛ — to cross water, to transcend; tārayati = to cause to cross — the same root as the name Arjuna's chariot horse Tāra). te = they (the ones who take refuge). The remedy: mām eva — Me alone — prapadyante (take refuge completely). The result: they cross this māyā (māyām taranti). The exclusivity of 'mām eva' (Me alone) is significant: partial refuge, refuge alongside other final commitments, does not accomplish the crossing. The refuge must be complete.
- daivī māyā / duratyayā / prapatti (the three-part remedy teaching)
- — māyā is divine and hard — but prapatti (complete refuge) is the one means that crosses it · V14 accomplishes three things simultaneously: (1) It validates the difficulty — māyā IS duratyayā (hard to cross). This prevents false confidence ('just think positive thoughts and māyā dissolves'). (2) It clarifies the mechanism — māyā is guṇamayī (made of guṇas) — confirming that V13's guṇa-delusion and V14's māyā are the same thing viewed from different angles. (3) It gives the one remedy — mām eva prapadyante (take refuge in Me alone). The completeness of 'mām eva' (Me alone) is the entire teaching of the bhakti path in three words: surrender completely to the Divine — not as a technique but as a total orientation of the self. This is the pivot of Ch.7: from V1's three conditions through V2-13's jñāna-vijñāna teaching, to V14's direct remedy: prapatti.
V14 gives the diagnosis (daivī māyā is duratyayā — hard to cross) and the remedy (mām eva ye prapadyante — those who take refuge in Me alone cross it). Māyā is not a mistake or an evil force — it is daivī (divine), the Divine's own creative power. But it is genuinely difficult to cross. The only remedy is complete refuge (prapadyante) in Krishna alone.
A modern analogy
The pull of established cognitive habits is genuinely hard to overcome — neuroscience confirms that deep grooves of habitual thought and perception require significant, sustained effort to rewire. V14's 'duratyayā' is honest about this difficulty. The remedy ('mām eva prapadyante') is the equivalent of complete immersion in a new orientation — not dabbling with meditation occasionally, but genuine, total reorientation of the self toward the Divine.
What it does NOT mean
V14 does NOT say māyā is bad or unreal. It is daivī (divine) — the Divine's own creative expression. The difficulty is not evil to be destroyed but the natural consequence of guṇa-absorption (V13). The crossing is not escape from the world but seeing through the apparent independence of the guṇa-field to the Divine ground that is its source.
Take with you
- V14 is the most important verse in Ch.7's practical teaching: it gives the one universal remedy for the universal condition of V13's moha. Mām eva prapadyante — take refuge in Me alone. Everything else in the chapter (V1's conditions, V2's promise, V7's thread, V8-12's recognitions) is preparation for this.
- The 'mām eva' (Me alone) qualifier is demanding but clarifying: partial refuge — pursuing the Divine alongside an equal commitment to some worldly attachment — does not produce the crossing. The refuge must be the organizing priority. This is not about abandoning life but about making the Divine the central orientation of life.
- V14's 'daivī' (divine) qualifier for māyā: māyā is not an enemy or a mistake — it is the Divine's own creative power that produces the phenomenal world. This prevents both nihilism (the world is evil/unreal) and naive realism (the world is all there is). The world is divine expression; it is also veiling. Both are true.
V14 is the bhakti heart of Ch.7. After the cosmological framework (V4-7), the vijñāna pointers (V8-11), and the guṇa-māyā problem (V12-13), V14 gives the single remedy: complete refuge in Krishna alone (mām eva prapadyante). The word 'prapatti' (prapadyante) is technically significant in bhakti theology: it indicates complete, voluntary surrender — not reluctant compliance or calculated spiritual strategy but the wholehearted offering of oneself to the Divine as one's sole refuge and support. This is the bhakti tradition's prapatti doctrine in its Gita form. The qualifier 'mām eva' (Me alone) is not exclusive in a sectarian sense but in a philosophical one: the Divine as ultimate reality must be the ultimate refuge — not one refuge among several. Any equal commitment to a worldly object as ultimate (security, success, a person, a ideology) maintains the guṇa-attachment that sustains māyā. Mām eva means: the Divine as the organizing center, not the Divine as one priority among many. Critically, the verse acknowledges the genuine difficulty: duratyayā is honest. The Gita does not promise an easy crossing. But it promises a crossing — for those who genuinely take refuge.
Advaita lens
For Shankaracharya, V14's prapatti is not primarily an emotional act but the orientation of understanding: taking refuge in 'mām' (Brahman) alone means recognizing Brahman as the only ultimate reality and the jīvātman's identity with it. The 'crossing of māyā' is the dissolution of avidyā (ignorance) through direct knowledge — which requires the total orientation of the practitioner toward Brahman as the only real. This is V14's 'mām eva' in advaita terms.
Bhakti lens
For Rāmānuja and the bhakti traditions, V14 is the foundational verse for prapatti-yoga (the yoga of complete surrender). The bhakta who takes total refuge in the Lord — body, mind, and heart offered completely — is promised the crossing of māyā. This is the most direct path: not the gradual cultivation of knowledge or the long arc of karma yoga, but the immediate, total offering of the self to the Lord. V14 is the Gita's authorization for this most direct path.
Karma-Yoga lens
The karma yogi reads V14's 'crossing' as the state of equilibrium where action no longer feeds the guṇa-cycle of craving and attachment. When action is offered to the Divine (as karma yoga teaches), the actor becomes gradually less identified with the guṇa-field and more oriented toward the Divine ground. This is the karma yoga version of V14's prapatti: offering action as refuge.
Modern parallels
The psychological concept of 'sacred canopy' (Peter Berger) — the overarching meaning framework that organizes all of a person's experience — parallels V14's 'mām eva' (Me alone as ultimate refuge). When the Divine is the sacred canopy — the organizing ultimate — then the guṇa-field no longer has the same power to define and confuse, because it is understood within a larger framework. V14's remedy is the construction of the Divine as the ultimate sacred canopy.
Practice
V14 prapatti practice: at the start of meditation, explicitly offer everything — the body, the breath, the mind, the outcome of the session — to the Divine. 'I take refuge in You alone (mām eva). This practice is offered to You. I am crossing the māyā through this refuge.' Then sit, holding the dual recognition: māyā is real and hard (duratyayā) AND the refuge is real and effective (taranti te). Both truths simultaneously.
Public-domain translations (6) compare all →
Verily, this divine māyā of Mine, made of the guṇas, is difficult to cross. Those who take refuge in Me alone — they cross this māyā. [1]
Verily, this divine illusion of Mine, constituted of the Gunas, is difficult to cross over; those who devote themselves to Me alone, cross over this illusion. [4]
Verily, this divine Illusion of Mine, made of the gunas, is difficult to transcend. Only those who devote themselves to Me cross over this Illusion. [5]
For this is the divine mystery of my creative power, that I appear to be affected by the qualities; and it is most difficult to pass beyond it. Those who devote themselves to me alone pass beyond it. [6]
Yea! for this My magic that makes the seen world hard to see, and hard to shun. Howbeit, they who put their trust in Me pass Maya, not they who trust the Shows. [7]
For this divine illusion of mine, made up of the qualities, is difficult to penetrate. Those only who resort to me cross beyond this illusion. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Deluded by the three guṇa-constituted states, all this world does not recognize Me — beyond them, imperishable.
Abandon all dharmas, take refuge in Me alone — I will liberate you from all sins; do not grieve.
The mahātmās of divine nature worship Me with undivided mind, knowing Me as the immutable origin of all beings.
With mind attached, practising yoga, taking refuge in Me — hear how you shall know Me fully, without doubt.
The Lord dwells in the heart of all beings — whirling all, as if mounted on a machine, by His māyā.
The evildoer, the deluded, the lowest of men, those whose knowledge māyā has stolen — these do not take refuge in Me.