नाहं प्रकाशः सर्वस्य योगमायासमावृतः | मूढोऽयं नाभिजानाति लोको मामजमव्ययम् ||२५||
nāhaṃ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ | mūḍho'yaṃ nābhijānāti loko mām ajam avyayam || 25 ||
Veiled by yoga-māyā, I am not manifest to all — this deluded world does not recognize Me, the Unborn, the Imperishable.
Word by word (3)
- na ahaṃ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ
- — I am not manifest to all — veiled by yoga-māyā · na = not. ahaṃ = I. prakāśaḥ = manifest, visible, illuminated (from pra + √kāś = to shine; prakāśa = light, illumination, manifestation — 'I am not manifest/visible to all'). sarvasya = to all (genitive — 'not visible to everyone'). yoga-māyā = the divine creative power in its yoga (yoga = union, divine agency; māyā = creative power; yoga-māyā = the Supreme's own power of self-concealment — distinguished from mere māyā by the 'yoga' prefix, which indicates it is the Supreme's own deliberate power, not an external force). samāvṛtaḥ = veiled, covered (sam = fully; āvṛta = covered; samāvṛtaḥ = completely covered/veiled). V25 introduces 'yoga-māyā' — a term that appears rarely in the Gita. It is the Supreme's own power of self-concealment: the Divine's deliberate maintenance of a veil that makes the paraṃ bhāvam (V24's supreme state) invisible to those not yet ready to recognize it.
- mūḍhaḥ ayaṃ loko na abhijānāti mām ajam avyayam
- — this deluded world does not recognize Me — the Unborn, the Imperishable · mūḍhaḥ = deluded (from √muh — the same moha/delusion of V13; mūḍha = thoroughly deluded). ayaṃ = this. lokaḥ = world (the ordinary world of embodied beings). na = not. abhijānāti = does not directly recognize (the same abhi + √jñā as V13 — direct, firsthand recognition). mām = Me. ajam = the Unborn (a = not; ja = born — aja = unborn, birthless; the Supreme as prior to all birth, prior to all manifestation — the avyakta of V24). avyayam = the Imperishable (the same avyayam as V13 and V24 — immutable, without diminishment). V25 completes V24's teaching: the world is mūḍha (deluded); its delusion is sustained by yoga-māyā (the Supreme's own concealing power); and what it fails to recognize is 'mām ajam avyayam' — the Unborn and Imperishable. This is the highest qualification of the Supreme's avyakta nature: not just unmanifest (V24's avyakta) but Unborn (aja — prior to all manifestation) and Imperishable (avyayam — beyond all ending).
- yoga-māyā — the Supreme's own power of self-veiling
- — the divine creative power (māyā) deployed by the Supreme's will (yoga) to maintain the veil of self-concealment · Yoga-māyā is a theologically significant compound that appears rarely in the Gita. It differs from māyā (V14's 'daivī māyā') in the 'yoga' prefix: yoga here means the Supreme's own deliberate agency, its sovereign power. So yoga-māyā is not an independent force that veils the Divine against the Divine's will — it IS the Divine's own power of self-concealment deployed sovereignly. The implication: the Divine's self-concealment from 'all' (sarvasya) is deliberate, not accidental. The Supreme chooses not to be universally manifest. Why? The teaching throughout Ch.7 provides the answer: universal manifest visibility would eliminate the conditions of genuine seeking (V3's jijñāsu, V16's fourfold typology, V14's prapatti). The veil is itself the field in which spiritual maturation occurs. When the maturation is complete ('vāsudevaḥ sarvam' of V19), the veil dissolves — not because it is removed from outside but because the discriminating wisdom (V14's crossing of māyā) dissolves the maya from within.
V25 gives the mechanism of V24's abuddhi error: the Supreme is not manifest to all (na prakāśaḥ sarvasya) because the Supreme is veiled by yoga-māyā (its own power of self-concealment). The deluded world (mūḍho'yaṃ lokaḥ) does not directly recognize Krishna as 'ajam avyayam' — the Unborn and Imperishable. V25 introduces the concept of yoga-māyā: the Supreme's own sovereign power of self-veiling that makes universal recognition impossible and maintains the field of genuine seeking.
A modern analogy
The sky is always present and vast, but clouds cover it. You could say the sky is 'veiled by clouds.' But the clouds are not the sky's enemy — they are part of the same atmospheric system that makes life on Earth possible. V25's yoga-māyā is like the clouds: they veil the supreme sky (the avyakta ground) while being part of the same system. The clouds (yoga-māyā) veil the sky (the Unborn, Imperishable) not against the sky's will but as an expression of the atmospheric conditions that the sky itself sustains.
What it does NOT mean
V25 does NOT say the Supreme is hiding in order to deceive or test. Yoga-māyā is not a trick. It is the Supreme's sovereign deployment of the creative power that makes phenomenal existence possible. The veil is the field of existence itself; without it, there would be no world, no seekers, no path of spiritual maturation. V25's yoga-māyā is the positive condition of the possibility of spiritual seeking, not a hostile concealment.
Take with you
- V25's 'na ahaṃ prakāśaḥ sarvasya' (I am not manifest to all) is honest about spiritual epistemology: direct recognition of the Divine is not automatic or universal. It is the fruit of the seeking described in Ch.7 — through jñāna, bhakti, karma yoga, and prapatti. This prevents naive 'God is obvious to everyone' assumptions.
- V25's yoga-māyā teaches that the veil is not an obstacle to be overcome by force but a condition to be understood. V14's remedy (taking refuge in Me) works WITH yoga-māyā, not against it: the refuge dissolves the veil from within by deepening the recognition of the ground. The veil cannot be stripped away by argument or will; it dissolves through jñāna and prapatti.
- V25's 'ajam avyayam' (Unborn, Imperishable) — two of the most fundamental qualifications of the Supreme in all of Indian philosophy. 'Aja' (unborn) means: prior to all manifestation, not subject to birth and death. 'Avyayam' (imperishable) means: not subject to diminishment, not subject to ending. The Supreme's primary nature is beyond all temporal categories — V25 affirms this in the face of the abuddhi's reduction of the Divine to a temporal manifestation.
V25 introduces the concept of yoga-māyā — a theologically critical term that distinguishes the Supreme's sovereign self-veiling from ordinary māyā (the guṇa-field's cognitive obscuration). The distinction: ordinary māyā (V14's daivī māyā) is the Supreme's creative power that produces the phenomenal world and its cognitive obscurations; yoga-māyā is the same power deployed as deliberate sovereign self-concealment — the Supreme's own choice to maintain a veil that makes universal recognition impossible. The philosophical significance: yoga-māyā is not an imperfection or a limitation of the Supreme. It is the Supreme's sovereign act. This makes the self-concealment an expression of divine will and divine wisdom, not a cosmic accident. The Supreme is 'not manifest to all' (na prakāśaḥ sarvasya) by sovereign choice — maintaining the conditions for genuine seeking, for the fourfold devotee typology of V16, for the prapatti of V14. V25's 'aja' (Unborn) and 'avyayam' (Imperishable) are the deepest qualifications of the Supreme's avyakta nature (V24): prior to all birth (aja = birthless), beyond all decay (avyayam = imperishable). These two together rule out both the error of reduction (the Divine was born, will die — the abuddhi's error) and the materialist error (the Divine does not exist). The Supreme IS — beyond birth, beyond ending, prior to all manifestation, sustaining all manifestation.
Advaita lens
Shankaracharya: yoga-māyā is the Supreme's ātma-māyā (self-māyā) — Brahman's own power of self-concealment that produces the appearance of the world and the appearance of individual selves. The 'yoga' in yoga-māyā indicates that this is Brahman's own agency — not a power separate from Brahman but Brahman's own creative-concealing activity. In realization (V19's 'vāsudevaḥ sarvam'), yoga-māyā dissolves — not because it is removed but because the practitioner sees through it to the avyakta ground.
Bhakti lens
For bhakti traditions, yoga-māyā is the mystery of the Lord's self-concealment that makes the bhakta's seeking necessary and precious. If the Lord were universally manifest, there would be no seeking, no longing, no deepening of love through the search. The yoga-māyā maintains the conditions for the bhakta's journey. When the Lord lifts the veil for the sincere devotee (V21-22's śraddhā-sustenance), it is an act of grace — the Lord revealing himself through yoga-māyā's partial dissolution.
Karma-Yoga lens
V25's yoga-māyā teaches the karma yogi that the Divine ground, though always present as the source of all action and its fruits (V22's mayā eva vihitān), is not universally recognized. The karma yogi's practice is to act from the recognition of the ground — not waiting for the ground to become universally evident but acting AS IF (and from the recognition of) V19's 'vāsudevaḥ sarvam,' even when yoga-māyā maintains the veil.
Modern parallels
V25's yoga-māyā parallels the phenomenological concept of 'the background' in Husserl's consciousness studies: the immediate environment of experience is always present but recedes into the background as attention focuses on figures in the foreground. The Supreme (avyakta ground) is always present but recedes into the background of ordinary experience, which focuses on the figures of the phenomenal world. Yoga-māyā is the mechanism of this backgrounding.
Practice
V25 unborn awareness practice: in meditation, when the mind is settled, rest in the question: 'What is it that was never born and will never end?' Not as an intellectual inquiry but as a direct pointing toward the aja (unborn) nature of awareness itself. The awareness that is present before any thought arises — was it born? Can it be said to end? This pointing is V25's 'ajam avyayam' applied as direct recognition.
Public-domain translations (6) compare all →
Veiled by the yoga-māyā, I am not manifest to all. This deluded world does not know Me — the Unborn, the Immutable. [1]
Veiled by the illusion born of the congress of the Gunas, I am not manifest to all. This deluded world knows Me not — the Unborn, the Immutable. [4]
Shrouded by illusion born of the pairs of opposites, all this world knows Me not, the Eternal, the Unborn. [5]
I am not visible to all, being veiled by my divine power of illusion. This bewildered world knoweth me not — unborn and imperishable. [6]
Being of all unmanifest, by My sovereign grace, concealed from men who know not what I am and what I do, this world is led astray from knowledge of Me. [7]
Being concealed by the illusion arising from the connections of the qualities, I am not known to all. This ignorant world knows not me — the unborn, the imperishable. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
The unwise regard Me — the unmanifest — as manifest, not knowing My supreme, imperishable, and unsurpassed state.
Deluded by the three guṇa-constituted states, all this world does not recognize Me — beyond them, imperishable.
This divine māyā of Mine, made of the guṇas, is hard to cross — but those who take refuge in Me alone do cross it.
You grieve for those who should not be grieved for — and call it wisdom.
Arjuna asks: what does the truly wise person look like? How do they speak, sit, and move?
Knowing this you will not fall into delusion again — you will see all beings in the Self, and thus in Me.