सर्वभूतानि कौन्तेय प्रकृतिं यान्ति मामिकाम् | कल्पक्षये पुनस्तानि कल्पादौ विसृजाम्यहम् ||७||
sarva-bhūtāni kaunteya prakṛtiṃ yānti māmikām | kalpa-kṣaye punas tāni kalpādau visṛjāmy aham || 7 ||
At the end of each cosmic age, all beings return to My prakriti — at the next dawn, I send them forth again.
Word by word (3)
- sarva-bhūtāni kaunteya prakṛtiṃ yānti māmikām / kalpa-kṣaye
- — All beings, O son of Kunti, go to My prakriti at the end of the cosmic age (kalpa-kṣaya) · sarva-bhūtāni = all beings (sarva = all; bhūtāni = beings — all without exception). kaunteya = O son of Kunti (kuntī-putra = son of Kuntī = Arjuna; a frequent address to Arjuna, emphasizing his lineage and Krishna's affection). prakṛtiṃ = to prakriti (prakṛti = the primal nature, the creative matrix of the manifest world; in Sāṃkhya: the uncaused cause of all material existence, consisting of three guṇas — sattva, rajas, tamas; māmikā = Mine, My own — prakṛtiṃ māmikām = 'My prakriti' not some independent force separate from Me). yānti = they go (√yā = to go; yānti = third person plural present — 'they go, they proceed'). kalpa-kṣaye = at the end of the kalpa (kalpa = a Brahma day, one cosmic age = one thousand mahāyugas = 4.32 billion human years; kṣaya = diminution, end — kalpa-kṣaya = the dissolution at the end of a cosmic age, the mahā-pralaya). At kalpa-kṣaya, all manifest beings dissolve back into unmanifest prakriti — the 'My prakriti' (māmikā) making clear this prakriti is not separate from Krishna.
- punaḥ tāni kalpādau visṛjāmi aham
- — At the beginning of the next cosmic age, I send them forth again · punaḥ = again (adverb — 'again, once more'). tāni = those beings (demonstrative pronoun — referring back to sarva-bhūtāni, 'those very same beings'). kalpādau = at the beginning of the kalpa (kalpa = cosmic age; ādau = at the beginning — kalpādau = 'at the dawn of a new cosmic age'). visṛjāmi = I send forth, I project (vi + √sṛj = to send forth, emit, create; first person singular — 'I send forth'; the same root as sṛṣṭi = creation). aham = I (emphatic — 'I, Myself, do this'). V7 describes the cosmic cycle in Ch.9's frame: at kalpa-kṣaya (dissolution), all beings dissolve into My prakriti (māmikā); at kalpādau (next creation), I send them forth again. This is the same cosmic cycle described in V8.17-V8.19 (Brahma's day/night cycle) but now from the perspective of Krishna's sovereign agency — it is HE who sends them forth (visṛjāmi aham). V8.18-V8.19 described the cycle mechanically (avyaktāt vyaktayaḥ; bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyante); V9.7 reveals the agent behind the cycle: the divine sovereignty (aiśvara-yoga, V5) that operates through prakriti.
- prakṛtiṃ māmikām — My prakriti (not an independent force)
- — V7's 'My prakriti' (māmikām) is a crucial qualification: prakriti is not an independent creative force separate from the Supreme — it is the divine's own creative power · The possessive māmikā (Mine, My own) attached to prakṛtim is philosophically decisive. In classical Sāṃkhya (before Vedāntic synthesis), prakriti (primal nature) and puruṣa (pure consciousness) are two independent, co-eternal principles — there is no 'ownership' of prakriti by puruṣa. The Gita's synthesis reverses this: prakriti is 'My prakriti' — Krishna's own creative power. This is the foundation of Ch.7's parā and aparā prakṛti teaching (V7.4-V7.6): the lower prakṛti (material nature) is subordinate to the higher prakṛti (the divine consciousness). V9.7's māmikā makes prakriti an instrument of divine sovereignty, not an independent force. This has major implications: (1) The cosmic cycle (dissolution/creation) is not a blind mechanical process but an act of divine will (visṛjāmy aham = 'I send them forth'); (2) Beings that dissolve into prakriti at kalpa-kṣaya do not cease to exist — they rest in 'My prakriti,' in the divine creative matrix, awaiting the next kalpa. The parallel with V8.19's bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyante (helplessly cycling) is completed by V9.8's avaśaṃ prakṛter vaśāt — they are under prakriti's sway, not the sway of an independent nature but of the divine's own creative nature.
V7 describes the cosmic cycle from the perspective of divine agency: at kalpa-kṣaya (the end of a Brahma cosmic age — 4.32 billion years), all beings (sarva-bhūtāni) dissolve back into My prakriti (prakṛtiṃ māmikām — Krishna's own creative matrix). At kalpādau (the beginning of the next cosmic age), Krishna sends them forth again (visṛjāmy aham). V7 is the Ch.9 revelation of what Ch.8 described cosmologically: the Brahma day/night cycle (V8.17-V8.19) is now revealed as an act of divine sovereign will, not just blind cosmic mechanism.
A modern analogy
In physics, the Big Bang theory describes our universe as having a beginning point of projection. Some cosmological models include cyclic cosmologies (like ekpyrotic models) where universes expand, contract, and re-expand in cosmic cycles. V7 is the Gita's cosmic cycle model at maximum scale: the universe (all beings) dissolves into the cosmic ground (My prakriti) and is re-projected at the next cosmic dawn. The scale is staggering — 4.32 billion years per half-cycle.
What it does NOT mean
V7's cosmic cycle is not a description of personal reincarnation (one person's birth-death-rebirth within a single kalpa). It is describing the macro-cosmic cycle of entire universes — the dissolution and re-projection of all manifest reality at the scale of Brahma's cosmic day and night. Personal reincarnation operates within a single kalpa; V7 describes the cosmic-scale dissolution and creation at the kalpa level.
Take with you
- V7's cosmic perspective is a direct antidote to 'small-problem thinking': when your current difficulty feels overwhelming, V7 places it in cosmic context. This difficulty is occurring within a single human lifetime, within a single kalpa that is itself one of infinite kalpas in the divine creative cycle. The divine that sends forth and dissolves entire universes is also present in this moment. V7's scale is the practice of cosmic perspective.
- V7's 'My prakriti' (māmikā) teaches that the material world is not something separate from or opposed to the spiritual. The prakriti that generates all material existence is Krishna's own creative power — matter is not the enemy of spirit but the expression of the divine's creative nature. This resolves the spirit-vs-matter dualism that causes so much confusion in spiritual paths.
- V7 as a comfort in impermanence: all beings return to 'My prakriti' — not to oblivion but to the divine creative matrix. Dissolution is not annihilation but return to the source. And from that source, I send them forth again. The cycle is divine, not meaningless.
V9.7 reveals the agent behind the cosmic cycle of V8.17-V8.19. Ch.8 described the cycle cosmologically: at brahma's dawn, beings emerge from the avyakta; at brahma's dusk, they return. The subject was 'brahma's day' — the time-cycle as the agent. V9.7 now names the ultimate agent: I (aham = Krishna) send them forth (visṛjāmy aham) and they return to My prakriti (prakṛtiṃ māmikām). The kalpa-scale cycle (sarva-bhūtāni → My prakriti → sent forth again) is the macro-cosmic frame within which all individual karma and rebirth cycles operate. Individual reincarnation (one soul's multiple births within a kalpa) is the micro-pattern; V9.7 is the macro-pattern. The same divine sovereignty that governs V9.22's care for individual devotees also governs the dissolution and re-creation of entire universes. The māmikā (My own) qualification of prakṛtim is the chapter's key theological statement: prakriti is not a force independent of the divine (as in classical Sāṃkhya) but the divine's own creative power. This makes the cosmic cycle not a blind mechanical process but an expression of divine will — visṛjāmy aham (I send them forth). The 'pleasure' dimension (Arnold: 'Such is My pleasure') reflects the concept of the divine's creative freedom — the cosmos is not a necessity but a divine līlā (creative play).
Advaita lens
Shankaracharya: kalpa-kṣaye sarva-bhūtāni prakṛtiṃ yānti māmikām = at dissolution, all differentiated forms (nāma-rūpa) are resolved back into the undifferentiated Brahman-nature. This is not destruction but return to the formless. kalpādau visṛjāmy aham = at the next creation, avidyā (the seed of re-manifestation) causes the re-differentiation. V7 from the Advaita view: the creation-dissolution cycle is the operation of māyā — appearing as cosmic time-bound change within the eternally unchanging Brahman.
Bhakti lens
For bhakti traditions, V7's visṛjāmy aham (I send them forth) reveals that every being's existence begins with an act of divine will. You are here because the Supreme sent you forth at this kalpa's dawn. Your existence is not accidental but an intentional act of divine creative generosity. V7's bhakti implication: gratitude for existence as a divine gift.
Karma-Yoga lens
V7's cosmic cycle is the karma yogi's long-view: all actions performed within this kalpa contribute to the karmic seed-state (saṃskāras) that carries through prakriti's dissolution into the next kalpa's expression. Karma yoga's goal is to exhaust this seed-state through desireless action — so that at kalpa-kṣaya, the dissolution is complete and no seeds remain for the next projection.
Modern parallels
V7's kalpa cycle of 4.32 billion years per Brahma day is remarkably close to the age of Earth (4.54 billion years) and the current age of the universe (13.8 billion years — roughly 3 Brahma days). Whether coincidental or not, V7's cosmic scale frames creation and dissolution at the actual astronomical scale of universal history — not a myth-time but a cosmic-time that matches modern astronomical measurement.
Practice
V7 cosmic scale meditation: sit quietly and gradually expand temporal perspective — from today, to this year, to your lifetime, to humanity's history, to Earth's 4.5 billion years, to the universe's 13.8 billion years. At the far horizon: all beings dissolving back into prakriti at kalpa-kṣaya. Then the silence before creation. Then I send them forth again. Rest in that silence between dissolution and re-projection. That is prakriti māmikā — the divine creative matrix before the next kalpa's dawn.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
At the end of a Kalpa, O son of Kunti, all beings go back to My Prakriti: at the beginning of (another) Kalpa, I send them forth again. [4]
At the end of each Kalpa, O son of Kunti, all things return to my nature, and at the beginning of another Kalpa, I send them all forth again. [6]
Yet, when the Aeon ends, I send again All this existing world to dissolution--Such is My pleasure--and again, at the commencement of another Aeon, I reproduce it. [7]
At the end of a kalpa, O son of Kunti, all entities return to my nature; and at the beginning of a kalpa, I send them forth again. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Those who know Brahma's Day as a thousand yugas and his Night as a thousand yugas — they know day and night truly.
This same multitude of beings, born again and again, helplessly dissolves at Brahma's night and re-emerges at dawn.
Know My higher nature — the life-element (jīva-bhūtā) distinct from the lower — by which this world is sustained.
Whoever does not turn the cosmic wheel of giving — living only for sense-pleasure — lives in vain.
I taught this imperishable yoga to the sun-god at the dawn of time — it has been passed down through kings ever since.
Whenever dharma declines and adharma rises — I project Myself forth. The divine responds to every crisis.