Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 9, Verse 4
मया ततमिदं सर्वं जगदव्यक्तमूर्तिना।
मत्स्थानि सर्वभूतानि न चाहं तेष्ववस्थितः।।
मत्स्थानि सर्वभूतानि न चाहं तेष्ववस्थितः।।
mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā
mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣvavasthitaḥ
also searched as "maya tatam idam sarvam jagad avyakta murtina"
Translation
This entire universe is pervaded by Me, in an unmanifest form. All beings abide in Me, but I do not abide in them.
Vāṇi's rendering
In my unseen form I fill this entire world. All beings rest in me — I do not rest in them.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| मयाmayā | by me |
| ततम्tatam | spread through, stretched across like thread through cloth |
| इदम्idaṁ | this |
| सर्वम्sarvaṁ | entire, whole |
| जगत्jagad | world, all that moves |
| अव्यक्तमूर्तिनाavyakta-mūrtinā | by the one whose form is unseen, not available to the senses |
| मत्स्थानिmat-sthāni | standing in me, having their place in me |
| सर्वभूतानिsarva-bhūtāni | all beings |
| नna | not |
| चca | and (joined by sandhi to the next word) |
| अहम्ahaṁ | I |
| तेषुteṣu | in them (joined by sandhi to the next word) |
| अवस्थितःavasthitaḥ | resting, seated, contained |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 9 Verse 4 mean?
Krishna says the whole moving world is spread through by him in a form no eye can reach. All beings have their standing in him; he has no standing in them. The dependence runs one way only. Nothing is outside him, and he is not contained by anything he fills.
What does maya tatam idam sarvam jagad avyakta murtina mean?
By me, unseen in form, all this world is pervaded — tatam, stretched through it like thread through cloth. Avyakta-mūrti is not formlessness but a form the senses cannot arrive at. You are woven of it while looking everywhere else for it.
Why does Krishna say all beings rest in him but he does not rest in them?
Because containment would make him smaller than the container. A jar stands in space; space does not stand in the jar. Beings depend on Krishna for their very being; he borrows nothing back. This is why nothing you do adds to him or diminishes him — and why nothing can drop you.
What is the unmanifest form Krishna speaks of here?
Avyakta-mūrti — a form that does not present itself to eye or instrument. Not absence. It is unseen because there is no outside from which to view it; you are always already within it. Krishna offers this before he ever shows Arjuna the vast visible form.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Notice the asymmetry, because everything is in it. All beings rest in me — and then, at once, I do not rest in them. Krishna fills this world the way space fills a jar: the jar depends on the space, the space needs no jar. Reverse it and you have something that can be located, contained, misplaced. Arjuna keeps asking for a form he can see. The unseen form is unseen precisely because nothing was left outside it. So you cannot fall out of what holds you. You can forget it. Being held does not wait on your remembering.