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What the Gītā says about nature

Nature in the Gītā is not scenery. It is the force that makes you act before you decide to. Krishna splits it in two: a lower nature — earth, water, fire, air, space, mind, understanding, and the sense of I — and a higher one, which is life itself, holding the whole world up. You live inside both at once. The lower nature drives every creature to move; even sitting still is nature's doing. The self, watching from within, does nothing at all, though ego insists otherwise. These verses trace that distinction from its first statement to its sharpest consequence. When you see that nature does all the doing and the self merely watches, something loosens. That seeing is what Krishna calls true sight.

Verses

3.5
No one sits actionless even for a moment. Nature's own forces drive everyone to act.
No one sits idle even for a moment — nature's forces drive every creature to act
3.27
Nature's forces do all the doing. Fooled by ego, a man thinks: I am the doer.
Nature does all the doing; only ego thinks 'I am the doer'
3.33
Even the wise act as their nature moves them. All beings follow nature — what can forcing accomplish?
Even the wise follow their own nature — forcing against it accomplishes nothing
7.4
Earth, water, fire, air, space; mind, understanding, and the sense of I — this is my nature, eightfold.
Krishna names his eightfold lower nature: earth, water, fire, air, space, mind, understanding, ego
7.5
But that is my lower nature. My higher nature is the very life in beings — it holds this world up.
Beyond the lower lies a higher nature — the life-force holding this world up
7.14
This veil of mine, woven of nature's strands, is divine and hard to cross. Those who come to me cross it.
Nature's veil is divine and hard to cross, but those who come to Krishna pass through
9.8
Commanding my own nature, I pour forth this whole host of beings again and again, bound by nature's sway.
Krishna commands his own nature and pours forth all beings, again and again
9.10
Under my watch, nature gives birth to all that moves and does not move. That is why the world turns.
Under Krishna's watch, nature gives birth to all that moves and stands
13.19
Nature and the person in it — know both as beginningless. All change, every quality, springs from nature.
Both nature and the self within it are beginningless — all change springs from nature
13.29
Who sees that nature alone does every deed, and the self does nothing — that one truly sees.
The one who sees nature doing all the work, and the self doing nothing, truly sees
18.60
Bound by the work born of your own nature, what you now refuse in confusion, you will do anyway — helpless.
What your own nature binds you to, you will do — even against your will