Gita 09.04 – God relates with the world through the impersonal, the immanent and the transcendent
Thank you Bhagavad Gita 9.4 मयात तमिदं सर्वं जगदव्यक्तमूर्तिना मच्ठानि सर्वभूतानि नचाहं तेश्ववस्तितः मयात तमिदं सर्वं Krishna from this verse in the Gita's ninth chapter Krishna starts describing his relationship with the material world in the first three verses he has glorified the knowledge that he is going to share so here he states now he is moving on to the details of that knowledge one aspect is his inconceivable relationship with the world this is part of the guhya gyan that he is giving so he states here मयात तमिदं सर्वं मया by me तमिदं सर्वं इदं इदं धेश सर्वं all of it so all of this universe by me अव्यक्तमूर्तिना it is pervaded in my unmanifested form मच्ठानि सर्वभूतानि in me all of existence all living beings are situated नचाहं तेश्व वस्थितः नचाहं but I am not in them so here many important points first let's look at it this verse talks about God's omnipresence we know that among the defining attributes of God are omnipotence omniscience omnipresence so omnipotence is he is all powerful, omniscience he knows everything omnipresence is he is present everywhere so how is he present by his pervasiveness in his अव्यक्तमूर्तिना now this is an intriguing phrase अव्यक्तमूर्तिना cause form मूर्ति can usually be translated as form and form is usually not thought of as unmanifest form is something which is unmanifest to us so for example when we make a मूर्ति, मूर्ति is a replica and effigy, figurine statue, whatever it is when we make a form of someone that basically means that we have it visible to us that is that is actually that is the essential meaning of the word form that something is visible, perceivable to us if that is the case then what does अव्यक्तमूर्तिना mean so the word अव्यक्त we have seen that it has been used by Krishna earlier in the previous chapter that in he used in 8.20 before that in 8.18 also so 8.18 it referred to matter in a manifest and unmanifest form so when the universe is created the matter comprising it is in a manifest form when the universe is destroyed the matter matter comprising it goes into unmanifest form and then he talked about that was अव्यक्ताद्विक्तयासर्वाप्रभवत्यहरागमे रात्रयागमे प्रलीयंते तत्रईवाव्यक्तसंग्यके and then beyond that in beyond that in 8.20 he used it as परस्तस्मात्भावोन्यो व्यक्तोव्यक्ताद्सनातनः यहससर्वेशु भूतेशु So there he used the word avyakta to refer to parastasmat bhavonyo, so he's talking about the spiritual world which is beyond the vyakta and avyakta and then he's talking about in 8.21 that avyakta kshagityuktas tamahu paramam gatim yam prapinanivartante tad dhama paramammama There he has used the word avyakta to characterize the spiritual world and this avyakta is not unmanifest matter, this is, that which is transcendental to matter, that which is spiritual. So the word avyakta has different meanings in different places.
Now what does it mean in this context, avyakta murtina, so we could say that it refers to unmanifest form. Now this can refer at one level to Krishna, Krishna's form in general is unmanifest. Krishna is transcendental and because he's transcendental he is not perceivable to us directly with our senses, so of course Krishna's personal form is perceivable through our spiritual senses and Krishna's personal form manifests as the deity that is perceivable to us even through our material senses, but here what is being referred to is not the personal form but the impersonal form, avyakta murtina, so now usually the word form is used here not exactly in the shape or not exactly to refer to shape but it is used to refer to manifestation that the lord has many manifestations and one of them is the impersonal manifestation, so it is impersonal manifestation when he exists that manifestation is something which is beyond, that is beyond nature and in that manifestation there is that so it's unmanifest, it is beyond nature, it is not material, it's transcendental but still it is beyond perception also, so Krishna pervades all of existence in his avyakta murtina, so this answers the question why is, if he's all-pervading why is he invisible to us because he exists in a impersonal form, in a form which is not perceivable to our vision avyakta, but then after that also he says that machsthani sarva bhutani machsthani that all living beings are situated in him, this means that god is not disconnected from the world, he is the sustainer, they are situated in him, but I am not situated in them, so this verse can refer in a broad pattern to the three manifestations of the absolute truth, brahman, parmatma and bhagwan, the first verse, the first two lines refer to brahman, the third line to the parmatma, this refers to brahman who is manifested everywhere, who is not manifested, who pervades, who is the manifestation of gods, god who pervades everywhere but is unmanifest to our vision, and then there is parmatma who is the sustainer of all of existence, the sustainer of all living beings, and then there is bhagwan who is beyond this world, who is transcendental in his self-existence beyond this world and his own abode, so in a nutshell these words can be said to be referring to all these three manifestations of the absolute truth and the distinct relationships that they have with this world and the living beings in this world, so one is the all-pervasive manifestation, the other is the immanent manifestation, and the third is the transcendent manifestation, the impersonal, the immanent and the transcendent are all three referred to in this single verse in a capsule form.