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GĪTA, TRANSLATION & COMMENTARY, CHAP. IV 943
अजोऽपि सन्नव्ययात्मा भूतानामीश्वरोऽपि सन् । प्रकृति स्वामधिष्ठाय संभवाम्यात्ममायया ॥६॥ यदा यदा हि धस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत।
अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदाऽत्मानं सृजाम्यहम् ॥ ७॥ Myself have lived through many lives. I know all this; (and) O Parantapa! you do not (this is the difference). (6) Being the Lord of (all) created beings, and free from births, (and) though the form of My Ātman never suffers uyaya' (that is, modification), yet, governing My own Prakştı, I come to birth by My own Māyā.
[In the Spiritual Knowledge contained in this stanza, a fusion has been made of the Kāpila-Samkhya with the Vedānta philosophy. The Sāmkhya doctrine is that the Prakrti creates the world of its own accord; but the Vedāntins look upon Prakrti as a form of the Parameśvara, and believe that the world is created as a result of the Parameśvara governing (becoming adhisthita in) His own Praksti. This unimaginable power of the Parameśvara to create the entire cosmos from His Imperceptible form is called 'Māyā' in the Gītā; and there are similarly such statements in the Svetāśvataropanisad as “ māyām tu prakrtım vidyān māyinain tu maheśvaram" (Sve. 4. 10), that is, "Prakrti is nothing else but Māyā, and the Parameswara is the Lord of that Māyā", and "asmān māyī srjate viśram etat" (Sve. 4. 9), that is, "from it, the Lord of Māyā, creates this world". See the exhaustive discussion made by me in Chapter IX of the Gītā-Rahasya on the questions, (i) why is Prakrti called “Māyā'? (ii) what is the form of this Māyā ? (iii) what is meant by saying that the world is created as a result of Māya? etc. Having thus explained how the Imperceptible (avyakta) Parameśvara becomes Perceptible (vyakta), that is to say, how Karma is seen to have come into existence, the Blessed Lord now
explains when and why He does so-1. (7) O Bhārata! whenever Righteousness declines and Uprighteousness becomes powerful, then I Myself come to