mayādhyakṣheṇa prakṛitiḥ sūyate sa-charācharam
hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate
mayā — by me;
adhyakṣheṇa — direction;
prakṛitiḥ — material energy;
sūyate — brings into being;
sa — both;
chara-acharam — the animate and the inanimate;
hetunā — reason;
anena — this;
kaunteya — Arjun, the son of Kunti;
jagat — the material world;
viparivartate — undergoes the changes
In this verse, the Supreme Lord is telling Arjuna that everything in the material world—animals, plants, and even non-living things—is created and managed under His guidance. Think of it like a big play where the Supreme Lord is the director, and the material nature is what brings the play to life.
Imagine a father who provides the necessary seeds for life. Just like a father gives the seed to the mother for a baby to grow, the Supreme Lord influences the material world so that all living beings can come into existence. However, He does this in a way that keeps Him separate from all the activities happening in the world. He watches the material nature do its work, and by just looking at it, He helps bring everything into existence.
Now, when we talk about living beings, they are born into different forms—birds, plants, fish, and humans—based on what they wanted in their past lives. This means they carry the results of their previous actions and desires into their new lives. So, although all living entities are created due to the Supreme Lord's glance, they end up in different forms depending on how they acted before.
The Supreme Lord doesn't interfere directly with how the material world runs; He gives it freedom to operate while He watches from a distance. You can think of it like a person smelling a flower. The scent of the flower is sensed, but the person and the flower are separate. The person is aware of the flower's fragrance, but they are not the same thing. In a similar way, the Supreme Lord has a connection with the material world, as He guides it, but He doesn't get involved in the day-to-day activities of it.
So, while this material nature is important and carries out all the work of creation and destruction, it does so under the Supreme Lord's oversight. The world doesn’t just run on its own; it needs that divine direction to keep operating, yet the Supreme Lord is not attached to the outcome of that work. This means He remains unaffected by what happens in the material world, allowing it to function according to its own rules while He oversees everything from above.