himself in a thick cloud of darkness or a bright cloud of light, utterly he envelops and wraps himself in his Yogamâyâ.[1] "All this world" says the Gita "because it is bewildered by the three states of being determined by the modes of Nature, fails to recognise me; for this my divine Maya of the modes of Nature is hard to get beyond; those cross beyond it who approach Me; but those who dwell in the Asuric nature of being, have their knowledge reft from them by Maya." In other words, there is the inherent consciousness of the divine in all, for in all the Divine dwells; but he dwells there covered by his Maya and the essential self-knowledge of beings is reft from them, turned into the error of egoism by the action of Maya, the action of the mechanism of Prakriti. Still by drawing back from the mechanism of Nature to her inner and secret Master man can become conscious of the indwelling Divinity.
Now it is notable that with a slight but important variation of language the Gita describes in the same way both the action of the Divine in bringing about the ordinary birth of creatures and his action in his birth as the Avatar. "Leaning upon my own Nature, prakritim svâm avashtabhya," it will say later "I loose forth variously, visrjâmi, this multitude of creatures helplessly subject owing to the control of Prakriti, avaçam prakviter vaçât." "Standing upon my own Nature" it says here "I am born by my self-Maya, prakvitim svâm adhishthâya. . . .âtmamâyayâ, I loose forth myself, âtmânam srijâmi." The action implied in the word avashtabhya is a forceful downward pressure by which the object controlled is overcome, oppressed,
- ↑ Nâham prakâçah sarvasya yogamâyâ-samâvritah.
