Bhagavad Gita Chapter 10, Verse 8 (BG 10.8) — Meaning, Translation & Commentary

The distinction between the individual and the universal arises solely from the limiting adjuncts through which the one eternal, complete Truth manifests itself. Because of these two adjuncts, Brahman successively assumes the nature of the individual soul and the Supreme Lord—just as the same electrical force expresses itself as light in a bulb and as heat in a heater. Electricity itself possesses neither light nor heat. Similarly, the Supreme Self in itself possesses neither the nature of the Lord nor that of the individual soul. The person who knows this in truth attains steadfastness in Brahman through unwavering yoga. A potter, in fashioning a vessel, first prepares pliable clay suitable for the work. Then he places the ball of clay upon the wheel and transforms it into the shape of a pot. In the third stage, he dries the vessel and polishes it to brightness, and in the fourth stage, he fires the finished pot and applies color to it. In this process of pot-making, the clay can indeed say that it is the source from which the pot emerges. Through all four stages of the pot's development, clay remains the substratum—nothing else. This truth holds for all pots in all times. No pot can originate, grow, or develop without the material cause that is clay. In the same way, the one conscious Supreme Self appears as both the Lord and the individual soul. The person who through discrimination has understood this subtle distinction between the individual and the universal can withdraw the mind from the external world and establish it firmly in the Self, which is the substratum of both. This state of mind is indicated here by the meaningful word "united in devotion." The measure of love or devotion is the capacity of a person to identify himself with what he holds dear. In brief, the perfection of love lies in the perfection of this identification. When a devotee comes to experience directly that the one Supreme Self, through the limiting adjuncts of the individual and universal consciousness, has become, as it were, both Lord and individual soul, then such a devotee is said to have attained supreme devotion. The devotion that was merely hinted at in the previous verse is here presented in an orderly manner as a spiritual practice. Through the cultivation of this practice, the knowledge described above can become the intimate and personal experience of every seeker.