, victory over enemies, etc.,
regulations, such as fasts etc.; their own nature, i.e., disposition as
dependent on the acts of their past lives. Thus all the commentators.

208. The worshipper obtains his desires, thinking he gets them from the
godhead he worships. It is however, that gives him those.

209. The divinities being perishable, myself imperishable. What these
obtain is perishable. What my worshippers obtain is imperishable.

210. The ignorant, without knowledge of my transcendent essence take me
to be no higher than that what is indicated in my human and other
incarnate manifestations. Thus Sreedhara.

211. Adhyatman is explained as all that by which Brahman is to be
attained. All actions mean the whole course of duties and practices
leading to the knowledge of Brahman.

212. The three words occurring in this sloka and explained in the next
section, forming as they do the subject of a question by Arjuna.

213. Bhava is production, and Udbhava is growth or development. Thus
Sreedhara.

214. All the doors, i.e., the senses. Confining the mind within the
heart, i.e., withdrawing the mind from all external objects. Murdhni is
explained by Sreedhara to mean here "between the eyebrows."

215. All these regions being destructible and liable to re-birth, those
that live there are equally liable to death and re-birth.

216. The meaning, as explained by Sreedhara, is that such persons are
said to know all, and not those whose knowledge is bounded by the course
of the sun and the moon.

217. In this round of births and deaths, the creatures themselves are not
free agents, being all the while subject to the influence of Karma, as
explained by the commentators.

218. The commentators explain the word fire, the light, day, &c., as
several godheads presiding over particular times.

219. The atmosphere occupies space without affecting it or its nature. So
all things are in the Supreme Being without affecting him.

220. My nature, i.e., the unmanifest principle or primal essence.

221. Prakriti which I render "nature" is explained by the commentators as
Karma, the influence of Karma or action being universal in setting the
form of a particular entity at the time of its creation.

222. This reason, i.e., my supervision.

223. Sreedhara says that these are different modes of worship; "with
reverence and ever devoted" grammatically refers to each of the three
classes of worshippers indicated.

224. Performin