Text 12

ye caiva sattvika bhava
rajasas tamasas ca ye
matta eveti tan viddhi
na tv aham tesu te mayi

Translation

Know that all states of being—be they of goodness, passion or ignorance—are manifested by My energy. I am, in one sense, everything, but I am independent. I am not under the modes of material nature, for they, on the contrary, are within Me.

Commentary by Srila Prabhupada

All material activities in the world are being conducted under the three modes of material nature. Although these material modes of nature are emanations from the Supreme Lord, Krishna, He is not subject to them. For instance, under the state laws one may be punished, but the king, the lawmaker, is not subject to that law. Similarly, all the modes of material nature—goodness, passion and ignorance—are emanations from the Supreme Lord, Krishna, but Krishna is not subject to material nature. Therefore He is nirguna, which means that these gunas, or modes, although issuing from Him, do not affect Him. That is one of the special characteristics of Bhagavan, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Commentary by Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur

The expression of my powers, being the cause of things or the essence of inanimate objects and such living entities as raksasas and others have been mentioned. There is no need to list these more extensively. All things are dependent on me, and are an expression of my power. Those things (bhava) in the mode of goodness, like sense and mind control and the devatas; those in the mode of passion, such as lust and pride, and the asuras like Hiranyakasipu; and those in the mode of ignorance like lamentation, illusion and the raksasas—these are all the products of the gunas of prakrti belonging to me. I do not exist in them: I do not depend on them like the jivas. But they exist in me: they are dependent on me.