14.3 The womb and the seed Krishna speaks

मम योनिर्महद्ब्रह्म तस्मिन् गर्भं दधाम्यहम्
संभवः सर्वभूतानां ततो भवति भारत

mama yonir mahad brahma tasmin garbhaṁ dadhāmy aham
sambhavaḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ tato bhavati bhārata

My womb is the great nature; in it I place the seed, and from that comes the birth of all beings, Arjuna.

Explanation

A womb and a seed, and the divine is both parents.

mahad brahma, the great nature, is the womb; he places the seed. Everything born comes from that pairing.

The image is doing something specific about matter. Nature is not the opposition or the obstacle here — it is where he puts things, which is a warmer account of the material world than the chapter's taxonomy will suggest.

Word by word

mama: my
yoniḥ: womb
mahat brahma: the total material substance, prakṛiti
tasmin: in that
garbham: womb
dadhāmi: impregnate
aham: I
sambhavaḥ: birth
sarva-bhūtānām: of all living beings
tataḥ: thereby
bhavati: becomes
bhārata: Arjun, the son of Bharat