And the beings, from Brahmā downward, do not abide in Me. Behold My yoga, the contriving, the joining, this sovereign yoga of Me the Lord; behold the true nature of the Self. And the scripture, by reason of My uncontacting nature, shows the state of being unattached: 'the unattached one is not attached' (Bṛhadāraṇyaka 3.9.26). And behold this other wonder: I am the upholder of beings; though unattached, I bear up beings, and yet I do not abide in beings, since by the reasoning shown the state of abiding in beings is untenable. How then is it said that this is My Self? Distinguishing the aggregate of body and the rest, superimposing the ego-sense upon it, and following the common notion of the world, one says 'My Self'; it is not said as one ignorant, in the way of the world, who supposes there is a self of the Self other than the Self. Likewise He is the originator of beings: He brings beings into being, gives rise to them, or makes them grow. Giving the meaning stated in the two verses an illustration, He says.

And the beings do not stand in Me: My upholding of them is not like that of pots and the like by water and the rest. How then? By My resolve. See My lordly discipline (yoga), the wonder, impossible anywhere else and shared by no other, that is Mine alone. What is that discipline? 'Upholding beings and yet not standing in beings, My self brings beings into being.' I am the upholder of all beings, and yet there is from them no use at all to Me; My self alone, that is, My resolve which is made of mind, is the bringer-into-being, the upholder, and the governor of beings. The Lord gives an example for the standing and the activity of all this as depending on His own resolve.

Even though they abide in Me, it is not as things abide on the earth, touching it; so Krishna says, 'and not'. For the Moksha-dharma says, 'He is not seen by the eye, nor touched by the touch' (Mahabharata 12.339.21), and 'known and not known' (Mahabharata 12.338.47), and 'My self is the body itself, the maker of beings; it is the glory-body of the great power' (Mahabharata 12.338.174-175).