Sanskrit
ममैवांशो जीवलोके जीवभूतः सनातनः । मनःषष्ठानीन्द्रियाणि प्रकृतिस्थानि कर्षति ॥
mamaivāṃśo jīvaloke jīvabhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛtisthāni karṣati
Translation
A portion of Mine own Self, transformed in the world of life into an immortal Spirit, draweth round itself the senses of which the mind is the sixth, veiled in matter.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The register shifts here from cosmic tree to individual psychology: the jiva, the embodied soul, is described as an eternal “portion” (aṃśa) of Krishna’s own Self, which then pulls the mind and five senses around itself like an owner gathering tools. “Portion” is doing real metaphysical work — it commits the verse to a part-whole relationship between the individual self and the divine Self, rather than either strict identity or strict separation, a position later commentators (Ramanuja especially) would build entire schools of interpretation around. This is the verse most directly about atman as this chapter treats it — not the abstract, changeless witness-self of chapter 2, but the same self conceived as what actually migrates and reincarnates.
Concepts