15.12-14: Matters that matter more than matter

The Bhagavad-gita (15.14) states that Krishna is the shelter of the body that we have taken shelter of; he arranges for the digestive mechanism that enables the body to function.

This verse comes at the end of a three-verse section (15.12-14) that indicates how our existence and enjoyment in the word of matter depend on something – rather someone – beyond matter. We may enjoy the good-looking face or the sweet-sounding voice of a person we love, but neither we nor that person arranged for the beauty of that face or the melody of that voice. Neither did the face muscles of voice cords arrange themselves because they being made of matter have no teleological capacity.

This section of the Gita is primarily directed to those of us who think that matter is all that matters; it prompts us to recognize that even the matter that matters to us depends on something more than matter. By directing our thought to the non-material organizing personality that underlies matter and its arrangement, Gita wisdom gradually urges us to realize that the beauty of that creator would far exceed the creation and we would be better off by loving the eternal creator than the temporal creation.

Then, developing our relationship with that source of all beauty becomes the matter that matters most for us.