Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 7: Knowledge and Realization
Bhagavad Gita 7.5
अपरेयमितस्त्वन्यां प्रकृतिं विद्धि मे पराम् ।
जीवभूतां महाबाहो ययेदं धार्यते जगत् ॥
apareyamitastvanyāṃ prakṛtiṃ viddhi me parām | jīvabhūtāṃ mahābāho yayedaṃ dhāryate jagat ||
This is my lower nature. But know my other, higher nature, mighty-armed Arjuna: the principle of life, by which this world is sustained.
Modern context
Beyond the eightfold nature there is a higher one: the living principle, consciousness itself, which sustains the world. Everything in the first list can be observed. This higher nature is the one doing the observing. It is what makes a body alive rather than merely a body. The distinction is one of the most useful in the Gita. Whatever we can watch in ourselves, a thought, a feeling, a sensation, belongs to the lower nature. The watcher belongs to the higher.