The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

Wisdom from Realization ╯
Hindu mythology, it is the god Brahma who takes credit for
creating the world. It is he, the four-faced deity, who has flung
forth the manifold worlds of this and former (as well as future)
universes. But in the mythology of Vishnu, Brahma is born in
the lotus that grows from Vishnu’s navel. The lotus is Vishnu’s
womb. In it Brahma is born, and at Vishnu’s urging he creates
the worlds. Vishnu is the real Creator; Brahma is a demigod
born of Vishnu’s will to create. Here in the Gita Krishna
directly assumes all the roles and honors usually shared with
the other aspects of God worshipped in the Hindu faith. It
is not that these other divine personifications are rejected,
but simply that all attention is on Krishna. For the author of
the Gita, Krishna is the form of God to be worshipped, and
for the time being all other forms of God disappear. Krishna
alone is. In fact, one verse states that whatever other god one
seems to worship, one is in reality approaching Krishna himself.
Worshipping him, knowing him, enables the devotee to
attain the goal.
Though the word is not used in the Gita, the idea of the
world as Krishna’s lila, his play, became a cherished theme of
later Hinduism. Krishna, it is said, created the world in play:
just as a child might desire to have companions to play with,
Krishna desired companions, and made the world. Krishna
participates in the game of life; his divine qualities shine
through in the world wherever there is excellence of any kind.
He is, he tells Arjuna, the essence of every created thing: the
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