The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

╭ chapter thirteen
Gita does not mention these two because it comes essentially
from the Vishnu tradition, but in the other great stream of
the Hindu faith, Shiva is the eternal Spirit, the Absolute, represented
as dwelling aloof on the mountain peak of spiritual
peace. Shakti, the Divine Mother, is his creative partner, and
without her, Shiva could never have created the world. Shakti
– she has many names in her various manifestations – rules
in the realm of birth and death; Shiva, Purusha, lives in the
realm of the immortal. Together the two represent Brahman,
the attributeless Godhead, and the creative power of the Godhead
called maya. Thus it is in the union of Shiva and Shakti
that all things are born.
This chapter emphasizes that the Self, the real knower, is
ever uninvolved in the shifting forces that play over the field.
There is no possibility of any soul being eternally lost, for all
beings partake of the immortal, pure nature of Purusha. We
may endure countless eons of birth and death, but we must
finally find our rest in the eternal spirit. By definition, nothing
taking place in the realm of prakriti can affect Purusha;
but the exact nature of the interaction of these two is a profound
mystery.
Verse 32 explains this mystery by drawing a comparison
with akasha, the subtlest element recognized by the ancient
philosophers. Akasha is space itself. Just as space pervades the
cosmos, yet remains pure even in the midst of impure things,
so the Self remains completely pure, even though it dwells in
╭ 214