VIII: 3

Chapter 8, Verse 3

Krishna says,

"Complete freedom is union with the deathless,
The Self, which is the essence of all things.
Its creative power, called action [Karma],
Causes the whole world to be and to evolve."

Sri Aurobindo:

Here we find universal principles enumerated.  By that Self, Brahm, a word that is used in the Upanishads for the Self-existent as opposed to phenomenal being, Krishna means that immutable Self-existence, that unalterable Ground of Being upon which all the rest, all that moves and evolves, is founded.  Karma is the name given to the creative impulse and energy which works out the cosmic becoming of existences in the phenomenal world of Nature.

Sri Eknath Easwaran:

The Upanishads say that this very Brahm, beyond all change and limitation, has brought all things into existence as a spider spins its web out of itself.  It is less a process of creation and more of an emanation.  A spider doesn't have to go to a yarn shop to buy fine silk thread for the web.  It has everything it needs inside.

In an analogous way, God's creative power, Maya, spins out the Cosmos in such a way that a little bit of the Absolute is present everywhere.  The Absolute and the power that creates and dissolves its creation are inseparable, like fire and its power to burn.  We cannot imagine fire without the power to burn, nor can we imagine the burning power of fire without the fire itself.

In the same way, Krishna is reminding us that it is just as absurd to talk about the Cosmos as separate from God, who is present everywhere and in every being.

Paramahansa Yogananda:

After trials and tribulations, a person strives to become more whole.  God, ever aware through an intelligent, cosmic, vibratory omnipresence, then sends the seeker a guru, a divine saint, or a teaching of such a one, providing an environment to usher the seeker into the divine kingdom.

Eckhart Tolle:

Sometimes it happens that very ill or old people become almost transparent in the last weeks, months, or even years of their lives.  As they look at you, you may see a light shining through their eyes.  They have surrendered.  The mind-made egoic "me" has dissolved.  They have "died before they died" and found that deep inner peace that is the realization of the deathless within themselves.