Bhagavad Gita Chapter 8- Akshara Brahma Yoga - Sloka 19

The entire content of this mail is from Swami Chidbhavananda's translation of The Bhagavad Gita, published by Ramakrishna Mission

Brahma, the Creator's Standard of Time 17-19

1 Gita Sloka  every day - Chapter 8 - Akshara Brahma Yoga - Sloka 19

Bhuta gramah sa evayam bhutva bhutva praliyate I

Ratri agame avashah partha prabhavati ahaha agame II sloka 19

भूत ग्रामः स एवायं भूत्वा भूत्वा प्रलीयते I 

रात्रि आगमे अवशः पार्थ प्रभवति अहः आगमे I I  श्लोक 19

This multitude of beings, coming forth again and again, merge, O Partha, inspite of themselves, at the appraoch of night, and remanifest themselves at the approach of the day.

Man's free will is a misnomer. Beyond a certain limit man has not got the freedom to keep awake or go to sleep. He is a helpless creature of his own mind given to the modifications of wakefulness and sleep. Much more helplessly than this, the multitude of beings are dragged into creation or the manifest state  when Brahma wakes up and they go into the unmanifested when he retires to sleep. The process of being revolved in this wheel of birth and death has to go on indefinitely, sometimes even through the life periods of a few Brahmas, until perfection is reached and mukti obtained.