Menu
The Lord said:
1. Partha, hear how, practising yogic discipline with your mind intent on me, dependent on me, you shall know me entirely and unreservedly.
2. I shall tell you in full about this knowledge and insight; once you know this, nothing more remains to be known in this world.
3. Among thousands of men there is hardly one who strives for perfection; even of those who have striven successfully scarcely one knows me in reality.
4. My material nature is divided into eight: earth, air, fire, win, ether, mind, intelligence, and ego.
5. This is my lower nature, but know, Great Arm, my other, higher nature by which this universe is sustained, consisting of sentient beings.
6. Understand that this is the source of all living beings; I am the origin and dissolution of this whole universe.
7. Dhananjaya, there is nothing at all higher than me; all this is strung on me like pearls on a thread.
8. Son of Kunti, I am taste in the waters, light in the moon and sun, the sacred syllable in all the Vedas, sound in the air, manhood in men.
9. Also I am the pleasant fragrance in the earth, the radiance in fire, the life in all beings, and in ascetics I am austerity.
10. Know, Partha, that I am the eternal seed of all creatures, I am the intelligence of the intelligent; I am the brilliance of the brilliant.
11. And I am the strength of the mighty, freed from passion and desire. In beings I am that desire which doe not run counter to proper conduct, Bull of the Bharatas.
12. And know that all conditions of existence, whether purely, passionately, or darkly constituted, come from me; but I am not in them, they are in me.
13. The entire universe is deluded by these conditions, derived from the three constituents; it is not aware of me, eternal and beyond them.
14. For it is hard to go beyond this divine appearance of mine, composed of the constituents; only those who turn to me alone overcome this appearance.
15. Deluded evil-doers, the worst of men, do not turn to me; their knowledge has been swept away by appearance, dependent as they are upon a demonic mode of existence.
16. Arjuna, four kinds of good men share in me: the oppressed, the man who desires knowledge, the man whose object is prosperity, and the one who knows, Bull of the Bharatas.
17. Of these, the continuously disciplined knower, whose devotion is exclusive, is outstanding, for I am extraordinarily dear to the man who knows, and he is dear to me.
18. Indeed, these four are all illustrious, but the knower I consider to be myself, for the man who disciplines himself exists in me, the incomparable situation.
19. It is only after many births that the possessor of knowledge turns to me, realising that Vasudeva is everything. So great a spirit is very hard to find.
20. Those whose knowledge has been charmed away by this or that desire turn to other gods, following this or that injunction, ruled by their own natures.
21. Yet, whatever the divine form, any devotee who aspires to worship it with faith is unshakeably established in that faith by me.
22. The man who is bound up in that faith longs to propitiate such a god and thereby attain his desires – desires fulfilled by me alone.
23. Yet for those whose understanding is limited, the reward is limited. Those who worship the gods go to the gods, but those who are devoted to me go to me.
24. The unintelligent think of me, the unmanifest, as reduced to manifestation, oblivious of my higher state, which is unchanging and incomparable.
25. Clothed in the appearance created by my yogic power, I am not clearly visible to all; this deluded world does not recognise me as unchanging and unborn.
26. Arjuna, I know the dead, the living, and those creatures yet to come, but no one at all knows me.
27. Confused by duality, which arises from desire and hatred, all creatures in existence fall into delusion, Bharata, Incinerator of the Foe.
28. But there are men whose actions are pure, for whom evil has come to an end; liberated from the confusion of duality, they devote themselves to me, and their vows are solid.
29. Those who strive for liberation from old age and death, relying upon me, know this Brahman in its entirety, in relation to the self, and the totality of action.
30. And those who know me in relation to beings and in relation to the divine, as well as in relation to the sacrifice, have disciplined minds, and know me even in the hour of death.