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The Lord said:
1. But I shall relate to you, who are free of ill will, the most secret knowledge and insight; knowing it you shall be freed from harm.
2. It is royal knowledge, a royal secret, the greatest purification, directly experienced, conforming to what is right, easy to practise, permanent.
3. Men who have no faith in this truth, Incinerator of the Foe, fail to reach me and are returned to the rut of recurrent death.
4. This entire universe is displayed on me in my unmanifest form; all creatures exist in me, but I do not exist in them.
5. And yet creatures do not exist in me – behold my superhuman yogic power! My self causes creatures to exist, and maintains them, but it does not exist in them.
6. In the way that the great wind blows everywhere and yet remains perpetually within space, so, you must suppose, all creatures exist within me.
7. Son of Kunti, all creatures re-enter my material nature at the end of a world cycle, and at the beginning of a cycle I emit them again.
8. Supported by my own material nature, time after time I emit this entire, powerless multitude of creatures through the power of nature.
9. And these actions do not bind me, Dhananjaya; seated like a neutral, I am unattached to such actions.
10. With me as a supervisor, material nature generates moving and unmoving creatures; that is the reason the universe goes round, Son of Kunti.
11. When I take on a human form the deluded do not recognise me, ignorant of my higher state as the great lord of creatures.
12. Dependent upon a deluding, demoniacal, and evil nature, their hopes, actions, and knowledge are futile and mindless.
13. But the great-souled, Partha, grounded in divine material nature, worship me single-mindedly, realising that I am the imperishable origin of creatures.
14. There are those whose vows are solid who, continually glorifying me, striving, and bowing to me with devotion, ever-disciplined, worship me.
15. And there are others, sacrificing with the sacrifice of knowledge, who worship me as the one, the separate, the various, facing in every direction.
16. I am the ritual, I am the sacrifice, I am the offering to the ancestors, I am the herb, I am the mantra, I am the clarified butter, I am the fire, I am the oblation.
17. I am the father of this world, the mother, the maintainer, the grandfather, the object of knowledge, the purifying filter, the syllable Om, the Rig, the Sama, and the Yajur Vedas too.
18. Path, bearer, lord, witness, home, refuge, friend, origin, dissolution, continuity, repository, imperishable seed,
19. I radiate, I withhold the rain, and I let it come down, I am immortality, and death, I am the existent, and the non-existent, Arjuna.
20. The knowers of the three Vedas, soma-drinkers, whose sins have been cleansed, having offered to me with sacrifices, strive to attain the goal of heaven; and having reached the pure world of Indra, they partake in heaven of the divine pleasures of the gods.
21. Thus having enjoyed that vast world of heaven, when their merit is used up they re-enter the mortal world, and so conforming to the three Vedas, desiring desires, they come and go.
22. But to those men who honour me, concentrating on me alone, who are constantly disciplined, I bring gain and security.
23. Even those who are devotees of other gods, and sacrifice to them full of faith, really sacrifice to me, Son of Kunti, albeit not according to the prescribed rules.
24. For I am the lord, and the recipient of all sacrifices, although they do not truly recognise me, and so they slide.
25. Those who have vowed themselves to the gods go to the gods, those whose vows are to the fathers go to the fathers, those worshipping spirits go to spirits, and those who sacrifice to me go to me.
26. I accept a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water from the disciplined person who, with devotion, offers me that loving offering.
27. Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer, whatever you give away, whatever asceticism you perform, Son of Kunti, do it as an offering to me.
28. Thus you shall be liberated from good and evil results, from the bonds of action. With your self disciplined by the yoga of renunciation, liberated, you shall come to me.
29. I am the same with regard to all creature; I feel neither aversion nor affection. But whoever shares in me with devotion, they are in me and I am in them.
30. Even the evil-doer, if he shares in me with single-minded devotion, may be thought of as good, for he has fixed on what is right.
31. He quickly conforms to the true law and attains everlasting peace. You should realise, Son of Kunti, that no devotee of mine is lost.
32. For whoever depends on me, Partha, however low their origins – whether they are women, farmers and merchants, or even labourers and serfs – they go by the highest path.
33. How much more then deserving brahmins and devoted royal seers. Since you have been born into this impermanent, unhappy world, devote yourself to me.
34. Fix your mind on me; and so devoted to me, sacrificing to me, reverencing me, having disciplined your self, with me as your final resort, you shall come to me.