The Bhagavad-Gita.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
Chapter VII
KRISHNA:
LEARN now, dear Prince! how, if thy soul be set |
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Ever on Me—still exercising Yôg, | |
Still making Me thy Refuge—thou shalt come | |
Most surely unto perfect hold of Me. | |
I will declare to thee that utmost lore, | 5 |
Whole and particular, which, when thou knowest | |
Leaveth no more to know here in this world. | |
Of many thousand mortals, one, perchance, | |
Striveth for Truth; and of those few that strive— | |
Nay, and rise high—one only—here and there— | 10 |
Knoweth Me, as I am, the very Truth. | |
Earth, water, flame, air, ether, life, and mind, | |
And individuality—those eight | |
Make up the showing of Me, Manifest. | |
These be my lower Nature; learn the higher, | 15 |
Whereby, thou Valiant One! this Universe | |
Is, by its principle of life, produced; | |
Whereby the worlds of visible things are born | |
As from a Yoni. Know! I am that womb: | |
I make and I unmake this Universe: | 20 |
Than me there is no other Master, Prince! | |
No other Maker! All these hang on me | |
As hangs a row of pearls upon its string. | |
I am the fresh taste of the water; I | |
The silver of the moon, the gold o’ the sun, | 25 |
The word of worship in the Veds, the thrill | |
That passeth in the ether, and the strength | |
Of man’s shed seed. I am the good sweet smell | |
Of the moistened earth, I am the fire’s red light, | |
The vital air moving in all which moves, | 30 |
The holiness of hallowed souls, the root | |
Undying, whence hath sprung whatever is; | |
The wisdom of the wise, the intellect | |
Of the informed, the greatness of the great, | |
The splendor of the splendid. Kunti’s Son! | 35 |
These am I, free from passion and desire; | |
Yet am I right desire in all who yearn, | |
Chief of the Bhâratas! for all those moods, | |
Soothfast, or passionate, or ignorant, | |
Which Nature frames, deduce from me; but all | 40 |
Are merged in me—not I in them! The world— | |
Deceived by those three qualities of being— | |
Wotteth not Me Who am outside them all, | |
Above them all, Eternal! Hard it is | |
To pierce that veil divine of various shows | 45 |
Which hideth Me; yet they who worship Me | |
Pierce it and pass beyond. | |
I am not known | |
To evil-doers, nor to foolish ones, | |
Nor to the base and churlish; nor to those | 50 |
Whose mind is cheated by the show of things, | |
Nor those that take the way of Asuras. 1 | |
Four sorts of mortals know me: he who weeps, | |
Arjuna! and the man who yearns to know; | |
And he who toils to help; and he who sits | 55 |
Certain of me, enlightened. | |
Of these four, | |
O Prince of India! highest, nearest, best | |
That last is, the devout soul, wise, intent | |
Upon “The One.” Dear, above all, am I | 60 |
To him; and he is dearest unto me! | |
All four are good, and seek me; but mine own, | |
The true of heart, the faithful—stayed on me, | |
Taking me as their utmost blessedness, | |
They are not “mine,” but I—even I myself! | 65 |
At end of many births to Me they come! | |
Yet hard the wise Mahatma is to find, | |
That man who sayeth, “All is Vâsudev!” 2 | |
There be those, too, whose knowledge, turned aside | |
By this desire or that, gives them to serve | 70 |
Some lower gods, with various rites, constrained | |
By that which mouldeth them. Unto all such— | |
Worship what shrine they will, what shapes, in faith— | |
’Tis I who give them faith! I am content! | |
The heart thus asking favor from its God, | 75 |
Darkened but ardent, hath the end it craves, | |
The lesser blessing—but ’tis I who give! | |
Yet soon is withered what small fruit they reap | |
Those men of little minds, who worship so, | |
Go where they worship, passing with their gods. | 80 |
But Mine come unto me! Blind are the eyes | |
Which deem th’ Unmanifested manifest, | |
Not comprehending Me in my true Self! | |
Imperishable, viewless, undeclared, | |
Hidden behind my magic veil of shows, | 85 |
I am not seen by all; I am not known— | |
Unborn and changeless—to the idle world. | |
But I, Arjuna! know all things which were, | |
And all which are, and all which are to be, | |
Albeit not one among them knoweth Me! | 90 |
By passion for the “pairs of opposites,” | |
By those twain snares of Like and Dislike, Prince! | |
All creatures live bewildered, save some few | |
Who, quit of sins, holy in act, informed, | |
Freed from the “opposites,” and fixed in faith, | 95 |
Cleave unto Me. | |
Who cleave, who seek in Me | |
Refuge from birth 3 and death, those have the Truth! | |
Those know Me BRAHMA; know Me Soul of Souls, | |
The ADHYATMAN; know KARMA, my work; | 100 |
Know I am ADHIBHUTA, Lord of Life, | |
And ADHIDAIVA, Lord of all the Gods, | |
And ADHIYAJNA, Lord of Sacrifice; | |
Worship Me well, with hearts of love and faith, | |
And find and hold Me in the hour of death. | 105 |
Here endeth Chapter VII. of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ, |
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entitled “Vijnânayôg,” or “The Book |
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of Religion by Discernment” |
Note 1. Beings of low and devilish nature. [back] |
Note 2. Krishna. [back] |
Note 3. I read here janma, “birth;” not jara, “age.” [back] |