The Bhagavad-Gita.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
Chapter XII
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ARJUNA:
LORD! of the men who serve Thee—true in heart— |
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| As God revealed; and of the men who serve, | |
| Worshipping Thee Unrevealed, Unbodied, far, | |
| Which take the better way of faith and life? | |
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KRISHNA:
Whoever serve Me—as I show Myself— |
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| Constantly true, in full devotion fixed, | |
| These hold I very holy. But who serve— | |
| Worshipping Me The One, The Invisible, | |
| The Unrevealed, Unnamed, Unthinkable, | |
| Uttermost, All-pervading, Highest, Sure— | 10 |
| Who thus adore Me, mastering their sense, | |
| Of one set mind to all, glad in all good, | |
| These blessed souls come unto Me. | |
| Yet, hard | |
| The travail is for whoso bend their minds | 15 |
| To reach th’ Unmanifest. That viewless path | |
| Shall scarce be trod by man bearing his flesh! | |
| But whereso any doeth all his deeds, | |
| Renouncing self in Me, full of Me, fixed | |
| To serve only the Highest, night and day | 20 |
| Musing on Me—him will I swiftly lift | |
| Forth from life’s ocean of distress and death | |
| Whose soul clings fast to Me. Cling thou to Me! | |
| Clasp Me with heart and mind! so shalt thou dwell | |
| Surely with Me on high. But if thy thought | 25 |
| Droops from such height; if thou be’st weak to set | |
| Body and soul upon Me constantly, | |
| Despair not! give Me lower service! seek | |
| To read Me, worshipping with steadfast will; | |
| And, if thou canst not worship steadfastly, | 30 |
| Work for Me, toil in works pleasing to Me! | |
| For he that laboreth right for love of Me | |
| Shall finally attain! But, if in this | |
| Thy faint heart fails, bring Me thy failure! find | |
| Refuge in Me! let fruits of labor go, | 35 |
| Renouncing all for Me, with lowliest heart, | |
| So shalt thou come; for, though to know is more | |
| Than diligence, yet worship better is | |
| Than knowing, and renouncing better still | |
| Near to renunciation—very near— | 40 |
| Dwelleth Eternal Peace! | |
| Who hateth nought | |
| Of all which lives, living himself benign, | |
| Compassionate, from arrogance exempt, | |
| Exempt from love of self, unchangeable | 45 |
| By good or ill; patient, contented, firm | |
| In faith, mastering himself, true to his word, | |
| Seeking Me, heart and soul; vowed unto Me,— | |
| That man I love! Who troubleth not his kind, | |
| And is not troubled by them; clear of wrath, | 50 |
| Living too high for gladness, grief, or fear, | |
| That man I love! Who, dwelling quiet-eyed, 1 | |
| Stainless, serene, well-balanced, unperplexed, | |
| Working with Me, yet from all works detached, | |
| That man I love! Who, fixed in faith on Me, | 55 |
| Dotes upon none, scorns none; rejoices not, | |
| And grieves not, letting good and evil hap | |
| Light when it will, and when it will depart, | |
| That man I love! Who, unto friend and foe | |
| Keeping an equal heart, with equal mind | 60 |
| Bears shame and glory, with an equal peace | |
| Takes heat and cold, pleasure and pain; abides | |
| Quit of desires, hears praise or calumny | |
| In passionless restraint, unmoved by each, | |
| Linked by no ties to earth, steadfast in Me, | 65 |
| That man I love! But most of all I love | |
| Those happy ones to whom ’tis life to live | |
| In single fervid faith and love unseeing, | |
| Eating the blessèd Amrit of my Being! | |
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Here endeth Chapter XII. of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ, |
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entitled “Bhakityôgô,” or “The Book of |
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the Religion of Faith” |
| Note 1. “Not peering about,”—anapeksha. [back] |