KRISHNA:
YET father will I open unto thee |
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This wisdom of all wisdoms, uttermost, |
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The which possessing, all My saints have passed |
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To perfectness. On these high verities |
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Reliant, rising into fellowship |
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With Me, they are not born again at birth |
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Of Kalpas, nor at Pralyas suffer change! |
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This Universe the Womb is where I plant |
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Seed of all lives! Thence, Prince of India comes |
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Birth to all beings! Whoso, Kunti’s Son! |
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Mothers each mortal form, Brahma conceives, |
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And I am He that fathers, sending seed! |
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Sattwan, Rajas, and Tamas, so are named, |
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The qualities of Nature, “Soothfastness,” |
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“Passion,” and “Ignorance.” These three bind down |
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The changeless Spirit in the changeful flesh. |
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Whereof sweet “Soothfastness”—by purity |
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Living unsullied and enlightened—binds |
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The sinless Soul to happiness and truth; |
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And Passion, being kin to appetite, |
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And breeding impulse and propensity, |
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Binds the embodied Soul, O Kunti’s Son! |
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By tie of works. But Ignorance, the child |
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Of Darkness, blinding mortal men, binds down |
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Their souls to stupor, sloth, and drowsiness. |
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Yea, Prince of India! Soothfastness binds souls |
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In pleasant wise to flesh; and Passion binds |
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By toilsome strain; but Ignorance, which blots |
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The beams of wisdom, binds the soul to sloth |
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Passion and Ignorance, once overcome, |
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Leave Soothfastness, O Bharata! Where this |
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With Ignorance are absent, Passion rules; |
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And Ignorance in hearts not good nor quick. |
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When at all gateways of the Body shines |
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The Lamp of Knowledge, then may one see well |
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Soothfastness settled in that city reigns; |
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Where longing is, and ardor, and unrest, |
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Impulse to strive and gain, and avarice, |
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Those spring from Passion—Prince!—engrained; and where |
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Darkness and dulness, sloth and stupor are, |
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’Tis Ignorance hath caused them, Kuru Chief! |
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Moreover, when a soul departeth, fixed |
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In Soothfastness, it goeth to the place— |
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Perfect and pure—of those that know all Truth |
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If it departeth in set hebetude |
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Of impulse, it shall go into the world |
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Of spirits tied to works; and, if it dies |
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In hardened Ignorance, that blinded soul |
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Is born anew in some unlighted womb. |
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The fruit of Soothfastness is true and sweet; |
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The fruit of lusts is pain and toil; the fruit |
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Of Ignorance is deeper darkness. Yea! |
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For Light brings light, and Passion ache to have. |
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Blindness, bewilderments, and ignorance |
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Grow forth from Ignorance. Those of the first |
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Rise ever higher; those of the second mode |
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Take a mid place; the darkened souls sink back |
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To lower deeps, loaded with witlessness! |
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When, watching life, the living man perceives |
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The only actors are the Qualities, |
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And knows what lives beyond the Qualities, |
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Then is he come nigh unto Me! |
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The Soul, |
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Thus passing forth from the Three Qualities— |
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Whereof arise all bodies—overcomes |
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Birth, Death, Sorrow, and Age; and drinketh deep |
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The undying wine of Amrit. |
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ARJUNA:
Oh, my Lord! |
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Which be the signs to know him that hath gone |
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Past the Three Modes? How liveth he? What way |
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Leadeth him safe beyond the threefold modes? |
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KRISHNA:
He who with equanimity surveys |
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Lustre of goodness, strife of passion, sloth |
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Of ignorance, not angry if they are, |
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Not angry when they are not: he who sits |
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A sojourner and stranger in their midst |
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Unruffled, standing off, saying—serene— |
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When troubles break, “These are the Qualities!” |
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He unto whom—self-centred—grief and joy |
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Sound as one word; to whose deep-seeing eyes |
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The clod, the marble, and the gold are one; |
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Whose equal heart holds the same gentleness |
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For lovely and unlovely things, firm-set, |
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Well-pleased in praise and dispraise; satisfied |
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With honor or dishonor; unto friends |
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And unto foes alike in tolerance, |
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Detached from undertakings,—he is named |
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Surmounter of the Qualities! |
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And such— |
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With single, fervent faith adoring Me, |
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Passing beyond the Qualities, conforms |
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To Brahma, and attains Me! |
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For I am |
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That whereof Brahma is the likeness! Mine |
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The Amrit is; and Immortality |
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Is mine; and mine perfect Felicity! |
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Here ends Chapter XIV. of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ, |
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entitled “Gunatrayavibhâgayôgô,” or “The |
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Book of Religion by Separation |
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from the Qualities” |
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