| GIVE reverence, O man, to mystery, | |
| Keep your soul patient, and with closed eye hear. | |
| Know that the Good is in all things, the whole | |
| Being by him pervaded and upheld. | |
| He is the will, the thwarting circumstance, | 5 |
| The two opposing forces equal both— | |
| Birth, Death, are one. Think not the Lotus flower | |
| Or tulip is more honoured than the grass, | |
| The bindweed, or the thistle. He who kneels | |
| To Cama, kneeleth unto me; the maid | 10 |
| Who sings to Ganga sings to me; I am | |
| Wisdom unto the wise, and cunning lore | |
| Unto the subtle. He who knows his soul, | |
| And from thence looketh unto mine; who sees | |
| All underneath the moon regardlessly, | 15 |
| Living on silent, as a shaded lamp | |
| Burns with steady flame:—he sure shall find me— | |
| He findeth wisdom, greatness, happiness. | |
| |
| Know, further, the Great One delighteth not | |
| In him who works, and strives, and is against | 20 |
| The nature of the present. Not the less | |
| Am I the gladness of the conqueror— | |
| And the despair of impotence that fails. | |
| I am the ultimate, the tendency | |
| Of all things to their nature, which is mine. | 25 |
| Put round thee garments of rich softness, hang | |
| Fine gold about thine ankles, hands, and ears, | |
| Set the rich ruby and rare diamond | |
| Upon thy brow.—I made them, I also | |
| Made them be sought by thee; thou lack’st them not? | 30 |
| Then throw them whence they came, and leave with them | |
| The wish to be aught else than nature forms. | |
| |
| Know that the great Good in the age called First, | |
| Beheld a world of mortals, ’mong whom none | |
| Enquired for Truth, because no falsehood was: | 35 |
| Nature was Truth; man held whate’er he wished: | |
| No will was thwarted, and no deed was termed, | |
| Good, Evil. In much wisdom is much grief. | |
| He who increases knowledge sorrow also | |
| Takes with it, till he rises unto me, | 40 |
| Knowing that I am in all, still the same: | |
| Knowing that I am Peace in the contented. | |
| I, Great, revealed unto the Seer, how man | |
| Had wandered, and he gave a name and form | |
| To my communings and he called it Veda. | 45 |
| To him who understands it is great gain— | |
| Who understandeth not, to him the Sign | |
| And ritual is authority and guide, | |
| A living and expiring confidence. | |
