| |
KRISHNA:
LEARN now, dear Prince! how, if thy soul be set | |
| 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, | |
entitled “Vijnânayôg,” or “The Book | |
of Religion by Discernment” | |
