Sovereign Wisdom and Secret

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Bhagavad Gita

 

IX. SOVEREIGN WISDOM AND SECRET (Raja-vidya Raja-guhya Yoga)

 

THE BLESSED LORD SAID:

 

1. To thee who dost not cavil, I shall now declare this, the greatest

secret, knowledge combined with experience, which having known thou

shalt be liberated from evil.

 

2. The Sovereign Science, the Sovereign Secret, the Supreme Purifier

is this; immediately comprehensible, unopposed to Dharma, very easy

to perform, imperishable.

 

3. Persons having no faith in this Dharma, O harasser of thy foes,

without reaching Me, remain verily in the path of the mortal world.

 

4. By Me all this world is pervaded, My form unmanifested. All beings

dwell in Me; and I do not dwell in them.

 

5. Nor do those beings dwell in Me; behold My Divine Yoga! Sustaining

all the beings, but not dwelling in them, is My Self, the cause of

beings.

 

6. As the mighty wind moving everywhere rests ever in the Akasa, so,

know thou, do all beings, rest in Me.

 

7. All beings, O son of Kunti, go into My Prakriti at the end of a

kalpa. I send them forth again at the beginning of (the next) kalpa.

 

8. Resorting to My Prakriti, I again and again send forth the whole

multitude of beings, powerless under the control of the Prakriti.

 

9. Nor do these acts, O Dhananjaya, bind Me, remaining like one

unconcerned, unattached to those acts.

 

10. By Me presiding, Prakriti produces the moving and the unmoving;

because of this, O son of Kunti, the world revolves.

 

11. Fools disregard Me clad in human form, not knowing My higher

being as the Great Lord of beings.

 

12. Of vain hopes, of vain actions, of vain knowledge, devoid of

discrimination, partaking only of the delusive nature of Rakshasas

and Asuras.

 

13. The Mahatmas, O son of Pritha, partaking of the nature of the

Devas, worship Me with mind turned to no other, knowing (Me) as the

imperishable source of all beings.

 

14. Always talking of me, strenuous, firm in vows and reverent, they

worship Me with love, always devout.

 

15. Worshipping by the wisdom-sacrifice, others adore Me, the All-

faced, in various ways, as One, as different.

 

16. I am kratu, I am yajna, I am svadha, I am aushadha, I am mantra,

Myself the butter, I am fire, I the act of offering.

 

17. I am the father of this world, the mother, the dispenser and

grandshire; I am the knowable, the purifier, the syllable 'Om' and

also the Rik, the Saman and the Yajus also.

 

18. I am the Goal, the Sustainer, the Lord, the Witness, the Abode,

the Shelter and the Friend, the Origin, Dissolution and Stay, the

Treasure-house, the Seed imperishable.

 

19. I give heat, I hold back and send forth rain, I am the

immortality as well as death, existence and non-existence, O Arjuna.

 

20. Men of the three Vedas, the soma-drinkers, purified from sin,

worshipping Me by sacrifices, pray for the goal of heaven; they reach

the holy world of the Lord of the Gods and enjoy in heaven the

heavenly pleasures of the Gods.

 

21. They, having enjoyed that spacious world of Svarga, their merit

(punya) exhausted, enter the world of the mortals; thus following the

Dharma of the Triad, desiring (objects of) desires, they attain to

the state of going and returning.

 

22. Those men who, meditating on Me as non-separate, worship Me all

around - to them who are ever devout, I secure gain and safety.

 

23. Even those who, devoted to other Gods, worship Them with faith,

worship Myself, O son of Kunti, in ignorance.

 

24. I am indeed the Enjoyer, as also the Lord, of all sacrifices; but

they do not know Me in truth; whence they fail.

 

25. Votaries of the Gods go to the Gods; to the Pitris go the

votaries of the Pitris; to the Bhutas go the worshippers of the

Bhutas; My worshippers come to Myself.

 

26. When one offers to Me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit,

water - that I eat, offered with devotion by the pure-minded.

 

27. Whatever thou doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou

sacrificest, whatever thou givest, in whatever austerity thou

engagest, do it as an offering to Me.

 

28. Thus shalt thou be liberated from the bonds of actions which are

productive of good and evil results; equipped in mind with the Yoga

of renunciation and liberated, thou shalt come to Me.

 

29. The same I am to all beings; to Me there is none hateful or dear;

but whoso worship Me with devotion, they are in Me and I am also in

them.

 

30. If one of even very evil life worships Me, resorting to none

else, he must indeed be deemed righteous, for he is rightly resolved.

 

31. Soon he becomes righteous and attains eternal peace; do thou, O

son of Kunti, proclaim that my devotee never perishes.

 

32. For, finding refuge in Me, they also who, O son of Pritha, may be

of a sinful birth - women, vaisyas as well as sudras - even they

attain to the Supreme Goal.

 

33. How mush more then the holy Brahmanas and devoted royal saints!

Having reached this transient joyless world, do thou worship Me.

 

34. Fix thy mind on Me, be devoted to Me, sacrifice to Me, bow down

to Me. Thus steadied, with Me as thy Supreme Goal, thou shalt reach

Myself, the Self.