Bhagavad Gita excerpts

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From Chapter 9, " The Yoga of Mysticism "

Lord Krishna speaking: [if you don't know of Krishna

Feel free to think of the One God of love

and all the universes, Krishna is just another

name for THAT eternal consciousness which is Is IS].

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" Since you accept me and do not question,

now I shall tell you that innermost secret:

Knowledge of God which is nearer than knowing,

open vision, direct and instant.

Understand this and be free forever

from birth and dying with all their evil.

This is the knowledge above all other:

Purifier, and king of secrets,

only made plain to the eye of the mystic.

Great is its virtue, its practice easy:

Thus man is brought to truth eternal....

 

Fools pass blindly by the place of my dwelling

here in the human form, and of my majesty

they know nothing at all, Who am the Lord, their soul.

 

Great in soul are they who become what is godlike:

They alone know me, the origin, the deathless:

They offer me the homage of an unwavering mind.

Praising my might with heart and lips forever,

striving for the virtue that wins me, and steadfast

in all their vows they worship adoring, One with me always.

Others worship me knowing Brahman in all things:

Some see me as one with themselves, or separate:

Some bow to the countless gods;

that are only my million faces.

 

Whatever man gives me in true devotion:

Fruit or water, a leaf, a flower:

I will accept it.

That gift is love, his heart's dedication.

Whatever your action, food or worship;

Whatever the gift that you give to another;

Whatever you vow to the work of the spirit;

Lay these also, as offerings before me.

 

Though a man be soiled with the sins of a lifetime,

Let him but love me, rightly resolved,

in utter devotion:

I see no sinner, that man is holy.

Holiness soon shall refashion his nature,

to peace eternal.

Of this be certain:

the man that loves me,

he shall not perish.

 

You find yourself in this transient, joyless world.

Turn from it, and take your delight in me.

Fill your heart and mind with me, adore me,

make all your acts an offering to me,

bow down to me in self-surrender.

If you set your heart on me thus,

and take me for your ideal above all others,

you will come

into my Being. "

 

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[--from the Prabhavananda/Isherwood translation--]

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