Bhagavad Gita by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi
ISBN: 9780307419897
Publisher: Harmony
Published: 2000-02-23T16:00:00+00:00

[9.1–3]

Chapter 9

THE SECRET OF LIFE

THE BLESSED LORD SAID:

Because you trust me, Arjuna,

I will tell you what wisdom is,

the secret of life: know it

and be free of suffering, forever.

This is the supreme wisdom,

the knowing beyond all knowing,

experienced directly, in a flash,

eternal, and a joy to practice.

Those who are without faith

in my teaching, cannot attain me;

they endlessly return to this world,

shuttling from death to death.

[9.4–8]

I permeate all the universe

in my unmanifest form.

All beings exist within me,

yet I am so inconceivably

vast, so beyond existence,

that though they are brought forth

and sustained by my limitless power,

I am not confined within them.

Just as the all-moving wind,

wherever it goes, always

remains in the vastness of space,

all beings remain within me.

They are gathered back into my womb

at the end of the cosmic cycle—

a hundred fifty thousand

billion of your earthly years—

and as a new cycle begins

I send them forth once again,

pouring from my abundance

the myriad forms of life.

[9.9–13]

These actions do not bind me, Arjuna.

I stand apart from them all,

indifferent to their outcome,

unattached, serene.

Under my guidance, Nature

brings forth all beings, all things

animate or inanimate,

and sets the whole universe in motion.

Foolish people despise me

in the human form that I take,

blind to my true nature

as the Lord of all life and death.

Their hopes and actions are vain,

their knowledge is sheer delusion;

turning from the light, they fall

into cruelty, selfishness, greed.

But the truly wise, Arjuna,

who dive deep into themselves,

fearless, one-pointed, know me

as the inexhaustible source.

[9.14–18]

Always chanting my praise,

steadfast in their devotion,

they make their lives an unending

hymn to my endless love.

Others, on the path of knowledge,

know me as the many, the One;

behind the faces of a million

gods, they can see my face.

I am the ritual and the worship,

the medicine and the mantra,

the butter burnt in the fire,

and I am the flames that consume it.

I am the father of the universe

and its mother, essence and goal

of all knowledge, the refiner, the sacred

Ôm , and the threefold Vedas.

I am the beginning and the end,

origin and dissolution,

refuge, home, true lover,

womb and imperishable seed.

[9.19–22]

I am the heat of the sun,

I hold back the rain and release it;

I am death, and the deathless,

and all that is or is not.

The righteous who follow the scriptures

strictly, who drink the soma

and are purified of their sins,

who pray to be taken to heaven—

they reach the world of the gods

and enjoy an indescribable

bliss, although after eons

of those vast and glorious pleasures,

when their merit is spent, they fall back

into the mortal world;

impelled by desire, they achieve

only what will pass away.

But to those who meditate on me

undistracted, and worship me

everywhere, always, I will bring

a reward that never can be lost.

[9.23–27]

Arjuna, all those who worship

other gods, with deep faith,

are really worshiping me,

even if they don’t know it.

For I am the only object

and the only enjoyer of worship;

and they fall back because they cannot

know me as I truly am.

Worshiping the gods, men go

to the gods; worshiping spirits,

to the spirits; worshiping me,

they come to me in the end.

Any offering—a leaf,

a flower or fruit, a cup

of water—I will accept it

if given with a loving heart.

Whatever you do, Arjuna,

do it as an offering to me—

whatever you say or eat

or pray or enjoy or suffer.

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