Bhagavad Gita by Stanley Lombardo

Author:Stanley Lombardo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Published: 2018-01-21T16:00:00+00:00

{49} Chapter Eight

Arjuna then asked:

[1] “What is Brahman, the Supreme Self?

What is action, O Highest Soul?

What is Supreme Being said to be?

What is the Supreme God said to be?

[2] What is the Lord of Sacrifice

in this body, Slayer of Madhu?

And how, at the hour of death,

do the self-controlled come to know You?”

The Blessed Lord answered:

[3] “Brahman is Eternal, Highest.

Supreme Self is the Inner Being

that produces creatures’ beings.

Action is Creative Power.

[4] Supreme Being is Existence.

Supreme God is Divine Agent.

The Lord of Sacrifice is Myself

here in this body, Arjuna.

[5] He who dies remembering Me

as he abandons his body

proceeds to My state of being.

Of this there is no room for doubt.

[6] Also, whatever state of being

he remembers as he expires,

he goes to that, Son of Kunti,

becoming just that state of being.

{50} [7] At all times, therefore, think of Me,

meditate on Me, fight to keep

your mind and intellect fixed on Me.

Then you will surely come to Me.

[8] With mind tamed by Yogic practice,

with thoughts directed nowhere else,

one goes to the Supreme Spirit

in meditation, Arjuna.

[9] By meditating on the primordial seer,

the ruler that is subtler than an atom,

supporter of all, inconceivable form,

the color of the sun, beyond all darkness,

[10] At the hour of death, with mind unmoving,

firm in devotion, and with Yogic power

channeling the breath between the two eyebrows,

one will go to this divine Supreme Spirit.

[11] What those who know the Vedas call the Eternal

and which ascetics, free from passion, enter,

observing chastity to attain their goal—

I will briefly explain that path to you soon.

[12] Controlling all the senses’ gates,

confining the mind in the heart,

placing vital breath in the head,

firm in Yogic concentration,

[13] Chanting Om, the one-syllable

Brahman, meditating on Me,

such a one, renouncing the body,

goes forth to the ultimate goal.

[14] The one whose thought never wanders

but has Me in mind constantly,

{51} for such a devoted yogin

I am easy to reach, Arjuna.

[15] Those great souls, drawing near to Me,

are not subject to rebirth,

that transient home of misery,

gone to the highest state of being.

[16] Up to Brahman’s realm of being

the worlds return again and again.

But when I am reached, Son of Kunti,

there is no rebirth to be found.

[17] Those who know that for Brahma

a day lasts one thousand yugas

and night lasts another thousand

understand what day and night are.

[18] From the unseen all seen things come

at the arrival of Brahma’s day.

At night’s arrival they disappear

and again are known as the unseen.

[19] The multitude of beings arise

and are dissolved over and over,

without their will, when night arrives,

and arise again at break of day.

[20] But beyond this state of being

is another unmanifest state

higher than the primordial,

that does not perish when all else does.

[21] This unmanifest state is called

the Eternal, the supreme goal.

Going there, they do not return.

That is My supreme abode.

{52} [22] This supreme Soul, Son of Pritha,

is reached by unswerving devotion.

All beings exist within it,

and it pervades the universe.

[23] But of those times that the yogins

do return or do not return

when they depart, I will now speak,

O Bull of the Bharatas.

[24] Fire, brightness, day, mid-month moon,

the six months of the northern sun:

those who depart during these times

and know Brahman, go to Brahman.

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