VII - Gna Vingna Yogam

1/VII. Sri Bhagavan said, “Arjuna, now listen how with the mind attached to Me (through exclusive love) and practising Yoga with absolute dependence of Me, you will know Me (the Repository of all power, strength and glory and other attributes, the Universal Soul) in entirety and without any shadow of doubt”


2/VII. “I shall unfold to you in its entirety this wisdom (Knowledge of God in His absolute formless aspect) along with the Knowledge of the qualified aspect of God (both with form and without form), having known which nothing else remains yet to be known in this world”


3/VII. “Hardly one among thousands of men strives to realize Me; of those striving Yogis, again, some rare one (devoting himself exclusively to Me) knows Me in reality”


4,5/VII. “Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, reason and also ego; these constitute My nature eightfold divided. This indeed is My lower (material) nature; the other than this, by which the whole universe is sustained, know it to be My higher (or spiritual) nature in the form of Jiva ( the life-principle), O Arjuna”


6/VII. “Arjuna, know that all beings have evolved from this twofold Prakrti, and that I am the source of the entire creation, and into Me again it disappears”


7/VII. “There is nothing else besides Me, Arjuna. Like clusters of yarn-beads formed by knots on a thread, all this is threaded on Me”


8/VII. “Arjuna, I am the sapidity in water and the light of the moon and the sun; I am the sacred syllable OM in all the Vedas, the sound in other; and the manlinss in men”


9/VII. “I am the pure odour (the subtle principle of odour) in the earth and the brilliance in fire; nay, I am the life in all beings and the austerity in men of askesis”


10/VII. “Arjuna, know Me the eternal seed of all beings. I am the intelligence of the intelligent; the glory of the glorious am I”


11/VII. “Arjuna, of the mightly I am the might, free from passion and desire; in beings I am the sexual desire not conflicting with virtue or scriptural injunctions”


12/VII. “Whatever other entities there are, born of Sattva (the quality of goodness), and those that are born of Rajas (the principal of activity) and Tamas (the principal of intertia), know them all as evloved from Me alone. In reality, however, neither do I exist in them, nor they in Me”


13/VII. “The whole of this creation is deluded by these objects evolved from the three modes of Prakrti-Sattva, Rajas and Tamas; that is why the world fails to recognize Me, standing apart from these and impersihable”


14/VII. “For this most wonderful Maya (veil) of Mine, consisting of the three Gunas (modes of Nature), is extremely difficult to break through; those, however, who constantly adore Me alone are able to cross it”


15/VII. “Those whose wisdom has been carried away by Maya, and who have embraced the demoniac nature, such foolish and vile men of evil deeds do not adore Me”


16/VII. “Four types of devotees of noble deeds worship Me, Arjuna, the seeker after worldly possessions, the afflicted, the seeker for knowledge, and man of wisdom, O best of Bharatas”


17/VII. “Of these best is the man of wisdom, ever established in indentity with Me and possessed of exclusive devotion. For I am extremely dear to the wise man (who knows Me in reality), and he is extremely dear to me”


18/VII. “Indeed all these are noble, but the man of wisdom is My very self: such is My view. For such a devotee, who has his mind and intellect merged in Me, is firmly established in Me alone, the highest goal”


19/VII. “In the very last of all births the enlightened soul worships Me, realizing that all this is God. Such a great soul is very rare”


20/VII. “Those whose wisdom has been carried away by various desires, being prompted by their own nature, worship other deities adopting rules relating to each”


21/VII. “Whatever celestial form a devotee (craving for some worldly object) chooses to worship with reverence, I stabilize the faith of that particular devotee in that very form”


22/VII. “Endowed with such faith he worship that particular deity and obtains through him without doubt his desired enjoyments as ordained by Myself”


23/VII. “The fruit gained by these people of small understanding, however, is perishable. The worshippers of gods attain the gods; whereas My devotees, howsoever they worship Me, eventually come to Me and me alone”


24/VII. “Not knowing My unsurpassable and undecaying supreme nature, the ignorant believe Me, the supreme Spirit beyond the reach of mind and senses, the embodiment of Truth, Knowledge and Bliss, to have assumed a finite form through birth (as an ordinary human being)”


25/VII. “Veiled by My Yogamaya (divine potency); I am not manifest to all. Hence these ignorant folk fail to recognize Me, the unborn and imperishable Supreme Deity (i.e., consider Me as subject to birth and death)”


26/VII. “Arjuna, I know all beings, past as well as present, nay, even those that are yet to come; but none (devoid of faith and reverence) knows Me”


27/VII. “O valiant Arjuna, through delusion in the shape of pairs of opposites (such as pleasure and pain etc.,), born of desire and hatred, all living creatures in this world are falling a prey to infatuation”


28/VII. “But those men of virtuous deeds whose sins have come to an end, being freed from delusion in the shape of pairs of opposites (born of attraction and repulsion), worship Me with a firm resolve in every way”


29,30/VII. “They who, having taken refuge in Me, strive for deliverance from old age and death know Brahma (the Absolute), the whole Adhyatma (the totality of Jivas or embodies souls), and the entire field of Karma (action) as well as My integral being, comprising Adhibhuta (the field of matter), Adhidaiva (Brahma) and Adhiyajn (the unmanifest Divinity dwelling in the heart of all beings as their witness). And they who, possessed of a steadfast mind, know thus even at the hour of death, they too know Me alone”

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OM THATH SATH