Chapter 7 — Gyaan Vigyana Yoga

The Blessed Lord said O Arjuna, hear how you shall without doubt know Me fully, with the mind intent on Me, practising Yoga and taking refuge in Me.

I shall declare to thee in full this knowledge combined with realisation, after knowing which nothing more here remains to be known.

Among thousands of men, one perchance strives for perfection; even among those successful strivers, only one perchance knows Me in essence.

Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect and egoism thus is My Nature divided eightfold.

This is the inferior Prakriti, O mighty-armed (Arjuna); know thou as different from it My higher Prakriti (Nature), the very life-element, by which this world is upheld.

Know that these two (Natures) are the womb of all beings. So I am the source and dissolution of the whole universe.

There is nothing whatsoever higher than Me, O Arjuna. All this is strung on Me, as clusters of gems on a string.

I am the sapidity in water, O Arjuna; I am the light in the moon and the sun; I am the syllable Om in all the Vedas, sound in ether and virility in men.

I am the sweet fragrance in the earth and the brilliance in the fire, the life in all beings, and I am the austerity in ascetics.

Know Me, O Arjuna, as the eternal seed of all beings; I am the intelligence of the intelligent; the splendour of the splendid objects am I.

Of the strong, I am the strength devoid of desire and attachment, and in (all) beings, I am the desire unopposed to Dharma, O Arjuna.

Whatever beings (and objects) that are pure, active and inert, know that they proceed from Me. They are in Me, yet I am not in them.

Deluded by these Natures (states or things) composed of the three alities of Nature all this world does not know Me as distinct from them and immutable.

Verily, this divine illusion of Mine, made up of the (three) alities (of Nature) is difficult to cross over; those who take refuge in Me alone, cross over this illusion.

The evil-doers and the deluded who are the lowest of men do not seek Me; they whose knowledge is destroyed by illusion follow the ways of demons.

Four kinds of virtuous men worship Me, O Arjuna, and they are the distressed, the seekr of knowledge, the seekr of wealth and the wise, O lord of the Bharatas.

Of them the wise, ever steadfast and devoted to the One, excels (is the best); for I am exceedingly dear to the wise and he is dear to Me.

Noble indeed are all these; but I deem the wise man as My very Self; for, steadfast in mind he is established in Me alone as the supreme goal.

At the end of many births the wise man comes to Me, realising that all this is Vaasudeva (the innermost Self); such a great soul (Mahatma) is very hard to find.

Those whose wisdom has been rent away by this or that desire, go to other gods, following this or that rite, led by their own nature.

Whatsoever form any devotee desires to worship with faith that (same) faith of his I make firm and unflinching.

Endowed with that faith, he engages in the worship of that (form) and from it he obtains his desire, these being verily ordained by Me (alone).

Verily the reward (fruit) that accrues to those men of small intelligence is finite. The worshippers of the gods go to them, but My devotees come to Me.

The foolish think of Me, the Unmanifest, as having manifestation, knowing not My higher, immutable and most excellent nature.

I am not manifest to all (as I am) veiled by the Yoga-Maya. This deluded world does not know Me, the unborn and imperishable.

I know, O Arjuna, the beings of the past, the present and the future, but no one knows Me.

By the delusion of the pairs of opposites arising from desire and aversion, O Bharata, all beings are subject to delusion at birth, O Parantapa.

But those men of virtuous deeds whose sins have come to an end, and who are freed from the delusion of the pairs of opposites, worship Me, steadfast in their vows.

Those who strive for liberation from old age and death, taking refuge in Me, realise in full ï1thatï1 Brahman, the whole knowledge of the Self and all action.

Those who know Me with the Adhibhuta (pertaining to the elements), Adhidaiva (pertaining to the gods) and the Adhiyajna (pertaining to the sacrifice) know Me even at the time of death, steadfast in mind.