Chapter 9 — Raja Vidya Yoga

The Blessed Lord said I shall now declare to thee who does not cavil, the greatest secret, the knowledge combined with experience (Self-realisation). Having known this thou shalt be free evil.

This is the kingl science, the kingly secret, the supreme purifier, realisable by direct intuitional knowledge, according to righteousness, very easy to perform and imperishable.

Those who have no faith in this Dharma (knowledge of the Self), O Parantapa (Arjuna), return to the path of this world of death without attaining Me.

All this world is pervaded by Me in My unmanifest aspect; all beings exist in Me, but I do not dwell in them.

Nor do beings exist in Me (in reality); behold My divine Yoga, supporting all beings, but not dwelling in them, is My Self, the efficient cause of beings.

As the mighty wind, moving everywhere, rests always in the ether, even so, know thou that all beings rest in Me.

All beings, O Arjuna, go into My Nature at the end of a Kalpa; I send them forth again at the beginning of (the next) Kalpa.

Animating My Nature, I again and again send forth all this multitude of beings, helpless by the force of the Nature.

These acts do not bind Me, O Arjuna, sitting like one indifferent, unattached to those acts.

Under Me as supervisor, Nature produces the moving and the unmoving; because of this, O Arjuna, the world revolves.

Fools disregard Me, clad in human form, not knowing My higher Being as the great Lord of (all) beings.

Of vain hopes, of vain actions, of vain knowledge and senseless, they verily are possessed of the deceitful nature of demons and undivine beings.

But the great souls, O Arjuna, partaking of My divine nature, worship Me with a single mind (with the mind devoted to nothing else), knowing Me as the imperishable source of beings.

Always glorifying Me, striving,firm in vows, prostrating themselves before Me, they worship Me with devotion always steadfast.

Others also sacrificing with the wisdom-sacrifice worship Me, the All-faced, as one, as distinct, and as manifold.

I am the Kratu; I am the Yajna; I am the offering (food) to the manes; I am the medicinal herbs and all the plants; I am the Mantra; I am also the Ghee or the melted butter; I am the fire; I am the oblation.

I am the father of this world, the mother, the dispenser of the fruits of actions and the grandfather; the (one) thing to be known, the purifier, the sacred monosyllable (Om), and also the Rik-, the Sama-and the Yajur-Vedas.

I am the goal, the supporter, the Lord, the witness, the abode, the shelter, the friend, the origin, the dissolution, the foundation, the treasure-house and the seed which is imperishable.

(As the sun) I give heat; I withhold and send forth the rain; I am immortality and also death, existence and non-existence, O Arjuna.

The knowers of the three Vedas, the drinkers of Soma, purified of all sins, worshipping Me by sacrifices, pray for the way to heaven; they reach the holy world of the Lord of the gods and enjoy in heavn the divine pleasures of the gods.

They, having enjoyed the vast heaven, enter the world of mortals when their merit is exhausted; thus abiding by the injunctions of the ï1threeï1 (Vedas) and desiring (objects of) desires, they attain to the state of going and returning.

For those men who worship Me alone, thinking of no other, for those ever-united, I secure what is not already possessed and preserve what they already possess.

Even those devotees who, endowed with faith, worship other gods, worship Me alone, O Arjuna, b the wrong method.

(For) I alone am the enjoyer and also the Lord of all sacrifices; but they do not know Me in essence (in reality), and hence they fall (return to this mortal world).

The worshippers of the gods go to them; to the manes go the ancestor-worshippers; to the deities who preside over the elements go their worshippers; but My devotees come to Me.

Whoever offers Me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or a little water that, so offered devotedly by the pure-minded, I accept.

Whatever thou doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou offerest in sacrifice, whatever thou givest, whatever thou practisest as austerity, O Arjuna, do it as an offering unto Me.

Thus shalt thou be freed from the bonds of actions yielding good and evil fruits; with the mind steadfast in the Yoga of renunciation, and liberated, thou shalt come unto Me.

The same am I to all beings; to Me there is none hateful or dear; but those who worship Me with devotion are in Me and I am also in them.

Even if the most sinful worships Me, with devotion to none else, he too should indeed by regarded as righteous for he has rightly resolved.

Soon he becomes righteous and attains to eternal peace; O Arjuna, proclaim thou for certain that My devotee never perishes.

For, taking refuge in Me, they also who, O Arjuna, may be of a sinful birth women, Vaisyas as well as Sudras attain the Supreme Goal.

How much more (easily) then the hold Brahmins and devoted royal saints (attain the goal); having come to this impermanent and unhappy world, do thou worship Me.

Fix thy mind on Me; by devoted to Me; sacrifice unto Me; bow down to Me; having thus united thy whole self to Me, taking Me as the supreme goal, thou shalt come unto Me.