Bhagavad Gita

}} Constancy in the wisdom of the Self, understanding of the object of essential wisdom; that is declared to be the Wisdom; all against it is ignorance

}} I will declare that which ought to be known, that which being known immortality is enjoyed—the beginningless supreme , called neither being nor non-being

}} Everywhere hath hands and feet, everywhere eyes, heads, and mouths; all-hearing, He dwelleth in the world, enveloping all,

}} Shining with all sense-faculties without any senses; unattached supporting everything and free from qualities enjoying qualities;

}} Without and within all beings, immovable and also movable; by reason of His subtlety imperceptible; at hand and far away is

}} Not divided amid beings, and yet seated distributively; is to be known as the supporter of beings; He devours and He generates

}} , the Light of all lights, is said to be beyond darkness; Wisdom, the Object of Wisdom, by Wisdom to be reached, seated in the hearts of all

}} Thus the Field, Wisdom and the Object of Wisdom, have been briefly told. My devotee, thus knowing, enters into My Being

}} Know thou that Matter and Spirit are both without beginning; and know thou also that modifications and qualities are all Matter-born

}} Matter is called the cause of the generation of causes and effects; Spirit is called the cause of the enjoyment of pleasure and pain

}} Spirit seated in Matter useth the qualities born of Matter; attachment to the qualities is the cause of his births in good and evil wombs

}} Supervisor and permitter, supporter, enjoyer, the great Lord, and also the supreme ; thus is styled in this body the supreme Spirit

}} He who thus knoweth Spirit and Matter with its qualities, in whatsoever condition he may be, he shall not be born again

}} Some by meditation behold the in the self by the ; others by the Sânkhya Yoga, and others by the Yoga of Action;

}} Others also, ignorant of this, having heard of it from others, worship; and these also cross beyond death, adhering to what they had heard

}} Whatsoever creature is born immobile or mobile, know thou, O best of the Bhâratas, that it is from the union between the Field and the Knower of the Field

}} Seated equally in all beings, the supreme Lord, unperishing within the perishing—he who thus seeth, he seeth

}} Seeing indeed everywhere the same Lord equally dwelling, he doth not destroy the , and thus treads the highest Path

}} He who seeth that Matter verily performeth all actions, and that the is actionless, he seeth

}} When he perceiveth the diversified existence of beings as rooted in One, and spreading forth from it, then he reacheth the

}} Being beginningless and without qualities, the imperishable supreme , though seated in the body, O Kaunteya, worketh not nor is affected

}} As the omnipresent ether is not affected, by reason of its subtlety, so seated everywhere in the body the is not affected

}} As the one sun illumineth the whole earth, so the Lord of the Field illumineth the whole Field, O Bhârata

}} They who by the eyes of Wisdom perceive this difference between the Field and the Knower of the Field, and the liberation of beings from Matter they go to the Supreme

}} I will again proclaim that supreme Wisdom, of all wisdom the best, which having known, all the Sages have gone hence to the supreme Perfection

Having taken refuge in this Wisdom and being assimilated to My own nature, they are not re-born even in the emanation of a universe, nor are disquieted in the dissolution

My womb is the great ; in that I place the germ; thence cometh the birth of all beings, O Bhârata

In whatsoever wombs mortals are produced, O Kaunteya, the great is their womb, I their generating father

Harmony, Motion, Inertia, such are the qualities, Matter-born; they bind fast in the body, O great-armed one, the indestructible dweller in the body

Of these Harmony from its stainlessness, luminous and healthy, bindeth by the attachment to bliss and the attachment to wisdom, O sinless one

Motion, the passion nature, know thou, is the source of attachment and thirst for life, O Kaunteya, that bindeth the dweller in the body by the attachment to action

But Inertia, know thou, born of unwisdom, is the deluder of all dwellers in the body; that bindeth by heedlessness, indolence and sloth, O

Harmony attacheth to bliss, Motion to action O . Inertia, verily, having shrouded wisdom, attacheth on the contrary to heedlessness

Now Harmony prevaileth, having overpowered Motion and Inertia, O Bhârata; now Motion, having overpowered Harmony and Inertia; and now Inertia, having overpowered Harmony and Motion

When the wisdom-light streameth forth from all the gates of the body, then it may be known that Harmony is increasing

Greed, outgoing energy, undertaking of actions, restlessness, desire—these are born of the increase of Motion, O best of the Bhâratas

Darkness, stagnation and heedlessness and also delusion—these are born of the increase of Inertia, O joy of the Kurus

If Harmony verily prevaileth when the embodied goeth to dissolution, then he goeth forth to the spotless worlds of the great Sages

Having gone to dissolution in Motion, he is born among those attached to action; if dissolved in Inertia, he is born in the wombs of the senseless

It is said the fruit of a good action is harmonious and spotless; verily the fruit of Motion is pain, and the fruit of Inertia

From Harmony wisdom is born, and also greed from Motion; heedlessness and delusion are of Inertia and also unwisdom

They rise upwards who are settled in Harmony; the Active dwell in the mid-most place: the Inert go downwards, enveloped in the

When the Seer perceiveth no agent other than the qualities, and knoweth which is higher than the qualities, he entereth into My Nature

When the dweller in the body hath crossed over these three qualities,

}} What are the marks of him who hath crossed over the three qualities, O Lord? How acteth he, and how doth he go beyond these three qualities?

}} He, O Pândava, who hateth not radiance, nor outgoing energy, nor even delusion, when present, nor longeth after them, absent;

He who, seated as a neutral, is unshaken by the qualities; who, saying, "The qualities revolve," standeth apart immovable

Balanced in pleasure and pain, self-reliant, to whom a lump of earth, a rock and gold are alike, the same to loved and unloved, firm, the same in censure and in praise,

The same in honour and ignominy, the same to friend and foe, abandoning all undertakings—he is said to have crossed over the qualities

And he who serveth Me exclusively by the Yoga of devotion, he, crossing beyond the qualities, he is fit to become the

For I am the abode of the , and of the indestructible nectar of immortality, of immemorial righteousness, and of unending bliss

}} With roots above, branches below, the Asvattha is said to be indestructible; the leaves of it are hymns; he who knoweth it is a Veda-knower

Downwards and upwards spread the branches of it, nourished by the qualities; the objects of the senses its buds; and its roots grow downwards, the bonds of action in the world of men

Nor here may be acquired knowledge of its form, nor its end, nor its origin, nor its rooting-place; this strongly rooted Asvattha having been cut down by the unswerving weapon of non-attachment,

That path beyond may be sought, treading which there is no return. I go indeed to that Primal Man, whence the ancient energy forth-streamed

Without pride and delusion, victorious over the vice of attachment, dwelling constantly in the , desire pacified, liberated from the pairs of opposites known as pleasure and pain, they tread, undeluded, that indestructible path

Nor doth the sun lighten there, nor moon, nor fire; having gone thither they return not; that is My supreme abode

A portion of Mine own Self, transformed in the world of life into an immortal Spirit, draweth round itself the senses of which the mind is the sixth, veiled in matter

When the Lord acquireth a body and when He abandoneth it, He seizeth these and goeth with them, as the wind takes fragrances from their

Enshrined in the ear, the eye, the touch, the taste and the smell, and in the mind also, He enjoyeth the objects of the

The deluded do not perceive (Him) when He departeth or stayeth or enjoyeth, swayed by the qualities; the wisdom-eyed perceive

Yogîs also, struggling, perceive Him, established in the ; but though struggling, the unintelligent perceive Him not, their selves untrained

That splendour issuing from the sun that enlighteneth the whole world, that which is in the moon and in fire, that splendour know as from Me

Permeating the soil, I support beings by my vital energy, and having become the delicious Soma I nourish all plants

I, having become the Fire of Life, take possession of the bodies of breathing things, and united with the life-breaths, I digest the four kinds of food

And I am seated in the hearts of all, and from Me memory and wisdom and their absence. And that which is to be known in all the Vedas am I; and I indeed the Veda-knower and the author of the Vedanta

There are two Energies in this world, the destructible and the indestructible; the destructible is all beings, the unchanging is called the indestructible

The highest Energy is verily Another, declared as the Supreme , He who, pervading all, sustaineth the three worlds, the indestructible Lord

Since I excel the destructible, and am more excellent also than the indestructible, in the world and in the Veda I am proclaimed the Supreme Spirit

He who undeluded knoweth Me thus as the Supreme Spirit, he, all-knowing, worshippeth Me with his whole being, O Bhârata

Thus by Me this most secret teaching hath been told O sinless one. This known, he hath become illuminated and hath finished his work, O Bhârata

}} Fearlessness, cleanness of life, steadfastness in the Yoga of wisdom, almsgiving, self-restraint and sacrifice and study of the Scriptures, austerity and straightforwardness,

Harmlessness, truth, absence of wrath, renunciation, peacefulness, absence of crookedness, compassion to living beings, uncovetousness, mildness, modesty, absence of fickleness,

Vigour, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, absence of envy and pride—these are his who is born with the divine properties, O Bhârata

Hypocrisy, arrogance and conceit, wrath and also harshness and unwisdom are his who is born, O Pârtha, with demoniacal properties

The divine properties are deemed to be for liberation, the demoniacal for bondage. Grieve not, thou art born with divine properties, O Pândava

Twofold is the animal creation in this world, the divine and the demoniacal: the divine hath been described at length: hear from Me, O Pârtha, the demoniacal

Demoniacal men know neither right energy nor right abstinence; nor purity, nor even propriety, nor truth is in them

"The universe is without truth, without basis," they say, "without a God; brought about by mutual union, and caused by lust and nothing else."

Holding this view, these ruined selves of small understanding, of fierce deeds, come forth as enemies for the destruction of the world

Surrendering themselves to insatiable desires, possessed with vanity, conceit and arrogance, holding evil ideas through delusion, they engage in action with impure resolves

Giving themselves over to unmeasured thought whose end is death, regarding the gratification of desires as the highest, feeling sure that this is all,

Held in bondage by a hundred ties of expectation, given over to lust and anger, they strive to obtain by unlawful means hoards of wealth for sensual enjoyments

"This to-day by me hath been won, that purpose I shall gain; this wealth is mine already, and also this shall be mine in future

"I have slain this enemy, and others also I shall slay. I am the Lord, I am the enjoyer, I am perfect, powerful, happy;

"I am wealthy, well-born; what other is there that is like unto me? I will sacrifice, I will give alms, I will rejoice." Thus deluded by unwisdom,

Bewildered by numerous thoughts, enmeshed in the web of delusion, addicted to the gratification of desire, they fall downwards into a foul hell

Self-glorifying, stubborn, filled with the pride and intoxication of wealth, they perform lip-sacrifices for ostentation, contrary to scriptural ordinance

Given over to egoism, power, insolence, lust and wrath, these malicious ones hate Me in the bodies of others and in their own

These haters, evil, pitiless, vilest among men in the world, I ever throw down into demoniacal wombs

Cast into demoniacal wombs, deluded birth after birth, attaining not to Me, O Kaunteya, they sink into the lowest depths

Triple is the gate of this hell, destructive of the self—lust, wrath, and greed; therefore let man renounce these three

A man liberated from these three gates of darkness, O son of Kunti, accomplisheth his own welfare, and thus reacheth the highest goal

He who, having cast aside the ordinances of the Scriptures, followeth the promptings of desire, attaineth not to perfection, nor happiness, nor the highest goal

Therefore let the Scriptures be thy authority, in determining what ought to be done, or what ought not to be done. Knowing what hath been declared by the ordinances of the Scriptures, thou oughtest to work in this world

}} Those that sacrifice full of faith, but casting aside the ordinances of the Scriptures, what is verily their condition, O Krishna? Is it one of Purity, Passion, or Darkness?

}} Threefold is by nature the inborn faith of the embodied—pure, passionate, and dark. Hear thou of these

The faith of each is shaped to his own nature, O Bhârata. The man consists of his faith; that which his faith is, he is even that

Pure men worship the Gods; the passionate the gnomes and giants; the others, the dark folk, worship ghosts and troops of nature-spirits

The men who perform severe austerities, unenjoined by the Scriptures, wedded to vanity and egoism, impelled by the force of their desires and passions,