The BhagvadgitaChapter VII: Jnana Vijnana Yoga (The Yoga of Wisdom and Realization)
1 Sri Bhagvan said: Arjuna, now listen how with the mind attached to Me (through exclusive love) and practicing Yoga with complete dependence on Me, you will know Me (repository of all power and glory, the Soul of all) in full and freed from all doubt.
2 I shall unfold to you in its entirety this wisdom along with the real knowledge of manifest Divinity, having known which nothing else remains still to be known in this world.
3 Of thousands of men some rare soul strives to realize Me; of those striving Yogis, again, some rare one (devoting himself exclusively to Me) knows Me in reality.
4 Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, reason and also the ego – these constitute My nature eightfold divided.
5 This is My lower (insentient) nature; the other than this, by which the whole universe is sustained, know it as My higher (or sentient) nature in the form of the Jiva (the life-principle).
6 Arjuna, know that all beings have evolved from this twofold Prakrti, and that I am the source of the entire creation, and in Me again it dissolves.
7 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 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, sound in ether, and manliness in men.
9 I am pure odour (the subtle principle of odour) in the earth and pure brilliance in fire; nay, I am life in all beings and austerity in ascetics.
10 Arjuna, know Me as the eternal seed of all beings. I am the intelligence of the intelligent; the glory of the glorious am I.
11 Arjuna, I am the might of the mighty, free from passion and desire; in beings I am the sexual desire not in conflict with virtue or scriptural injunction.
12 Whatever other entities there are, born of Sattva (the quality of goodness), and those that are born of Rajas (the principle of activity) and Tamas (the principle of inertia), know them all as evolved from Me alone. In reality, however, neither I exist in them, nor they in Me.
13 The whole of this creation is deluded by objects evolved from the three modes of Nature – Sattva, Rajas and Tamas; hence it does not know Me, who am above these and imperishable.
14 For this wonderful illusion of Mine consisting of the three Gunas (modes of Nature) is extremely difficult to get over; those, however, who take refuge in Me alone cross it.
15 Those who have their wisdom carried away by nescience, and who have embraced the demonic nature, such foolish and wretched men of evil deeds do not worship Me.
16 Four types of virtuous men worship Me, Arjuna, -- the seeker of worldly objects, the sufferer, the seeker of knowledge, and the man of wisdom.
17 Of these the best is the man of wisdom, constantly established in identity with Me and possessed of exclusive devotion. For extremely dear am I to the wise man (who knows Me in reality), and he is extremely dear to Me.
18 All these are noble, but the man of wisdom is verily My own self; this is My view. For this devotee, who has his mind and intellect merged in Me, is firmly established in Me, the highest goal.
19 In the very last of all births, the man of realization worships Me, realizing that all this is God. Such a great soul is very rare.
20 Those whose wisdom has been carried away by various desires, being bound by their own nature, worship other gods undertaking vows related to each.
21 Whatever celestial form a devotee (craving for some worldly object) seeks to worship with faith, I stabilize the faith of that particular devotee in that very form.
22 Endowed with such faith he worships that deity and obtains through him without doubt his desired enjoyment as ordained by Me.
23 The fruit gained by these people of meager intelligence, however, is perishable. The worshippers of gods attain the gods; whereas My devotees (howsoever they may adore Me), in the end attain Me alone.
24 Not knowing My unsurpassable and undecaying supreme nature, the unintelligent think Me, the supreme spirit beyond the reach of mind and senses, the embodiment of Truth, Knowledge and Bliss, to have assumed a visible (human) form.
25 Veiled by My Yogamaya (divine potency), I am not manifest to all. Hence these ignorant folk do not recognize Me as the unborn and imperishable Supreme Spirit (i.e., take Me to be subject to birth and death).
26 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 Arjuna, O chastiser of foes, in this world, through the delusion of pairs of opposites (such as pleasure and pain), born of desire and hatred, all beings are being enveloped on ignorance.
28 But those men of virtuous deeds whose sins have come to an end, being freed from delusion in the shape of pairs of opposites, worship Me with a firm resolve in every way.
29 They who, having taken refuge in Me, strive for deliverance from old age and death know Brahma (the Infinite), Adhyatma (the totality of Jivas or embodied souls),
30 and the entire field of Karma (action) as well as My integral being, comprising Adhibhuta (the field of matter), Adhidaiva (Brahma) and Adhiyajna (the unmanifest Divinity dwelling in the heart of all beings as their witness). And they who, possessed of a steadfast mind, know Me even at the hour of death, they also know Me.
Thus, in the Upanisad sung by the Lord, the science of Brahma, the scripture on Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krsna and Arjuna, ends the seventh chapter entitled “Jnana Vijnana Yoga” (The Yoga of Wisdom and Realization)
