Ninth discourse
SOWEREIGN WISDOM AND SECRET
*Brahma-Jnana is the best Religion
The Blessed Lord said:
1.
To thee who dost not cavil, I shall now declare this, the greatest secret, knowledge combined with experience, which having known thou shalt be liberated from evil.
2.
The Sovereign Science, the Sovereign Secret, the Supreme Purifier is this; immediately comprehensible, unopposed to Dharma, very easy to perform, imperishable.
But,
3.
Persons having no faith in this Dharma, O harasser of thy foes, without reaching Me, remain verily in the path of the mortal world.
* All beings rest in the Lord
4.
By Me all this world is pervaded, My form unmanifested. All beings dwell in Me; and I do not dwell in them.
Wherefore, as I am unconnected with any object
5.
Nor do those beings dwell in Me; behold My Divine Yoga! Sustaining all beings, but not dwelling in them, is My Self, the cause of beings.
6.
As the mighty wind moving everywhere rests ever in the akasa, so, know thou, do all beings, rest in Me.
* The Lord is the source and the end of all beings
7.
All beings, O son of Kunti, go into My Prakriti at the end of a kalpa. I send them forth again at the beginning of (the next) kalpa.
Thus:
8.
Resorting to My Prakriti, I again and again send forth this whole multitude of beings, powerless under the control of the Prakriti.
* The Lord is not bound by His acts
9.
Nor do these acts, O Dhananjaya, bind Me, remaining like one unconcerned, unattached to those acts.
10.
By Me presiding, Prakriti produces the moving and the unmoving; because of this, O son of Kunti, the world revolves.
* The life of the impious
11.
Fools disregard Me clad in human form, not knowing My higher being as the Great Lord of beings.
How (is their condition pitiable)?
12.
Of vain hopes, of vain actions, of vain knowledge, devoid of discrimination, partaking only of the delusive nature of Rakshasas and Asuras.
*The way's of the faithful devotees
13.
The Mahatmans, O son of Pritha, partaking of the nature of the Devas, worship Me with mind turned to no other, knowing (Me) as the imperishable source of all beings.
How (do they worship)?
14.
Always talking of Me, strenuous, firm in vows, and reverent, they worship Me with love, always devout.
15.
Worshipping by the wisdom-sacrifice, others adore Me, the All-faced, in various ways, as One, as different.
* All worship goes to the Lord
16.
I am kratu, I am yajna, I am svadha, I am aushadha, I am mantra, Myself the butter, I am fire, I the act of offering.
And,
17.
I am the father of this world, the mother, the dispenser, and grandsire; I am the knowable, the purifier, the syllable ' Om,' and also the Rik, the Saman, and the Yajus also.
And,
18.
I am the Goal, the Sustainer, the Lord, the Witness, the Abode, the Shelter and the Friend, the Origin, Dissolution and Stay; the Treasure-house, the Seed imperishable.
And,
19.
I give heat, I hold [back and send forth rain; I am the immortality as well as death, existence and non-existence, O Arjuna.
* The fruits of interested acts of Vedic ritual
20.
Men of the three Vedas, the soma-drinkers, purified from sin, worshipping Me by sacrifices, pray for the goal of heaven; they reach the holy world of the Lord of the Gods and enjoy in heaven the heavenly pleasures of the Gods.
21.
They, having enjoyed that spacious world of Svarga, their merit (punya) exhausted, enter the world of the mortals; thus following the Dharma of the Triad, desiring (objects of) desires, they attain to the state of going and returning.
* The Supreme watching over His devotees' interests
Now, as regards those men of right knowledge who are free from desires,
22.
Those men who, meditating on Me as nonseparate, worship Me all around,—to them who are ever devout, I secure gain and safety.
* Other devotees do but worship the Supreme in ignorance
23.
Even those who, devoted to other Gods, worship Them with faith, worship Myself, O son of Kunti, in ignorance.
Why dost Thou say that they worship in ignorance ?
For,
24.
I am indeed the Enjoyer, as also the Lord, of all sacrifices; but they do not know Me in truth; whence they fail.
25.
Votaries of the Gods go to the Gods; to the Pitris go the votaries of the Pitris; to the Bhutas go the worshippers of the Bhutas; My worshippers come to Myself.
* Facility in Devotion to the Supreme
26.
When one offers to Me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, water,—that I eat, offered with devotion by the pure-minded.
Because it is so, therefore,
27.
Whatever thou doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou sacrificest, whatever thou givest, in whatever austerity thou engagest, do it as an offering to Me.
Now listen as to what will accrue to you doing thus:
28.
Thus shalt thou be liberated from the bonds of actions which are productive of good and evil results; equipped in mind with the Yoga of renunciation, and liberated, thou shalt come to Me.
* The impartiality of the Supreme
29.
The same I am to all beings; to Me there is none hateful or dear; but whoso worship Me with devotion, they are in Me, and I am also in them.
* Even the Iow-born attain salvation by Devotion
Now I shall tell you how excellent a thing devotion to Me is:
30.
If one of even very evil life worships Me, resorting to none else, he must indeed be deemed righteous, for he is rightly resolved.
31.
Soon he becomes righteous and attains eternal peace; do thou, O son of Kunti, proclaim that My devotee never perishes.
Listen, this is the real truth: thou mayest proclaim that He who is devoted to Me in his inner soul never perishes.
32.
For, finding refuge in Me, they also who, O son of Pritha, may be of a sinful birth—women, vaisyas as well as sudras,—even they attain to the Supreme Goal.
* The Yoga of Devotion
33.
How much more then the holy brahmanas and devoted royal saints. Having reached this transient joyless world, do thou worship Me.
34.
Fix thy mind on Me, be devoted to Me, sacrifice to Me, bow down to Me. Thus steadied, with Me as thy Supreme Goal, thou shalt reach Myself, the Self.
END OF NINTH DISCOURSE
-----------------------------