- Chapter VIII
- Arjuna. Who is that BRAHMA? What is that Soul of Souls,
- The ADHYATMAN? What, Thou Best of All!
- Thy work, the KARMA? Tell me what it is
- Thou namest ADHIBHUTA? What again
- Means ADHIDAIVA? Yea, and how it comes
- Thou canst be ADHIYAJNA in thy flesh?
- Slayer of Madhu! Further, make me know
- How good men find thee in the hour of death?
- Krishna. I BRAHMA am! the One Eternal GOD,
- And ADHYATMAN is My Being's name,
- The Soul of Souls! What goeth forth from Me,
- Causing all life to live, is KARMA called:
- And, Manifested in divided forms,
- I am the ADHIBHUTA, Lord of Lives;
- And ADHIDAIVA, Lord of all the Gods,
- Because I am PURUSHA, who who begets.
- And ADHIYAJNA, Lord of Sacrifice,
- I- speaking with thee in this body here-
- Am, thou embodied one! (for all the shrines
- Flame unto Me!) And, at the hour of death,
- He that hath meditated Me alone,
- In putting off his flesh, comes forth to Me,
- Enters into My Being- doubt thou not!
- But, if he meditated otherwise
- At hour of death, in putting off the flesh,
- He goes to what he looked for, Kunti's Son!
- Because the Soul is fashioned to its like.
- Have Me, then, in thy heart always! and fight!
- Thou too, when heart and mind are fixed on Me,
- Shalt surely come to Me! All come who cleave
- With never-wavering will of firmest faith,
- Owning none other Gods: all come to Me,
- The Uttermost, Purusha, Holiest!
- Whoso hath known Me, Lord of sage and singer,
- Ancient of days; of all the Three Worlds Stay,
- Boundless,- but unto every atom Bringer
- Of that which quickens it: whoso, I say,
- Hath known My form, which passeth mortal knowing;
- Seen my effulgence- which no eye hath seen-
- Than the sun's burning gold more brightly glowing,
- Dispersing darkness,- unto him hath been
- Right life! And, in the hour when life is ending,
- With mind set fast and trustful piety,
- Drawing still breath beneath calm brows unbending,
- In happy peace that faithful one doth die,-
- In glad peace passeth to Purusha's heaven.
- The place which they who read the Vedas name
- AKSHARAM, "Ultimate;" whereto have striven
- Saints and ascetics- their road is the same.
- That way- the highest way- goes he who shuts
- The gates of all his senses, locks desire
- Safe in his heart, centres the vital airs
- Upon his parting thought, steadfastly set;
- And, murmuring OM, the sacred syllable-
- Emblem of BRAHM- dies, meditating Me.
- For who, none other Gods regarding, looks
- Ever to Me, easily am I gained
- By such a Yogi; and, attaining Me,
- They fall not- those Mahatmas- back to birth,
- To life, which is the place of pain, which ends,
- But take the way of utmost blessedness.
- The worlds, Arjuna!- even Brahma's world-
- Roll back again from Death to Life's unrest;
- But they, O Kunti's Son! that reach to Me,
- Taste birth no more. If ye know Brahma's Day
- Which is a thousand Yugas; if ye know
- The thousand Yugas making Brahma's Night,
- Then know ye Day and Night as He doth know!
- When that vast Dawn doth break, th' Invisible
- Is brought anew into the Visible;
- When that deep Night doth darken, all which is
- Fades back again to Him Who sent it forth;
- Yea! this vast company of living things-
- Again and yet again produced- expires
- At Brahma's Nightfall; and, at Brahma's Dawn,
- Riseth, without its will, to life new-born.
- But- higher, deeper, innermost- abides
- Another Life, not like the life of sense,
- Escaping sight, unchanging. This endures
- When all created things have passed away;
- This is that Life named the Unmanifest,
- The Infinite! the All! the Uttermost.
- Thither arriving none return. That Life
- Is Mine, and I am there! And, Prince! by faith
- Which wanders not, there is a way to come
- Thither. I, the PURUSHA, I Who spread
- The Universe around me- in Whom dwell
- All living Things- may so be reached and seen!
- Richer than holy fruit on Vedas growing,
- Greater than gifts, better than prayer or fast,
- Such wisdom is! The Yogi, this way knowing,
- Comes to the Utmost Perfect Peace at last.
- HERE ENDETH Chapter VIII OF THE BHAGAVAD-GITA;
- Entitled "Aksharaparabrahmayog," Or "The Book of Religion by Devotion to the One Supreme God."
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