Chapter XIII- Arjuna. Now would I hear, O gracious Kesava!
- Of Life which seems, and Soul beyond, which sees,
- And what it is we know- or think to know.
- Krishna. Yea! Son of Kunti! for this flesh ye see
- Is Kshetra, is the field where Life disports;
- And that which views and knows it is the Soul,
- Kshetrajna. In all "fields," thou Indian prince!
- I am Kshetrajna. I am what surveys!
- Only that knowledge knows which knows the known
- By the knower! What it is, that "field" of life,
- What qualities it hath, and whence it is,
- And why it changeth, and the faculty
- That wotteth it, the mightiness of this,
- And how it wotteth- hear these things from Me!
- The elements, the conscious life, the mind,
- The unseen vital force, the nine strange gates
- Of the body, and the five domains of sense;
- Desire, dislike, pleasure and pain, and thought
- Deep-woven, and persistency of being;
- These all are wrought on Matter by the Soul!
- Humbleness, truthfulness, and harmlessness,
- Patience and honour, reverence for the wise.
- Purity, constancy, control of self,
- Contempt of sense-delights, self-sacrifice,
- Perception of the certitude of ill
- In birth, death, age, disease, suffering, and sin;
- Detachment, lightly holding unto home,
- Children, and wife, and all that bindeth men;
- An ever-tranquil heart in fortunes good
- And fortunes evil, with a will set firm
- To worship Me- Me only! ceasing not;
- Loving all solitudes, and shunning noise
- Of foolish crowds; endeavours resolute
- To reach perception of the Utmost Soul,
- And grace to understand what gain it were
- So to attain,- this is true Wisdom, Prince!
- And what is otherwise is ignorance!
- Now will I speak of knowledge best to know-
- That Truth which giveth man Amrit to drink,
- The Truth of HIM, the Para-Brahm, the All,
- The Uncreated; not Asat, nor Sat,
- Not Form, nor the Unformed; yet both, and more;-
- Whose hands are everywhere, and everywhere
- Planted His feet, and everywhere His eyes
- Beholding, and His ears in every place
- Hearing, and all His faces everywhere
- Enlightening and encompassing His worlds.
- Glorified in the senses He hath given,
- Yet beyond sense He is; sustaining all,
- Yet dwells He unattached: of forms and modes
- Master, yet neither form nor mode hath He;
- He is within all beings- and without-
- Motionless, yet still moving; not discerned
- For subtlety of instant presence; close
- To all, to each; yet measurelessly far!
- Not manifold, and yet subsisting still
- In all which lives; for ever to be known
- As the Sustainer, yet, at the End of Times,
- He maketh all to end- and re-creates.
- The Light of Lights He is, in the heart of the Dark
- Shining eternally. Wisdom He is
- And Wisdom's way, and Guide of all the wise,
- Planted in every heart.
- So have I told
- Of Life's stuff, and the moulding, and the lore
- To comprehend. Whoso, adoring Me,
- Perceiveth this, shall surely come to Me!
- Know thou that Nature and the Spirit both
- Have no beginning! Know that qualities
- And changes of them are by Nature wrought;
- That Nature puts to work the acting frame,
- But Spirit doth inform it, and so cause
- Feeling of pain and pleasure. Spirit, linked
- To moulded matter, entereth into bond
- With qualities by Nature framed, and, thus
- Married to matter, breeds the birth again
- In good or evil yonis.
- Yet is this-
- Yea! in its bodily prison!- Spirit pure,
- Spirit supreme; surveying, governing,
- Guarding, possessing; Lord and Master still
- PURUSHA, Ultimate, One Soul with Me.
- Whoso thus knows himself, and knows his soul
- PURUSHA, working through the qualities
- With Nature's modes, the light hath come for him!
- Whatever flesh he bears, never again
- Shall he take on its load. Some few there be
- By meditation find the Soul in Self
- Self-schooled; and some by long philosophy
- And holy life reach thither; some by works:
- Some, never so attaining, hear of light
- From other lips, and seize, and cleave to it
- Worshipping; yea! and those- to teaching true-
- Overpass Death!
- Wherever, Indian Prince!
- Life is- of moving things, or things unmoved,
- Plant or still seed- know, what is there hath grown
- By bond of Matter and of Spirit: Know
- He sees indeed who sees in all alike
- The living, lordly Soul; the Soul Supreme,
- Imperishable amid the Perishing:
- For, whoso thus beholds, in every place,
- In every form, the same, one, Living Life,
- Doth no more wrongfulness unto himself,
- But goes the highest road which brings to bliss.
- Seeing, he sees, indeed, who sees that works
- Are Nature's wont, for Soul to practise by
- Acting, yet not the agent; sees the mass
- Of separate living things- each of its kind-
- Issue from One, and blend again to One:
- Then hath he BRAHMA, he attains!
- O Prince!
- That Ultimate, High Spirit, Uncreate,
- Unqualified, even when it entereth flesh
- Taketh no stain of acts, worketh in nought!
- Like to th' ethereal air, pervading all,
- Which, for sheer subtlety, avoideth taint,
- The subtle Soul sits everywhere, unstained:
- Like to the light of the all-piercing sun
- [Which is not changed by aught it shines upon,]
- The Soul's light shineth pure in every place;
- And they who, by such eye of wisdom, see
- How Matter, and what deals with it, divide;
- And how the Spirit and the flesh have strife,
- Those wise ones go the way which leads to Life!
- HERE ENDETH Chapter XIII OF THE
- BHAGAVAD-GITA,
- Entitled "Kshetrakshetrajnavibhagayog,"
- Or "The Book of Religion by Separation of Matter and Spirit."
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