Conversation 9. Sovereign Knowledge and Sovereign Mystery

Bhagavad Gita with Commentaries / Conversation 9. Sovereign Knowledge and Sovereign Mystery

Conversation 9. Sovereign Knowledge and Sovereign Mystery

The Blessed One said:

9:1. To you, devoid of envy, I am going to reveal the greatest mystery, the wisdom by knowing which you will get free from the bondage of the material existence.

9:2. It is a sovereign science, a sovereign mystery, the supreme purifier. It is cognized through direct experience as the righteousness grows. It is easily realized and gives imperishable fruits.

9:3. They who deny this knowledge do not attain Me and return to the ways of this world of death.

9:4. By Me — in My unmanifest form — this entire world is pervaded. All beings have roots in Me, but I do not have a root in them.

9:5. Yet, all beings are not in Me — behold My Divine Yoga! Supporting all beings, having no root in them, My Essence represents the power that sustains them.

9:6. As mighty wind blowing everywhere exists in the space, even so everything exists in Me. Try to understand this.

9:7. At the end of a Kalpa, O Kaunteya, all beings* are consumed by My prakriti. In the new Kalpa, I produce them again.

9:8. Entering into My prakriti, I create anew all beings, them — powerless — by My Power.

9:9. These actions do not bind Me, unruffled, unattached to actions.

9:10. Under My supervision, prakriti gives birth to the moving and nonmoving. This is why, O Kaunteya, this cosmic manifestation functions.

9:11. The insane disregard Me when they meet Me in the corporal human form, for they do not know My Supreme Divine Essence.

9:12. They are astray in faith, astray in deeds, astray in knowledge, wandered to the dead end, demoniac, indulging in lie.

9:13. But Mahatmas, O Partha, having transcended My Divine Maya, serve Me purposefully, knowing Me as Inexhaustible Source of Creations.

9:14. Some of them, praising Me always, ardently aspiring to Me, simply worship Me with love.

9:15. Others, making sacrifice of wisdom, worship Me as One and Multiform, present everywhere

9:16. I am the act of sacrifice. I am the sacrifice. I am also the butter, the fire, and the offering.

9:17. I am the Father of the universe, the Mother, the Support, the Complete Knowledge, the Purifier, the mantra AUM. I am also the Rig, Sama, and Yajur Vedas.

9:18. I am the Destination, the Beloved, the Ruler, the Witness, the Abode, the Refuge, the Loving, the Beginning, the End, the Basis, the Treasury, the Inexhaustible Seed.

9:19. I give warmth. I hold back or send forth rain. I am Immortality, and I am death. I am existence and non-existence, O Arjuna.

9:20. Those knowing the Vedas, drinking soma*, devoid of vices, worshipping Me with sacrificial deeds, asking of Me the way to paradise — they reach the world of “gods” and partake of “divine feasts”.

9:21. Having enjoyed this vast Heavenly world, they return to the world of mortals when their merits are exhausted. Thus, following the three Vedas, indulging in worldly desires, they attain the perishable.

9:22. They who aspire to Me alone with steadfast faith and devotion, thinking about nothing else — them I present with My Covering.

9:23. And even they who are devoted to “gods”, yet worship them with full faith, — they worship also Me, O Kaunteya, though in a wrong way.

9:24. All sacrifices are received by Me, for I am the Lord. But they do not know My Essence and therefore fall away from the truth.

9:25. Those worshipping “gods” go to “gods”; those worshipping ancestors go to the ancestors; those worshipping the spirits of nature go to the spirits of nature; and those who devote themselves to Me go to Me.

9:26. If one offers to Me with love even a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water — I accept this as a gift of love from the one pure in the Atman.

9:27. Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you sacrifice or offer, whichever feat you perform, O Kaunteya, — perform it as an offering to Me!

9:28. Thus you will break free from the fetters of actions that produce good or bad karmic fruits. Having united with the Atman through sannyasa and yoga, you will attain Liberation in Me.

9:29. I am equal toward all beings. To Me there is no hateful or dear. But, verily, they who are devoted to Me with love — they are in Me and I am in them.

9:30. Even if the most “sinful” one worships Me with undivided heart — he should be counted as righteous, because he decided righteously.

9:31. He will promptly become a performer of dharma and attain eternal peace. Be sure, he who loves Me will never perish!

9:32. All who seek refuge in Me, O Partha, even if they are born by bad parents — women, vaishyas, shudras — they nevertheless come to the Highest Path.

9:33. How much more it concerns righteous brahmans and wise rajas full of love! So, you — being in this joyless world — seek refuge in Me!

9:34. Fix your mind at Me, love Me, sacrifice to Me, revere Me! To Me will you finally come, being consumed by the Atman, if you have Me as your Highest Goal.

Thus in the upanishads of the blessed Bhagavad Gita, the Science of Eternal, the Scripture of yoga, says the ninth conversation between Shri Krishna and Arjuna, entitled:

Sovereign Knowledge and Sovereign Mystery.