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