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KRISHNA:
LEARN now, dear Prince! how, if thy soul be set
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Ever on Me—still exercising Yôg,
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Still making Me thy Refuge—thou shalt come
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Most surely unto perfect hold of Me.
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I will declare to thee that utmost lore,
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Whole and particular, which, when thou knowest
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Leaveth no more to know here in this world.
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Of many thousand mortals, one, perchance,
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Striveth for Truth; and of those few that strive—
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Nay, and rise high—one only—here and there—
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Knoweth Me, as I am, the very Truth.
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Earth, water, flame, air, ether, life, and mind,
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And individuality—those eight
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Make up the showing of Me, Manifest.
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These be my lower Nature; learn the higher,
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Whereby, thou Valiant One! this Universe
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Is, by its principle of life, produced;
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Whereby the worlds of visible things are born
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As from a Yoni. Know! I am that womb:
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I make and I unmake this Universe:
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Than me there is no other Master, Prince!
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No other Maker! All these hang on me
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As hangs a row of pearls upon its string.
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I am the fresh taste of the water; I
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The silver of the moon, the gold o’ the sun,
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The word of worship in the Veds, the thrill
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That passeth in the ether, and the strength
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Of man’s shed seed. I am the good sweet smell
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Of the moistened earth, I am the fire’s red light,
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The vital air moving in all which moves,
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The holiness of hallowed souls, the root
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Undying, whence hath sprung whatever is;
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The wisdom of the wise, the intellect
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Of the informed, the greatness of the great,
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The splendor of the splendid. Kunti’s Son!
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These am I, free from passion and desire;
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Yet am I right desire in all who yearn,
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Chief of the Bhâratas! for all those moods,
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Soothfast, or passionate, or ignorant,
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Which Nature frames, deduce from me; but all
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Are merged in me—not I in them! The world—
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Deceived by those three qualities of being—
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Wotteth not Me Who am outside them all,
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Above them all, Eternal! Hard it is
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To pierce that veil divine of various shows
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Which hideth Me; yet they who worship Me
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Pierce it and pass beyond.
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I am not known
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To evil-doers, nor to foolish ones,
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Nor to the base and churlish; nor to those
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Whose mind is cheated by the show of things,
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Nor those that take the way of Asuras.
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Four sorts of mortals know me: he who weeps,
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Arjuna! and the man who yearns to know;
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And he who toils to help; and he who sits
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Certain of me, enlightened.
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Of these four,
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O Prince of India! highest, nearest, best
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That last is, the devout soul, wise, intent
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Upon “The One.” Dear, above all, am I
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To him; and he is dearest unto me!
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All four are good, and seek me; but mine own,
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The true of heart, the faithful—stayed on me,
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Taking me as their utmost blessedness,
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They are not “mine,” but I—even I myself!
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At end of many births to Me they come!
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Yet hard the wise Mahatma is to find,
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That man who sayeth, “All is Vâsudev!”
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There be those, too, whose knowledge, turned aside
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By this desire or that, gives them to serve
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Some lower gods, with various rites, constrained
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By that which mouldeth them. Unto all such—
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Worship what shrine they will, what shapes, in faith—
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’Tis I who give them faith! I am content!
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The heart thus asking favor from its God,
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Darkened but ardent, hath the end it craves,
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The lesser blessing—but ’tis I who give!
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Yet soon is withered what small fruit they reap
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Those men of little minds, who worship so,
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Go where they worship, passing with their gods.
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But Mine come unto me! Blind are the eyes
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Which deem th’ Unmanifested manifest,
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Not comprehending Me in my true Self!
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Imperishable, viewless, undeclared,
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Hidden behind my magic veil of shows,
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I am not seen by all; I am not known—
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Unborn and changeless—to the idle world.
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But I, Arjuna! know all things which were,
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And all which are, and all which are to be,
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Albeit not one among them knoweth Me!
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By passion for the “pairs of opposites,”
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By those twain snares of Like and Dislike, Prince!
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All creatures live bewildered, save some few
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Who, quit of sins, holy in act, informed,
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Freed from the “opposites,” and fixed in faith,
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Cleave unto Me.
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Who cleave, who seek in Me
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Refuge from birth and death, those have the Truth!
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Those know Me BRAHMA; know Me Soul of Souls,
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The ADHYATMAN; know KARMA, my work;
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Know I am ADHIBHUTA, Lord of Life,
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And ADHIDAIVA, Lord of all the Gods,
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And ADHIYAJNA, Lord of Sacrifice;
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Worship Me well, with hearts of love and faith,
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And find and hold Me in the hour of death.
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Here endeth Chapter VII. of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ,
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entitled “Vijnânayôg,” or “The Book
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of Religion by Discernment”
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