Conversation 7
Yoga of Profound Knowledge
The Blessed Lord said:
7:1. Listen, O Partha, how, directing your mind to Me and practicing yoga under My guidance, you can come to the ultimate cognition of Me.
7:2. I am going to reveal to you the knowledge and wisdom in all their fullness. After knowing them you will have nothing to learn more.
7:3. Among thousands of men scarcely one strives for the Perfection. And among the striving only few come to know My Essence.
7:4. Earth, water, fire, air, akasha, mind, consciousness, and also personality — all this is what exists in the world of My prakriti, eight in total.
7:5. This is My lower nature. But know, O mighty-armed, My other — higher — nature, which is the element of Life thanks to which the whole world is sustained.
7:6. It is the womb of all existing. I am the Source of the (manifested) universe, and it disappears in Me.
7:7. There is nothing superior to Me. All is threaded on Me like stringed pearls.
7:8. I am the taste of water, O Kaunteya. I am the shining of the Moon and the light of the Sun, and Pranava, and Universal Knowledge, and Cosmic Voice, and humanity in people.
7:9. I am the pure scent of earth and the warmth of fire. I am the life of all the living and the exploit of spiritual warriors.
7:10. Try to cognize in Me the Primordial Essence of all beings, O Partha! I am the Consciousness of all who developed consciousness, I am the splendor of all the beautiful.
7:11. I am the strength of the strong who is devoid of attachments and sexual passions. I am the sexual power in all beings that does not contradict dharma, O lord of the Bharatas.
7:12. Know, that sattva, rajas, and tamas originate from Me. But understand, that they are in Me, not I am in them.
7:13. All the world deluded by the properties of the three gunas does not know Me — Eternal, existing beyond of these gunas.
7:14. Verily, it is hard to overcome My maya formed by the gunas. Only they who approach Me transcend it.
7:15. They who do evil are ignorant, the worst among people — they do not come to Me: Maya deprives them of wisdom and they become demons.
7:16. There are four types of righteous men worshipping Me, O Arjuna: desiring to free themselves from suffering, aspiring to knowledge, seeking personal achievements, and the wise.
7:17. Among them superior to the three others is the wise, even-minded and devoted to Me completely. Verily, I am dear to the wise and he is dear to Me.
7:18. All they are worthy. But I deem the wise to be alike to Me. Because merging with his Atman he cognizes Me — his Supreme Goal.
7:19. At the end of many births man of wisdom comes to Me. “Vasudeva is Everything”, — says the one of rare Mahatma’s qualities.
7:20. They who were deprived of wisdom by desires worship deities, perform rituals, which correspond to their nature.
7:21. Whatever image people worship with faith — I strengthen the faith of every one.
7:22. Imbued by this faith they pray — and receive what they ask from the same source. But the command to give the asked originates from Me.
7:23. Verily, ephemeral is the gain of the ignorant: they who worship deities go to these deities, and they who love Me go to Me.
7:24. The ignorant deem Me, Unmanifest, achieved manifestation knowing not about My unlimited, eternal, and supreme Existence.
7:25. Not every one cognizes Me, concealed in My creative Maya. The mistaken world does not know Me — Unborn, Eternal.
7:26. I know the past, the present, and the future Creations, O Arjuna, but no one here knows Me.
7:27. Due to wandering in duality because of attraction and distraction (to worldly objects), O Bharata, all (newly) born beings live in ignorance.
7:28. But righteous people rooted out their vices become free from this duality and resolutely advance towards Me.
7:29. Seeking refuge in Me they long for liberation from birth and death. They come to the knowledge of the Atman, to realization of the Atman for themselves, to understanding of the principles of destiny formation.
7:30. And they who cognize Me as the Highest Existence, as the Supreme God, Who accepts all sacrifices — they, devoted to Me, meet Me at the moment of parting with the body.
Thus in the upanishads of the blessed Bhagavad Gita, the Science of Eternal, the Scripture of yoga, says the seventh conversation between Shri Krishna and Arjuna, entitled:
Yoga of Profound Knowledge.
