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ARJUNA:
NOW would I hear, O gracious Kesava! 1 | |
| Of Life which seems, and Soul beyond, which sees, | |
| And what it is we know—or seem to know. | |
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KRISHNA:
Yea! Son of Kunti! for this flesh ye see | |
| Is Kshetra, is the field where Life disports; | 5 |
| 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! 2 What it is, that “field” of life, | 10 |
| 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! 3 | |
| |
| The elements, the conscious life, the mind, | 15 |
| The unseen vital force, the nine great gates | |
| Of the body, or 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! | 20 |
| |
| Humbleness, truthfulness, and harmlessness, | |
| Patience and honor, reverence for the wise, | |
| Purity, constancy, control of self, | |
| Contempt of sense-delights, self-sacrifice, | |
| Perception of the certitude of ill | 25 |
| In birth, death, aye, 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 | 30 |
| To worship Me—Me only! ceasing not; | |
| Loving all solitudes, and shunning noise | |
| Of foolish crowds; endeavors resolute | |
| To reach perception of the Utmost Soul, | |
| And grace to understand what gain it were | 35 |
| So to attain,—this is true Wisdom, Prince! | |
| And what is otherwise is ignorance! | |
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| 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, | 40 |
| The Uncreated; not Asat, not 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 | 45 |
| Hearing, and all His faces everywhere | |
| Enlightening and encompassing His worlds. | |
| Glorified by the senses He hath given, | |
| Yet beyond sense He is; sustaining all, | |
| He dwelleth unattached: of forms and modes | 50 |
| 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! | 55 |
| 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 | 60 |
| 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 | 65 |
| 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; | 70 |
| 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 | 75 |
| Married to matter, breeds the birth again | |
| In good or evil yonis. 4 | |
| Yet is this— | |
| Yea! in its bodily prison!—Spirit pure, | |
| Spirit supreme; surveying, governing, | 80 |
| Guarding, possessing; Lord and Master still | |
| PURUSHA, Ultimate, One Soul with Me. | |
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| Whoso thus knows himself, and knows his soul | |
| PURUSHA, working through the qualities | |
| With Nature’s modes, the light hath come for him! | 85 |
| 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. | 90 |
| 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! | 95 |
| 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, | 100 |
| Imperishable amid the Perishing: | |
| For, whoso thus beholds, in every place, | |
| In every form, the same, one, Living Lord, | |
| Doth no more wrongfulness unto himself, | |
| But goes the highest road which brings to bliss. | 105 |
| Seeing, he sees, indeed, who sees that works | |
| Are Nature’s wont, for Soul to use, not love, | |
| Acting, yet not the actor; sees the mass | |
| Of separate living things—each of its kind— | |
| Issue from One, and blend again to One: | 110 |
| 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! | 115 |
| 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,] | 120 |
| 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, | |
| These wise ones go the way which leads to Life! | 125 |
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Here ends Chapter XIII. of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ, | |
entitled “Kshetrakshetrajnavibhâgayôgô,” | |
or “The Book of Religion by Sepa- | |
ration of Matter and Spirit” | |
