BHAGAVAN-He Who is possessed
Of All-Majesty, All-Might,
All-Supremacy, All-Glory,
All-Beauty and All-Wisdom-said,
"I first taught this eternal Jnana-Yoga,
By which selfless Karma may best be performed,
To the Sun-God ; the Sun-God taught the same to
Manu
And Manu in his turn gave it to Ikshwaku.
And thus it passed down the succession apostolic of
the Royal Sages;
But, Parantapa-thou slayer of the foes !
The ruthless hands of time
Have nigh erased this Yoga from the world.
Once more do I declare to thee today
This eternal, blissful, confidential Yoga
For thou art My friend,
The tenderness of thy heart has been directed unto
Me
And thou art My devotee for submitting thou to
Me."
ARJUNA queried:
"The Sun-God came before Thee
Who art born to this world now,
How can I comprehend
That Thou didst teach this Yoga unto him?"
Sree Bhagavan said: "O Arjuna !
Manifold births had you and I;
As the Supreme Lord I remember,
But thou, O slayer of thy foes !
Being a fragment of My Self, thou hast forgot.
Albeit thou and I do come into this world
And go and come again,
Yet there is all the world of difference in thy births
and My Descents.
I am the Supreme Lord of all life;
I am Unborn, Eternal ; and manifest Myself in My
Own Form
Out of My gracious kindness for all fallen souls
Through the agency of My Indwelling Ecstacy.
BUT Jiva-souls are born of My external Maya-
Potency
Obscuring recollection of their former births.
By Karma-law the fallen soul is carried
In its subtle form of mind, from one birth to another.
Only by My Free Will do I descend at times
Among the gods or lower forms.
Unlike the fallen souls My transcendental Form
Is not enveloped by a subtle or a grosser body.
By My Divine prerogative I manifest
My transcendental Form, out of Mine Own positive
Spiritual Realm.
From far beyond the boundary of earthly time and
space
Came I into this Cosmic world.
If thou wouldst know how My Transcendence
May be brought within the range
Of this universe of limits-then listen :
My Potency is inconceivable by human mind :
Beyond all mundane reasoning,
And the outcome of its activities
Cannot be known to human understanding's limits.
Even thine empiricism should allow
That the All-Powerful Lord Supreme with all
His inconceivable and mighty Potencies
Does not submit to earth's experiences.
His Kingdom by His Will can manifest in this world
as It is.
HE can accommodate Himself and all Entourage
In the minutest particle of matter
And all the worlds can He accomodate
In the hair-end of His Divine Form-
For this is His Divinity.
Therefore, what wonder that My transcendental
Movements
Are beyond the scope of mundane hence limited
regulations ?
What doubt, then, can there be about the possibility
Of My Descent in Mine Own Form Eternal
Without recourse to human attributes, into this
world ?
The Potency, deluding fallen souls,
Is My External Potency.
She is by name the Maya-Shakti or Deluding Potency,
Whereas the Internal Potency that dwells within
And is the Counter-Whole Predominated Aspect of
My Own Self,
Unites with Me forever.
My potency indeed is one,
Though She assists Me in My transcendental
Occupations
Guiding My true devotees and all their loving service
While in other aspects She deludes the fallen
Who are fastened by the chain of Karma.
BHARATA ! In every age when irreligion doth
prevail
I manifest Myself.
In My Divine Form Eternal
Descend I unto earth, meeting the deluded people
As if I were born like them
That I may save the soul-surrendering devotees
And by a method indirect,
Replace upon the path of righteousness the wicked,
And re-establish for all souls their own eternal
duties.
I am Self-willed and Self-effulgent;
I descend upon the world whenever I desire.
Thus when the Vedas are distorted,
Love stigmatized, or duties disregarded,
When irreligious principles, or sins predominate,
I, by prerogative divine, reveal Myself.
Eternal are My cosmic laws;
Yet when the stream of time produces forms
Perverted, due to some unknown causes,
And spreads corruption, owing to the
Failings of inconstant time,
None but I can end that chaos or disorder.
COME I to purge the world of all perversion
From religion proper,
I manifest not only in this India
But also in celestial and material realms
According to their needs.
Do not believe My Revelations are denied to hethens
or barbarians.
When among these appear debased conceptions of
religion,
This I protect through One of My Saktabeshavataras,
This means Divine Descent, when I endow a soul
Freed for eternity, with godly powers
To fulfil a special mission in the world.
The relative socio-religious duties
Of the four divisions in society,
Formed on the basis of qualities and actions,
Are best performed in India.
This land I favour especially as God Supreme.
I remove the foreign elemements that tend them to
absorb.
It is for this reason that all
My soul-attracting Yugavataras
And Amsavataras do manifest in India.
KRISHNA is the Fountain-Source of all Divine
Descents,
Who hold an equal power with Him,
As diverse lights of equal power
May be enkindled from one master light.
Krishna is known as Svayam-Rupa-
Lord in His Own Eternal Form,
His first Manifestation being Svayam-Prakash
called.
His Name is also Valadeva,
Who in one Aspect serves the Lord in half a score of
diverse ways
And in another Aspect is explained
As Mulasamkarsana.
He the Primeval Power is,
Who fertilizes all the hearts
In which the seed of love Divine
And worship of the Lord, can grow
Into sublime devotion.
The next Manifestation Maha-Samkarsana is
Comprising Vasudeva, Samkarsana and Two more
Pradyumna, Aniruddha-all Four Aspects of the One.
From Mahasamkarsana manifets Karanavasayee
Vishnu
And from Him proceeds the one known as
Garbhodaksayee Vishnu;
Again, from this come the four Divine Descents.
These manifest in India in four Ages and are called
The Yugavataras which number, therefore, also
only four.
FAR back in Satya-Yuga, which is called the Gold-
en Age,
Hari the fair-complexioned, is the first Divine
Descent.
The next appears in Treta-Yuga or the Silver Age
And the Divine Descent is Hayagriva-red of skin.
The third great Age, Dwapara-Yuga,
Produces dark Syama's Form
And in Kali-Yuga-fourth and present Age of
strife,
The Avatara is Krishna, fair like the burning gold.
Original Krishna is the Ultimate Svayam-Rupa
Revealing not Himself on earth
In every third great Age.
From Mahasamkarsana, as explained to thee above,
The Partial Revelations or the Amsavataras
Of Krishna the Primeval, are manifest on earth
In every third great Age.
From Mahasamkarsana, as explained to thee above,
The Partial Revelations or Amsavataras
Of Krishna the Primeval, are manifest on earth.
WHEN duties in society are never classified
According to the qualities and actions of the
soul,
No selfless Karma-Yoga can result,
Nor Jnana either, nor Bhakti-Yoga,
The ultimate and highest goal of man.
That attitude devout among the lower grades of men
Is due to all My devotees and their special grace.
The duties of the castes are re-established not by Me
But by the Royal Sages, and the like, empowered
by Me.
Yet as a benediction to Mine own who long to see,
I come in Person to this world;
No lesser Incarnation can content the great devout.
When I, as Svayam-Rupa, make descent into this
world,
My Avataras of every grade are also manifest,
For they are all in Me.
I spare My devotees the pangs
Of separation from Myself.
As Yugavatara I kill the non-religious who rebel
Like Ravana and Kamsa and the others of that kind
And thereby indirectly bless them.
Two basic forms of service
Call Swa-Dharma I ordain
By preaching, hearing, chanting and by other ways
Of unallyed devotion
I found Swa-Dharma the eternal service
Which refers to fleash and blood of body
And the subtle form of mind.
IN other Ages I destroy the atheists who strive
Against Me or My devotees;
But in the present Age, Kali-Yuga
Or the Age of discord and strife,
I do not even try to slay even the wickedest of these.
Their demon spirit I destroy
Embracing one and all, distributing
The fruits Divine of Transcendental Love
To right and left where ever they fall,
For they may be conveyed to all the world
By chanting first My Transcendental Name.
Hearken, Arjuna, to this truth :
I and My Name are One.
HE who conceives by true perspective
That I accept My birth
And I accept My deeds divine through My Indwel-
ling Power,
He is not chained from birth and death
Fettered no more to life.
Attains he for ever My service true
Under My Power Ecstatic.
He, on the other hand, who thinks
My Birth and Deeds and Self Divine
Thuswise revealed on earth,
Impermanent and temporal,
Suffers the chain of births and deaths,
Results of his ignorance.
Denses-minded folk are long confined to this material
action.
Purest intelligence is not aroused in them, save by
the grace of devotees.
Three motives lead the ignorant astray
From concept true of My Divine Birth, Actions,
Transcendental Form and Purity :
These are attachments to those things
That are not Me or Mine, and fear and anger.
For those men whose minds are blunted by material
thoughts
Cannot conceive that such a principle
As Transcendence e'er can be.
HOLDING Nature to be the highest truth,
Some of these thinkers oft propound,
That matter is the cause of spirit.
Again, though some concede eternity
To transcendental Facts,
They realise them not, for they attach
Too much importance to empirical attempts.
Empiricists eliminate all atributes and matter
And postulate a negative and attributeless God,
Being the antithesis of Matter,
And call it Brahman.
This Neuter-God is only the negation of My Self
As Positive Eternal Transcendental Lord of Love.
Brahman not being My Eternal Form,
Lest a material concept should prevailupon their
thoughts
And meditations of Me, they, the empiricists,
Desist from meditating, out of fear,
On My Personality Divine
And Transcendental Occupations,
And thereby are deprived of Me.
OTHERS again, unable to transcend
Beyond the bounds of time and space
Decide, in anger, on : Nirvana or the Void, as the
final principle.
Many there are most truly wise who,
Free of these mental exploitations, fear and anger,
And purified by true intelligence
And having perfectly conceived My Form Divine,
Take refuge in Me and behold
My Real Existence in all things,
Attaining to highest love for me.
To such I offer all their fruits of worship
According to the faith reposed in Me.
O Partha ! all men follow more or less
My track in diverse ways.
Those who tread the path of service pure
And love for me, attain an everlasting haven
In my Abode of Bliss.
THOSE who are pantheists and worship Me
As attributeless negative Brahman,
Are offered full absorption in My negative existence
By way of their salvation.
Through not acknowledging My Everlasting Beauteous
Form,
They are deprived of the conception of their own
eternal selves.
Those who advocate Nirvana or cessation of
perception
Annihilate their consciousness, observing Me as
Void:
Those who are Nature-worshippers,
I place in the material world and they
Receive Me as the Universal Nature.
The elevationists do know Me
As the Giver of the fruits
Resulting from their action.
To the Yogins I am Self Supreme
And offer superhuman, mystic power
As fruits of their austerities.
IN this way, being Immanent,
Men move along the diverse paths,
Attaining Me according to the one they choose to
tread.
But I, as Lord Sree Krishna, am the Ultimate
And Highest Goal of every soul's endeavour.
The worship of the Self Supreme,
The path of meditating on the soul's Indweller,
The knowledge of the Great Brahman-
All these paths must lead to Me,
In microcosm and in macrocosm.
Their End but differs in accordance with their motive
And degree of their surrender unto Me.
The truly wise acknowledge all these paths
As divers "means", and not an "end".
My Personality Divine of Love,
All-Majesties and Beauty
Is the final End of all.
Those who employ the 'means', described above,
And are attached to the specific ends associated with
those paths
Cannot progress to the Supreme and final End in Me.
THE sensuous who tread the path
Of Karma, for immediate results,
Forsake the path of love and service to Me.
I have already told thee, O Arjuna,
To understand the principle of Karma
Is to rid thee of its bondage.
Shun thou Vikarma and Akarma.
Better than these is gift-desired Karma.
For the succes of their action
And to gain desired ends without delay
Such folks are blended by a joyous mood
And thus become polytheists.
TO soothe the mental and physical conditions
Of this impermanent material world,
The work done by the men who seek reward
Gives satisfaction to the fruit-giving gods
Who grant them their desires with ease.
Who these gods are will be announced in later words.
I am the Founder of the respected duties
Of the four castes, according to their qualities and
actions.
I am the only Agent and the Author
Of the system of the caste.
Know Me howe'er to be Non-director, Indeclinable,
For I am not identified with earth's affairs.
My Maya Energy is the directing cause
Of this caste system, owing to the fate
And negligence of fallen souls.
I am in reality the Lord of My Indwelling Power.
I am concerned with Her in Realm of pure transcen-
dence.
It matters not to Me to form
The path of Karma through My Maya-potency.
The Soul's abuse of free will
Is responsible for it.
The castes have thus been classified
To indicate man's work.
TO the Brahmanas, the priestly caste,
Whose mundane normal tendency
Is Sattvika or good
Are assigned the duties of Sama and Dama,
Practice in controlling all senses,
Both the internal and the external.
For them alone the study of the Vedas is ordained,
Teaching the Scriptures to the rest of mankind day
by day.
Theirs is the noble duty of the sacrificial rites,
Performed in person and as priests,
As donors and recipients.
The second is warrior caste who govern
The State, and fight courageously in war
As brave Kshatriyas.
They, too, protect society,
Collecting revenues from tenants and householders,
Passion and goodness interblent their tendency
defines
And Rajas-Sattvika is the keynote of their kind.
The third caste are Vaisyas who are
Normally inclined to Tamas-Rajas-
All the grossest feelings fired by passion.
These are assigned the duties
Of the agriculturists, and every grade
Of Commerce passes through their earthly hands.
The Sudras prone to Tamas are
To serve the other castes
And thus perform the humblest menial duties known
to man.
This system being mundane,
Its prime material cause
Is my External Potency.
Myself as Lord of all
Become of every happening
The first Efficient Cause.
THOU art a warrior born, and must
Unflinchingly perform thy duty in this life
As benefits a schion of Kshatriya Caste.
But I am not involved in Karma's system,
Introduced by My External Potency
Nor do I cherish e'er the least desire
To enjoy the fruits that Karma yields.
One who does know Me in this way
Is never bound by chains of Karma
They that fetter souls to earth.
I am the Lord Supreme
Possessed of All-majesty, All-glory,
All-supremacy and All-might,
All-beauty and All-wisdom;
Thus the wothless fruits of Karma
Which My External Deluding Potency creates
Due to the Jiva-souls' abuse of free will,
Have no attraction for Me.
I am All-bliss. Perform I duties
But to set example to the souls
Who are within the walls of Karma.
He who understands My Freedom
And the worldly bondage of the fallen,
Never gets enmeshed in Karma;
He is unconcerned with it
Attaining Me by following the path
Of pure devotion
Of service and love for Me.
Knowing Me as such, dost thou thy duty
Without hope of loss or gain
Following in the wake of blessed
Jnanins, saints of yore,
Who worked for human good.
They realised My unconcern
With all mundane affairs,
These wiser saints who in the past
Gave up fruitive acts,
Performed selfless Karma
And they offered the results to Me alone
Thou also, therefore, follow now
The great souls like Janaka
And all the saints of olden times;
Adopt thou selfless Karma.
EVEN the wise are at loss
To ascertain what Karma is
And what is Akarma.
Now I shall tell thee wwhich is which,
And knowing that, thou shalt be free
From all their earthly bondage.
It is imperative to understand
The ends distinctive of these three ;
Karma, Vikarma and Akarma.
Inscrutable are Karma's ways.
Duty fulfilled is Karma;
Selfless Karma-Yoga is a higher step beyond it.
Performance of forbidden deeds is known as Vikrama;
Thus gift-desired Kamya-Karma
Comes within this sphere
And misery is consequent upon it.
Akarma is omission of the duties.
Thou shouldst beware of that which is attained
By Karma-sannyasins,
They who desist from every action;
And know what evil consequence befalls
Those who incline to Karma but follow Akarma.
HE is wise, and therefore fit
For perfect Karma among men
Who understands non-Karma within Karma
And Karma in non-Karma.
The meaning is that one adopting
Selfless Karma-Yoga who offers God
The result of all his actions,
Approaches perfect comprehension
Of his true self, and is not whirled
Upon the wheel of Karma.
His heart is purified with the awakening
Of gradual sublime intelligence
And cannot therefore be a Karmin pure and simple.
For he sees Karma as non-Karma,
Because his every act is perfectly unselfish.
Where as a Karma-sannyasin,
One who refrains from action,
Must suffer through his impure heart,
Inspite of being versed in all the Scriptures,
Because he shirked performance of his duty.
HE who has adopted perfect selfless Karma
Is called a "Pandit"by the wise-
One whose intelligence is hightened
By his knowledge of the Vedas,
Because his primal tendency to mere Karma
Is burnt up by the fire of Jnana
Which is pure intelligence;
His Karma-Yoga changes then to Jnana-Yoga.
He who is self-content and yet
Indifferent to Yoga-that is :
Searches after objects unattained
Aimed at by the salvationists
And takes care to preserve such when obtained
By being non-attached to fruits of Karma,
Will not be yoked to it, although
He apparently engages in Karma-Yoga.
HE adopts Karma as a means of livelihood
Guiding mind and body by intelligence
Nor hankers after fruits of any action
With no attachments for results;
Therefore he frees himself from vice
Or virtue associated with his Karma.
He is content with what he gets with ease ;
He is not prone to pleasure or to pain,
To love or hatred ;
He is above malice, beyond jealousy ;
Equitable in failure or succes.
Whatsoe'er he does, can never fetter him.
No more is he attached to any object;
His is the glorious freedom,
Wquipoised in pure intelligence.
Whate'er he does for Yajna's sake
Completely ends with it :
The fruits of his Karma he offers
To the Lord of Yajna, and therefore
He is himself unbound from chains of Karma.
LIST now to how the sacrificial Karma
Does beget intelligence :
All transcendental truths are utterly distinct
From transcendental phenomena.
It is a truth that fallen souls
Are bound to work to keep
Their body and soul together.
By means of Yajna they may faithfully
Discharge their duties, actuated
By the consciousness of their true selves.
When the cognition that transcends
Is manifest in Matter,
This is called Brahman.
This Brahman is the outmost Effulgence
Of My Transcendental Self.
Offering, sacrificial ghee or ceremonial Oil,
Fire, sacrificial priesthood and the fruits of action-
These five do form constituents of Yajna;
And as these are presided o'er by Brahman,
We call it perfect Yajna.
One who directs his Karma to Brahman
By firmly concentrating on profoundest meditation,
May thus perform all Karma as Yajna.
His offerings, his sacrificial ghee,
The fire, the priesthood of his self-existence
And the results of Yajna
Are all addressed to Brahman-
The Outward Effulgence of My Personality Supreme.
HE who is initiated
In such Yajna, is a Yogin.
There are as many Yajnas as there are groups of
Yogins.
Yet are thet classified into but two main divisions :
The Karma-Yogins and the Jnana-Yogins.
The ones do make their sacrificial offerings to
minor gods,
Who are but scarce a step above the average,
Being empowered by My Maya
With particular and special capabilities,
And thereby attain to selfless Karma gradually;
The others offer their own selves as ghee
To Brahman Fire,
Uttering the lofty Vedic Dictum;
"Thou art He."
THE life-long celibates, called Brahmacharins,
Offer their senses as sacrificial ghee
To the fire of self-control,
Whereas the house-holders offer their sense-
perceptions,
Such as sound, taste, smell, touch, beauty
To the fire of senses.
The seekers of the individual soul, like Patanjali,
Offer the activities of their ten senses
Of their eyes, ears, nose, tongue, touch,
Voice, hands, legs, anus and penis and of
The half-score vital airs : Pran, Apan,
Saman, Udan, Vyan, Naga, Kurma,
Krikara and Devadatta and
Dhananjaya as sacrificial ghee
To the fire of the pure individual soul.
The Kaivalya Philosophy of Patanjali
Holds that there is no such thing as mind.
The soul or atma is the only
Existing entity, according to this School,
And when the soul inclines towards phenomena,
And turns towards its own sublime existence
It is called Pratyag-atma.
THE Yajnas may be classified into four sections :
Dravya-Yajna, Tapa-Yajna,
Yoga-Yajna anb Swadyaya (Jnana)-Yajna;
Those who perform these fourfold Yajnas
Are ascetics of severe vows.
When the five sacrifices as explained above,
Are actually offered in the fire of Yajna,
It is called Dravya-Yajna ;
Severe austeries like Chandrayana or Chaturmasya
Are practised in the Tapa-Yajna;
The eight processes of mental concentration
Form the Yoga-Yajna;
Discussions on the Spirit and on Matter
That are based upon an interpretation of the Vedas,
Mark the character of Jnana-Yajna.
BESIDES, mention is also made of Hatha-Yoga
And sundry other austerities in the Tantras
According to the time and circumstance.
The acvocates of Hatha-Yoga practise Pranayama
Which is the act of witholding the breath
As an accessory to meditation
And stop the flow of Prana the first vital air, in
Apana, flatulence,
And then suspend Apana in the Prana,
And gradually stay both motions in Kumbhaka,
Which signifies witholding all the breath
By closing the nostrils and the mouth.
Some, willing to control their senses,
Take to moderation in their food and drink,
And offer Pranas to the fire of Pranas only :
They draw all the ten varieties of Pranas
From diverse parts to one place at the navel,
And then direct them all towards the crown of the
head.
These men are all well versed in the principle of
Yajna
And thereby become sinless and finally attain
Brahman
By accepting the residuary sweets of Yajna :
Wealth, supremacy and grandeur and all psychic
powers.
O Thou Glory of the Line !
What canst thou say about the next world,
When even this world is debarred to those
Who do not here conform to Yajna ?
Yajna is bounden duty.
The caste rules, as observed by henotheists,
Astanga-Yoga, and the Vedic sacrifices
All come within the scope of Yajna.
There can be no true Karma in this world without
Yajna ;
Anything else but this is either Akarma or Vikarma.
SUCH Yajnas are mentioned in the Vedas
Or in the Shastras alluding to the Vedas.
Their practices refer to the body, mind and speech,
And therefore they are born of Karma.
Discrimination in such principles of Karma
Rids men of all its bondage.
Though the performance of these Yajnas
Lead man from gradual knowledge unto peace
And from peace unto My devotion,
There is yet a graduation in them
According to the aptitude of each.
Jnana-Yajna is by far superior to Dravya-Yajna.
O Parantapa ! all Karmas culminate in Jnana
Which is transcendental Knowledge.
Yajnas that lack spirituality
Become Dravya-Yajna or mere Karma-Yajna,
Otherwise Karma-Kanda or the ceremonial acts and
sacrificial rites;
When they are suffused with glowing spirit,
They become philosophy in practice.
IN order to aquire the knowledge
That will enable thee to difrerentiate between
the two,
Approach with honest purpose thy preceptor,
Who is well qualified to teach, and realizes all these
principles,
He will instruct thee in that lore.
O Pandava ! thou art prepared at present
To abandon all thy normal duty as a warrior
Out of infatuation, which thou wilt shun
As soon as knowledge true enlightens thee.
Then thou shalt know that all beings
Are essentially spiritual entities,
Possessing diverse forms and attributes and actions in this world
Due to their ignorance,
And that they all exist in Me
Who am the Fountain-head of all the potencies
And that they derive all from My Deluding Energy.
THOUGH thou wert the worst of sinners
Killing thy friends and relatives in battle,
Yet shalt thou traverse this sea of sorrow
Upon the ship of wisdom which is Jnana.
Just as blazing fire reduces fuel to ashes,
So does this flame of knowledge, O Arjuna !
Burn away offences born of Karma.
Naught in the world is near so pure
As transcendental knowledge
As result of selfless Karma-Yoga.
By this is meant that "Bliss Eternal"
Is the end of transcendental knowledge.
Knowledge is not the end,
But bliss divine is the highest good,
Love of Godhead is Real Bliss.
He who possesses firm faith and attachment
To selfless Karma-Yoga, and who is self-controlled,
Acquires perfect knowledge.
He who has no confidence in selfless Karma-Yoga
Cannot attain to this knowledge.
But by gaining all such knowledge,
Ere long he does attain eternal and highest Bliss.
HE who is ignorant and sceptical is ruined !
He can realise no happiness or peace in this
world or the next,
For his affliction in the form of doubt and disbelief
Eats into his very heart.
He is ignorant because he is devoid of wisdom
Like the lower animals;
He is a disbeliever
For his partial knowledge of the Scriptures
Thwarts him regarding the divergent views
Anent the ethics of the world.
He is dubious or sceptical because he wonders
If the principle he has adopted will lead him to its,
end.
He, therefore, finds peace nowhere.
So, Dhanajaya, conqueror of wealth immense-
By killing thy host of enemies,
Conquer now that wealth of concentration
By controlling well thy mind.
One who abstains from fruitive actions
By adopting selfless Karma-Yoga,
And who destorys his scepticism
With the perfect concept of his true and normal self,
Is free for ever from the bondage of all Karma.
Thy doubt as to the principle of selfless Karma
Is due to thy own ignorance.
Slay thou that doubt within thy mind
With thine own sword of knowledge
And pursue thou selfless Karma-Yoga.
Rise, therefore, O Bharata ! and fight the battle.
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