Jñāna Yoga — The Yoga of Discriminative Knowledge

With the mind clinging to me, O Pârtha, performing yoga, refuged in Me, how thou shalt without doubt know Me to the uttermost, that hear thou.

I will declare to thee this knowledge and wisdom in its completeness, which, having known, there is nothing more here needeth to be known.

Among thousands of men scarce one striveth for perfection; of the successful strivers scarce one knoweth Me in essence.

Earth, water, fire, air, ether, Mind, and Reason also and Egoism—these are the eightfold division of My nature.

This the inferior. Know My other nature, the higher, the life-element, O mighty-armed, by which the universe is upheld.

Know this to be the womb of all beings. I am the source of the forthgoing of the whole universe and likewise the place of its dissolving.

There is naught whatsoever higher than I, O Dhananjaya. All this is threaded on Me, as rows of pearls on a string.

I the sapidity in waters, O son of Kuntî, I the radiance in moon and sun; the Word of Power in all the Vedas, sound in ether, and virility in men;

The pure fragrance of earths and the brilliance in fire am I; the life in all beings am I, and the austerity in ascetics.

Know Me, O Pârtha! as the eternal seed of all beings. I am the Reason of the Reason-endowed, the splendour of splendid things am I.

And I the strength of the strong, devoid of desire and passion. In beings I am desire not contrary to duty, O Lord of the Bharatas.

The natures that are harmonious, active, slothful, these know as from Me; not I in them, but they in me.

All this world, deluded by these natures made by the three qualities, knoweth not Me, above these, imperishable.

This divine illusion of Mine, caused by the qualities, is hard to pierce; they who come to Me, they cross over this illusion.

The evil-doing, the deluded, the vilest men, they come not to Me, they whose wisdom is destroyed by illusion, who have embraced the nature of demons.

Fourfold in division are the righteous ones who worship me, O Arjuna; the suffering, the seeker for knowledge, the self-interested and the wise, O Lord of the Bhâratas.

Of these the wise, constantly harmonised, worshipping the One, is the best; I am supremely dear to the wise, and he is dear to Me.

Noble are all these, but I hold the wise as verily Myself; he, Self united, is fixed on Me, the highest Path.

At the close of many births the man full of wisdom cometh unto Me; "Vâsudeva is all." saith he, the Mahâtmâ, very difficult to find.

They whose wisdom hath been rent away by desires go forth to other Shining Ones, resorting to various external observances, according to their own natures.

Any devotee who seeketh to worship with faith any such aspect, I verily bestow the unswerving faith of that man.

He endowed with that faith, seeketh the worship of such a one, and from him he obtaineth his desires, I verily decreeing the benefits;

Finite indeed the fruit that belongeth to those who are of small intelligence. To the Shining Ones go the worshippers of the Shining Ones, but my devotees come unto Me.

Those devoid of Reason think of Me, the unmanifest, as having manifestation, knowing not My supreme nature, imperishable, most excellent.

Nor am I of all discovered, enveloped in My creation-illusion. This deluded world knoweth Me not, the unborn, the imperishable.

I know the beings that are past, that are present, that are to come, O Arjuna, but no one knoweth Me.

By the delusion of the pairs of opposites, sprung from attraction and repulsion, O Bhârata, all beings walk this universe wholly deluded, O Parantapa.

But those men of pure deeds, in whom sin is come to an end, they, freed from the delusive pairs of opposites, worship Me, steadfast in vows.

They who, refuged in Me, strive for liberation from birth and death, they know the Eternal, the whole Self-knowledge, and all action.

They who know Me as the knowledge of the elements, as that of the Shining Ones, and as that of the Sacrifice, they harmonised in mind, know Me verily even in the time of forthgoing.