Bhagavad Gita
Chapter XIII — Religion by Separation of Matter and Spirit
Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa18855 min read
Bhagavad GitaKrishnaBhakti
Arjuna
Now would I hear, O gracious Kesava!Of Life which seems, and Soul beyond, which sees,And what it is we know-or think to know.
Krishna
Yea! Son of Kunti! for this flesh ye seeIs Kshetra, is the field where Life disports;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 knownBy the knower! What it is, that "field" of life,What qualities it hath, and whence it is,And why it changeth, and the facultyThat wotteth it, the mightiness of this,And how it wotteth-hear these things from Me!
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The elements, the conscious life, the mind,The unseen vital force, the nine strange gatesOf the body, and the five domains of sense;Desire, dislike, pleasure and pain, and thoughtDeep-woven, and persistency of being;These all are wrought on Matter by the Soul!
Humbleness, truthfulness, and harmlessness,Patience and honour, reverence for the wise.Purity, constancy, control of self,Contempt of sense-delights, self-sacrifice,Perception of the certitude of illIn birth, death, age, disease, suffering, and sin;Detachment, lightly holding unto home,Children, and wife, and all that bindeth men;An ever-tranquil heart in fortunes goodAnd fortunes evil, with a will set firmTo worship Me--Me only! ceasing not;Loving all solitudes, and shunning noiseOf foolish crowds; endeavours resoluteTo reach perception of the Utmost Soul,And grace to understand what gain it wereSo to attain,--this is true Wisdom, Prince!And what is otherwise is ignorance!
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,The Uncreated;; not Asat, not Sat,Not Form, nor the Unformed; yet both, and more;--Whose hands are everywhere, and everywherePlanted His feet, and everywhere His eyesBeholding, and His ears in every placeHearing, and all His faces everywhereEnlightening and encompassing His worlds.Glorified in the senses He hath given,Yet beyond sense He is; sustaining all,Yet dwells He unattached: of forms and modesMaster, yet neither form nor mode hath He;He is within all beings--and without--Motionless, yet still moving; not discernedFor subtlety of instant presence; closeTo all, to each; yet measurelessly far!Not manifold, and yet subsisting stillIn all which lives; for ever to be knownAs 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 DarkShining eternally. Wisdom He isAnd Wisdom's way, and Guide of all the wise,Planted in every heart.
So have I toldOf Life's stuff, and the moulding, and the loreTo comprehend. Whoso, adoring Me,Perceiveth this, shall surely come to Me!
Know thou that Nature and the Spirit bothHave no beginning! Know that qualitiesAnd changes of them are by Nature wrought;That Nature puts to work the acting frame,But Spirit doth inform it, and so causeFeeling of pain and pleasure. Spirit, linkedTo moulded matter, entereth into bondWith qualities by Nature framed, and, thusMarried to matter, breeds the birth againIn good or evil yonis.
Yet is thisYea! in its bodily prison!--Spirit pure,Spirit supreme; surveying, governing,Guarding, possessing; Lord and Master stillPURUSHA, Ultimate, One Soul with Me.
Whoso thus knows himself, and knows his soulPURUSHA, working through the qualitiesWith Nature's modes, the light hath come for him!Whatever flesh he bears, never againShall he take on its load. Some few there beBy meditation find the Soul in SelfSelf-schooled; and some by long philosophyAnd holy life reach thither; some by works:Some, never so attaining, hear of lightFrom other lips, and seize, and cleave to itWorshipping; yea! and those--to teaching true--Overpass Death!
Wherever, Indian Prince!Life is--of moving things, or things unmoved,Plant or still seed--know, what is there hath grownBy bond of Matter and of Spirit: KnowHe sees indeed who sees in all alikeThe living, lordly Soul; the Soul Supreme,Imperishable amid the Perishing:For, whoso thus beholds, in every place,In every form, the same, one, Living Life,Doth no more wrongfulness unto himself,But goes the highest road which brings to bliss.Seeing, he sees, indeed, who sees that worksAre Nature's wont, for Soul to practise byActing, yet not the agent; sees the massOf separate living things--each of its kind--Issue from One, and blend again to One:Then hath he BRAHMA, he attains!
O Prince!That Ultimate, High Spirit, Uncreate,Unqualified, even when it entereth fleshTaketh no stain of acts, worketh in nought!Like to the 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,]The Soul's light shineth pure in every place;And they who, by such eye of wisdom, seeHow Matter, and what deals with it, divide;And how the Spirit and the flesh have strife,Those wise ones go the way which leads to Life!
HERE ENDS CHAPTER XIII. OF THE BHAGAVAD-GITA,Entitled "Kshetrakshetrajnavibhagayog,"Or "The Book of Religion by Separation of Matter and Spirit."