Main Points of the Discourse:
- Mention of experienced knowledge. (1-3)
- Qualities of the transcendental(Para) and phenomenal(Apara) nature. (4-7)
- Immanence of Atma in the entire objective world. (8-12)
- Condemnation of demonical qualities and commendation of divine qualities, and the four types of devotees. (13-19)
- Worship of the Gods. (20-23)
- The nature of the ignorance and excellence of the wise who know the Supreme Lord. (24-30)
Verses 1 to 30
- The Lord said: Hear, Ο Pārtha, how, with your mind attached to Me, and taking refuge in Me, and practising yoga, you will without any doubt know Me in full. (7.1)
- Knowing which there shall not be any other to be known in this world, that Knowledge combined with experience, I will tell you. (7.2)
- Among thousands of men, one strives for perfection and even among those who strive and succeed, one knows Me in essence. (7.3)
- Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, reason, and also egoism – these are the eightfold divisions of My nature. (7.4)
- O Arjuna! This is the inferior (described in the previous verse), Know My other nature, the Higher – Para Prakriti, the life-element by which the universe is upheld. (7.5)
- Know this (Prakriti) to be the womb of all beings; I am the source of the outcoming of the whole universe, and like-wise the source of its dissolution. (7.6)
- There is nothing higher than Myself, O Arjun. Everything rests in Me, as gems strung on a thread. (7.7)
- I am the savour of waters, Ο son of Kunti, the radiance of the sun and moon; I am the syllable Om in all the Vedas, the sound in ether, the manliness in man. (7.8)
- And, I am the sweet fragrance in the earth, the brilliance in fire, life in all beings, and austerity in ascetics. (7.9)
- Know Me, Ο son of Prithā, to be the Eternal Seed of all things that exist; I am the intelligence of the intelligent and the daring of the brave. (7.10)
- I am the strength of the strong, free from longing and attachment. I am, Ο lord of the Bhāratas, the desire in all beings that is not contrary to dharma. (7.11)
- And whatever things there be— of the nature of sattva, rajas, and tamas— know they are all from Me alone. I am not, however, in them; they are in Me. (7.12)
- Deluded by nature composed of these three qualities (Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas) the whole world does not know Me, the Higher and Imperishable. (7.13)
- This divine illusion of Mine caused by the qualities, is difficult to cross over; those who take refuge in Me alone, cross over this illusion. (7.14)
- Evil-doers and the deluded and the vilest among men, deprived of knowledge by māyā and following the way of the asuras, do not worship Me. (7.15)
- Four types of virtuous men worship Me, Ο Arjuna: the man in distress, the man seeking knowledge, the man seeking enjoyment, and, Ο best of the Bhāratas, the man endowed with wisdom. (7.16)
- Of these, the wise man, ever steadfast and devoted to the One alone, is the best. For supremely dear am I to the man of wisdom, and he is dear to Me. (7.17)
- Noble indeed are they all; but the man endowed with wisdom I deem to be My very Self. For, steadfast in mind, he remains fixed in Me alone as the Supreme Goal. (7.18)
- At the end of many births the man of wisdom seeks refuge in Me, realizing that Vāsudeva is all. Rare indeed is such a high-souled person. (7.19)
- But those whose discrimination has been led astray by various desires resort to other deities, following diverse rituals, constrained by their own natures. (7.20)
- Whatever may be the form a devotee seeks to worship with faith— in that form alone I make his faith unwavering. (7.21)
- Possessed of that faith, he worships that form and from it attains his desires, which are, in reality, granted by Me alone. (7.22)
- But the fruit gained by these people of small understanding is perishable. Those who worship the celestial gods go to the celestial abodes, while my devotees come to me. (7.23)
- Not knowing My supreme Nature, immutable and transcendent, foolish men think that I, the Unmanifest, am endowed with a manifest form. (7.24)
- Veiled by My māyā born of the gunas, I am not revealed to all. This deluded world knows Me not as the unborn and eternal. (7.25)
- O Arjuna! I know the past, present, and the future of all beings, but Me no one knows. (7.26)
- O Arjuna! By the delusion of pairs of opposites caused by desire and aversion, all beings are subject to illusion in the world. (7.27)
- But those men of good works whose sin has come to an end, worship Me steadfast in vows, freed from the delusive pairs of opposites. (7.28)
- Those who take shelter in me, striving for liberation from old-age and death, come to know Brahman, the individual self, and the entire field of karmic action. (7.29)
- Those who know Me as the One that underlies all the elements, as the One that underlies all the gods, and as the One that sustains all the sacrifices, will, with steadfast mind, know Me even in the hour of death. (7.30)
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