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KRISHNA:
YET father will I open unto thee | |
| This wisdom of all wisdoms, uttermost, | |
| The which possessing, all My saints have passed | |
| To perfectness. On these high verities | |
| Reliant, rising into fellowship | 5 |
| With Me, they are not born again at birth | |
| Of Kalpas, nor at Pralyas suffer change! | |
| |
| This Universe the Womb is where I plant | |
| Seed of all lives! Thence, Prince of India comes | |
| Birth to all beings! Whoso, Kunti’s Son! | 10 |
| Mothers each mortal form, Brahma conceives, | |
| And I am He that fathers, sending seed! | |
| |
| Sattwan, Rajas, and Tamas, so are named, | |
| The qualities of Nature, “Soothfastness,” | |
| “Passion,” and “Ignorance.” These three bind down | 15 |
| The changeless Spirit in the changeful flesh. | |
| Whereof sweet “Soothfastness”—by purity | |
| Living unsullied and enlightened—binds | |
| The sinless Soul to happiness and truth; | |
| And Passion, being kin to appetite, | 20 |
| And breeding impulse and propensity, | |
| Binds the embodied Soul, O Kunti’s Son! | |
| By tie of works. But Ignorance, the child | |
| Of Darkness, blinding mortal men, binds down | |
| Their souls to stupor, sloth, and drowsiness. | 25 |
| Yea, Prince of India! Soothfastness binds souls | |
| In pleasant wise to flesh; and Passion binds | |
| By toilsome strain; but Ignorance, which blots | |
| The beams of wisdom, binds the soul to sloth | |
| Passion and Ignorance, once overcome, | 30 |
| Leave Soothfastness, O Bharata! Where this | |
| With Ignorance are absent, Passion rules; | |
| And Ignorance in hearts not good nor quick. | |
| When at all gateways of the Body shines | |
| The Lamp of Knowledge, then may one see well | 35 |
| Soothfastness settled in that city reigns; | |
| Where longing is, and ardor, and unrest, | |
| Impulse to strive and gain, and avarice, | |
| Those spring from Passion—Prince!—engrained; and where | |
| Darkness and dulness, sloth and stupor are, | 40 |
| ’Tis Ignorance hath caused them, Kuru Chief! | |
| |
| Moreover, when a soul departeth, fixed | |
| In Soothfastness, it goeth to the place— | |
| Perfect and pure—of those that know all Truth | |
| If it departeth in set hebetude | 45 |
| Of impulse, it shall go into the world | |
| Of spirits tied to works; and, if it dies | |
| In hardened Ignorance, that blinded soul | |
| Is born anew in some unlighted womb. | |
| |
| The fruit of Soothfastness is true and sweet; | 50 |
| The fruit of lusts is pain and toil; the fruit | |
| Of Ignorance is deeper darkness. Yea! | |
| For Light brings light, and Passion ache to have. | |
| Blindness, bewilderments, and ignorance | |
| Grow forth from Ignorance. Those of the first | 55 |
| Rise ever higher; those of the second mode | |
| Take a mid place; the darkened souls sink back | |
| To lower deeps, loaded with witlessness! | |
| |
| When, watching life, the living man perceives | |
| The only actors are the Qualities, | 60 |
| And knows what lives beyond the Qualities, | |
| Then is he come nigh unto Me! | |
| The Soul, | |
| Thus passing forth from the Three Qualities— | |
| Whereof arise all bodies—overcomes | 65 |
| Birth, Death, Sorrow, and Age; and drinketh deep | |
| The undying wine of Amrit. | |
| |
ARJUNA:
Oh, my Lord! | |
| Which be the signs to know him that hath gone | |
| Past the Three Modes? How liveth he? What way | 70 |
| Leadeth him safe beyond the threefold modes? | |
| |
KRISHNA:
He who with equanimity surveys | |
| Lustre of goodness, strife of passion, sloth | |
| Of ignorance, not angry if they are, | |
| Not angry when they are not: he who sits | 75 |
| A sojourner and stranger in their midst | |
| Unruffled, standing off, saying—serene— | |
| When troubles break, “These are the Qualities!” | |
| He unto whom—self-centred—grief and joy | |
| Sound as one word; to whose deep-seeing eyes | 80 |
| The clod, the marble, and the gold are one; | |
| Whose equal heart holds the same gentleness | |
| For lovely and unlovely things, firm-set, | |
| Well-pleased in praise and dispraise; satisfied | |
| With honor or dishonor; unto friends | 85 |
| And unto foes alike in tolerance, | |
| Detached from undertakings,—he is named | |
| Surmounter of the Qualities! | |
| |
| And such— | |
| With single, fervent faith adoring Me, | 90 |
| Passing beyond the Qualities, conforms | |
| To Brahma, and attains Me! | |
| |
| For I am | |
| That whereof Brahma is the likeness! Mine | |
| The Amrit is; and Immortality | 95 |
| Is mine; and mine perfect Felicity! | |
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Here ends Chapter XIV. of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ, | |
entitled “Gunatrayavibhâgayôgô,” or “The | |
Book of Religion by Separation | |
from the Qualities” | 100 |
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