Chapter VIII: Religion by Service of the Supreme (Aksharaparabrahmayog)

Arjuna

Who is that BRAHMA? What that Soul of Souls,The ADHYATMAN? What, Thou Best of All!Thy work, the KARMA? Tell me what it isThou namest ADHIBHUTA? What againMeans ADHIDAIVA? Yea, and how it comesThou canst be ADHIYAJNA in thy flesh?Slayer of Madhu! Further, make me knowHow good men find thee in the hour of death?

Krishna

I BRAHMA am! the One Eternal GOD,And ADHYATMAN is My Being's name,The Soul of Souls! What goeth forth from Me,Causing all life to live, is KARMA called:And, Manifested in divided forms,I am the ADHIBHUTA, Lord of Lives;And ADHIDAIVA, Lord of all the Gods,Because I am PURUSHA, who begets.And ADHIYAJNA, Lord of Sacrifice,I--speaking with thee in this body here--Am, thou embodied one! (for all the shrinesFlame unto Me!) And, at the hour of death,He that hath meditated Me alone,In putting off his flesh, comes forth to Me,Enters into My Being--doubt thou not!But, if he meditated otherwiseAt hour of death, in putting off the flesh,He goes to what he looked for, Kunti's Son!Because the Soul is fashioned to its like.

Krishna

Have Me, then, in thy heart always! and fight!Thou too, when heart and mind are fixed on Me,Shalt surely come to Me! All come who cleaveWith never-wavering will of firmest faith,Owning none other Gods: all come to Me,The Uttermost, Purusha, Holiest!

Krishna

Whoso hath known Me, Lord of sage and singer,Ancient of days; of all the Three Worlds Stay,Boundless,--but unto every atom BringerOf that which quickens it: whoso, I say,

Krishna

Hath known My form, which passeth mortal knowing;Seen my effulgence--which no eye hath seen--Than the sun's burning gold more brightly glowing,Dispersing darkness,--unto him hath been

Krishna

Right life! And, in the hour when life is ending,With mind set fast and trustful piety,Drawing still breath beneath calm brows unbending,In happy peace that faithful one doth die,--

Krishna

In glad peace passeth to Purusha's heaven.The place which they who read the Vedas nameAKSHARAM, "Ultimate;" whereto have strivenSaints and ascetics--their road is the same.

Krishna

That way--the highest way--goes he who shutsThe gates of all his senses, locks desireSafe in his heart, centres the vital airsUpon his parting thought, steadfastly set;And, murmuring OM, the sacred syllable--Emblem of BRAHM--dies, meditating Me.

Krishna

For who, none other Gods regarding, looksEver to Me, easily am I gainedBy such a Yogi; and, attaining Me,They fall not--those Mahatmas--back to birth,To life, which is the place of pain, which ends,But take the way of utmost blessedness.

Krishna

The worlds, Arjuna!--even Brahma's world--Roll back again from Death to Life's unrest;But they, O Kunti's Son! that reach to Me,Taste birth no more. If ye know Brahma's DayWhich is a thousand Yugas; if ye knowThe thousand Yugas making Brahma's Night,Then know ye Day and Night as He doth know!When that vast Dawn doth break, th' InvisibleIs brought anew into the Visible;When that deep Night doth darken, all which isFades back again to Him Who sent it forth;Yea! this vast company of living things--Again and yet again produced--expiresAt Brahma's Nightfall; and, at Brahma's Dawn,Riseth, without its will, to life new-born.But--higher, deeper, innermost--abidesAnother Life, not like the life of sense,Escaping sight, unchanging. This enduresWhen all created things have passed away:This is that Life named the Unmanifest,The Infinite! the All! the Uttermost.Thither arriving none return. That LifeIs Mine, and I am there! And, Prince! by faithWhich wanders not, there is a way to comeThither. I, the PURUSHA, I Who spreadThe Universe around me--in Whom dwellAll living Things--may so be reached and seen!

Krishna

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Krishna

Richer than holy fruit on Vedas growing,Greater than gifts, better than prayer or fast,Such wisdom is! The Yogi, this way knowing,Comes to the Utmost Perfect Peace at last.