Chapter 7

Śrī Kṛṣṇa said: Listen Pārtha, how with your mind attached to Me, practicing yoga, and taking shelter in Me, you will without doubt know Me completely.

I will explain that knowledge to you, along with the process of its immediate realization. Once understood, nothing more remains to be known in this world.

Among thousands of people, perhaps one strives for perfection; even among those who strive for perfection as well as those who have reached perfection, perhaps one alone knows Me in reality.

Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, and ego—My prakṛti is thus divided eightfold.

This is My lower nature, but know that distinct from it is My higher nature, the individual jīva by which the cosmos is upheld, O mighty-armed Arjuna.

Know these two natures of Mine to be the source of all beings. In this way I am the origin and the dissolution of this entire universe.

There is nothing superior to Me, O Dhanañjaya. All this is strung on Me, like pearls on a thread.

O Kaunteya, I am the taste of water; I am the radiance of the Moon and the Sun. I am the oṁ in all the Vedas; I am the sound in ether, and the valor in men.

I am the pure fragrance of the earth; I am the heat of fire; I am the life-force in all living beings, and the austerity of ascetics.

Pārtha, know Me to be the primordial seed of all beings. I am the intelligence of the intelligent, and the energy of the energetic.

Moreover, I am the strength of the strong, free from desire and passion. I am that desire in living beings which is compatible with dharma, O best of the Bhāratas.

Know the states of sattva, rajas, and tamas to originate from Me alone. But I am not in them; they are in Me.

Deluded by these three states originating from the guṇas, this whole world fails to recognize Me, who is unchanging and beyond them.

This divine māyā of Mine consisting of the three guṇas is certainly hard to overcome. But those who take refuge in Me alone, go beyond this māyā.

However, the unrighteous, the foolish, the lowest of people, those whose wisdom has been stolen away by māyā, and those who have taken on a demonic nature, do not seek shelter of Me.

Four kinds of virtuous people worship Me, O Arjuna: The distressed, the seeker of knowledge, the one who desires wealth, and the wise jñānī, O best of Bhāratas.

Of these, the jñānī who is constantly united with Me and who is single-mindedly devoted to Me, excels. I am supremely dear to him and he is dear to Me.

All those who approach Me are noble, but the jñānī I consider to be My very essence. Such a person has turned toward Me, is absorbed in Me, and verily regards Me alone as the highest goal.

After many births, one who has true wisdom surrenders to Me, realizing that “Kṛṣṇa is everything”. Such a great soul is exceedingly rare.

Those whose wisdom has been veiled by numerous desires, take shelter of other deities and observe various rituals, enslaved by their own mental disposition.

Whichever deity any bhakta wishes to venerate with faith, it is I that grants them unshakeable faith in it.

Endowed with that faith, one engages in the worship of the chosen deity, obtaining from it desired objects, which are factually given by Me alone.

But the reward of these people with limited understanding is temporary. The worshipers of the devas will go to the devas, whereas My devotees will attain Me.

Not knowing My higher state as imperishable and supreme, those who lack discrimination think of Me who is unmanifest to have assumed a limited manifestation.

I am not manifest to everybody, covered by My yoga-māyā. This deluded world does not recognize Me as unborn and infallible.

O Arjuna, I know all beings of the past, those of the present, and those who are yet to come; but no one knows Me.

O Bhārata, chastiser of enemies, due to the bewilderment of duality arising from desire and aversion, all beings in creation are subject to delusion.

But those people whose sins have ceased, who perform virtuous deeds, and who are freed from the delusion of the pairs of opposites, worship Me, steadfast in their determination.

Those who strive to be liberated from old age and death and have taken shelter of Me, come to fully know Brahman, adhyātma, and the entirety of karma.

And those who realize Me in relation to the adhibhūta, adhidaiva, and the adhiyajña, with their minds fixed, are aware of Me even at the hour of death.