7.1
Lord Krishna said:
Listen, Arjuna, and I will tell you how practicing yoga in full consciousness of Me, and taking refuge in Me, you can come to know Me completely, without any doubts.
7.2
I shall now reveal to you fully, knowledge of the world as it is, as opposed to the world as it appears. Once you realize this knowledge in yourself, nothing further needs to be known.
7.3
Perhaps one in ten thousand strive for perfection in yoga, and of those who do strive, few come to know Me.
7.4
My manifested aspect consists of eight material energies: earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, and ego.
7.5
That is my lower nature. My higher nature is the life force that infuses all things and sustains the Universe.
7.6
My two-fold nature is the womb of all beings and things. I am the source of all Creation, and into me it dissolves.
7.7
There is nothing higher than Me. All That Is hangs upon Me like pearls threaded on string.
7.8
I am the fluidity in water, the light of the sun, the reflection of the moon. I am the mystic sound of AUM and the emptiness of space, I am the virility of men and the fertility of women.
7.9
I am the heat in fire and the clean scent of earth. I am the austerity of ascetics and the life of all beings.
7.10
I am the intelligence of the intellect, the power of the powerful, the brilliance of the resplendent. I am the primal seed of eternal existence.
7.11
I am the strength of the strong devoid of desire and attachment. I am the ecstasy of lovers in harmony with dharma.
7.12
The gunas, the three aspects of My creative energy — goodness, passion and ignorance — originate from Me alone. They are in Me, but I am not subject to them.
7.13
People have become hypnotized by the illusory world woven by My gunas, and do not know Me — That which is beyond Maya, yet contains it.
7.14
Indeed, it is difficult to see through the complex illusion created by My gunas. But those who shift their focus from the world to Me — however dimly perceived at first — will come at last to know Me in full.
7.15
Those who do evil, however, and those who through laziness live mean and lowly lives, and those who delight in the trinkets of Maya, and those who partake of the darkness of demons — these will never sacrifice their ignorance for the Truth of Me.
7.16
Those who implore Me fall into four categories: Those in great distress, those who seek wealth, those who seek knowledge, and those who are innately wise.
7.17
Of these, the man of wisdom is especially dear to Me. He asks for nothing but my love and regards Me above all else. I am dear to him, and he is dear to Me.
7.18
All who implore me are noble souls, but the man of wisdom I regard as Myself. He seeks only to serve Me, and shall come to know that he and I are One.
7.19
After many lives of devotion to Me, the man of wisdom surrenders to the Truth that All is Self, and becomes Me. Such greats souls are very rare.
7.20
Those whose limited minds are entranced by the material world worship lesser gods, and in accordance with their own nature, perform religious rites to attract the objects of their desires.
7.21
These seekers, too, I support, for I am the Soul in everyone’s heart. If one worships a demigod in faith. I am there to strengthen his devotion.
7.22
Indeed, the fruit men desire through the worship of demigods will come to them — not from the demigods, but from Me.
7.23
But the fruit they thus gain is finite and fleeting, and over time their taste for it wanes. Those who worship a demigod are consigned to the planes of the demigods. Those who surrender to Me, attain the realm of the Supreme.
7.24
The foolish regard My manifest form as that which I am. Ignorance clouds their vision. Did it not, they would know Me as the unmanifested Source of All That Is.
7.25
The Truth of Me is never revealed to the foolish and small-minded. They perceive only the veil of My Creation, woven by the gunas. Behind that veil, and containing it, is My True Nature — the Absolute.
7.26
I contain the past, present and future — Here, Now. I know all beings who have ever lived or ever will live, yet none but the rarest of rare know Me.
7.27
Delusion is the nature of birth. Man lives in a fairytale world of opposites, arising out of the dual powers of aversion and desire.
7.28
But in any age and time, any man or woman who turns away from aversion and desire, who serves Me in righteousness, can come to know Me as Self.
7.29
He who takes refuge in Me and truly seeks liberation from birth and death, will discover True Nature, and know with self-evident certainty the workings of the Universe.
7.30
He who comes to know Me as the Source of all manifestations, the God of all demigods and the receiver of all sacrifices, shall remain steadfast in his knowing throughout his life, and pass through death in the arms of Grace.