Chapter 7

1. The Blessed One said:
   With your mind directed to me, scion of Partha, practicing yoga in awareness of me, try to hear how you can become completely aware, and free of doubt.
2. I shall fully explain to you this awareness and this knowledge, which once known, there will remain nothing further in this world to know.
3. Out of thousands of men, one will struggle for the higher power. And of those thousands struggling, only one will know me in reality.
4. Earth, water, fire, air, the ether, the mind, awareness and the false ego; all of these are my own eightfold energies in division.
5. These are inferior forms. But besides these there is another form. Endeavour to understand this superior form of me. This superior form is life, the living beings, great warrior, who make use of these elements of matter.
6. In this way, know that there are these two forms whose intermingling produced all things. I encompass all creation and destruction in existence.
7. Conqueror, beyond me there is no greater thing. Everything that you see, all that is, is in me; like pearls strung on a thread.
8. Son of Kunti, I am the flavour in water, I am the light of the sun and moon, I am the sound OM that is in all mantras, I am the vibration in the ether, I am the genius in man.
9. I am also the original fragrances of the earth, I am the heat in fire. I am the life of all things. I am the austerity of the ascetics.
10. Mine is the seed of all living beings. Son of Partha, try to understand that which is eternal. I am the awareness of the aware. I am the skill of the skillful.
11. I am the strength of the strong, free of lust or attachment. I am the natural sexuality of all beings, lord of the Bharatas.
12. And all of the elements of beings: sattvas (truth), rajas (passion), and tamas (heaviness), all of them come from me. Do not try to know me in their light, you must instead understand them in my light.
13. There are three gunas (elements of being), and by these is the whole universe in delusion. It cannot see me above these, greater and never-ending.
14. It is very difficult to transcend this maya (illusion) of the gunas, but it is actually my own energy. Thus those who surrender unto me will go beyond this illusion.
15. The foolish, the lowest of men who do not surrender unto me, have had their understanding stolen by this illusion. They have accepted being in darkness.
16. There are four kinds of people who will trust and render service unto me, Arjuna. They are those who are in distress, those who are curious, those who desire material gain, and those who understand the real, greatest of the Bharatas.
17. Of them only those who understand the real, and the devotees, are special. I am very close to those who understand deeply. And they are very close to me.
18. All of these are certainly great, but it is my opinion that one who understands the real has the same soul as me. He is certainly in the state of the united soul, in me, which is certainly the highest goal.
19. After many births and deaths, one who is aware surrenders unto me. Thus everything becomes the divine consciousness, and this supersoul is the most rare of experiences.
20. One who is lacking full awareness will surrender to other spirits, and will follow the corresponding disciplines according to their natures.
21. Whichever and whatever form of spirit a devotee wishes to be devoted to with trust, I will certainly grant him the opportunity.
22. Being inspired by his trust in the devotion to that spirit he is drawn to, he will obtain what he desires from it. This is in fact arranged by me.
23. But these results are only transitory, appropriate to those of limited knowing who go to the spirits. But those who are directly my devotees will reach me.
24. Those who have limited consciousness believe me to be an impersonal force. They do not know me as the great work, the force of life, never-ending and most sublime.
25. Nor do I make myself visible to everyone. Those persons who are foolish, clouded by their connection to illusion, can not understand me as the unborn and never-ending.
26. I am completely informed of the past, present and future, Arjuna. I also know all living beings, but none of them know me.
27. Scion of Bharatta, the duality of desire and hate is born of illusion. All living beings fall into this delusion upon taking birth, conqueror of your enemies.
28. But those persons who have by trust erased all their past wrongdoings, they have become freed from duality, and thus delusion. They will devote themselves to me with great will.
29. All of those who seek to take shelter in me, for escape from the cycles of birth and death, such persons are actually Brahma. They know all that are transcendental acts.
30. Those who know the laws of life, that govern all spirits, know me. Even at the time of death they know me, and their minds unite to me.

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