Chapter 9

Krishna spoke again: Now I will reveal to you—since your heart is open and receptive—the deepest hidden teaching, the farthest secret of my heavens and earths. Simply knowing it will free you from all suffering. It is a royal knowledge, a kingly mystery. For the soul, it is a light that washes away every sin, a holy radiance shining from within, plain to see, easy to follow, and inexhaustible.

Those who lack the faith to grasp this greater wisdom do not reach me, destroyer of your enemies. They sink back into the world of flesh, where all things change.

By me—the Unmanifest—this entire vast universe is spread out. All beings exist within me, but I am not contained in them. And yet, paradoxically, they too are not contained. Try to grasp this majestic mystery: my Being creates everything, sustains everything, and yet remains outside of everything.

Consider this: the boundless winds move through measureless space, but they are not space itself—though space would not be space without those moving airs. In the same way, all things exist in me, but they are not me.

At the close of each cosmic age, prince of India, all things return into my Being. At the start of each new age, all things issue forth from me, freshly born.

Through my energy, and with the help of Prakriti, my outer Self, I send out again and again the realms of visible things—without their willing it—all of them, by the power of Prakriti.

Yet these vast creative acts do not bind or entangle me, prince. I sit apart from them, other, higher, free, unattached.

So the substance of worlds, shaped by me, brings forth all that exists—moving or still, living or lifeless. And so the worlds continue.

The unlearned misjudge me when they see me veiled in form. They see nothing of my secret presence, nothing of my hidden nature that rules all life. Chasing empty hopes, performing empty deeds, fed on empty knowledge, they senselessly take an evil road—the way of brutes and demons.

But my Mahatmas, those noble souls who walk the heavenly path, worship me with steady hearts, knowing me as the eternal Source of life. They glorify me without end, they seek me, they keep their vows of reverence and love, adoring me with unchanging faith. And those also worship me who, offering sacrifice with awakened hearts, sense one pervading Spirit’s pressure, one Force present everywhere though manifold.

I am the sacrifice. I am the prayer. I am the funeral cake set for the dead. I am the healing herb. I am the ghee, the mantra, the flame, and that which burns. Of this boundless universe I am the Father, Mother, Ancestor, and Guardian. I am the goal of learning, the purifying water of ritual. I am OM. I am the Rig-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the Yajur-Veda. I am the Way, the Sustainer, the Lord, the Judge, the Witness. I am the Dwelling, the Refuge, the Friend, the Fountain and Sea of Life that sends forth and swallows up. I am the Treasure of Worlds and the Treasure-House itself. I am the Seed and the Sower, from whom endless harvests rise. The sun’s heat is mine. The rain of heaven is mine to give or withhold. I am Death, and I am Immortal Life, Arjuna. I am Sat and Asat, both visible existence and the life unseen.

Yes, those who study the threefold Vedas, who drink the soma wine, who purge their sins and pay sacrifice—through me they earn passage to Swarga, where they feast on divine food in Indra’s high heaven. But when that immense joy is finished, when paradise has been spent and the reward for merit used up, they return again to the world of death and change.

They received their reward; they stored their treasure by following the threefold scripture and its rules. Anyone who seeks such things gains only the fleeting pleasure of joy that comes and goes. I grant them that.

But to those blessed ones who worship me alone, turning nowhere else with fixed minds, I bring the assurance of full bliss beyond.

And even those whose hearts follow other gods in simple faith—their prayers still rise to me, son of Kunti, though they pray wrongly. For I am the Receiver and Lord of every sacrifice, though they do not rightly know it. So they fall back to earth again. Those who follow gods go to their gods; those who dedicate themselves to the Pitris go to the Pitris; minds given over to evil Bhuts sink to the Bhuts; and whoever loves me comes to me.

Whoever offers me, with faith and love, a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water poured out—I accept that offering, lovingly made with a pious will. Whatever you do, prince—eating or sacrificing, giving gifts, praying or fasting—let it all be done for me, as mine. In this way you will free yourself from Karmabandh, the chain that binds people to good and evil outcomes; in this way you will come safely to me when you have left the body behind, joined to me by faith and surrender.

I am the same to all. I know neither hatred nor favoritism. Everything that has been made is mine. But those who worship me with love—those I love. They are in me, and I in them.

Indeed, prince, even if someone of evil life turns his thought directly to me, count him among the good. He has chosen the high way. He will soon become righteous and attain that peace which does not change. Prince of India, be certain: no one who trusts me can perish. Son of Pritha, whoever turns to me—even those born from the very womb of sin, woman or man, sprung from the Vaisya caste or from the lowly, disregarded Sudra—all set their foot upon the highest path. How much more, then, the holy Brahmans and my royal saints?

Ah, you who have come into this troubled world—fleeting and false—fix your faith firmly on me. Fix your heart and mind on me. Adore me. Bring offerings to me. Bow before me. Make me your supreme joy, and your spirits, undivided, will be guided to my rest.

Here ends Chapter IX of the Bhagavad Gita, titled “Rajavidyarajaguhyayog,” or “The Book of Religion by the Kingly Knowledge and the Kingly Mystery.”