Raja Vidya Yoga

Since you do not find fault, I will reveal to you this deepest secret: knowledge together with its direct realization. Knowing it, you will be freed from evil.

This is the king of sciences, the king of secrets, the supreme purifier. It is known by direct experience. It accords with dharma, it is easy to practice, and it never decays.

Those who have no faith in this dharma do not reach me, Arjuna. They return to the path of death and rebirth.

This whole world is pervaded by me in my unmanifest form. All beings dwell in me, but I do not dwell in them.

And yet beings do not dwell in me. Behold my divine power. My Self sustains and brings forth all beings, but it does not dwell in them.

Just as the mighty wind, moving everywhere, always rests in space, know that in the same way all beings rest in me.

All beings pass into my nature at the end of a cycle, Arjuna. At the beginning of the next, I send them forth again.

Presiding over my own nature, I send forth again and again this whole multitude of beings. They are helpless, ruled by their nature.

These actions do not bind me, Arjuna. I remain seated like one indifferent, unattached to them.

Under my watch, nature gives birth to all that moves and all that does not. For this reason, Arjuna, the world turns.

Fools disregard me when I take on a human form. They do not know my higher nature as the great Lord of all beings.

Their hopes are in vain, their actions in vain, their knowledge in vain. Senseless, they take refuge in a deluding nature, the nature of fiends and demons.

But the great souls take shelter in my divine nature, Arjuna. They worship me with an unwavering mind, knowing me as the imperishable source of all beings.

Always glorifying me, striving, firm in their vows, they bow before me. With steadfast devotion they worship me, ever united with me.

Others worship me through the sacrifice of knowledge. They adore me as the one, as the many, and as the All-Faced present in countless forms.

I am the ritual. I am the sacrifice. I am the offering to the ancestors, and I am the healing herb. I am the sacred chant, I am the clarified butter, I am the fire, and I am the act of offering.

I am the father of this world, the mother, the sustainer, and the grandfather. I am what is to be known, the purifier, the sacred syllable Om, and the Rig, the Sama, and the Yajur Vedas.

I am the goal, the supporter, the lord, the witness, the abode, the refuge, and the friend. I am the origin, the dissolution, the foundation, the storehouse, and the imperishable seed.

I give heat. I withhold the rain and I send it forth. I am immortality and also death; I am being and non-being, Arjuna.

Those who know the three Vedas, who drink the Soma and are purified of sin, worship me through sacrifices and pray for the way to heaven. Reaching the holy world of the king of the gods, they enjoy the divine pleasures of the gods in heaven.

Having enjoyed that vast world of heaven, they return to the world of mortals when their merit is exhausted. So those who follow the rites of the three Vedas, desiring pleasures, attain only this coming and going.

Those who worship me alone, thinking of nothing else, who are ever devoted to me: for them I secure what they lack and preserve what they have.

Even those who are devoted to other gods and worship them with faith, they too worship me, Arjuna, though by the wrong method.

For I am the enjoyer and the lord of all sacrifices. But they do not know me truly, and so they fall.

Those who worship the gods go to the gods. Those who worship the ancestors go to the ancestors. Those who worship the spirits go to the spirits. And those who worship me come to me.

Whoever offers me a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water with devotion, I accept that offering. It is given in devotion by a pure heart.

Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you give, whatever austerity you practice: do it as an offering to me.

In this way you will be freed from the bonds of action, which yield good and bad fruits. With your mind set in the yoga of renunciation, and so set free, you will come to me.

I am the same to all beings. None is hateful to me, and none is dear. But those who worship me with devotion are in me, and I am in them.

Even if someone of very bad conduct worships me with undivided devotion, he is to be regarded as good. For he has resolved rightly.

He soon becomes righteous and attains lasting peace. Declare it boldly, Arjuna: my devotee never perishes.

Arjuna, those who take refuge in me, even those of sinful birth, women, vaishyas, and shudras, even they reach the supreme goal.

How much more, then, the holy brahmins and the devoted royal sages. Having come to this fleeting, joyless world, worship me.

Fix your mind on me. Be devoted to me, sacrifice to me, bow down to me. Having united yourself in this way, with me as your supreme goal, you will come to me, who am your own Self.