Bhagavad Gita—Chapter Seven

The Yoga of Wisdom and Realization

The Holy Lord said:
With your mind intent upon Me,
Taking refuge in Me, now hear
How through the practice of yoga
You shall fully come to know Me. (1)

To you I shall explain in full
Knowledge and realization,
Which, being known, nothing further
Remains to be known in this world. (2)

Of thousands of human beings,
Scarcely one strives for perfection;
And of those adept in striving,
Scarcely any knows Me in truth. (3)

Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind,
Intellect, ego-principle:
These are the eight divisions of
My prakriti, O Arjuna.1 (4)

Such is my lower prakriti,
Yet know my higher prakriti
Sustains all beings that exist
And the whole cosmos, Mighty Armed. (5)

These two Prakritis should be known
As the womb of all these beings.
Of this whole universe am I
The Origin and Dissolver. (6)

Higher than Me, Dhananjaya,
There is absolutely nothing.
All creation is strung on Me
Like strands of jewels on a thread. (7)

I am the taste within water,
The radiance of moon and sun;
I am Om in all the Vedas,
Sound in ether, manhood in men. (8)

I am the fragrance within earth,
And the brilliance within the fire;
The life in all beings, and the
Austerity of ascetics. (9)

Know me as the eternal seed
Of all beings; th’intelligence
Of the intelligent, and the
Splendor of the splendid am I. (10)

I am the strength of the strong, free
From all desire and from passion.
I am the desire in beings
That is according to dharma. (11)

States of being which are sattwic,
Rajasic and tamasic2–know
As proceeding from Me, yet I
Am not in them, but they in Me. (12)

All this world is deluded by
The states composed of the gunas.
Thus it perceives Me not, Who am
Eternal and higher than these. (13)

This divine illusion of Mine
Is difficult to go beyond.
Only those devoted to Me
Shall pass beyond this illusion. (14)

But those not devoted to Me–
Evil-doers, deluded, low–
Deprived by Maya of good sense,
Follow the way of the demons. (15)

These four kinds of virtuous men
Do worship Me, O Arjuna:
The distressed, seekers of welfare,
Seekers of knowledge, and the wise. (16)

Of them, the wise man, e’er steadfast,
Devoted to the One, excels;
Supremely dear am I to him,
And he is dear to Me, as well. (17)

All these indeed are exalted,
But I see the man of wisdom
As My Self. He, with mind steadfast,
Abides in Me, the Supreme Goal. (18)

At the end of his many births
The wise man takes refuge in Me.
He knows: “All is Vasudeva.3”
How very rare is that great soul! (19)

Others, deprived of their good sense,
By “this or that” desire or rite,
Devote themselves to other gods,
Impelled thus by their own natures. (20)

Whatever form a devotee
May seek to worship with full faith–
That faith of his is blessed by Me
To be steadfast, unwavering. (21)

Endowed with faith he then receives
His desires from that worshipped form
Because I have decreed that those
Desires should be granted to him. (22)

But temporary is the fruit
For those of small understanding.
To the gods go their worshippers;
My worshippers come unto Me. (23)

The unintelligent think Me
Manifest, though Unmanifest,
Not knowing My supreme state as
Unchanging and transcendental. (24)

Veiled by illusion born of the
Combinations of the gunas,
This deluded world knows Me not–
The Unborn, the Immutable. (25)

I know the departed beings,
Also the living, Arjuna,
And those who are yet to be born;
But none whatsoever knows me. (26)

By desire and hatred rising
Through duality’s delusion,
At birth all beings fall into
Delusion, O Scorcher of Foes. (27)

But those men of virtuous deeds,
They whose sin has come to an end,
Freed from the pairs of opposites–
They worship Me with firm resolve. (28)

Those men who take refuge in Me
Seek freedom from old age and death;
They know Brahman thoroughly, and
Know the Self and Karma as well. (29)

Those who know Me, the Primal One,
The Primal God, Chief Sacrifice,
They truly know Me with steadfast
Thought even at the time of death. (30)

Om Tat Sat
Thus in the Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the seventh discourse entitled: The Yoga of Wisdom and Realization.

More chapters of the Bhagavad Gita:

• Introduction
• Chapter One—The Yoga of the Despondency of Arjuna
• Chapter Two—Sankhya Yoga
• Chapter Three—The Yoga of Action
• Chapter Four—The Yoga of Wisdom
• Chapter Five—The Yoga of Renunciation of Action
• Chapter Six—The Yoga of Meditation
• Chapter Seven—The Yoga of Wisdom and Realization
• Chapter Eight—The Yoga of Imperishable Brahman
• Chapter Nine—The Yoga of the Kingly Science and Kingly Secret
• Chapter Ten—The Yoga of Divine glories
• Chapter Eleven—The Yoga of the Vision of the Cosmic Form
• Chapter Twelve—The Yoga of Devotion
• Chapter Thirteen—The Yoga of the Distinction Between the Field and the Knower of the Field
• Chapter Fourteen—The Yoga of the Division of the Three Gunas
• Chapter Fifteen—The Yoga of the Supreme Spirit
• Chapter Sixteen— Yoga of the Division between the Divine and the Demoniacal
• Chapter Seventeen—The Yoga of the Division of Threefold Faith
• Chapter Eighteen—The Yoga of Liberation by Renunciation

• Sri Maharshi Gita—An arrangement of verses of the Bhagavad Gita made by Sri Ramana Maharshi that gives an overview of the essential message of the Gita.
• The Maharshi Gita sung in english. – This is an arrangement of verses of the Bhagavad Gita made by Sri Ramana Maharshi that gives an overview of the essential message of the Gita. Arranged according to the meter of the original Sanskrit text and sung to a classical Gita melody used to chant the Gita every morning in our ashram and in most of the ashrams of India. Sung by the monks of Atma Jyoti Ashram.

• To hear online audio files of the above translation of the Gita, click here.

Bhagavad Gita Commentary by Swami Nirmalananda:

1. The Battlefield of the Mind 2. The Smile of Krishna 3. Right But Wrong 4. Birth and Death–The Great Illusions 5. Experiencing The Unreal 6. The Unreal and the Real 7. The Body and the Spirit 8. Know the Atman! 9. Practical Self-Knowledge 10. Perspective on Birth and Death 11. The Wonder of the Atman 12. The Indestructible Self 13. “Happy The Warrior” 14. The Virtues of Karma Yoga 15. Religiosity Versus Religion 16. Perspective on Scriptures 17. How Not To Act 18. How To Act 19. How To Be Miserable; How To Be Free 20. Wisdom About the Wise 21. Wisdom about both the Foolish and the Wise 22. The Way of Peace 23. Calming the Storm 24. First Steps in Karma Yoga 25. From the Beginning to the End 26. The Real “Doers” 27. Our Spiritual Marching Orders 28. Freedom From Karma 29. “Nature” 30. Swadharma 31. In the Grip of the Monster 32. “Devotee and Friend” 33. The Eternal Being 34. Worshippers and the Worshipped 35. Caste and Karma

36. Action–Divine and Human 37. The Mystery of Action and Inaction 38. The Wise in Action 39. Sacrificial Offerings 40. The Worship of Brahman 41. The Core Problem 42. Action–Renounced and Performed 43. Freedom (Moksha) 44. The Brahman-Knower 45. The Goal of Karma Yoga 46. The Will of the Wise 47. The Yogi’s Retreat 48. The Yogi’s Inner Life 49. Union With Brahman 50. The Yogi’s Future 51. Success in Yoga 52. The Net and Its Weaver 53. Those Who Seek God 54. Those Who Worship God and the Gods 55. The Veil in the Mind 56. The Big Picture 57. The Sure Way To Realize God 58. Day, Night, and the Two Paths 59. The Supreme Knowledge 60. Universal Being

and more as it is posted.

2) These three states will be discussed in Chapter Fourteen. [Go back]

3) “He who dwells in all things”–the Universal God. [Go back]