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Bhagavad Gita Chapter Seven: The Yoga of Wisdom and Realization

The Bhagavad Gita, the Song of God
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The Holy Lord said:

With mind absorbed in me, practicing yoga, taking refuge in me, hear how without doubt you shall know me completely. (7:1)

To you I shall explain in full this knowledge, along with realization, which being known, nothing further remains to be known in this world. (7:2)

Of thousands of human beings scarcely anyone at all strives for perfection, and of those adept in that striving, scarcely anyone knows me in truth. (7:3)

Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect and ego-principle: these are the eight divisions of my prakriti. (7:4)

This is my lower prakriti, yet know my higher prakriti as consisting of all jivas, by which this world is sustained. (7:5)

Realize that these two prakritis are the wombs of all beings. Of this entire world I am the origin and the dissolution. (7:6)

Than me there is nothing higher. All this creation is strung on me like pearls on a thread. (7:7)

I am the taste within water, the radiance of the moon and the sun; Om in all the Vedas, the sound in the ether and the manhood in men. (7:8)

I am the pure fragrance in the earth, and the brilliance within fire; the life in all beings, and the tapasya of ascetics. (7:9)

Know that I am the eternal seed of all beings, the intelligence of the intelligent, and the splendor of the splendid. (7:10)

I am the strength of the strong, free from desire and passion. I am the desire in beings that is according to dharma. (7:11

Know that sattwic, rajasic and tamasic states of being proceed from me. But I am not in them–they are in me. (7:12)

All this world is deluded by the three states produced by the gunas. It does not perceive me, who am higher than these and eternal. (7:13)

Truly this maya of mine made of the gunas is difficult to go beyond. Verily only those who attain me shall pass beyond this maya. (7:14)

Evil-doers, the lowest of men, bereft of knowledge by maya, do not seek me, being attached to (existing within) a demonic mode of existence. (7:15)

Among the virtuous, four kinds seek me: the distressed, the seekers of knowledge, the seekers of wealth and the wise. (7:16)

Of them, the wise man, ever united, devoted to the One, is pre-eminent. Exceedingly dear am I to the man of wisdom, and he is dear to me. (7:17)

All these indeed are exalted, but I see the man of wisdom as my very Self. He, with mind steadfast, abides in me, the Supreme Goal. (7:18)

At the end of many births the wise man takes refuge in me. He knows: All is Vasudeva. How very rare is that great soul. (7:19)

Those whose knowledge has been stolen away by various desires resort to other gods, following various religious practices, impelled thus by their own natures. (7:20)

Whoever wishes to worship whatever form with faith, on him I bestow immovable faith. (7:21)

He who, endowed with this faith, desires to propitiate that form, receives from it his desires because their fulfillment has been decreed by me. (7:22)

But temporary is the fruit for those of small understanding. To the gods go the worshippers of the gods. Those who worship me come unto me. (7:23)

Though I am unmanifest, the unintelligent think me entered into manifestation, not knowing my higher being which is imperishable and unsurpassed. (7:24)

Veiled by Yogamaya, I am not manifest to all. This deluded world perceives me not who am unborn and imperishable. (7:25)

I know the departed beings and the living, and those who are yet to be, but none whatsoever knows me. (7:26)

By desire and aversion rising up through duality’s delusion, at birth all beings fall into delusion. (7:27)

But those whose wrongdoing has come to an end, whose actions are righteous, freed from the delusions of the pairs of opposites–they worship me with firm resolve. (7:28)

Those who strive toward freedom from old age and dying, taking refuge in me, know Brahman totally, and know the Self and karma perfectly. (7:29)

Those who know me as the Primal Being and the Primal God, as well as the Primal Sacrifice, they know me with steadfast thought also at the time of death. (7:30)

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.

Read Chapter Eight: The Yoga of Imperishable Brahman

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Chapters for The Bhagavad Gita–The Song of God

Introduction: The Bhagavad Gita–The Book of Life

  1. Bhagavad Gita Chapter One: The Yoga of the Despondency of Arjuna
  2. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Two: Sankhya Yoga
  3. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Three: The Yoga of Action
  4. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Four: The Yoga of Wisdom
  5. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Five: The Yoga of Renunciation of Action
  6. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Six: The Yoga of Meditation
  7. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Seven: The Yoga of Wisdom and Realization
  8. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Eight: The Yoga of Imperishable Brahman
  9. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Nine: The Yoga of the Royal Science and Royal Secret
  10. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Ten: The Yoga of Divine Glories
  11. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Eleven: The Yoga of the Vision of the Cosmic Form
  12. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Twelve: The Yoga of Devotion
  13. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Thirteen: The Yoga of the Distinction Between the Field and the Knower of the Field
  14. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Fourteen: The Yoga of the Division of the Three Gunas
  15. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Fifteen: The Yoga of the Supreme Spirit
  16. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Sixteen: The Yoga of the Division between the Divine and the Demonic
  17. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Seventeen: The Yoga of the Division of Threefold Faith
  18. Bhagavad Gita Chapter Eighteen: The Yoga of Liberation by Renunciation

Also: The Bhagavad Gita Arranged for Singing

  1. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 1: The Yoga of the Despondency of Arjuna
  2. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 2: Sankhya Yoga
  3. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 3: The Yoga of Action
  4. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 4: The Yoga of Wisdom
  5. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 5: The Yoga of Renunciation of Action
  6. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 6: The Yoga of Meditation
  7. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 7: The Yoga of Wisdom and Realization
  8. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 8: The Yoga of Imperishable Brahman
  9. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 9: The Yoga of the Kingly Science and Kingly Secret
  10. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 10: The Yoga of Divine Glories
  11. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 11: The Yoga of the Vision of the Cosmic Form
  12. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 12: The Yoga of Devotion
  13. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 13: The Yoga of the Distinction Between the Field and the Knower of the Field
  14. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 14: The Yoga of the Division of the Three Gunas
  15. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 15: The Yoga of the Supreme Spirit
  16. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 16: The Yoga of the Division between the Divine and the Demoniacal
  17. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 17: The Yoga of the Division of Threefold Faith
  18. The Bhagavad Gita—Chapter 18: The Yoga of Liberation by Renunciation

Read about the meanings of unfamiliar terms in A Brief Sanskrit Glossary

Read the Bhagavad Gita for Awakening, a full commentary on the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Nirmalananda Giri (Abbot George Burke).

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