Chapter 9 · opening
The Yoga of the Royal Knowledge and the Royal Secret
Rāja Vidyā Rāja Guhya Yoga
- 9.1 I shall declare the most secret knowledge with realization to you who do not cavil — knowing it frees you from all evil.
- 9.2 Royal knowledge, royal secret — supreme purifier, directly known, easy to practice, of imperishable nature.
- 9.3 Those without faith in this teaching do not attain Me — they return to the path of rebirth fraught with death.
- 9.4 By Me, in unmanifest form, all this world is pervaded — all beings are in Me, but I do not dwell in them.
- 9.5 Nor do beings truly dwell in Me — see My divine yoga! I sustain all beings yet My Self does not dwell in them.
- 9.6 As the mighty wind rests always in the vast sky, know that all beings rest in Me.
- 9.7 At the end of each cosmic age, all beings return to My prakriti — at the next dawn, I send them forth again.
- 9.8 Projecting this vast multitude from My own prakriti again and again — I animate them, helpless under prakriti's sway.
- 9.9 These acts do not bind Me — I sit as one uninvolved, unattached to them, O Dhananjaya.
- 9.10 Under My supervision, prakriti produces all that moves and is unmoving — by this cause, the world revolves.
- 9.11 Fools in human form disregard Me, not knowing My supreme nature as the great Lord of all beings.
- 9.12 Of vain hopes, vain acts, vain knowledge, and senseless — they embrace the deluding nature of rākṣasas and asuras.
- 9.13 The mahātmās of divine nature worship Me with undivided mind, knowing Me as the immutable origin of all beings.
- 9.14 Ever glorifying Me, striving with firm resolve, bowing in devotion, always steadfast — they worship Me.
- 9.15 Others worship Me as one, as distinct, as manifold — through the jñāna-yajña of knowing the All-form.
- 9.16 I am the Vedic ritual, sacrifice, ancestral offering, herb, mantra, oblation, fire, and the offering made.
- 9.17 I am the Father, Mother, Sustainer, Grandfather, Purifier, the knowable, OM — and the three Vedas.
- 9.18 I am the Goal, Lord, Witness, Abode, Refuge, Friend — and the Origin, Dissolution, Seed imperishable.
- 9.19 I give heat, withhold and release rain — I am immortality and death, being and non-being, O Arjuna.
- 9.20 Vedic ritualists drink soma, seek heaven — purified of sin, they attain Indra's realm and enjoy celestial pleasures.
- 9.21 When Vedic merit is exhausted, soma-drinkers return from heaven to the mortal world, going and coming.
- 9.22 ★ For those who worship Me with undivided thought, always steadfast — I carry what they lack and guard what they have.
- 9.23 Even devotees of other gods who worship with faith — they too worship Me, though not by the ordained method, O Arjuna.
- 9.24 I am the enjoyer and Lord of all sacrifices — but they do not know Me in truth, and so they fall.
- 9.25 Worshippers of gods go to gods; of ancestors, to ancestors; of spirits, to spirits — My worshippers come to Me.
- 9.26 ★ A leaf, a flower, a fruit, a drop of water — offered with devotion, I receive it: the striving heart's gift is enough.
- 9.27 ★ Whatever you do, eat, offer, give, or practise as austerity — do it all as mad-arpaṇam, an offering to Me.
- 9.28 Thus freed from karma's bonds — both good and evil fruits — unified in renunciation-yoga, liberated, you come to Me.
- 9.29 I am the same toward all beings — none hateful nor dear to Me — but My devotees are in Me, and I am in them.
- 9.30 ★ Even if the most sinful worships Me with undivided devotion — he must be deemed righteous, for he has rightly resolved.
- 9.31 Quickly he becomes righteous and attains eternal peace — declare it, O Kuntī's son: My devotee is never destroyed.
- 9.32 ★ Even women, vaiśyas, śūdras of lower birth — taking complete refuge in Me — attain the supreme goal, O Pārtha.
- 9.33 How much more the holy brāhmaṇas and devoted royal sages! This world is transient and joyless — worship Me.
- 9.34 ★ Fix mind on Me, be My devotee, worship Me, bow to Me — thus, with Me as supreme goal, you shall come to Me.