your heart.”
CHAPTER 9
ROYAL KNOWLEDGE
AND THE KING OF SECRETS
(Rajavidya Rajaguhya Yoga)
“I accept with joy whatever I am offered in true devotion: fruit or water, leaf or flower. The gift is love, the dedication of your heart.”
1-2 “Since you are so receptive, Arjuna, I will now reveal the most mysterious and profound secret. Having this knowledge will liberate you from the sorrows of worldly existence. This is the royal road of ultimate knowledge, the king of secrets— knowledge of both the visible and invisible Godhead. This is purifying knowledge, fully in accord with dharma (truth-based living). It is easy to practice and a joy to hold. Once you know this secret you cannot lose it.
3 “But those who lack faith in this doctrine will fail to find Me. To cynical people with trifling objections this secret is a closed book; they are compelled to return to the cycle of death and rebirth.”
The Divine Mystery Unveiled
4-6 “I, Brahman, the Supreme Godhead, in My unmanifested (invisible) form, pervade everything and every creature in the universe. I am the origin of everything that is and is not. All beings in all the worlds exist, in spirit, within Me and depend on Me. But I do not abide in them because that would limit Me. This is the Divine mystery of Me as the unmanifested Godhead. I am never confined, attached, changed, or in any way limited. As birds fly across the sky leaving no trace, I, like the sky, am ever Myself, unaffected by anything of the phenomenal world.
7 “At the end of a kalpa, a cosmic day of Brahma (consisting of a full cycle of earthly eons, billions of years), all beings dissolve into My unmanifested matter, which at that point is the seed of their next coming to be. Then, at the beginning of the next cycle I generate them again, sending them onward at the moment of creation.
8 “Again and again I animate nature to bring forth this multitude of forms and beings, infusing spirit into their matter and subjecting all to the laws of their own nature.
9 “None of these actions in any way binds Me, Arjuna. I remain unattached and unconcerned, indifferent to the fruits of these actions. Nature, because of its proximity to Divinity, carries on the activities of creation.
10 “Under My watchful eye the laws of nature take their course. With Me presiding over the proceedings, the animate and inanimate manifest and the wheel of the world is set revolving.
11 “People who are unaware of My transcendent majesty n cannot relate to Me. They do not know that I am their very soul. They disregard Me when I come to the world clad in a body and relate to Me as just an ordinary mortal.
12 “Their ignorance makes their lives fraught with pain and disaster. The selfish ones, their minds ever agitated and never in peace, lead a hurtful life. The slothful ones live a lazy life of ignorance, seeking only to satisfy their bodily needs. All hopes and actions of these ignorant souls are in vain.
13-14 “But the great souls (mahatmas) are different. Guided by their more Divine nature and knowing My true nature, they love Me and offer constant devotion to Me — and they bear great love for all others.
“As the mind takes on the coloring of that which it constantly glorifies, these people, steadfastly revering Me and always absorbed inMe (God), literally become this love. They turn godlike and eventually merge in Me.
15 “Other great souls, those on the path of knowledge, venerate Me as the one God in the many. They have come to know that My attributes and forms are inexhaustible. They see My million faces in everyone and everything. To them all things and all beings in the universe are aspects of this one Self, God.
16 “Because I am endless, the variety of ways I am adored is endless. I am the rites and rituals of the scriptures. I am the offerings made to the ancestors. I am the food that is medicinal and nourishing. I am the
CHAPTER 9
ROYAL KNOWLEDGE
AND THE KING OF SECRETS
(Rajavidya Rajaguhya Yoga)
“I accept with joy whatever I am offered in true devotion: fruit or water, leaf or flower. The gift is love, the dedication of your heart.”
1-2 “Since you are so receptive, Arjuna, I will now reveal the most mysterious and profound secret. Having this knowledge will liberate you from the sorrows of worldly existence. This is the royal road of ultimate knowledge, the king of secrets— knowledge of both the visible and invisible Godhead. This is purifying knowledge, fully in accord with dharma (truth-based living). It is easy to practice and a joy to hold. Once you know this secret you cannot lose it.
3 “But those who lack faith in this doctrine will fail to find Me. To cynical people with trifling objections this secret is a closed book; they are compelled to return to the cycle of death and rebirth.”
The Divine Mystery Unveiled
4-6 “I, Brahman, the Supreme Godhead, in My unmanifested (invisible) form, pervade everything and every creature in the universe. I am the origin of everything that is and is not. All beings in all the worlds exist, in spirit, within Me and depend on Me. But I do not abide in them because that would limit Me. This is the Divine mystery of Me as the unmanifested Godhead. I am never confined, attached, changed, or in any way limited. As birds fly across the sky leaving no trace, I, like the sky, am ever Myself, unaffected by anything of the phenomenal world.
7 “At the end of a kalpa, a cosmic day of Brahma (consisting of a full cycle of earthly eons, billions of years), all beings dissolve into My unmanifested matter, which at that point is the seed of their next coming to be. Then, at the beginning of the next cycle I generate them again, sending them onward at the moment of creation.
8 “Again and again I animate nature to bring forth this multitude of forms and beings, infusing spirit into their matter and subjecting all to the laws of their own nature.
9 “None of these actions in any way binds Me, Arjuna. I remain unattached and unconcerned, indifferent to the fruits of these actions. Nature, because of its proximity to Divinity, carries on the activities of creation.
10 “Under My watchful eye the laws of nature take their course. With Me presiding over the proceedings, the animate and inanimate manifest and the wheel of the world is set revolving.
11 “People who are unaware of My transcendent majesty n cannot relate to Me. They do not know that I am their very soul. They disregard Me when I come to the world clad in a body and relate to Me as just an ordinary mortal.
12 “Their ignorance makes their lives fraught with pain and disaster. The selfish ones, their minds ever agitated and never in peace, lead a hurtful life. The slothful ones live a lazy life of ignorance, seeking only to satisfy their bodily needs. All hopes and actions of these ignorant souls are in vain.
13-14 “But the great souls (mahatmas) are different. Guided by their more Divine nature and knowing My true nature, they love Me and offer constant devotion to Me — and they bear great love for all others.
“As the mind takes on the coloring of that which it constantly glorifies, these people, steadfastly revering Me and always absorbed inMe (God), literally become this love. They turn godlike and eventually merge in Me.
15 “Other great souls, those on the path of knowledge, venerate Me as the one God in the many. They have come to know that My attributes and forms are inexhaustible. They see My million faces in everyone and everything. To them all things and all beings in the universe are aspects of this one Self, God.
16 “Because I am endless, the variety of ways I am adored is endless. I am the rites and rituals of the scriptures. I am the offerings made to the ancestors. I am the food that is medicinal and nourishing. I am the
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