My Translation of the Bhagavad Gita

[Rebecca Hickman]

-Selected and edited passages from the Bhagavad Gita which is from India during the 5th century B.C. Gender has been removed, specific names of deities and individuals have been removed, and the situational circumstances have been removed. It is now simply transcribed as a teaching from a divine source to a student of worship. If you would like to read the original in its entirety it is available online and there are many different translated copies available in most bookstores. These passages speak to the heart of my spiritual- faith/practices/path/growth. Feedback would be appreciated. Please enjoy.

The Blessed Said:

I permeate all the universe
In my unmanifest form.
All beings exist within me,
Yet I am so inconceivably

Vast, so beyond existence,
That though they are brought forth
And sustained by my limitless power,
I am not confined within them.

Just as the all-moving wind,
Wherever it goes, always
Remains in the vastness of space,
All beings remain within me.

They are gathered back into my womb at the end.

And as a new cycle begins
I send them forth once again,
Pouring from my abundance
The myriad forms of life.

These actions do not bind me, my friend
I stand apart from them all,
Indifferent to their outcome,
Unattached, serene.

Under my guidance, Nature
Brings forth all beings, all things
Animate or inanimate,
And sets the whole universe in motion.

The truly wise, my friend,
Who dive deep into themselves,
Fearless, one-pointed, know me
As the inexhaustible source.

I am an unending hymn to endless love.

Others, on the path of knowledge,
Know me as the many, the One;
Behind the faces of a million
Gods, they can see my face.

I am the Father of the universe
And its mother, essence and goal
Of al knowledge, the refiner, the sacred
I am the only object.

I am the beginning and the end,
Origin and dissolution,
Refuge, home, true lover
Womb and imperishable seed.

I am the heat of the sun,
I hold back the rain and release it;
I am death, and the deathless,
And all that is or is not.

My dearest-one, my friend, all those who worship
Other Gods, with deep faith,
Are really worshipping me,
Even if they don’t know it.

Any offering- a leaf,
A flower or fruit, a cup
Of water- I will accept it
If given with a loving heart.

Whatever you do, my sweet-one,
Do it as an offering to me-
Whatever you say or eat
Or pray or enjoy or suffer.

I am the same to all beings;
I favor none and reject none.
But those who worship me live
Within me and I live in them.

Even the heartless criminal,
If they loves me with all their heart,
Will certainly grow into sainthood
As he moves toward me on this path.

Quickly that man becomes pure,
His heart finds eternal peace,
My dearest-love, No one who truly loves me
Will ever be lost.

All those who love and trust me,
Even the lowest of the low
Will attain the ultimate goal,
Turn to me and find freedom.

Concentrate your mind on me,
Fill your heart with my presence,
Love me as I love you,
And you will attain me at last.

Listen further, My-love,
To these words that delight your heart;
This is my utmost teaching,
Which I tell you for your greatest good.

I am the source
From which Gods and sages emerge.
All human beings descend
From my own depths, mind-born.

Those who can understand
The glory of my manifestations
Is forever united with me
By my unwavering love.

I am the source of all things
And all things emerge from me.

Acting with deep compassion
From within my own being, I dispel
All ignorance-born darkness
With wisdom’s resplendent light.

My friend,
I am the supreme freedom,
The supreme abode, the eternal person,
The primordial energy, all pervading, birthless

Cause and origin, God or Gods,
Goddess of Goddesses, Spirit of Spirits.

I am the self, my dearest.
Seated in the heart of all beings;
I am the beginning and the life span
Of beings, and their end as well.

I am
Of the heavenly lights, the sun;
Chief of the winds;
Among stars, I am the moon;

I am the hymns;
The consciousness of all beings;
Highest of mountains;
Of waters, I am the ocean.

The great seers,
The sacred tree,
Divine sages,
The highest celestial musicians,

The wish-granter,
The energy of love,
The cosmic serpent,
The power of death,

I am time,
The spirit of animals,
The wind,
The flower-lush spring.

I am the beginning and the end,
And the middle as well,
Knowledge of the self;
I am the speech.

I am imperishable time;
The creating force,
Whose face is everywhere;
And the death that devours all things.

The source of all things to come;
Genderless, I am,
Determination and victory,
The courage and the sublime.

I am the silence of secret things,
And I am the wisdom of the wise.
Whatever in this world is excellent,
And glows with intelligence or beauty.

I am the divine seed,
Within all beings, my friend;
Nothing, inanimate or animate,
Could exist for a moment without me.

I support the whole universe with a single fragment or myself.

The Student Said:

I see you everywhere
Without end, middle, or beginning.
Your body the whole universe,
You and your stupendous form.

You dazzle my vision, blazing
In the measureless, massive, sun flame
Splendor of your radiant form.
You are all things.

You are the deathless, the utmost
Goal of all knowledge, the world’s base,
The guardian of the eternal
Law, the primordial person.

I see you beginningless, endless,
Infinite in power, with a billion
Arms, the sun and moon
Your eyes, the flames of your mouth,

Lighting the whole universe with splendor,
You alone fill all space.
You are both being and nonbeing,
And what is beyond them both.

The storm gods, the gods of light,
Of sky, dawn, and wind, the angels,
the saints, the demigods, and demons,
All gaze at you in amazement.

The primal energy, the primordial person,
The ultimate place of the universe,
The knower and the known,
The presence that fills all things.

You are wind, death, fire, the moon,
The essence of life,
the great ancestor of all things,
You are- all things.

Therefore, most sincerely, I beg your pardon,
As a father forgives his son, as a mother forgives her daughter,
A friend forgives their friend,
A lover forgives their beloved: forgive me.

The Blessed Said:

I forgive and I love with very great love,
You will live within me, forever.
You are my instrument, my child, my love,
The all present, the eternal.

Never was there a time
When I did not exist, or you,
Or these kings of the earth,
Nor will there come a time we cease to be.

Just as, in this body, the self
Passes through childhood, youth,
And old age, so after death
It passes to another body.

Physical sensations- cold,
And heat, pleasure and pain-
Are transient: they come and go;
So bear them patiently, my dearest.

Nonbeing can never be;
Being can never not be.
Birthless, primordial, the self does not
Die when the body dies.

These bodies come to an end;
But that vast embodied self
Is ageless, fathemless, eternal
Its called the unchanging.

The sharpest sword will not pierce it;
The hottest flame will not singe it;
Water will not make it damp;
Wing will not cause it wither.

It cannot be pierced or singed,
Dampened or withered; its vast,
Perfect and all pervading,
Calm, immovable, timeless.

Before birth, beings are unmanifest
Between birth and death, manifest;
At death, unmanifest again.
My darling, you are eternal.

Some perceive it directly
In all its awesomeness; others
Speak of it with wonder; others
Hear of it and never know it.

This self who dwells in the body is inviolable, forever.

As unnecessary as a well is
To a village on the banks of a river,
So unnecessary are all scriptures
To someone who has seen the truth.

When your understanding has passed
Beyond the thickest of delusions,
There is nothing you need to learn
From even the most sacred scripture.

When a person fives up all desires
That emerge from the mind, and rests
Contented in the self by the self,
They are called a person of firm wisdom.

If a person dwells on sense-objects.
Attachment to them arises;
From attachment, desire flares up;
From desire, anger is born.

But the person who is self-controlled,
Who meets the objects of the sense
With neither craving nor aversion,
Will attain serenity at last.

With no concentration, no peace,
When the mind constantly runs
After the wondering senses,
It drives away wisdom,

Like the wind blowing a ship off course.

In the night of all beings, the wise
Sees only the radiance of the self;
But the sense-world where all beings wake,
For them is as dark as night.

But utter peace is a divine state
Absorbed in it, everywhere, always;
Even at the moment of death,
They vanish into divine bliss.

No one, not even for an instant, can exist without acting.

By loving you will nourish the divine
And the divine will nourish you in return;
By nourishing one another
You assure the well-being of all.

Even the wise act
In accordance with their inner nature.
All beings follow their nature.
What good can repression do?

But as a fire is obscured by smoke,
As a mirror is covered by dust,
As a fetus is wrapped in its membrane,
So wisdom is obscured by desire and anger.

Listen further, my dear-friend,
Many times I have been born,
And many times you have, also,
All these lives I remember
You recall only this one.

Whoever knows, profoundly,
My divine presence on earth
Is not reborn when they leave
The body, but comes to me.

Released from greed, fear, anger,
Absorbed in me and made pure
By the practice of wisdom, many
Have attained my own state of being.

However people try to reach me,
I return their love with my love;
Whatever path they may travel,
It lead to me in the end.

Your actions cannot defile me.
Those who can see inaction
In the midst of action, and action
In the midst of inaction, is wise.

I am the offering, I am the offered,
Poured out by me;
I am attained by all those
Who see me in every action.

See all beings in yourself, and yourself in me.

My sweet-one, when one is wholehearted,
Purified, mastering body
And mind, their self
Becomes the self of al beings.

The wise regard all beings
As equal: a learned priest,
A cow, an elephant, a neighbor,
Or a homeless person.

And, my friend,
Fulfillment in the self,
Whose mind has become pure freedom,
Attains an imperishable joy.

The person who is able
To overcome, here on earth
The turmoil of desire and anger-
That person is truly happy.

Those who find peace and joy
And radiance within themselves-
That person becomes one with the divine
And vanishes into divine bliss.

The wise, my love,
Who have cut off all separation,
Who delights in the welfare of all beings,
Vanishes into divine bliss.

Those who control their minds
And have cut off desire and anger
Realizes the self, they know
That divine bliss is nearer than near.

When desire, fear, and anger have left them,
That person is forever free.
My friend,
Knowing me as the enjoyer of all worship
The dearest friend of all beings,
That person gains perfect peace.

When their mind becomes clear and peaceful,
They enter absolute joy;
Their passions are calmed forever,
They are utterly absorbed in the divine.

They see themselves in all beings and all beings in themselves.

The person who sees me in everything
And everything within me
Will not be lost to me, as no one is,
Nor will I ever be lost to them.

Those who are rooted in oneness
Realize that I am
In every being; wherever
They go, they remain in me, as always.

When they see all beings as equal
In suffering or in joy
Because they are like themselves,
That person has grown perfect in the holy practice of life.

Earth, air, fire, and water,
Mind, and understanding,
And the self: these are the aspects
Of my physical nature.

I am the primal seed within all beings.
All states of being
Proceed from me:
They are in me, as I am in them.

My dear-love,
I am unmanifest,
Permanent and supreme.
The unborn, the changeless, the undying.

I know all being who have passed,
And all who live now, my friend,
And all who are yet to be;
But I am beyond al knowing.

But when a person is released
From dualities, they can act
Purely, without attachment,
And can love me with all their heart.

Those who know me, and the nature
Of beings, of deities, and of love,
Are always with me in spirit,
Even at the hour of their death.

Freedom is union with the deathless;
The self is the essence of all things;
Its creative power, called action,
Causes the whole world to be.

About beings, know that they die;
About deities, know the supreme
Person; and know that true love
Is I myself, here, in this your body.

I will teach you about the state
Called the eternal, the absolute,
Which those who strive toward me enter
Desireless, freed from attachments.

In reaching me, the great souls
Attain the supreme perfection
And no longer are reborn in this fleeting
World of sorrow and pain.

When day comes, all things emerge
From the depths of umanifest nature;
When night comes, all things dissolve
Into the unmanifest again.

These multitudes od beings, in an endless,
Beginningless cycle, helplessly
Dissolve when divine night comes
And emerge once more at the divine’s dawn.

But beyond this unmanifest nature
Is another unmanifest state.
A primal existence that is not
Destroyed when all things dissolve.

This is the eternal unmanifest and is called the ultimate goal.

This supreme person, my dearest-love,
Who contains all beings and extends
To the limits of all that is,
Can be reached by wholehearted devotion.

My love,
In life, in the self, in dying, and in love
You reach the supreme,
The primordial place.

There is a supreme reality,
Which transcends both being and nonbeing

Its hands and its feet are everywhere;
Everywhere its eyes, heads, mouths,
Everywhere its ears; it dwells
In all worlds, containing all things.

My friend,
Though it lacks senses itself,
It shines through the working of the senses;
Unattached, all-sustaining.

Outside yet within all beings,
Motionless, always moving,
Subtle beyond comprehension,
Far yet nearer than near,

Indivisible, though it seems
Divided in separate bodies,
It is what sustains all things,
What devours them, what creates them.

It is the light of lights,
Beyond all darkness; it is knowledge,
The object and goal of all knowledge;
It is seated in the hearts of all beings.

This, in brief, is the field,
Knowledge, and the object of knowledge;
A devotee who understands this
Is ready for my state of being.

This supreme reality is called the witness,
The sustainer, the enjoyer, the great energy,
And also the highest self,
The supreme person in this body.

See the self in the self.

When you see the myriad beings
Emanate from the one
And have their source in the one,
That man gains absolute freedom.

My darling-child,
This supreme self is beginningless,
Deathless, and unconfined;
Although it inhabits bodies.

My friend,
Those whose inner eye sees
How people are set free
Arrive as the highest state, love.

Nature, for me, is a womb;
In nature I plant my seed, my egg,
And from this seed of mine bursts forth
The origin of all beings.

Whatever life-forms, my sweet,
Develop in any womb,
Nature is their primal womb
And I am their life-giving source.

Bound to the mortal body is the deathless embodied self.

Those who are firmly rooted, grounded,
Who are equally self-contained in
pleasure and happiness, who are content
who joyfully love me will attain happiness.
For I am the foundation
Of that birthless, imperishable freedom,
The basis of eternal life,
And limitless, perfect joy.

My love,
With yourself alone,
Search for that primal person
From whom the whole universe flows.

One fragment of me becomes an eternal soul in the world.

When the divine, supreme reality, takes on a body
Or leaves it, it carries these senses
Just as the wind carries fragrances
From the places where it has been.

See with the inner eye, see within the self.

The brilliance of the moon, of fire,
The brilliance that flames from the sun
To illumine the entire world-
This brilliance in truth is mine.

My loving-child,
I support all beings by my life-giving energy;
Becoming the nectar-filled moonlight,
I am the vital fire.

I dwell deep in the hearts
Of all beings; I am the source
Yet, I am beyond the physical body,
I am the highest self, the eternal within.

I am higher than the eternal,
And I love you with all hearts of nature
I have taught you this doctrine;
Listen, learn it, and love,
And that is all there is to do.

Every person’s faith conforms
With their inborn nature, my darling-friend,
Faith is a person’s core;
Whatever their faith is, they are.

The divine dwells deep in the heart of all beings.

I am speaking for your own welfare since you are precious to me.

If you focus your mind on me
And love me with all your heart, through loving life and the world,
You will surely come to me,
This I promise, because I love you.

My love, my child, my soul,
Take refuge in me.
Do not fear: I will free you
From the evils of birth and death.

Those who share my primal love
With those who accept it
Will have acted with great love
Towards me and will come to me, beyond doubt.

Have you truly heard me, my dearest-love?
Has my teaching entered your heart?
Have my words now driven away
Your fear? Your confusion?

The Student Said:

My god, my goddess, my spirit, my holy, my blessed love,
I see the truth now,
By your immeasurable kindness.
I have no more doubts; I will act
According to your love.

The Blessed Said:

And I yours.