Bhagavad Gita : Chapter 7

Listen to me how, when you practise yoga with faith in ME and with devotion, you will come to know ME in full and with certainty.

I will give you the complete knowledge, theoretical as well as practical; once you know that, there will be nothing more to know!

Only one in a thousand tries to attain liberation, and of those who try and win, only someone will come to know me truly.

Nature, which is also MINE, is made of eight substances, earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, and ego. This is lower, and there is another higher Nature, the soul, and it is this Nature which keeps up the whole illusory world. Understand that it is the womb of all beings. I remain the source and the end of whole creation.

There is nothing higher than ME, Arjuna; in ME is all this attached like beads in a string. I am wetness in water, light of moon and sun, the holy syllable "OM" in the scriptures,
sound of ether, manliness of men, the pure smell in earth, heat of fire, life of all beings, and penance of those who do penance.

Arjuna, know ME as the original seed of all creation.

I am the strength of the strong, untainted by lust or greed; I am Love that is not contrary to righteousness.

All the basic attitudes of men, be they of the balanced type, or the restless or the inert, you must know, are from only ME;

I am not bound to them, they are in ME. The whole world is under the numbing influence of them and so do not recognize the eternal ME who is beyond them.

This divine magic of illusion, maaya, constituted of these three types of natural instinct, is difficult to overcome; only those who approach ME with devotion would be able to get beyond it.

The foolish evil-doing subhumans, their learning nullified by maaya, adopting demoniacal attitude, do not come to ME.

Four kinds of men, as a result of their past good deeds, come to me, Arjuna, those who suffer, those who want to get something, those seeking knowledge, and those who already know.

And of them, he who knows ME and is solely devoted to me, constantly keeping ME in mind, is the best; I am extremely dear to the man who knows, and in the same way he is dear to ME also.

They are all noble indeed; the man who knows is in MY view truly ME. Is he not with his entire mind dependent on ME as the only worthwhile goal!

At the end of several births he realizes that the whole universe is ME, "the Vasudeva", and merges into ME. Such a mahatma is very rare indeed.

Those, with their learning lost in their greed, approach other gods in accordance with their nature, and follow the prescribed rites.

Whoever worships in devotion and faith whichever form, I make his faith firm in that. He continues to worship that form with constant faith and get what he desires, which also are accorded by ME alone.

But that result, sought by these people of low intelligence, is only of short duration. Those who worship the gods go to them; those devoted to ME come to ME.

Fools consider the inscrutable ME as clear to them, because they do not know MY nature, which is eternal and beyond everything that is excellent.

Clouded by my magical illusion, I am not visible to all; the deluded people do not recognize the unborn undying ME.

I know the present past and future beings and no one knows ME, Affected by the binding pairs of like and dislike, all creatures undergo illusion at the time of creation.

Those, whose sins are ended, as the result of the good deeds they have done, and who are thus released from the illusion of like and dislike, will always be single-mindedly devoted to ME

Those, who with devotion to ME strive for liberation from decay and death, know that supreme Brahma, with all things relating to the soul, all the actions necessary for it.

And they who know ME as existing in earthly beings, gods, and sacrifices, will remember Me with devotion even at the time of death.