Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be.
Those who are thus bewildered are attracted by demonic and atheistic views. In that deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their fruitive activities, and their culture of knowledge are all defeated.
O Partha, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.
Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship me with devotion.
Others, who are engaged in the cultivation of knowledge, worship the Supreme Lord as the one without a second, diverse in many, and in the universal form.
But it is I who am the ritual, I the sacrifice, the offering to the ancestors, the healing herb, the transcendental chant. I am the butter and the fire and the offering.
I am the father of this universe, the mother, the support, and the grandsire. I am the object of knowledge, the purifier and the syllable Om. I am also the Rig, the Sama, Yajur and Atharva, the four 'Vedas'.
I am the goal, the sustainer, the master, the witness, the abode, the refuge and the dearest friend. I am the creation and the annihilation, the basis of everything, the resting place and the eternal seed.
O Arjuna, I control heat, the rain and the drought. I am immortality, and I am also death personified. Both being and nonbeing are in Me.
Those who study the Vedas and drink the soma juice, seeking the heavenly planets, worship me indirectly. They take birth on the planet of Indra, where they godly delights.
When they have thus enjoyed heavenly sense of pleasure, they return to this mortal planet again. Thus, through the Vedic principles, they achieve only flickering happiness.
But those who worship Me with devotion, meditating on My transcendental form-to them I carry what they lack and preserve what they have.
Whatever a man may sacrifice to other gods, O son of Kunti, is really meant for me alone, but it is offered without true understanding.
I am the only enjoyer and the only object of sacrifice. Those who do not recognize My true transcendental nature fall down. | |