Public domain translation by Sir Edwin Arnold (1885), via Project Gutenberg. Presented unabridged.
Krishna.[FN#l6]<br/> Hear farther yet, thou Long-Armed Lord! these latest words I say--<br/> Uttered to bring thee bliss and peace, who lovest Me alway--<br/> Not the great company of gods nor kingly Rishis know<br/> My Nature, Who have made the gods and Rishis long ago;<br/> He only knoweth-only he is free of sin, and wise,<br/> Who seeth Me, Lord of the Worlds, with faith-enlightened eyes,<br/> Unborn, undying, unbegun. Whatever Natures be<br/> To mortal men distributed, those natures spring from Me!<br/> Intellect, skill, enlightenment, endurance, self-control,<br/> Truthfulness, equability, and grief or joy of soul,<br/> And birth and death, and fearfulness, and fearlessness, and shame,<br/> And honour, and sweet harmlessness,[FN#17] and peace which is the<br/> same<br/> Whate'er befalls, and mirth, and tears, and piety, and thrift,<br/> And wish to give, and will to help,--all cometh of My gift!<br/> The Seven Chief Saints, the Elders Four, the Lordly Manus set--<br/> Sharing My work--to rule the worlds, these too did I beget;<br/> And Rishis, Pitris, Manus, all, by one thought of My mind;<br/> Thence did arise, to fill this world, the races of mankind;<br/> Wherefrom who comprehends My Reign of mystic Majesty--<br/> That truth of truths--is thenceforth linked in faultless faith to Me:<br/> Yea! knowing Me the source of all, by Me all creatures wrought,<br/> The wise in spirit cleave to Me, into My Being brought;<br/> Hearts fixed on Me; breaths breathed to Me; praising Me, each to each,<br/> So have they happiness and peace, with pious thought and speech;<br/> And unto these--thus serving well, thus loving ceaselessly--<br/> I give a mind of perfect mood, whereby they draw to Me;<br/> And, all for love of them, within their darkened souls I dwell,<br/> And, with bright rays of wisdom's lamp, their ignorance dispel.
Arjuna.<br/> Yes! Thou art Parabrahm! The High Abode!<br/> The Great Purification! Thou art God<br/> Eternal, All-creating, Holy, First,<br/> Without beginning! Lord of Lords and Gods!<br/> Declared by all the Saints--by Narada,<br/> Vyasa Asita, and Devalas;<br/> And here Thyself declaring unto me!<br/> What Thou hast said now know I to be truth,<br/> O Kesava! that neither gods nor men<br/> Nor demons comprehend Thy mystery<br/> Made manifest, Divinest! Thou Thyself<br/> Thyself alone dost know, Maker Supreme!<br/> Master of all the living! Lord of Gods!<br/> King of the Universe! To Thee alone<br/> Belongs to tell the heavenly excellence<br/> Of those perfections wherewith Thou dost fill<br/> These worlds of Thine; Pervading, Immanent!<br/> How shall I learn, Supremest Mystery!<br/> To know Thee, though I muse continually?<br/> Under what form of Thine unnumbered forms<br/> Mayst Thou be grasped? Ah! yet again recount,<br/> Clear and complete, Thy great appearances,<br/> The secrets of Thy Majesty and Might,<br/> Thou High Delight of Men! Never enough<br/> Can mine ears drink the Amrit[FN#18] of such words!
Krishna.<br/> Hanta! So be it! Kuru Prince! I will to thee unfold<br/> Some portions of My Majesty, whose powers are manifold!<br/> I am the Spirit seated deep in every creature's heart;<br/> From Me they come; by Me they live; at My word they depart!<br/> Vishnu of the Adityas I am, those Lords of Light;<br/> Maritchi of the Maruts, the Kings of Storm and Blight;<br/> By day I gleam, the golden Sun of burning cloudless Noon;<br/> By Night, amid the asterisms I glide, the dappled Moon!<br/> Of Vedas I am Sama-Ved, of gods in Indra's Heaven<br/> Vasava; of the faculties to living beings given<br/> The mind which apprehends and thinks; of Rudras Sankara;<br/> Of Yakshas and of Rakshasas, Vittesh; and Pavaka<br/> Of Vasus, and of mountain-peaks Meru; Vrihaspati<br/> Know Me 'mid planetary Powers; 'mid Warriors heavenly<br/> Skanda; of all the water-floods the Sea which drinketh each,<br/> And Bhrigu of the holy Saints, and OM of sacred speech;<br/> Of prayers the prayer ye whisper;[FN#19] of hills Himala's snow,<br/> And Aswattha, the fig-tree, of all the trees that grow;<br/> Of the Devarshis, Narada; and Chitrarath of them<br/> That sing in Heaven, and Kapila of Munis, and the gem<br/> Of flying steeds, Uchchaisravas, from Amrit-wave which burst;<br/> Of elephants Airavata; of males the Best and First;<br/> Of weapons Heav'n's hot thunderbolt; of cows white Kamadhuk,<br/> From whose great milky udder-teats all hearts' desires are strook;<br/> Vasuki of the serpent-tribes, round Mandara entwined;<br/> And thousand-fanged Ananta, on whose broad coils reclined<br/> Leans Vishnu; and of water-things Varuna; Aryam<br/> Of Pitris, and, of those that judge, Yama the Judge I am;<br/> Of Daityas dread Prahlada; of what metes days and years,<br/> Time's self I am; of woodland-beasts-buffaloes, deers, and bears-<br/> The lordly-painted tiger; of birds the vast Garud,<br/> The whirlwind 'mid the winds; 'mid chiefs Rama with blood imbrued,<br/> Makar 'mid fishes of the sea, and Ganges 'mid the streams;<br/> Yea! First, and Last, and Centre of all which is or seems<br/> I am, Arjuna! Wisdom Supreme of what is wise,<br/> Words on the uttering lips I am, and eyesight of the eyes,<br/> And "A" of written characters, Dwandwa[FN#20] of knitted speech,<br/> And Endless Life, and boundless Love, whose power sustaineth each;<br/> And bitter Death which seizes all, and joyous sudden Birth,<br/> Which brings to light all beings that are to be on earth;<br/> And of the viewless virtues, Fame, Fortune, Song am I,<br/> And Memory, and Patience; and Craft, and Constancy:<br/> Of Vedic hymns the Vrihatsam, of metres Gayatri,<br/> Of months the Margasirsha, of all the seasons three<br/> The flower-wreathed Spring; in dicer's-play the conquering<br/> Double-Eight;<br/> The splendour of the splendid, and the greatness of the great,<br/> Victory I am, and Action! and the goodness of the good,<br/> And Vasudev of Vrishni's race, and of this Pandu brood<br/> Thyself!--Yea, my Arjuna! thyself; for thou art Mine!<br/> Of poets Usana, of saints Vyasa, sage divine;<br/> The policy of conquerors, the potency of kings,<br/> The great unbroken silence in learning's secret things;<br/> The lore of all the learned, the seed of all which springs.<br/> Living or lifeless, still or stirred, whatever beings be,<br/> None of them is in all the worlds, but it exists by Me!<br/> Nor tongue can tell, Arjuna! nor end of telling come<br/> Of these My boundless glories, whereof I teach thee some;<br/> For wheresoe'er is wondrous work, and majesty, and might,<br/> From Me hath all proceeded. Receive thou this aright!<br/> Yet how shouldst thou receive, O Prince! the vastness of this word?<br/> I, who am all, and made it all, abide its separate Lord!
HERE ENDETH CHAPTER X. OF THE BHAGAVAD-GITA,<br/> Entitled "Vibhuti Yog,"<br/> Or "The Book of Religion by the Heavenly Perfections."