Public domain translation by Sir Edwin Arnold (1885), via Project Gutenberg. Presented unabridged.
Arjuna.<br/> Now would I hear, O gracious Kesava![FN#26]<br/> Of Life which seems, and Soul beyond, which sees,<br/> And what it is we know-or think to know.
Krishna.<br/> Yea! Son of Kunti! for this flesh ye see<br/> Is Kshetra, is the field where Life disports;<br/> And that which views and knows it is the Soul,<br/> Kshetrajna. In all "fields," thou Indian prince!<br/> I am Kshetrajna. I am what surveys!<br/> Only that knowledge knows which knows the known<br/> By the knower![FN#27] What it is, that "field" of life,<br/> What qualities it hath, and whence it is,<br/> And why it changeth, and the faculty<br/> That wotteth it, the mightiness of this,<br/> And how it wotteth-hear these things from Me!
. . . . . . . . . . . .[FN#28]
The elements, the conscious life, the mind,<br/> The unseen vital force, the nine strange gates<br/> Of the body, and the five domains of sense;<br/> Desire, dislike, pleasure and pain, and thought<br/> Deep-woven, and persistency of being;<br/> These all are wrought on Matter by the Soul!
Humbleness, truthfulness, and harmlessness,<br/> Patience and honour, reverence for the wise.<br/> Purity, constancy, control of self,<br/> Contempt of sense-delights, self-sacrifice,<br/> Perception of the certitude of ill<br/> In birth, death, age, disease, suffering, and sin;<br/> Detachment, lightly holding unto home,<br/> Children, and wife, and all that bindeth men;<br/> An ever-tranquil heart in fortunes good<br/> And fortunes evil, with a will set firm<br/> To worship Me--Me only! ceasing not;<br/> Loving all solitudes, and shunning noise<br/> Of foolish crowds; endeavours resolute<br/> To reach perception of the Utmost Soul,<br/> And grace to understand what gain it were<br/> So to attain,--this is true Wisdom, Prince!<br/> And what is otherwise is ignorance!
Now will I speak of knowledge best to know-<br/> That Truth which giveth man Amrit to drink,<br/> The Truth of HIM, the Para-Brahm, the All,<br/> The Uncreated;; not Asat, not Sat,<br/> Not Form, nor the Unformed; yet both, and more;--<br/> Whose hands are everywhere, and everywhere<br/> Planted His feet, and everywhere His eyes<br/> Beholding, and His ears in every place<br/> Hearing, and all His faces everywhere<br/> Enlightening and encompassing His worlds.<br/> Glorified in the senses He hath given,<br/> Yet beyond sense He is; sustaining all,<br/> Yet dwells He unattached: of forms and modes<br/> Master, yet neither form nor mode hath He;<br/> He is within all beings--and without--<br/> Motionless, yet still moving; not discerned<br/> For subtlety of instant presence; close<br/> To all, to each; yet measurelessly far!<br/> Not manifold, and yet subsisting still<br/> In all which lives; for ever to be known<br/> As the Sustainer, yet, at the End of Times,<br/> He maketh all to end--and re-creates.<br/> The Light of Lights He is, in the heart of the Dark<br/> Shining eternally. Wisdom He is<br/> And Wisdom's way, and Guide of all the wise,<br/> Planted in every heart.
So have I told<br/> Of Life's stuff, and the moulding, and the lore<br/> To comprehend. Whoso, adoring Me,<br/> Perceiveth this, shall surely come to Me!
Know thou that Nature and the Spirit both<br/> Have no beginning! Know that qualities<br/> And changes of them are by Nature wrought;<br/> That Nature puts to work the acting frame,<br/> But Spirit doth inform it, and so cause<br/> Feeling of pain and pleasure. Spirit, linked<br/> To moulded matter, entereth into bond<br/> With qualities by Nature framed, and, thus<br/> Married to matter, breeds the birth again<br/> In good or evil yonis.[FN#29]
Yet is this<br/> Yea! in its bodily prison!--Spirit pure,<br/> Spirit supreme; surveying, governing,<br/> Guarding, possessing; Lord and Master still<br/> PURUSHA, Ultimate, One Soul with Me.
Whoso thus knows himself, and knows his soul<br/> PURUSHA, working through the qualities<br/> With Nature's modes, the light hath come for him!<br/> Whatever flesh he bears, never again<br/> Shall he take on its load. Some few there be<br/> By meditation find the Soul in Self<br/> Self-schooled; and some by long philosophy<br/> And holy life reach thither; some by works:<br/> Some, never so attaining, hear of light<br/> From other lips, and seize, and cleave to it<br/> Worshipping; yea! and those--to teaching true--<br/> Overpass Death!
Wherever, Indian Prince!<br/> Life is--of moving things, or things unmoved,<br/> Plant or still seed--know, what is there hath grown<br/> By bond of Matter and of Spirit: Know<br/> He sees indeed who sees in all alike<br/> The living, lordly Soul; the Soul Supreme,<br/> Imperishable amid the Perishing:<br/> For, whoso thus beholds, in every place,<br/> In every form, the same, one, Living Life,<br/> Doth no more wrongfulness unto himself,<br/> But goes the highest road which brings to bliss.<br/> Seeing, he sees, indeed, who sees that works<br/> Are Nature's wont, for Soul to practise by<br/> Acting, yet not the agent; sees the mass<br/> Of separate living things--each of its kind--<br/> Issue from One, and blend again to One:<br/> Then hath he BRAHMA, he attains!
O Prince!<br/> That Ultimate, High Spirit, Uncreate,<br/> Unqualified, even when it entereth flesh<br/> Taketh no stain of acts, worketh in nought!<br/> Like to the ethereal air, pervading all,<br/> Which, for sheer subtlety, avoideth taint,<br/> The subtle Soul sits everywhere, unstained:<br/> Like to the light of the all-piercing sun<br/> [Which is not changed by aught it shines upon,]<br/> The Soul's light shineth pure in every place;<br/> And they who, by such eye of wisdom, see<br/> How Matter, and what deals with it, divide;<br/> And how the Spirit and the flesh have strife,<br/> Those wise ones go the way which leads to Life!
HERE ENDS CHAPTER XIII. OF THE BHAGAVAD-GITA,<br/> Entitled "Kshetrakshetrajnavibhagayog,"<br/> Or "The Book of Religion by Separation of Matter and Spirit."