Public domain translation by Sir Edwin Arnold (1885), via Project Gutenberg. Presented unabridged.
Krishna.<br/> Fearlessness, singleness of soul, the will<br/> Always to strive for wisdom; opened hand<br/> And governed appetites; and piety,<br/> And love of lonely study; humbleness,<br/> Uprightness, heed to injure nought which lives,<br/> Truthfulness, slowness unto wrath, a mind<br/> That lightly letteth go what others prize;<br/> And equanimity, and charity<br/> Which spieth no man's faults; and tenderness<br/> Towards all that suffer; a contented heart,<br/> Fluttered by no desires; a bearing mild,<br/> Modest, and grave, with manhood nobly mixed,<br/> With patience, fortitude, and purity;<br/> An unrevengeful spirit, never given<br/> To rate itself too high;--such be the signs,<br/> O Indian Prince! of him whose feet are set<br/> On that fair path which leads to heavenly birth!
Deceitfulness, and arrogance, and pride,<br/> Quickness to anger, harsh and evil speech,<br/> And ignorance, to its own darkness blind,--<br/> These be the signs, My Prince! of him whose birth<br/> Is fated for the regions of the vile.[FN#32]
The Heavenly Birth brings to deliverance,<br/> So should'st thou know! The birth with Asuras<br/> Brings into bondage. Be thou joyous, Prince!<br/> Whose lot is set apart for heavenly Birth.
Two stamps there are marked on all living men,<br/> Divine and Undivine; I spake to thee<br/> By what marks thou shouldst know the Heavenly Man,<br/> Hear from me now of the Unheavenly!
They comprehend not, the Unheavenly,<br/> How Souls go forth from Me; nor how they come<br/> Back unto Me: nor is there Truth in these,<br/> Nor purity, nor rule of Life. "This world<br/> Hath not a Law, nor Order, nor a Lord,"<br/> So say they: "nor hath risen up by Cause<br/> Following on Cause, in perfect purposing,<br/> But is none other than a House of Lust."<br/> And, this thing thinking, all those ruined ones--<br/> Of little wit, dark-minded--give themselves<br/> To evil deeds, the curses of their kind.<br/> Surrendered to desires insatiable,<br/> Full of deceitfulness, folly, and pride,<br/> In blindness cleaving to their errors, caught<br/> Into the sinful course, they trust this lie<br/> As it were true--this lie which leads to death--<br/> Finding in Pleasure all the good which is,<br/> And crying "Here it finisheth!"
Ensnared<br/> In nooses of a hundred idle hopes,<br/> Slaves to their passion and their wrath, they buy<br/> Wealth with base deeds, to glut hot appetites;<br/> "Thus much, to-day," they say, "we gained! thereby<br/> Such and such wish of heart shall have its fill;<br/> And this is ours! and th' other shall be ours!<br/> To-day we slew a foe, and we will slay<br/> Our other enemy to-morrow! Look!<br/> Are we not lords? Make we not goodly cheer?<br/> Is not our fortune famous, brave, and great?<br/> Rich are we, proudly born! What other men<br/> Live like to us? Kill, then, for sacrifice!<br/> Cast largesse, and be merry!" So they speak<br/> Darkened by ignorance; and so they fall--<br/> Tossed to and fro with projects, tricked, and bound<br/> In net of black delusion, lost in lusts--<br/> Down to foul Naraka. Conceited, fond,<br/> Stubborn and proud, dead-drunken with the wine<br/> Of wealth, and reckless, all their offerings<br/> Have but a show of reverence, being not made<br/> In piety of ancient faith. Thus vowed<br/> To self-hood, force, insolence, feasting, wrath,<br/> These My blasphemers, in the forms they wear<br/> And in the forms they breed, my foemen are,<br/> Hateful and hating; cruel, evil, vile,<br/> Lowest and least of men, whom I cast down<br/> Again, and yet again, at end of lives,<br/> Into some devilish womb, whence--birth by birth--<br/> The devilish wombs re-spawn them, all beguiled;<br/> And, till they find and worship Me, sweet Prince!<br/> Tread they that Nether Road.
The Doors of Hell<br/> Are threefold, whereby men to ruin pass,--<br/> The door of Lust, the door of Wrath, the door<br/> Of Avarice. Let a man shun those three!<br/> He who shall turn aside from entering<br/> All those three gates of Narak, wendeth straight<br/> To find his peace, and comes to Swarga's gate.
. . . . . . . . . . . .[FN#33]
HERE ENDETH CHAPTER XVI. OF THE BHAGAVAD-GITA,<br/> Entitled "Daivasarasaupadwibhagayog,"<br/> Or "The Book of the Separateness of the Divine and Undivine."