1Arjuna.     Now would I hear, O gracious Kesava!     Of Life which seems, and Soul beyond, which sees,     And what it is we know-or think to know.

2Krishna.     Yea! Son of Kunti! for this flesh ye see     Is Kshetra, is the field where Life disports;     And that which views and knows it is the Soul,     Kshetrajna. In all "fields," thou Indian prince!     I am Kshetrajna. I am what surveys!     Only that knowledge knows which knows the known     By the knower! What it is, that "field" of life,     What qualities it hath, and whence it is,     And why it changeth, and the faculty     That wotteth it, the mightiness of this,     And how it wotteth-hear these things from Me!          . . .               The elements, the conscious life, the mind,     The unseen vital force, the nine strange gates     Of the body, and the five domains of sense;     Desire, dislike, pleasure and pain, and thought     Deep-woven, and persistency of being;     These all are wrought on Matter by the Soul!          Humbleness, truthfulness, and harmlessness,     Patience and honour, reverence for the wise.     Purity, constancy, control of self,     Contempt of sense-delights, self-sacrifice,     Perception of the certitude of ill     In birth, death, age, disease, suffering, and sin;     Detachment, lightly holding unto home,     Children, and wife, and all that bindeth men;     An ever-tranquil heart in fortunes good     And fortunes evil, with a will set firm     To worship Me--Me only! ceasing not;     Loving all solitudes, and shunning noise     Of foolish crowds; endeavours resolute     To reach perception of the Utmost Soul,     And grace to understand what gain it were     So to attain,--this is true Wisdom, Prince!     And what is otherwise is ignorance!          Now will I speak of knowledge best to know-     That Truth which giveth man Amrit to drink,     The Truth of HIM, the Para-Brahm, the All,     The Uncreated;; not Asat, not Sat,     Not Form, nor the Unformed; yet both, and more;--     Whose hands are everywhere, and everywhere     Planted His feet, and everywhere His eyes     Beholding, and His ears in every place     Hearing, and all His faces everywhere     Enlightening and encompassing His worlds.     Glorified in the senses He hath given,     Yet beyond sense He is; sustaining all,     Yet dwells He unattached: of forms and modes     Master, yet neither form nor mode hath He;     He is within all beings--and without--     Motionless, yet still moving; not discerned     For subtlety of instant presence; close     To all, to each; yet measurelessly far!     Not manifold, and yet subsisting still     In all which lives; for ever to be known     As the Sustainer, yet, at the End of Times,     He maketh all to end--and re-creates.     The Light of Lights He is, in the heart of the Dark     Shining eternally. Wisdom He is     And Wisdom's way, and Guide of all the wise,     Planted in every heart.          So have I told     Of Life's stuff, and the moulding, and the lore     To comprehend. Whoso, adoring Me,     Perceiveth this, shall surely come to Me!          Know thou that Nature and the Spirit both     Have no beginning! Know that qualities     And changes of them are by Nature wrought;     That Nature puts to work the acting frame,     But Spirit doth inform it, and so cause     Feeling of pain and pleasure. Spirit, linked     To moulded matter, entereth into bond     With qualities by Nature framed, and, thus     Married to matter, breeds the birth again     In good or evil yonis.          Yet is this     Yea! in its bodily prison!--Spirit pure,     Spirit supreme; surveying, governing,     Guarding, possessing; Lord and Master still     PURUSHA, Ultimate, One Soul with Me.          Whoso thus knows himself, and knows his soul     PURUSHA, working through the qualities     With Nature's modes, the light hath come for him!     Whatever flesh he bears, never again     Shall he take on its load. Some few there be     By meditation find the Soul in Self     Self-schooled; and some by long philosophy     And holy life reach thither; some by works:     Some, never so attaining, hear of light     From other lips, and seize, and cleave to it     Worshipping; yea! and those--to teaching true--     Overpass Death!          Wherever, Indian Prince!     Life is--of moving things, or things unmoved,     Plant or still seed--know, what is there hath grown     By bond of Matter and of Spirit: Know     He sees indeed who sees in all alike     The living, lordly Soul; the Soul Supreme,     Imperishable amid the Perishing:     For, whoso thus beholds, in every place,     In every form, the same, one, Living Life,     Doth no more wrongfulness unto himself,     But goes the highest road which brings to bliss.     Seeing, he sees, indeed, who sees that works     Are Nature's wont, for Soul to practise by     Acting, yet not the agent; sees the mass     Of separate living things--each of its kind--     Issue from One, and blend again to One:     Then hath he BRAHMA, he attains!          O Prince!     That Ultimate, High Spirit, Uncreate,     Unqualified, even when it entereth flesh     Taketh no stain of acts, worketh in nought!     Like to the ethereal air, pervading all,     Which, for sheer subtlety, avoideth taint,     The subtle Soul sits everywhere, unstained:     Like to the light of the all-piercing sun     [Which is not changed by aught it shines upon,]     The Soul's light shineth pure in every place;     And they who, by such eye of wisdom, see     How Matter, and what deals with it, divide;     And how the Spirit and the flesh have strife,     Those wise ones go the way which leads to Life!          HERE ENDS CHAPTER XIII. OF THE BHAGAVAD-GITA,     Entitled "Kshetrakshetrajnavibhagayog,"     Or "The Book of Religion by Separation of Matter and Spirit."