Bhagavad Gita · 7.29 · Self-Knowledge and Enlightenment·29 of 30
जरामरणमोक्षाय मामाश्रित्य यतन्ति ये।ते ब्रह्म तद्विदुः कृत्स्नमध्यात्मं कर्म चाखिलम् ॥
jarā-maraṇa-mokṣhāya mām āśhritya yatanti ye te
brahma tadviduḥ kṛitsnam adhyātmaṁ karma chākhilam
Sanskrit recitation
What you worship shapes you · 7.20–7.30 · Teaching
Translation
Those who strive for liberation from old age and death, taking refuge in Me, realize in full that Brahman, the whole knowledge of the Self, and all action.
Meaning
They attain to the full knowledge of the Self or perfect knowledge of Brahman. They attain to the Bhuma or the Highest or the Unconditioned. All their doubts are totally destroyed. They fully realise now, All is Vaasudeva. All indeed is Brahman. There is no such thing as diversity.They are not rorn here and have thus conered old age and death. They are liberated here and now.
After Swami Sivananda
What you worship shapes you· 7.20–7.30→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 7.20Those whose wisdom has been taken away by this or that desire, go to other gods, following this or that rite, led by their own nature.
- 7.21Whatever form any devotee desires to worship with faith, I make that same faith of his firm and unflinching.
- 7.22Endowed with that faith, he engages in the worship of that form and obtains his desired outcome, which is ordained by Me alone.
- 7.23Verily, the reward (fruit) that accrues to those men of small intelligence is finite. The worshippers of the gods go to them, whereas My devotees come to Me.
- 7.24The foolish think of Me, the Unmanifest, as having manifestation, not knowing My higher, immutable, and most excellent nature.
- 7.25I am not manifest to all, veiled as I am by the Yoga-Maya. This deluded world does not know Me, who am unborn and imperishable.
- 7.26I know, O Arjuna, the beings of the past, the present, and the future; however, no one knows Me.
- 7.27O Bharata, all beings are subject to delusion at birth due to the delusion of the pairs of opposites arising from desire and aversion, O Parantapa.
- 7.28But those men of virtuous deeds, whose sins have come to an end and who are freed from the delusion of the pairs of opposites, worship Me steadfastly, with their vows.
7.29Those who strive for liberation from old age and death, taking refuge in Me, realize in full that Brahman, the whole knowledge of the Self, and all action.
- 7.30Those who know Me with the Adhibhuta (pertaining to the elements), Adhidaiva (pertaining to the gods), and the Adhiyajna (pertaining to the sacrifice) know Me even at the time of death, remaining steadfast in mind.
Word-by-word→
- te
- they
- ye
- who
- cha
- and
- tat
- that
- mām
- me
- jarā
- from old age
- karma
- karmic action
- brahma
- Brahman
- akhilam
- entire
- viduḥ
- know
- yatanti
- strive
- maraṇa
- and death
- adhyātmam
- the individual self
- kṛitsnam
- everything
- āśhritya
- take shelter in
- mokṣhāya
- for liberation
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