Indian stream·Bhagavad Gita·Discourse 9: The Yoga of the Royal Science and the Royal Secret

Source context

Theme

sovereign knowledge and sovereign secret: devotion to the all-pervading divine as direct path to liberation

Soul-faculty

Consciousness Soul

Steiner

• GA 146, 1913-06-05Steiner treats the three gunas (sattwa, rajas, tamas) and Krishna's self-disclosure as the indwelling cosmic principle as the doctrinal core of the Bhagavad Gita, the same ground Discourse 9 expounds as the royal science.
• GA 142, 1912-12-28Steiner identifies the Bhagavad Gita as the harmonious interpenetration of three spiritual streams — Vedic philosophy, devotional Bhakti, and action-wisdom — all of which are explicitly synthesised in Discourse 9's teaching on jnana, bhakti, and karma yoga.

Cross-tradition

• Neoplatonism (Plotinus, Enneads)Plotinus's doctrine of the One as the all-pervading ground from which all proceeds and to which devoted intellect returns shows cross-tradition congruence with Krishna's declaration in Discourse 9 that all beings rest in him yet he is not limited by them.
• Sufi doctrine of tawakkul and fana (Ibn Arabi)Ibn Arabi's conception of complete surrender to the self-disclosure of the Real (tajalli) as the supreme secret of gnosis shows cross-tradition congruence with Discourse 9's royal secret of all-encompassing divine immanence accessible through unwavering devotion.
• Christian mysticism (Meister Eckhart)Eckhart's teaching that God pervades all creatures yet remains uncontained by any creature shows cross-tradition congruence with Krishna's paradoxical statement that all beings subsist in him and yet do not subsist in him.

Discourse 9: The Yoga of the Royal Science and the Royal Secret

9:1The Blessed Lord said: To thee, the uncarping, verily shall I declare this
profoundest Secret, wisdom with knowledge combined, which, having known, thou shalt be freed from evil.

9:2Kingly Science, kingly Secret, supreme Purifier, this; intuitional, according to
righteousness, very easy to perform, imperishable.

9:3Men without faith in this knowledge, O Parantapa, not reaching Me, return to the
path of this world of death.

9:4By Me all this world is pervaded in My unmanifested aspect; all beings have root
in Me, I am not rooted in them.

9:5Nor have beings root in Me; behold My sovereign Yoga! The support of beings,
yet not rooted in beings, My Self their efficient cause.

9:6As the mighty air everywhere moving is rooted in the ether, so all beings rest
rooted in Me — thus know thou.

9:7All beings, O Kaunteya, enter my lower nature at the end of a world-age; at the
beginning of a world-age again I emanate them.

9:8Hidden in Nature, which is mine own, I emanate again and again all this
multitude of beings, helpless, by the force of Nature.

9:9Nor do these works bind me, O Dhananjaya, enthroned on high, unattached to
actions.

9:10Under Me as supervisor, Nature sends forth the moving and unmoving: because
of this, O Kaunteya, the universe revolves.

9:11The foolish disregard Me, when clad in human semblance, ignorant of My
supreme nature, the great Lord of beings;

9:12Empty of hope, empty of deeds, empty of wisdom, senseless, partaking of the
deceitful, brutal and demoniacal nature.

9:13Verily the Mahatmas, O Partha, partaking of My divine nature, worship with
unwavering mind, having known Me, the imperishable source of beings.

9:14Always magnifying Me, strenuous, in vows, prostrating themselves before Me,
they worship Me with devotion, ever harmonised.

9:15Others also, sacrificing with the sacrifice of wisdom, worship Me as the One
and the Manifold everywhere present.

9:16I the oblation; I the sacrifice; I the ancestral offering; I the fire-giving herb; the
mantram I; I also the butter; I the fire; the burnt-offering I.

9:17I the Father of this universe, the Mother, the Supporter, the Grandsire, the Holy
One to be known, the Word of Power, and also the Rik, Sama, and Yajur,

9:18The Path, Husband, Lord, Witness, Abode, Shelter, Lover, Origin, Dissolution,
Foundation, Treasure-house, Seed imperishable.

9:19I give heat; I hold back and send forth the rain; immortality and also death,
being and non-being am 1, Arjuna.

9:20The knowers of the three, the Soma-drinkers, the purified from sin, worshipping
Me with sacrifice, pray of Me the way to heaven; they, ascending to the holy world of the Ruler of the Shining Ones, eat in heaven the divine feasts of the Shining Ones.

9:21They, having enjoyed the spacious heaven world, their holiness withered, come
back to this world of death. Following the virtues enjoined by the three, desiring desires, obtain the transitory.

9:22To those men who worship Me alone thinking of no other, to those ever
harmonious, I bring full security.

9:23Even the devotees of other Shining Ones, who worship full of faith, they also
worship Me, O son of Kunti, though contrary to the ancient rule.

9:24I am indeed the enjoyer of all sacrifices and also the Lord, but they know Me
not in Essence, and hence they fall.

9:25They who worship the Shining Ones go to the Shining Ones; to the Ancestors
go the Ancestor-worshippers; to the Elementals go those who sacrifice to Elementals; but My worshippers come unto Me.

9:26He who offereth to Me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, water, that I accept
from the striving self, offered as it is with devotion.

9:27Whatsoever thou doest, whatsoever thou eatest, whatsoever thou offerest,
whatsoever thou givest, whatsoever thou doest of austerity, O Kaunteya, do thou that as an offering unto Me.

9:28Thus shalt thou be liberated from the bonds of action, yielding good and evil
fruits; thyself harmonised by the yoga of renunciation, thou shalt come unto Me when set free.

9:29The same am I to all beings; there is none hateful to Me nor dear. They verily
who worship Me with devotion, they are in Me, and I also in them.

9:30Even if the most sinful worship Me, with undivided heart, he too must be
accounted righteous, for he hath rightly resolved;

9:31Speedily he becometh dutiful and goeth to eternal peace, O Kaunteya, know
thou for certain that My devotee perisheth never.

9:32They who take refuge with Me, O Partha, though of the womb of sin, women,
Vaishyas, even Shudras, they also tread the highest path.

9:33How much rather then holy Brahmanas and devoted royal saints; having
obtained this transient joyless world, worship thou Me.

9:34On Me fix thy mind; be devoted to Me; sacrifice to Me; prostrate thyself before
Me; harmonised thus in the Self, thou shalt come unto Me, having Me as thy supreme goal.

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