Chapter 9 of 18
राजविद्याराजगुह्ययोग Rāja Vidyā Yoga The Simple Offering
34 verses
The highest knowledge turns out to ask for the simplest thing: what is offered matters less than the attention it is offered with.
Chapter 9 calls itself the king of knowledge and the king of secrets, and then makes a second claim that is easy to skip past: it is easy to practise. Everything that follows is an argument for that second claim.
It begins with a deliberate contradiction. All beings rest in me; I do not rest in them — and then, one verse later, and yet beings do not rest in me. Both are meant, and the image given to hold them is wind resting in space: entirely inside it, and leaving no mark.
Then Krishna claims every component of the elaborate sacrifice — the fire, the butter, the words, the pouring — and having claimed all of it, asks for a leaf, a flower, a fruit, water. And then removes the category altogether: whatever you do, whatever you eat, do it as an offering.
The chapter's last stretch is the widest door in the book. Those who worship other gods worship him without knowing it. One of thoroughly bad conduct who turns is to be reckoned good — now, not after improving. And the people the text's own society excluded are named, in order to be overruled.
इदं तु ते गुह्यतमं प्रवक्ष्याम्यनसूयवे
ज्ञानं विज्ञानसहितं यज्ज्ञात्वा मोक्ष्यसेऽशुभात्
idaṁ tu te guhyatamaṁ pravakṣhyāmyanasūyave
jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitaṁ yaj jñātvā mokṣhyase ’śhubhāt
To you, who do not carp, I will declare this deepest secret — knowledge together with what is realised through it, knowing which you will be released from harm.
The teaching is offered on one condition, and it is about temperament.
anasūyave — to you, who do not carp. Not to you, who understand.
What qualifies Arjuna is the absence of a sneer. The chapter about to be called the king of secrets is gated on willingness to hear it, which is a low bar and a real one.
Word by wordśhrī-bhagavān uvācha — the Supreme Lord said · idam — this · tu — but · te — to you · guhya-tamam — the most confidential · pravakṣhyāmi — I shall impart · anasūyave — nonenvious · jñānam — knowledge · vijñāna — realized knowledge · sahitam — with · yat — which · jñātvā — knowing · mokṣhyase — you will be released · aśhubhāt — miseries of material existence
Chapter 9 · The Simple Offering · ← → to move, d for depth
All 34 verses
- 9.1 इदं तु ते गुह्यतमं प्रवक्ष्याम्यनसूयवे To you, who do not carp
- 9.2 राजविद्या राजगुह्यं पवित्रमिदमुत्तमम् King of knowledge, easy to practise
- 9.3 अश्रद्दधानाः पुरुषा धर्मस्यास्य परन्तप Those without faith in it
- 9.4 मया ततमिदं सर्वं जगदव्यक्तमूर्तिना All beings rest in me
- 9.5 न च मत्स्थानि भूतानि पश्य मे योगमैश्वरम् And yet they do not
- 9.6 यथाऽऽकाशस्थितो नित्यं वायुः सर्वत्रगो महान् Wind resting in space
- 9.7 सर्वभूतानि कौन्तेय प्रकृतिं यान्ति मामिकाम् Merged, and sent forth again
- 9.8 प्रकृतिं स्वामवष्टभ्य विसृजामि पुनः पुनः Helplessly, by that nature
- 9.9 न च मां तानि कर्माणि निबध्नन्ति धनञ्जय These actions do not bind me
- 9.10 मयाऽध्यक्षेण प्रकृतिः सूयते सचराचरम् Under my oversight
- 9.11 अवजानन्ति मां मूढा मानुषीं तनुमाश्रितम् Disregarded for having a form
- 9.12 मोघाशा मोघकर्माणो मोघज्ञाना विचेतसः Vain hopes, vain actions
- 9.13 महात्मानस्तु मां पार्थ दैवीं प्रकृतिमाश्रिताः The great-souled
- 9.14 सततं कीर्तयन्तो मां यतन्तश्च दृढव्रताः Always singing of me
- 9.15 ज्ञानयज्ञेन चाप्यन्ये यजन्तो मामुपासते Some as one, some as many
- 9.16 अहं क्रतुरहं यज्ञः स्वधाऽहमहमौषधम् I am the rite and the fire
- 9.17 पिताऽहमस्य जगतो माता धाता पितामहः Father and mother both
- 9.18 गतिर्भर्ता प्रभुः साक्षी निवासः शरणं सुहृत् Goal, witness, refuge, friend
- 9.19 तपाम्यहमहं वर्षं निगृह्णाम्युत्सृजामि च Deathlessness and death
- 9.20 त्रैविद्या मां सोमपाः पूतपापा यज्ञैरिष्ट्वा स्वर्गतिं प्रार्थयन्ते Asking for the way to heaven
- 9.21 ते तं भुक्त्वा स्वर्गलोकं विशालं क्षीणे पुण्ये मर्त्यलोकं विशन्ति Their merit exhausted
- 9.22 अनन्याश्चिन्तयन्तो मां ये जनाः पर्युपासते I carry what they need
- 9.23 येऽप्यन्यदेवता भक्ता यजन्ते श्रद्धयाऽन्विताः Worshipping me without knowing
- 9.24 अहं हि सर्वयज्ञानां भोक्ता च प्रभुरेव च And so they fall
- 9.25 यान्ति देवव्रता देवान् पितृ़न्यान्ति पितृव्रताः You arrive where you aimed
- 9.26 पत्रं पुष्पं फलं तोयं यो मे भक्त्या प्रयच्छति A leaf, a flower, water
- 9.27 यत्करोषि यदश्नासि यज्जुहोषि ददासि यत् Whatever you do, offer it
- 9.28 शुभाशुभफलैरेवं मोक्ष्यसे कर्मबन्धनैः Freed from both fruits
- 9.29 समोऽहं सर्वभूतेषु न मे द्वेष्योऽस्ति न प्रियः The same in all beings
- 9.30 अपि चेत्सुदुराचारो भजते मामनन्यभाक् Even one of bad conduct
- 9.31 क्षिप्रं भवति धर्मात्मा शश्वच्छान्तिं निगच्छति Never lost
- 9.32 मां हि पार्थ व्यपाश्रित्य येऽपि स्युः पापयोनयः However low their birth
- 9.33 किं पुनर्ब्राह्मणाः पुण्या भक्ता राजर्षयस्तथा This impermanent, joyless world
- 9.34 मन्मना भव मद्भक्तो मद्याजी मां नमस्कुरु Fix your mind on me
Where this sits
Chapter 9 against the whole of it: who is speaking, verse by verse, and how much of the book this chapter is.
The argument so far
- Chapter 1 Arjuna's nerve fails on the field, and the question that opens the book is not a spiritual one but a practical one he cannot answer.
- Chapter 2 The first answer is that Arjuna is not the body he is afraid of losing, and that grief for what cannot die is grief misplaced.
- Chapter 3 Withdrawing from action is not available to anyone alive; what is available is acting without gripping the result.
- Chapter 4 Action, knowledge and Krishna himself all have a deeper structure than they appear to, and knowing it is what makes action free.
- Chapter 5 What has to be renounced is attachment rather than activity — the leaf in water, unwetted.
- Chapter 6 The mind is trained the way anything is trained, by returning to the practice on the days it does not work.
- Chapter 7 Behind both matter and awareness there is one reality, and everything else is a thread strung on it.
- Chapter 8 Everything that appears is temporary; the work of yoga is to train attention toward the one thing that is not.