The Lord said: O Partha, hear from Me how, with mind attached to Me, the Supreme Lord, linking your consciousness with Me and taking refuge in Me alone, you will without doubt be able to know Me, My holy abode, My opulences, and My associates.

Now I shall reveal to you this knowledge of My absolute power as well as the realisation of My sweetness, knowing which, nothing will remain to be known, here on this supreme path.

Of countless souls, few reach the human form; of thousands of human beings, very few may try to realise the soul and the Supersoul; and of thousands who have attained such realisation, hardly one can actually know Me, Syamasundar.

Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and ego are the eight divisions of My illusory potency in this world.

O mighty hero, Arjuna, this external, worldly nature is inferior. But know that superior to this nature is My marginal potency, comprised of the individual souls. Worldly existence is adopted by the souls for enjoyment through fruitive actions.

Know that all species, either moving or stationary, are manifest from these two natures as the field of action and the knower of the field; and I alone am the cause of the manifestation and dissolution of the entire universe.

O Arjuna, there is nothing superior to Me. All existence depends on Me, like gems strung on a thread.

O son of Kunti, I am the taste of water, I am the radiance of the sun and the moon. I am Om, the fundamental vibration in all the Vedas, I am the sound in the ether, and I am the masculinity in men.

I am the pure fragrance of the earth, and I am the radiance of fire. I am the life-span of all beings, and in ascetics, I am the power to endure duality such as cold and heat.

O Partha, know Me as the eternal, original cause of all life-forms. I am the intelligence of the intelligent, the power of the powerful.

O Arjuna, I am the strength of the strong, without selfishness and attachment; and I am the desire for procreation in the living beings which does not contravene the universal principles of religion.

Furthermore, know that all things, of the nature of goodness, passion, and ignorance, are manifest from Me alone. Nevertheless, I am not in them. They, subordinate to Me, are in Me.

The entire world of living beings is deluded by the three modes of material nature. Therefore, no one can know Me, the Supreme Lord, who am transcendental to these modes and immutable.

My alluring, ‘trimodal’, illusory potency is practically insurmountable. However, those who take shelter in Me can overcome this powerful obstacle.

These four kinds of wrongdoers do not surrender unto Me: fruitive workers, comparable to animals; fallen persons who take the highest path, devotion, but later reject it, considering it inadequate or worthless; those whose knowledge covered by illusion, Maya; and the demoniac.

O Arjuna, best of the Bharatas, four kinds of persons have the fortune to worship Me: the afflicted, the seeker of knowledge, the seeker of happiness, and the self-realised.

Of these four types of devotees, best is the self-realised person who is My pure devotee, and whose consciousness is fully absorbed in Me. For I, Syamasundar, am very dear to him, and he is dear to Me.

Certainly they are all noble souls, dear to Me, yet the spiritually self-realised soul is as beloved to Me as My own self, for he has given his heart to Me as his only shelter and ultimate goal of life.

After many births, the enlightened soul (blessed with devotional association) realises that everything is of the nature of (subordinate to) Vasudev, and thus he surrenders unto Me. Such a great soul is very rare.

Persons misled by worldly desires, being governed by their own natures, worship other godly personalities like the sun-god and the many demigods, adopting the corresponding rituals to attain their objectives.

According to a person’s desire, as his faith grows to worship a particular demigod, I, as the Supersoul in his heart, make his faith strong in that demigod (representing a form of Me).

His faith nourished by Me, such a devotee continues worshipping the deity of that demigod and attains all his desired objects from that deity. Again, this happens by My sanction alone, since I am the Supersoul, situated within the heart of the demigod, too.

But the fruit obtained by those unwise worshippers of the demigods is temporary. They reach the gods they worship, but My devotees come to Me.

My eternal superexcellent nature — My form, qualities, activities, and Pastimes — are all transcendental, but unwise persons cannot know the truth, and they think, «The formless Brahman took birth in Vasudev’s cell as an ordinary human being.»

By My sweet will, remaining concealed by My own potency, I am not manifest to anyone and everyone. So the foolish cannot know Me, the son of Vasudev, unborn and ever-existent in My divine Syamasundar form of beautiful feature like a blackish rain-cloud.

O Arjuna, I know all living beings of the past, present and future, but no one can know Me in truth.

O Arjuna, chastiser of the enemy, at the manifestation of the universe, all beings become deluded by duality based on likes and dislikes.

But the performers of virtuous deeds are purified of all sin (by the fortune of association with My pure devotee). Thus freed from the illusion of duality, they worship Me with firm resolve.

Those who strive for freedom from the world of disease and death, placing their trust and devotion in Me — they know Brahman, they know the soul, and they know karma, the action that binds the soul again and again to this mundane plane of suffering.

And those who know Me in relation to the worldly plane, the celestial plane, and the plane of sacrifice — such persons, their consciousness absorbed in Me, know Me even at the time of death.