Bhagavad Gita - the song of God

In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna declares his many names, describing himself as the beginning of the gods, the source of all, the all-highest Brahman, the Self in the heart of all, time imperishable and culminates in wisdom and silence.  The Brahman as sound is the syllable OM.  Its summit is silence, above all thoughts and sounds, soundless.

This syllable OM is this whole universe . . .

What was and is and is yet to be, -

All of it is OM;

And whatever else the three times transcends, -

That too is OM.

For all this world is Brahaman. This Self is Brahman.

Of the whole universe the origin and dissolution am I.

I am the thread on which this universe is strung like pearls.

I am the flavor in water and fragrance in the earth.

And I am the light in sun and moon, and sound in space.

Father and mother of the world, teacher, friend and lover of all.

Of weapons I am the thunderbolt of serpents Vasuki,

And I am the dicing of tricksters.

Death am I, and Deathlessness, and life in beings,

Source and seed, and the Self in the heart

And Time, and of hidden secret things the Silence.”

                Mandukya Upanishads 1 and 2

The Gita is panentheistic rather than pantheistic. God is in all things, and all things are in God. But the visible universe springs from only a fraction of Vishnu's glory. There is also a hidden aspect of God which extends beyond the universe. The Bhagavad Gita is the highest expression of philosophical Hinduism.

"Arjuna     Of the worshippers, who thus, constantly devoted, meditate on you, and those who meditate on the unperceived and indestructible, which best know devotion.

But those, who, restraining the whole group of the senses, and with a mind at all times equable, meditate on the indescribable, indestructible, unperceived principle which is all-pervading, unthinkable, indifferent, immovable, and constant—they, intent on the good of all beings, necessarily attain to me.

For those whose minds are attached to the unperceived, the trouble is much greater. Because the unperceived goal is obtained by embodied beings only with great difficulty.

As to those, O son of Pritha, who, dedicating all their actions to me, and holding me as their highest goal, worship me, meditating on me with a devotion towards none besides me and whose minds are fixed on me, I, without delay come forward as their deliverer from the ocean of this world of death.

Place your mind on me only; fix your understanding on me. In me you will dwell hereafter, there is no doubt."

1. Devotion, or bhakti, forms one of the three means for perfecting the soul (the other two are discipline, or yoga, and knowledge. The word bhakti comes from the Sanskrit verb, bhaj, which means "to share." Devotion in its simplest form means sharing a sacrifice with a particular god. In the Gita it means something like giving over one's self and actions to the divine.

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