Filognostic* understanding of the Bhagavad Gîtâ of Order

Text 1

Arjuna said: 'What is that Spirit, what about the soul of oneself and what are fruitive activities; what about, o Supreme One, the material manifestation and what to say about what one calls the godly [or demigods]?

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

Arjuna said: 'What about God, this soul for oneself and fruitful activities; what o greatest personality, about the material manifestation and what to say about, what one calls, the lesser gods in this? (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 2

Who is the Lord of sacrifice and how does He live within the body, o slayer of Madhu and how, when ones time has come, can You be known by the selfcontrolled?'

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

Who is that lord of sacrifice, how does he live within the body, and, demon-slayer, how can the ones of self-control know you at the time of their death?' (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 3

The Supreme Lord said: 'The indestructible Spirit is the transcendental eternal of nature that is called ones own soul [or true self], it produces the material bodies of the living entities and creation is what is called fruitive activity.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

The one of all opulence⁷ said: ''God is the imperishable One in the beyond called the soul or true self that is eternal, and from which the living beings become visible in a creative activity which one calls karma, the workload or the working for a result. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 4

The constantly changing material nature is the [body of the] original person of the godly spoken about and the Lord of sacrifice for sure I am in this body of the embodied, o best one.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

The lesser gods are the universal integrities, or divine personalities, of the different manifestations of nature that are constantly on the move - like the sun and the moon -, and the lord of the sacrifices am I, the one present within the embodied beings, my best. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 5

At the end of ones time it is also surely in the remembrance of Me that he, who goes to quit the body, will achieve My nature. Of that there is no doubt.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

He who at the time of his death quitting the physical body remembers me, will beyond any doubt reach my nature. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 6

The nature of whatever one is all remembering, giving this vehicle of time up in the end, similar surely always will lead, o son of Bhârata, to the state which is essential to it.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

The nature of whatever one all remembers, giving this body up in the end, will, o son of Prithâ, always lead to a state similar to the one that was remembered. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 7

Therefore go on remembering Me at all times and fighting with your mind and intelligence surrendered to Me, certainly you will attain Me without doubt.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

Keep therefore at all times, even when you're in the fray, to the remembrance of me, so that you, free from doubt with your mind and intelligence of acceptance for me, are sure to attain me. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 8

Persistently uniting the mind and intelligence in the connectedness of yoga without deviating one achieves the Supreme Original Person of transcendence, o son of Prithâ, that one is constantly thinking of.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

When one persistent in the uniting is connected with the unwavering of one's mind and intelligence, reaches one the supreme and divine, personal integrity which was kept in mind, o son of Prithâ. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 9

He is the one who knows all, who is the oldest, the controller, smaller than an atom and is always thinking of everything; He is the inconceivable maintainer whose form is luminous like the sun and who is trancendental to all darkness.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

He, the Supreme One, is the One knowing everything, the oldest, the controller, He's smaller than an atom, the One always thinking of everything, the Inconceivable Maintainer transcendental to all darkness with a form as luminous as the sun. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 10

One who, at the end of his time fixes his mind in devotion connected by the strength of yoga and as well for sure establishes the life air between the eyebrows, achieves that transcendental Original Person of the divine.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

That person reaches the divine who, when his time has come, fixes his life force between his eyebrows, and, connected by the power of his yoga, in the full of his devotion has a mind that doesn't wander off, but keeps to the integrity of the universe, the Original Person in the beyond. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 11

I will now explain in short to you the practice of the celibate desired by those who enter the renounced order of life as great sages conversant with the Vedas in exercising the pranava [AUM, the primal mantra].

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

Let me now explain to you in short what it means to be a celibate. It is a practice desired by those, belonging to the renounced order of life, who as great scholars conversant with the culture of knowledge exercise the mantra AUM. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 12

Controlling the [nine] gates [of the senses], confining the mind to the heart and also fixing the soul's life-air [the attention] in the head one is situated in the yogic position.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

One is in the position of uniting the consciousness when one, self-controlled in relation to the sensory input and fixing the life force in the head, confines the mind to the heart. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 13

Vibrating AUM, the one syllable of the spirit, anyone who remembers Me leaving behind this body achieves the supreme goal.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

Anyone may achieve that supreme state who, leaving the body for what it is, in the remembrance of me vibrates AUM, the one syllable of the spirit. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 14

For the one who is always fixing his mind in remembering Me regularly, I am easy to attain, o son of Prithâ, for he is regularly engaged in the unification.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

For any yoga practitioner, who on a regular basis repeatedly, with a mind not going elsewhere, remembers me, o son of Prithâ, am I, because of that constancy, easy to reach. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 15

Born again, achieving Me, the great souls that attain the ultimate perfection never reach where the temporary and miserable is found.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

The great souls who reached me never start a new life in the temporary world which is so full of miseries, because they achieved the ultimate of perfection. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 16

[From reaching] up to the highest place one returns again to the world, o Arjuna, but having found Me, o son of Kuntî, one is never born again.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

Arjuna, even from the highest worlds of the spirit one returns, but having reached me, o son of Kuntî, will one never start a new life again. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 17

A thousand ages are included in a day to those who know of the Absolute while the night that similarly takes a thousand ages is there to the people understanding by day ànd night.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

Like it is with the common man who thinks in terms of days and nights, consists one day of God of a thousand cycles of creation⁸, while His night, so is understood, similarly takes a thousand cycles. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 18

All living beings [thus] manifest themselves from the unmanifest at the beginning of that day, but at the fall of the night they are surely [also] all taken in to that which is called the unseen.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

All living entities become manifest at the beginning of the day and with the fall of the night they are all annihilated, or drawn back into the unapparent, so one says. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 19

The totality of all beings that repeatedly take this birth is annihilated on the arrival of the night and out of their own, o son of Prithâ, they reappear on the arrival of the day.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

O son of Prithâ, the complete of all living beings manifesting itself upon the arrival of every day and their automatically being annihilated when the night arrives, means that they repeatedly take birth. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 20

But transcendental to that there is another unseen nature to the unmanifest that upon the annihilation of all manifestation is never annihilated.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

But transcendental to that nature, which can be unapparent, there is another nature, eternal and unseen, which is never annihilated when all the manifest is annihilated. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 21

It is said that that unseen [the spiritual] is infallible and it is known as the ultimate destination from which, gaining it, one never returns - that is My supreme abode.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

That unseen nature is said to be infallible and is described as the ultimate destination from which one, having reached there, never returns: that is my supreme abode. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 22

The original person is He in the beyond, o son of Prithâ, who can only be achieved by unalloyed devotion, within whom all of manifestation exists and by whom everything we can see is pervaded.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

He, the Supreme and Original Person, o son of Prithâ, within whom all of manifestation exists and by whom everything that is visible is pervaded, can only be reached by means of a service which is of a single-minded devotion. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 23

I shall now describe, o best of the Bhâratas, that time at which different kinds of mystics having departed attain and for sure to that time do or do not return.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

O best of the Pândavas, let me now describe the times to you of leaving this world at which the ones successful in uniting the consciousness do return or else do not return. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 24

Those persons who know the Absolute and leave during the fire of daylight with a waxing moon during the six months when the sun passes the north, reach the Supreme Spirit.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

Those persons who, knowing of the Absolute, leave to the light of the fire, the light of the day, the light of the fortnight of a waxing moon, or the light of the six months when the sun runs high in the sky, all leave for God. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 25

The mystic who achieves to the light of the moon during the smoke of the night as also with a waning moon and the six months of the sun passing through the south, comes back.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

The one unified in consciousness though who leaves to the darkness of the night, the darkness of smoke, the darkness of the dark half of the lunar month, or the darkness of the six months when the sun runs low in the sky, will turn back to this world because he didn't reach beyond the order of the moonlight. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 26

According the Vedas there are these two ways of [the spiritual] light and darkness [of ignorance] in passing from this world by which one either does not return or does return again.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

These are according the scriptures the two ways of leaving the world; leaving to the light one does not return while one to the darkness having departed turns back. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 27

Of knowing any of these different paths, o son of Prithâ, the yogî is never bewildered; therefore always get unified in yoga, o Arjuna.

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

The one who, unified in the consciousness, knows of these different paths, isn't bewildered by any of them; therefore, Arjuna, be always connected in the âtmatattva of uniting the consciousness. (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

Text 28

The yogîs who know all of this surpass the fruit of pious work as won by vedic study, through sacrifices, austerities and also surely by giving in charity and achieve the original, supreme abode.'

FILOGNOSTIC TRANSLATION

All the yoga-practitioners aware of this, reach beyond the results of pious work as derived from scriptural study, sacrifices, austerities and charity, and attain the original, supreme abode.' (Sanskrit & tradition)

 

 

 

 

Versions consulted:

- A Song of Fortune One - A modern Gîtâ - the modern version of filognosy (also in mp3-audio).

- A Song of Fortune - A Classical Gîtâ - the classical version of filognosy.

- The Bhagavad Gîta-as-it-is by Swami Bhaktivedânta Prabhupâda (PDF-download).

- The Bhagavad Gîtâ-as-it-is: online (version 1.0).

- The Bhagavad Gita As It Is By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (pdf-download).

- The Bhagavad Gita by the Bhagavad Gita Trust.

- Bhagavad Gita by Sanderson Beck.

- Bhagavad Gita by Ramanad Prasad (American Gita society).

- Srimad Bhagavad-gita - The Hidden Treasure of the Sweet Absolute (from the Vaishnav' S'rî Caitanya Saraswath math).

Sanskrit dictionary: (Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary').

 

 

 

Production and copyright of this translation: Anand Aadhar Prabhu                   
The filognostic translations are of the same author.                   
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