Truth Amid Chaos – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 7

The Bhagavad Gita is the story of an ancient battle in the 3D matrix of the mind, a foundation of Hindu philosophy. It describes the laws of Nature, techniques to achieve ascension and outlines all the tools you’ll need to attain your highest destiny in life. With each chapter, the Gita lessons are becoming more refined, inviting us to re-assess our modern concepts to find a true path to ascension. This chapter is an explanation of reality and a metaphysical empowerment. Just enjoy with an open mind, as if you would absorb a transmission of a sacred story that you already know.

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, Gods ruled the Earth, and all learning took place in the form of stories and sacred verses, that people remembered and passed down with each generation. 

The warrior prince Arjuna and his chariot driver the God Krishna, gaze over a vast battlefield. Arjuna and his virtuous Pandava brothers are now assembled, along with thousands of warriors to fight his evil Kaurava cousins to the death. Arjuna is horrified and refuses to fight. Krishna enlightens him as to the secrets of higher knowledge, how to carry out actions in a higher frame of mind in which he serves God without incurring sin or Karma. Ultimately Arjuna accepts his destiny to fight. He and his brothers win, and they ascend to the heavenly realms. 

The word Yoga means a “Path” or discipline. It is a means to achieving harmony between action and knowledge. When action is done as an offering infused with knowledge it leads to divine love and power in this life. This creates a harmonic relationship between the individual soul and the supreme soul. In Chapter 7 Arjuna asks about the nature of reality. What is the nature of being? What is the difference between the individual soul and Supreme soul? What is the nature of time and space? How does the physical world unfold from spiritual nature? 

I confess, one of the reasons I’m interested in the Gita, is to reaffirm  Truth seeded into the hearts and DNA of ancient humans of every culture. And to discover how has shared Truth and goodness can become so utterly warped beyond recognition in modern times? How did this happen?

Was it the introduction of money giving way to selfish motives as a basis for collective awareness? Did we make money our God? 

Now, as in Chapter 7, we have arrived at a critical meeting point between  quantum physics, biological science,   philosophy, Truth, and the power of the collective mind. 

Pause. The words of the Gita are in Sanskrit, sacred root language of the Gods. We’re doing our best to understand in everyday English. 

Arjuna is curious about the Supreme Almighty God called Brahman. So, Krishna defines the supreme God, the Self, the material world, the importance of religion, and the various other gods who rule the planets, the weather, and the elements. Many people devote their lives in devotion to lesser gods, but those who understand the nature of ultimate reality come directly to the highest Supreme God. 

Krishna gives the Vedic  version of the creation of the world. He basically says “I did it”. 

The Vedic Creation story is called the Nasadiya Sukta. 

This verse is said to be over 5,000 years old even older than the Gita. It does not mention a supreme God, no mention of male or female. It only says “in the beginning there was neither existence nor non-existence. Out of that came desire, the primal seed of mind. Powers rose, and Gods came later. But from whence the universe came, whether it was made or not, only that one knows. Or maybe doesn’t know at all. 


Krishna doesn’t mention the big bang, or the 7 days of creation. He just says most people don’t have the perceptual powers to know God. And those that could know are deluded by desires, sensory inputs and stresses of life. He describes four different types of truth seekers. Some look for personal gain, but have no interest in the larger picture beyond selfishness – so they never touch the power of God. 

Everything in the space-time continuum arises from the three modes of physics, the three gunas, of which he alone is the source. While he contains and comprehends the gunas and all things, they do not contain or comprehend them. That is the big difference between God and his creations. They are all informed by the divine, but they cannot touch the wholeness of the divine. God is not subject to anything in creation, yet all things are subject to God. 

He says that divine power is not visible to all. It is veiled by the power of illusion. This divine Yogmaya veil hides His imperishable nature and eternal divine form. From this illusion comes a world of selfish desire and exploitation, bewildered by the illusory power of Maya, people cannot see the highest unchanging omnipotent nature of Truth, God. Krishna is none other than the Supreme God shape-shifted into the blue charioteer. Those devoted ones who surrender to Him receive divine knowledge of the Supreme God, of the Self, and master the laws of karma. Their conscious soul at the time of death goes directly to him.

As you listen to the verses of Chapter 7, I invite you to ponder these questions:

  1. What is the source of material existence? 
  2. What are the four types of people who study the metaphysical, and which group is Krishna’s favorite? 
  3. How does devotion to a Supreme God purify the mind and protect a person in this life and beyond?
  4. What is the greatest illusion that causes confusion and blocks people from happiness?

Bhagavad Gita 7.1

The Supreme Lord said: Now listen, O Arjun, how, with the mind focused exclusively on me, and surrendering to me through the practice of devotion (bhakti yoga), you can know me completely, free from doubt.

Bhagavad Gita 7.2

I shall now reveal unto you fully this knowledge and wisdom. When you know this, nothing else remains to be known in this world.

Bhagavad Gita 7.3

Among thousands of people, hardly one strives for perfection. And among those who have achieved perfection, hardly one really knows me.

Bhagavad Gita 7.4

Earth, water, fire, air, space, mind, intellect, and ego—these are eight components of my material energy.

Bhagavad Gita 7.5

Such is my inferior energy. But beyond it, O mighty-armed Arjun, I have a superior energy. This is the Soul Energy (jīva śhakti), which is the source of material existence.

Bhagavad Gita 7.6

Know that all living beings are created and manifested by these two energies of mine. I am the source of the entire creation. And into me it dissolves once again.

Bhagavad Gita 7.7

There is nothing higher than myself, O Arjun. Everything rests in me, as beads strung on a thread.

Bhagavad Gita 7.8

I am the taste in water, O son of Kunti, and the radiance of the sun and the moon. I am the sacred syllable Om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether, and the ability in humans.

Bhagavad Gita 7.9

I am the pure fragrance of the Earth, and the brilliance in fire. I am the life-force in all beings, and the austerity of the ascetics.

Bhagavad Gita 7.10


Bhagavad Gita 7.11

O best of the Bharatas, in strong persons, I am their strength devoid of desire and passion. I am sexual joy in harmony with dharma.

Bhagavad Gita 7.12

The three qualities of physics (3 gunas) are Sacred, Passion, and Ignorance ( Sattva, Rajas, Tamas) These are manifestations of me. They are in me, but I am beyond them.

Bhagavad Gita 7.13

Deluded by these three modes, people of this world are deluded and fail know me as the true, imperishable, and eternal.

Bhagavad Gita 7.14

This three-pronged illusion of the physical world veils my true energy, hence people find it very difficult to penetrate. Yet those who come unto me cross over it easily. 

Bhagavad Gita 7.15

Four kinds of people do not surrender unto me: 1) Those ignorant of knowledge, 2) the lazy who follow their lower nature although they could know me, 3) those with confused mind, and 4) those of a demonic nature.

Bhagavad Gita 7.16

O best amongst the Bharatas, four kinds of sincere people engage in my devotion—1) the distressed, 2) the seekers after knowledge, 3) the seekers of material gain, and 4) those who are established in knowledge.

Bhagavad Gita 7.17

Between these, those who are established in knowledge, with steadfast and exclusive devotion, I consider them to be the highest. I am very dear to them and they are dear to me.

Bhagavad Gita 7.18

Indeed, all those who are devoted to me are indeed noble. But those established in knowledge, who are of steadfast mind, whose intellect is merged in me, and who have made me exclusively their supreme goal, I consider as my very self.

Bhagavad Gita 7.19


Bhagavad Gita 7.20

Those whose knowledge has been carried away by material desires worship the various celestial gods. They devote themselves to those lesser gods (devatās), following their own nature.

Bhagavad Gita 7.21

Whatever celestial form a devotee desires to worship with faith, I support their worship in that form.

Bhagavad Gita 7.22

Endowed with faith, the devotee engages in worship of a particular celestial god and obtains their objects of desire. But in reality, I alone arrange these benefits.

Bhagavad Gita 7.23

But the fruit gained by these people of small understanding is perishable. Those who worship the celestial gods go to the world of celestial abodes, while my devotees come directly to me.

Bhagavad Gita 7.24

The ignorant think that I, the Supreme Lord Shree Krishna, was formless earlier and have now assumed this personality. They do not understand the imperishable higher nature of my personal form.

Bhagavad Gita 7.25

I am not manifest to everyone, being veiled by my supreme divine energy of Yogmaya. Hence, those without knowledge do not know that I am without birth and changeless.

Bhagavad Gita 7.26

O Arjun, I know of the past, present, and future. I also know all living beings. But of me no one knows.

Bhagavad Gita 7.27

O descendant of Bharat, the dualities of desire and aversion come from illusion. O conqueror of enemies, all living beings in the material realm are from birth deluded by these.

Bhagavad Gita 7.28

But persons, whose sins have been destroyed by engaging in devotional activities, become free from the illusion of dualities. Such persons worship me steadfastly.

Bhagavad Gita 7.29

Those who take shelter in me, striving for freedom from old-age and death, come to know the highest God, Brahman. They come to know their individual Self, and all of karmic action.

Bhagavad Gita 7.30

Those who know me as the ruling principle of physical matter (adhibhūta), of the celestial realms (adhidaiva) an of all sacred offerings (adhiyajña), such enlightened souls are in full consciousness of me even at the time of death.

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