(413) Him I call indeed a Brâhmana who is bright like the moon, pure, serene, undisturbed, and in whom all gaiety is extinct.

(10) Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the Supreme Abode, the Supreme Holiness. All the sages have declared You to be the eternal, self-luminous Person, the first of the gods, unborn and all-pervading; likewise have the divine sages Nārada, Asita, Devala, and Vyāsa proclaimed. So, too, have You said unto me.

(11) Arjuna said: In Thy body, Ο Lord, I behold all the gods and all the diverse hosts of beings— the Lord Brahmā, seated on the lotus, and all the rishis and the celestial serpents.

(420) Him I call indeed a Brâhmana whose path the gods do not know, nor spirits (Gandharvas), nor men, whose passions are extinct, and who is an Arhat (venerable).

(17) Men in whom sattva prevails worship the gods; men in whom rajas prevails worship demigods and demons; and men in whom tamas prevails worship ghosts and disembodied spirits.

(7) O Arjuna! This is the inferior (described in the previous verse), Know My other nature, the Higher – Para Prakriti, the life-element by which the universe is upheld.

(11) And why should they not bow down to Thee, O Mighty Being, greater than all, since Thou art the Primal Cause even of Brahmā? O Infinite One, Lord of gods, Abode of the universe, Thou art the Imperishable, Being and non-being, and that which is the Supreme.

(7) He said: 'The sun (âditya). For all these beings praise the sun when it stands on high. This is the deity belonging to the udgîtha. If, without knowing that deity, you had sung out your hymns, your head would have fallen off, after you had been warned by me.'

(2) 'He (Brahman) is the swan (sun), dwelling in the bright heaven; he is the Vasu (air), dwelling in the sky; he is the sacrificer (fire), dwelling on the hearth; he is the guest (Soma), dwelling in the sacrificial jar; he dwells in men, in gods (vara), in the sacrifice (rita), in heaven; he is born in the water, on earth, in the sacrifice (rita), on the mountains; he is the True and the Great.'

(15) He who, undeluded, knows Me thus as the Supreme Self— he knows all, Ο Bhārata, and he worships Me with all his heart.

(18) O nobly-born, the Peaceful Deities emanate from the Voidness of the Dharma-Kdya; recognize them. From the Radiance of the Dharma-Kdya emanate the Wrathful Deities; recognize them.

(18) There is no being, either on the earth or in Heaven among the Devas, who is freed from the three qualities (Gunas) arising from Prakriti (Maya).

(2) 'Those who belong to us, whether living or departed, and whatever else there is which we wish for and do not obtain, all that we find there (if we descend into our heart, where Brahman dwells, in the ether of the heart), There are all our true desires, but hidden by what is false . As people who do not know the country, walk again and again over a gold treasure that has been hidden somewhere in the earth and do not discover it, thus do all these creatures day after day go into the Brahma-world (they are merged in Brahman, while asleep), and yet do not discover it, because they are carried away by untruth (they do not come to themselves, i. e. they do not discover the true Self in Brahman, dwelling in the heart).

(1) Then he said to Gana Sârkarâkshya: 'Whom do you meditate on as the Self?' He replied: 'Ether only, venerable king.' He said: 'The Self which you meditate on is the Vaisvânara Self, called Bahula (full). Therefore you are full of offspring and wealth.

(7) '(He who knows) Aditi also, who is one with all deities, who arises with Prâna (breath or Hiranyagarbha), who, entering into the heart, abides therein, and was born from the elements. This is that.'

(9) Others, again, offer the oblation of knowledge and worship Me either as one with them or as distinct from them; and still others in various ways worship Me, whose form is the whole universe.

(4) This, then, according to my science, is the first rank of the Heavenly Beings which encircle and stand immediately around God; and without symbol, and without interruption, dances round His eternal knowledge in the most exalted ever-moving stability as in Angels; viewing purely many and blessed contemplations, and illuminated with simple and immediate splendours, and filled with Divine nourishment,--many indeed by the first-given profusion, but one by the unvariegated and unifying oneness of the supremely Divine banquet, deemed worthy indeed of much participation and co-operation with God, by their assimilation to Him, as far as attainable, of their excellent habits and energies, and knowing many Divine things pre-eminently, and participating in supremely Divine science and knowledge, as is lawful. Wherefore the Word of God has transmitted its hymns to those on earth, in which are Divinely shewn the excellency of its most exalted illumination. For some of its members, to speak after sensible perception, proclaim as a "voice of many waters," "Blessed is the glory of the Lord from His place" and others cry aloud that frequent and most august hymn of God, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Sabaoth, the whole earth is full of His glory." These most excellent hymnologies of the supercelestial Minds we have already unfolded to the best of our ability in the "Treatise concerning the Divine Hymns," and have spoken sufficiently concerning them in that Treatise, from which, by way of remembrance, it is enough to produce so much as is necessary to the present occasion, namely, "That the first Order, having been illuminated, from this the supremely Divine goodness, as permissible, in theological science, as a Hierarchy reflecting that Goodness transmitted to those next after it," teaching briefly this, "That it is just and right that the august Godhead -- Itself both above praise, and all-praiseworthy--should be known and extolled by the God-receptive minds, as is attainable; for they as images of God are, as the Oracles say, the Divine places of the supremely Divine repose; and further, that It is Monad and Unit tri-subsistent, sending forth His most kindly forethought to all things being, from the super-heavenly Minds to the lowest of the earth; as super-original Origin and Cause of every essence, and grasping all things super-essentially in a resistless embrace. Next: Caput VIII. Sacred Texts | Christianity « Previous: The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite: On the Heavenly Hi... Index Next: The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite: On the Heavenly Hi... » Sacred Texts | Christianity

(1) Then he said to Auddâlaka Âruni: 'O Gautama, whom do you meditate on as the Self?' He replied: 'The earth only, venerable king.' He said: 'The Self which you meditate on is the Vaisvânara Self, called Pratishthâ (firm rest). Therefore you stand firm with offspring and cattle.

(29) But that the birth, or the body of the stars in their seat, does not change or alter (but do as they did from eternity), signifieth that there shall be a constant, continued birth or geniture, whereby, in one uniform operation, which yet stands in the infiniteness, the benumbed body of the earth should continually and constantly be kindled again, and generate itself anew, and so also should the house of darkness of the deep above the earth; whereby the new body might continually and constantly be generated out of death, till time should be accomplished, and the whole newborn body [perfected]. Now thou wilt object and say, Then sure the stars are God, and they must be honoured and worshipped as God.

(2) 'He who knowing this meditates on him, destroys sin, obtains the world (of Agni Gârhapatya), reaches his full age, and lives long; his descendants do not perish. We guard him in this world and in the other, whosoever knowing this meditates on him.'