Arjuna, I am the taste of pure water and the radiance of the sun and moon. I am the sacred word and the sound heard in air, and the courage of human beings. 9 I am the sweet fragrance in the earth and the radiance of fire; I am the life in every creature and the striving of the spiritual aspirant.

12 The brightness of the sun, which lights up the world, the brightness of the moon and of fire – these are my glory. 13 With a drop of my energy I enter the earth and support all creatures. Through the moon, the vessel of life-giving fluid, I nourish all plants. 14 I enter breathing creatures and dwell within as the life-giving breath. I am the fi

The whole point of the path of love is to transform motivation from “I, I, I” to “thou, thou, thou” – that is, to surrender selfish attachments by dissolving them in the desire to give.

11 When sattva predominates, the light of wisdom shines through every gate of the body. 12 When rajas predominates, a person runs about pursuing selfish and greedy ends, driven by restlessness and desire. 13 When tamas is dominant a person lives in darkness – slothful, confused, and easily infatuated.

Then Arjuna asks a rather surprising question: what happens to the person who believes in a spiritual goal but does not pursue it to the end? What if one of his more powerful compulsive desires gets the better of him, scattering his resolution the way a cloud is scattered by the wind? Arjuna must be at least partly convinced that there is something

8 They are completely fulfilled by spiritual wisdom and Self-realization. Having conquered their senses, they have climbed to the summit of human consciousness. To such people a clod of dirt, a stone, and gold are the same. 9 They are equally disposed to family, enemies, and friends, to those who support them and those who are hostile, to the good

Our faith conforms to our nature, Arjuna. Human nature is made of faith. A person is what his shraddha is.

Others partake of sense objects but offer them in service through the fire of the senses. 27 Some offer the workings of the senses and the vital forces through the fire of self-control, kindled in the path of knowledge.

The sages called the dream of waking life – the dream of separate, merely physical existence – by a suggestive name, maya. In general use the word meant a kind of magic, the power of a god or sorcerer to make a thing appear to be something else. In the Gita, maya becomes the creative power of the Godhead, the primal creative energy that makes unity