Chapter XXV

"Krishna! You say that those who recognise the world as mere world cannot claim to know the Vedas; they must recognise it as God, Paramatma. The world is an effect; so it cannot be different from the cause. How is this possible? The world that is seen by us is subject to growth and decay. God or Paramatma is, on the other hand, eternal, true, unaffected by change. There can be no affinity between water and fire, is it not? How can these two be one? Please tell me; I shall be most happy to hear you," said Arjuna.

"Well, Arjuna! In the cognisable world, every single thing displays its characteristic, Guna. The Guna depends upon the owner, the possessor. There is a basis, an Aadhara, for the characteristics possessed by every object and being in the world. That Aadhara is the Atma. Fix your attention on the unchanging basis - not on the fluctuating manifestations. Or else, you flounder in the flux. Just as the seed is the basis for the trunk, boughs, branches, twigs, leaves and flowers of a tree, the Prakrithi or Prapancha or world is the tree that emanates from the seed, Atma; Prapancha is the permutation and combination of the five elements which are latent in the basis, the Atma. Consider the Atma, which is the base, as essential; for it is as its manifestation that the world is expressed. He who has grasped this truth through steady discipline deserves the name Vedavid, one who has mastered the Vedas."

"But without deep inquiry, without discriminating between the real and the unreal, if one mistakes the seen alone to be the lasting, and argues so, he is losing his way. How can he reach the goal? How can he attain the reality? The yearning to know this reality comes of Daivisampathi, God-ward attributes. The Aasuri-sampathi (demoniac tendency) is the opposite tendency, which makes a man argue that he has known when he has not, which keeps him away from all attempts to know, which induces him to establish untruth as truth."

As soon as the Lord finished saying this, Arjuna raised his head in astonishment and said, "Gopala! You were declaring so far that the Atma is the basis for all characteristics and for all beings; that is to say, You were declaring that You were that basis. Meanwhile, you have started talking about two distinct natures, Daivisampathi and Aasurisampathi! I am getting confused. I am at a loss to decide which to accept and which to reject."