Let us journey through the sacred teaching as spoken by Bhagavān in the Bhagavad Gītā, where the nature of knowledge, the self, and the world are revealed in a tapestry of wisdom. True knowledge, the Lord says, is steadfastness in spiritual understanding and the ability to discern the purpose of truth. Anything opposed to this is ignorance. Now, He promises to declare what is truly worth knowing—a knowledge that grants immortality. This is the beginningless, supreme Brahman, the ultimate reality that cannot be defined simply as existence or nonexistence. Brahman pervades everything: its hands and feet are everywhere; its eyes, heads, and faces are everywhere; its ears are everywhere throughout the world. It stands, all-encompassing, present in all things. Though it shines through all the qualities of the senses, it itself possesses no senses. It is unattached, yet sustains all; it is without qualities, yet enjoys them. This supreme reality is both inside and outside all beings. It moves, yet remains unmoving. Because of its subtlety, it is unknowable—far and yet near. Though it appears undivided among beings, it seems as if divided. It is the supporter of all, absorbing and generating all beings. Brahman is the light of all lights, beyond darkness. It is knowledge itself, the object of knowledge, and attainable through knowledge. It is established in the hearts of all. Thus, the Lord explains the field (the body), knowledge, and the knowable. Whoever understands these is fit for the divine state. Both nature (prakṛti) and spirit (puruṣa) are without beginning, and all modifications and qualities arise from nature. Nature is the cause of creation—the effect, the cause, and the agent—while spirit is the cause of experiencing pleasure and pain. Spirit, situated in nature, enjoys the qualities born of nature. Attachment to these qualities is the cause of birth in good and evil wombs. The supreme spirit within the body is called the witness, the consenter, the supporter, the enjoyer, the great Lord, and the supreme self. Whoever knows spirit and nature, along with their qualities, is not born again, regardless of how he lives. Some perceive the self within the self by meditation; others by the path of knowledge, and still others by the path of action. There are also those who, not knowing thus, hear from others and worship; they too, devoted to hearing, cross beyond death. Whatever being is born, whether moving or unmoving, arises from the union of the field and the knower of the field. One who sees the supreme Lord equally present in all beings—the imperishable within the perishing—truly sees. Seeing the Lord everywhere, such a person does not harm the self by the self and attains the highest goal. He who sees that all actions are performed entirely by nature, and regards the self as non-agent, truly sees. When he perceives the manifold existence of beings as resting in the One and its expansion from That alone, then he attains Brahman. Because the supreme self is beginningless and without qualities, it is imperishable. Though dwelling in the body, it neither acts nor is tainted. Just as all-pervading space, because of its subtlety, is not tainted, so the self, though present everywhere in the body, remains pure. As the one sun illumines the entire world, so does the knower of the field illumine the whole field. Those who, with the eye of knowledge, perceive the distinction between the field and the knower of the field, and the liberation from the nature of beings, attain the supreme. Once more, the Blessed Lord speaks: He will declare the highest knowledge among all knowledges, knowing which sages attain supreme perfection. By resorting to this knowledge, they become like Him; at creation, they are not born, and at dissolution, they do not suffer. “My womb is the great Brahman,” He says. “In that I place the seed, and from it arises the birth of all beings.” Whatever forms are produced in all wombs, the great Brahman is their womb, and the Lord is the seed-giving father. From nature arise three qualities: sattva, rajas, and tamas. These bind the imperishable embodied soul to the body. Sattva, being pure, is illuminating and free from sickness, but binds by attachment to happiness and knowledge. Rajas is of the nature of passion, arising from craving and attachment, binding by attachment to action. Tamas, born of ignorance, deludes all beings and binds by heedlessness, indolence, and sleep. Sattva attaches to happiness; rajas to action; tamas, covering knowledge, attaches to heedlessness. When rajas and tamas are overcome, sattva prevails. When sattva and tamas are subdued, rajas arises. When sattva and rajas are subdued, tamas prevails. When light arises in all the gates of the body, sattva has increased. Greed, activity, undertaking of actions, restlessness, and craving arise when rajas increases. Darkness, inactivity, heedlessness, and delusion arise when tamas increases. When the embodied soul dies while sattva is predominant, it attains the pure worlds of those who know the highest. Dying in rajas, one is born among those attached to action; dying in tamas, one is born among the deluded. The fruit of good action is pure and sattvic; the fruit of rajas is suffering; and ignorance is the fruit of tamas. Thus, the Lord unfolds the mystery of existence, the self, and the qualities of nature, guiding the seeker to see the supreme reality, and to attain liberation through true knowledge and discernment.