The Bhagavad Gita · 2 of 2 · tr. Kashinath Trimbak Telang
Chapter IX, Section 1b
Thus those who wish for objects of desire, and resort to the ordinances of the three (Vedas), obtain (as the fruit) going and coming.
To those men who worship me, meditating on me and on no one else, and who are constantly devoted, I give new gifts and preserve what is acquired by them .
Even those, O son of Kuntî!
who being devotees of other divinities worship with faith, worship me only, (but) irregularly .
For I am the enjoyer as well as the lord of all sacrifices.
But they know me not truly, therefore do they fall .
Those who make vows to the gods go to the gods; those who make vows to the manes go to the manes, those who worship the Bhûtas go to the Bhûtas; and those likewise who worship me go to me.
Whoever with devotion offers me leaf, flower, fruit, water, that, presented with devotion, I accept from him whose self is pure.
Whatever you do, O son of Kuntî!
whatever you eat, whatever sacrifice you make, whatever you give, whatever penance you perform, do that as offered to me .
Thus will you be released from the bonds of action, the fruits of which are agreeable or disagreeable.
And with your self possessed of (this) devotion, (this) renunciation , you will be released (from the bonds of action) and will come to me.
I am alike to all beings; to me none is hateful, none dear.
But those who worship me with devotion (dwell) in me , and I too in them.
Even if a very ill-conducted man worships me, not worshipping any one else, he must certainly be deemed to be good, for he has well resolved .
He soon becomes devout of heart, and obtains lasting tranquillity.
(You may) affirm, O son of Kuntî!
that my devotee is never ruined.
For, O son of P ri thâ!
even those who are of sinful birth , women, Vai s yas; and S ûdras likewise, resorting to me, attain the supreme goal.
What then (need be said of) holy Brâhma n as and royal saints who are (my) devotees?
Coming to this transient unhappy world, worship me.
(Place your) mind on me, become my devotee, my worshipper; reverence me, and thus making me your highest goal, and devoting your self to abstraction, you will certainly come to me.
Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. Shinto uji-gami and obon, Norse disir and the alfablot, Celtic samhain and the feast for the deceased, Roman lares and parentalia, Chinese ancestor rites, Vedic śrāddha. Practice-coded rather than belief-coded: distinct from soul_migration (cosmological doctrine of soul-transmigration) and theosis_deification (deification trajectory); ancestor_veneration centres the living's ongoing ritual obligation to the dead.
The passage mentions those who make vows to the 'manes' (ancestors) and go to them, acknowledging the practice of ancestor worship.
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
The divine is described with human-like attributes such as being an 'enjoyer,' having preferences for devotees, and accepting physical gifts like leaves and flowers.
Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.
The instruction to perform all actions as offerings to the divine to be 'released from the bonds of action' reflects a radical letting-go of attachment to the fruits of one's deeds.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The divine claims to be the 'lord of all sacrifices' and actively preserves what devotees acquire, indicating an active ordering of human affairs.
Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting.
The text explicitly instructs devotees to meditate on the divine and place their mind solely on him as a path to liberation.
The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.
The text repeatedly emphasizes the devotee dwelling in the divine and the divine dwelling in them, culminating in the promise that the devotee will 'come to me' and be united with the supreme goal.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The central soteriological promise is that through devotion and renunciation, the soul will be released from the bonds of action and 'come to me,' returning to its divine origin.
The passage explicitly describes the cycle of 'going and coming' for those who seek material desires, indicating a belief in the transmigration of souls based on their actions.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The declaration that the divine is 'alike to all beings' and the instruction to offer all actions to the one supreme source point toward a non-dualistic underlying reality.