Bhagavad Gita 18.20

sarva-bhūteṣu yenaikaṁ

bhāvam avyayam īkṣate

avibhaktaṁ vibhakteṣu

taj jñānaṁ viddhi sāttvikam

 

That perception sees one truth in all,

Imperishable, though in forms that fall;

Undivided, even if seeming divided,

Know this as perception pure and elevated.

 

My dear Lord, my perception is the basis of my action. What I see determines what I seek. Therefore, please help me elevate my life by elevating my vision at its foundation.

O all-seeing Lord, diversity is the first reality that comes to my perception. Perceiving this diversity precisely enables me to survive—for example, by keeping a careful distance from deadly predators like lions and by caring for kindly providers like cows.

O Lord who resides inside all and provides insight to all, kindly lead my perception beyond what ensures my survival to that which infuses value into my survival. You have provided me with an evolved consciousness that seeks meaning. Please guide my search to the first things that underlie the existence of the things that first strike my perception.

O merciful Lord, bless me to see the invisible, indivisible, inexhaustible spiritual reality underlying the material. Help me see that no matter how different people seem to be, they are, at their core, essentially similar—they are all souls, just like me. Let me see that they are all eternal and inalienable parts of you, the fundamental reality that underlies and unifies all realities.

O all-attractive Lord, please let my perception reach you and thereby become rich with wisdom and devotion. May that pure perception enliven and enlighten all my actions, so that they are done in a mood of service to you.

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18.20 That knowledge by which one undivided spiritual nature is seen in all living entities, though they are divided into innumerable forms, you should understand to be in the mode of goodness.