Bhagavad Gita 10.20

śrī-bhagavān uvāca

aham ātmā guḍākeśa

sarva-bhūta-āśaya-sthitaḥ

aham ādiś ca madhyaṁ ca

bhūtānām anta eva ca

 

I am the Self in every heart,

Everything that lives is my part;

I am beginning, middle, end—

From me all beings rise and bend.

 

My dear Lord, you offer a vision of reality that is both deep and delightful—not only of the everlasting spiritual reality invisible to ordinary sight, but also of a potentially rich material reality that becomes visible to an educated eye.

O omnipresent Lord, you reveal the world to be far more than a container for my consciousness, like a house, a city, or a country in which I merely reside. It is your energy—indeed, it is you manifesting as your material energy. And you have already blessed me with the capacity to perceive your divine presence in the world. To unleash that capacity, I need to seek and sense your presence in the world—especially through your opulences—and thereby direct my consciousness toward you. If I do not tap the world’s potential to direct me toward you, I will be trapped by that same potential. The world, through its sense objects, will then entice and entrap my consciousness, directing it away from you. Either way, the world will be a pointer for my life; it will never be just a container.

O infallible Lord, bless me to first connect with you regularly—indeed, daily—through direct and dedicated spiritual practices, and then to carry that connectedness with me as I interact with the world, so that I may discover within it you—my living, loving Lord, now and forever.

***

10.20 I am the Supersoul, O Arjuna, seated in the hearts of all living entities. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings.