Bhagavad Gita 9.18

gatir bhartā prabhuḥ sākṣī nivāsaḥ śaraṇaṁ suhṛt

prabhavaḥ pralayaḥ sthānaṁ nidhānaṁ bījam avyayam

 

I am the goal, the sustainer, the master, the guide,

The witness, the shelter, the friend by one’s side.

The source, the supreme end, the resting domain

The imperishable seed, where all things remain.

 

My dear Lord, you are not just the divinity who exists high above, calling me toward you. You are not only the divinity within me, prompting me to manifest my higher nature. You are not merely the all-pervading substratum of existence that enables everything to exist and everyone to subsist. You certainly are all these—and yet you are so much more, beyond my finite capacity to appreciate or articulate.

O inconceivable Lord, you are the imperishable one who exists beyond the power of time that renders all things perishable, and yet you are also inexorable time itself, moving all things intangibly yet irrevocably. Your power, O inexhaustible Lord, is never depleted by your actions. Whatever you create, you invest in it a part of your being. Yet you are never diminished by expanding your energy into everything. Far from it, creation itself is nourished and enriched by being infused with your spark of divinity.

Bless me, my beloved Lord, with an integrated vision that sees all of creation in the light of the Creator. Let me not devalue the many things that offer me shelter during my life’s journey—be they family, friends, fortunes, faculties, or feats. Yet let me remember that all such shelters are sustained by you. Let the shelter I experience in all of them inspire me to take shelter of you—the shelter of all shelters.

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09.18 I am the goal, the sustainer, the master, the witness, the abode, the refuge and the most dear friend. I am the creation and the annihilation, the basis of everything, the resting place and the eternal seed.