Bhagavad Gita 13.34

yathā prakāśayaty ekaḥ

kṛtsnaṁ lokam imaṁ raviḥ

kṣetraṁ kṣetrī tathā kṛtsnaṁ

prakāśayati bhārata

 

As one sun lights the whole wide land,

Spreading brightness on every strand;

So the knower illumines the field,

By whose light all truths are revealed.

 

My dear Lord, I need your mercy to stay focused on the spiritual while being engaged in the material.

O infallible Lord, in achieving this elusive balance, you set the example for me. You are to all of existence what the sun is to the earth. The sun is not affected by the upheavals on the earth, whether political, cultural, or even environmental, and yet it profoundly affects the earth. Without the sun, the earth would not exist, and whatever happens on the earth receives its primary energy from the sun. Similarly, you are the sun that sustains all of existence. You provide both the sustenance and the functioning of existence, while always remaining situated in transcendence.

O merciful Lord, as you are the sun for the earth, help me to be like the sun for my body. Please bless me so that by coming close to you, by becoming absorbed in you, and by absorbing the influence of your transcendence, I may learn the art of changing the world without being changed by it—especially in ways that distort my spiritual conceptions and aspirations.

Bless me, O almighty Lord, to become godly, as you have made my soul to be, so that I may learn to live for you in this world and ultimately come to you through this world.

***

13.34 O son of Bharata, as the sun alone illuminates all this universe, so does the living entity, one within the body, illuminate the entire body by consciousness.