Bhagavad Gita 14.11

sarva-dvāreṣu dehe ’smin

prakāśa upajāyate

jñānaṁ yadā tadā vidyād

vivṛddhaṁ sattvam ity uta

 

When light shines through every gate,

Through every sense in body’s state;

When clarity fills heart and mind,

Know goodness there has grown refined.

 

My dear Lord, as I go through life, I increasingly feel the need for certainty. Not knowing what to do is not only disheartening; it can also be devastating, especially when the stakes are high.

Yet, O omniscient Lord, let me never, in my need to know, become possessed by the craving for certainty. For the more I seek certainty, the more I make myself vulnerable to insecurity and reactivity, building a fragile fortress around what I think I know. Let me seek shelter in you and in the teachings you reveal and refine through the unfolding of life—not merely in my own certainty about what I think your teachings are.

O Lord who acts through time and who are yourself time, bless me to seek clarity rather than certainty. Grant me clarity so that I can both gratefully accept the truths that shelter me and gently release the truths that no longer do—because life has shown me that those truths are greater than my conceptions of them.
O infallible Lord, bless me to keep my head and heart always open to wisdom as you manifest it in the journey of discovery that is life.

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14.11 The manifestation of the mode of goodness can be experienced when all the gates of the body are illuminated by knowledge.