but they are in Me. Me, the inexhaustible, beyond
them, the world knows not, for it is confused by these three qualities
(conditions); and hard to overcome is the divine illusion which
envelops Me, while it arises from the qualities. Only they pass
through this illusion who come to Me alone. Wicked men, whose
knowledge is taken away by illusion, relying on a devilish (demoniac)
condition, do not come to Me. They that have not the highest knowledge
worship various divinities; but whatever be the form that any one
worships with faith I make his faith steady. He obtains his desires in
worshipping that divinity, although they are really bestowed upon him
by Me.[10] But the fruit of these men, in that they have little
wisdom, has its end. He that sacrifices to (lesser) gods goes to those
gods; but they that worship Me come to Me. I know the things that
were, that are, and are to be; but Me no one knoweth, for I am
enveloped in illusion. I am the supreme being, the supreme godhead,
the supreme sacrifice, the Supreme Spirit, _brahma_."

The knight asks "What is _brahma_, the Supreme Spirit, the supreme
being, the supreme sacrifice?" The Deity: "The supreme, the
indestructible, is called _brahma_. Its personal existence is Supreme
Spirit (self). Destructible existence is supreme being (all except
_[=a]tm[=a]_). The Person is the supreme godhead. I myself am the
supreme sacrifice in this body."

Then follow statements like those in the Upanishads and in Manu,
describing a day of _brahma_ as a thousand ages; worlds are renewed;
they that go to the gods find an end of their happiness with the end
of their world; but they that go to the indestructible _brahma_, the
Deity, the entity that is not destroyed when all else is destroyed,
never again return. There are two roads (as in the Upanishads above),
one, the northern road leading to _brahma_; one, the southern road to
the moon, leading back to earth. At the end of a period of time all
beings reenter the divine nature (Prakriti[11]), and at the beginning
of the next period the Deity emits them again and again (they being
without volition) by the volition of his nature. "Through Me, who am
the superintendent, nature gives birth to all things, and for that
cause the world turns about. They of demoniac nature recognize me not;
they of god-like nature, knowing Me as the inexhaustible source,
worship Me. I am the universal Father, the Vedas, the goal, the
upholder, the Lord, the supe