PK CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM Date Due 0^^fmQ^ t|jj^ ^4H993 -«-i.H9gr PRINTED IN U. 5. A, (*?J CAT. NO. 23233 Cornell University Library PK 3633.B5T47 1855 w-TiM or A discourse bfj ifiMMiP ll«m». Q23 158 953 The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023158953 BHAGAVAD-GITA. THE f r BHAGAVAD-GITA; A DISCOURSE BETWEEN KKISHKA AND ARJUNA ON DIVINE MATTERS. A SANSKRIT PHILOSOPHICAL POEM; TRANSLATED, WITH COPIOUS NOTES, AM INTRODUCTION ON SANSKRIT PHILOSOPHY, AND OTHER MATTER : J. COCKBUEN THOMSON, JHEMBEn OP THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OE TEANCE ; AMD OP THE AHTIQDAEIAN SOCIBTlf OF MOKMAHDY. HERTFORD: FEINTED AND PUBLISHED BY STEPHEN AUSTIN, FORE STREET, BOOKSELLER, TO THE EAST INDIA COLLEQE, MDCCCLV. m CORNELL\^ UNIVERSITYJ ^s^LlBRARV IIOEACE HAYMAN WILSON, M.A., F.R.S., BODKN PTIOFKSSOK OK SANSKaiT IN I'UK UNIVERSITY 01' OXFORD, FRKSIURNI' OF FIIK ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, KTC, FTC, TO WHOM r.UUOPE OWES so 5UCH OP HER KNOWLEDGE OP INDIA, INDIA SO MUCH OP THE ESTEEM OP EUROPE; AND WHOSE IXDr.FATIGABLE LABOUKS AND HAKE ABILITIES HAVE THKOWN A BUIGHT LIGHT OVER THE MYSTERIES OP THE EAST; THIS HUMBLE ATTEMPT TO I'OLLOW IN HIS TOOTSTEPS IS INSCKIBED, AS A MARK OP ADMIttVTIOX FOR HIS TALENTS AND GRATITUDE POR HIS FRIENDSHIP ; ]i Y HIS P U P I L, THE TRAJSTSLATOR, CONTENTS. I'AGK. PREFACE ; : INTRODUCTION :— Part I. — On the Origin of Philosopliical Ideas in India xvii „ II. — On the Schools of Indian Philosophy xxxv „ III.-The Sinkhya System liv „ IV. — The Toga, of Patanjali Ixxxii „ V. — The Philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gitli xc Remarks on the Bhagavad-Giti cxiii TRANSLATION :— Chapter I. — The Despondency of Arjuna 1 „ II. — Application to the S&nkhya Doctrine 9 „ III. — Devotion through Action 21 „ IV. — Devotion through Spiritual Knowledge 29 „ V. — Devotion by means of the Renuntiation of Actions 37 „ VI. — Devotion by means of Self-Restraint 43 „ VII. — Devotion through Spiritual Discernment :. 50 „ VIII. — Devotion to the Indivisible Supreme Spirit 56 „ IX. — Devotion by means of Kingly Knowledge and Kingly Mystery 62 „ X. — Devotion to the Divine Virtues .'. 68 „ XI. — The Vision of the Universal Form 74 „ , XII. — Devotion through Worship 82 „ XIII. — Devotion in connection with the Kshetra and the Kshetrajna , 85 „ XIV. — Devotion in connection with the Three Qualities 92 „ XV. — Devotion by the Attainment to the Highest Person 97 „ XVI. — Devotion in regard to the Lot of the Devas and of the Asuras 103 „ XVII. — Devotion as regards the Three Kinds of Faith 107 „ XVItl. — Devotion as Regards Emancipation and Renuntiation 113 INDEX OF PROPER NAMES 124 PREFACE. There are many portions of Sacred Writ which, while it would be presumptuous to refuse their literal acceptation, forcibly prompt an allegorical construction, serving at once as a lesson and a prophecy. Such is the narrative of the building of the Tower of Babel. "When the world, recovered from all but entire destruction, rose fresh in all its worldliness, Godless and inde- pendent, exulting in the discovery of the strength of its physical, and the unbounded vastness of its mental powers, man first learnt the truth that union is the secret of all strength, and that by it, though a mere unit in creation, he might attain a super-human position. Nor was ever confusion more complete or more wonderful than the miracle which crushed his efforts and lowered his proud schemes to the dust. Yet since that moment man has ever been building another and a greater tower which, none the less, has Heaven for its object. Science and enlightenment are ever rising .brick by brick, layer by layer, story by story, towards the level of super -human knowledge; and the great obstacle which put a stop to the erection of the material Babel — the confusion of tongues — still exists to impede that of the Tower of Knowledge, and still con- stitutes the chief hindrance to man's united action and united strength. But if the obstacle exist, the means of surmounting it have been granted us. We have never been debarred from acquiring another language than our own ; and if the scientific man of each country be considered the maker of the bricks, the linguist may. BHAGATAD-GITA. at least, claim to be that no less useful workman wlio visits the kiln of knowledge in every land and brings together the materials for the great work. The study of tongues, then, is not to be slighted. Through a nation's language alone, can its character, as well as its labours after truth, be really known; and the study of nations is the study of mankind in its most liberal form. We' cannot deny that the present age has felt this to be the case more than any that has gone before it, when we see in every country throughout Europe that the Classics of foreign languages constitute the first food administered to the young mind. But what has been granted to Greek and Latin has been refused to Sanskrit literature, which, if it ofier more difficulties and impediments in its approach than others, indisputably possesses as rich, as varied, and as valuable a treasure as any that can be ranked among the dead. Yet it has found many zealous opponents among the learned of the west, and many delusive arguments have been brought against it. It has been called useless, as well for practical as scientific purposes. Let us first consider the former accusation, — its uselessness to those whom we send from our little island to be the governors and dispensers of justice over a hundred and sixty millions of inhabi- tants, and a continent almost as vast as that of Europe itself. And here it is argued, that because Sanskrit is the parent of the manv dialects spoken in India, it is not on that account the more useful to those who must employ them. It would be no more absurd, it is urged, to oblige every Englishman holding an appointment in Malta or the Ionian Islands to pass an examination in Homer or Virgil, because Greek and Latin are the sources of the vernaculars there spoken. But the case is very different with the Indian Peninsula. The modern Greek and Italian races differ far more PEEFACE. from the Greek and the Ebman of old than even their altered languages ; — their character, their religion, their institutions, their modes of expression even, are completely changed, and the heroes of Thucydides and Livy would come among them as utter strangers. Not so the Hindu. His religion, his institutions, his character, aye, even his mode of thought, is the same now as in the time of Kalidasa, the dramatist; or, still more, in that of the poets, Vydsa and Valmfki.* If there be any change at all, it is only that of day to night. Gross superstition and awful fatalism now reign where thought and the search for truth have existed before, — the pedantic Pandit has replaced the learned Brahman, who was poet and philosopher, astronomer and theologian alike; and an age of rumi- nating lethargy has succeeded to one of action and invention.^) But the faults of the one have proceeded in a natural course from the uncorrected errors of the other ; and these errors should be studied if we^would understand and learn to deal with the character of which they are the origin. The European who has not studied the i^Lryanf will never comprehend the Hindu. Again, in a scientific point of view, Sanskrit, as a language, must take a very high place, and claim a very considerable amount of usefulness. The etymologist, the philologian, the ethnologist, and even the historian, cannot perfect their investigations without it,-^-parent, as it is, of almost every European, and of many Asiatic languages. Among the literatures, also, of bygone ages, we must, at least, accord to that of India a third place in extent and value. If Greece and Rome can boast of lyric and dramatic poets, * K&lidSsa flourished at the Court of Vikram&ditya, 56 years before Christ. Vy&sa, the supposed author of the Mah&hh&iata, etc. ; and V&lmiki, that of the Eto^yana, lived sereral centuries earlier, though the exact dates cannot be fixed with any certainty. t The name generally given to the people who used the Sanskrit language in con- tradistinction to the modem inhabitants of India. I say med, since there is reason to believe that from a very remote period the people of the Pjninsula have spoken one or more impure dialects. BHAGATAB-ailA. whom we may still use as models of style, or of Philosophers whose theories have not yet ceased to exert some influence, surely ancient India will be able to do as much, when rightly and generally understood ; and I shall not have succeeded in the least of my objects, if the pages of the following introduction do not prove my position to the reader. But I will not now enter into details. I will content myself with one assertion, which future ages and future Indianists will triumph in proving. Of all the accusations brought against Sanskrit literature, none appears so incontrovertible as that it possesses no history. This I deny. The late M. Burnouf — whom all Oriental scholars must honour as one of the fathers of the study of the East in Europe — was wont to say, that when rightly understood and duly compared, every work in Sanskrit would supply some historical material to fill up the gap which undoubtedly seems to exist; and that a history of the Aijan nation might eventually be traced with as much accuracy as that of any race which has not deigned to chronicle its own existence. Whence, then, these mistaken notions of Sanskrit literature ? Whence these impediments in the way of its study ; these mists of doubt and delusion which surround it ? We answer that the study of Sanskrit is still in its cradle ; and we are forced, at the same time, to confess that it has been but indifferently nursed even by its most zealous students. It is now more than a hundred years since Father Pons, a French missionary, wrote a letter dated Karikal, the 23rd of November, 1740,* on the religion, philosophy, an^d religion of the Hindus ; yet it was only in 1852 that a first attempt was made at Berlin, by Professor Weber + in the form of lectures, to arrange and consolidate all that has * See ' M^moires de 1' Inde :' toL sir., 1781. t See ' Vorlesungen ueber die Indische Literatur-geschichte.' Berlin, 1852. been agglomerated on the subject of the literature of Hindustan ; and, great as is the praise due to his diligence and research in so diiEcult a task, we cannot but regret that even this undertaking should have been carried out in a manner to make it useless to any but scholars. We must yield a full palm of praise to the labours of all the founders ot this study in Europe, — men who have devoted their lives to the unravelling of the mysteries of the East. Great names are not wanting among the dead and the living to call forth the admiration of their followers — Jones, WUkins, Colebrooke, Wilson, Johnson, WilHams, and many others among ourselves ; Schlegel, Lassen, and Windischmann, in Germany ; Ch^zy, Burnouf, Langlois, and Deslongchamps, in France ; but we cannot refrain from regretting that aU, or nearly all, these distinguished men should have looked on their pursuits as peculiar and exclusive, and retained their greatest discoveries for the small chosen circle of Orientalists ; — in short, that the external and less laborious world has as yet derived little benefit from them. Though we may regret, we cannot, however, blame. Every study, be it of languages or of science, passes through the same tedious course. A few eccentric minds, fired with a burning thirst for knowledge, have set out with slight materials on an unbeaten track of discovery. Their followers have modified and corrected the work of their masters, and have worked alike in their own confined sphere. But a period arrives in every study, when the labours of aU its scholars must be reduced to one united and harmonious whole ; when the bricks that one has baked, the mortar another has mixed, and the beams which a third has cut, must be brought together and arranged by the hand of the builder, in the form of another story added to the great Tower of Knowledge which may reach to the skies. BHAGAVAD-GITA. Such a period, it seems to me, has now arrived for the study of the Indian Peninsula and its sacred tongue. Much has been written, much hazarded, much even proved on particular branches and single topics ; and a demand is now made for some one who, content to work on the foundation laid by others, will coUect the broad features that reign through all and present them to the general reader. In such a capacity I now volunteer ; and if I be found, on test, to succeed but indifferently, some allowance may, I trust, be made for me, in the novelty and difficulty of the task. The method I have adopted is simple, and makes its results available at the same time for the student and the general reader. It is that of giving an easy but literal translation of the best Sanskrit works, accompanied by copious explanatory notes, and preceded by such an introduction on the subject-matter of the work, as shall make the translation intelligible and palatable to all who may read it, and spare the student the labour of searching among remote and scattered heaps for the information he requires. If the choice of a philosophical work, with which to commence, should seem strange to some, I may be allowed to defend it in a few words. In the first place, I must remind the objector that the choice is far from being unlimited. There are very few works in all the mass of Sanskrit prose and verse compositions which have not been already sufficiently treated by scholars of acknowledged authority, as to enable me to dispense with many tedious pre- liminaries ; and stiU fewer, the style and language of which is sufficiently simple for the student who is not far advanced. Again, of all the subjects treated in Indian literature, few seem to me so weU adapted to the taste of the general reader as that of philosophy. While he would shrink from an investigation of their religious ideas, through the thick maze of complicated PKEFACB. mythology and symbolism which envelopes them, he will gladly inquire what the Hindu mind has been capable of producing in the clearer field of theoretical investigation. While its Science might interest those only who had pursued the same subjects with European and modern materials, its Philosophy seems to me to offer something of interest to every thinking mind. Their Drama, their Poetry, their Didactic Literature, were mostly devoid of the indispensable requisites ; and the only other work which was fully suited to the same object was the weU-known collection of instructive fables called Hitopadesha. When for a moment T hesitated between this and the present work, I was reminded that the ground of the former was already occupied by the excellent English, and German translations of Professors Johnson and Max Miiller. Lastly, the Bhagavad-Gita itself offers many advg,ntages. Belonging to that school of Sanskrit philosophy which I think we must regard as the first upward flight of the Hindu mind, shackled hitherto by the trammels of superstition, and weighed down by the arrogant oppression of an all-powerful hierarchy, it adds to its theories the first ideas of that strange system which converted the multitudes of a vast region into the most rigid ascetics, and which i eigns gloomily over the minds of so large a portion of its population. In this respect it presents a strange and complete picture of the Hindu character, and is therefore not without general interest. In the Introduction which foUows will be found an account of the poem entitled the Bhagavad-Git4 and of its subject- matter. It is here scarcely necessary to state more than that it is a philosophical poem, — ^not merely philosophical theories in Sanskrit verse, — ^but really a poem in the fullest acceptation of the word. It is an episode inserted in the great Sanskrit Epic called Mahabh^rata — the Iliad of India, — ^which, if be not equal Xli BHAGATAD-GITA. to the great Epic of the West in the brilKancy and variety of its colouring, and the music of its style, is not inferior to it in that masculine power which only rude uncivilized nations can produce. Its philosophy has been ranked under that most ancient school — the Sankhya — which claims Kapila as its founder ; and under that branch of it, the Yoga, which is ascribed to another half-fabulous Brahman, Patanjali. "What those systems are, and how far it is justly ranked with them, is the subject of the ensuing introduction. I must now speak of the forms in which the Bhagavad-Gita has been already made public. It was first brought to light in that of a translation by the learned Oriental scholar. Sir Charles "Wilkins, in the year 1785, and the translation was published in French by M. Parraud in Paris in 1787. Of the original translation we cannot speak with entire satisfaction. Doubtless, as a first attempt, and with the slight knowledge of Hindu philosophy then at hand, it is praiseworthy; but it is defective in being too little translated. All words that present the slightest difiiculty of rendering into English are left untranslated, and nothing but a short and barely sufi5.cient note added to explain them. In the French version this is not amended, and the meaning of Wilkins rendered rather more obscure than clearer. The first edition of the Sanskrit Text of the Bhagavad-Gita was published in Calcutta in 1808, edited by the Brahman Babu-rdma — editor, before and since, of many other standard Sanskrit works — and at the suggestion of the illustrious Colebrooke. The edition most generally used is that of the celebrated August Wilhelm von Schlegel, published, with a very literal Latin translation and notes, at Bonn, in the year 1 823 ; while, for a greatly improved and augmented edition, we have to thank his no less celebrated pupil Christian Lassen, who re-produced it at the same place in 1846. PEEFACE. Of the Latin translation which accompanies these editions, and which is used and appreciated by all Orientalists, I need only now say that it cannot be too highly praised: though perhaps it is to be regretted that in their zeal to correct the error into which their predecessor had fallen, both master and pupil have gone too far, and attempted to translate much that had better have been left alone. Lastly, we must name with the highest eulogy a most able Greek translation prepared at Benares by the learned Greek Orientalist, Demetrios Galanos, with the assistance of the Brahman Kandadarsa, and printed at Athens, with an introduction by M. Typaldus, in 1846. This, it will be seen, is by far the best translation which exists, while the notes which accompany it are in every respect invaluable. But I cannot conclude this notice without referring, as I do with the greatest pleasure, to a French translation, prepared some years past by one whose name has been already raised high in the esteem of the scholastic world by his essays on the S&nkhya and Nyaya systems of Hindu philo- sophy, M. Barth^lemy St. Hilaire. This able production has been unfortunately prevented from appearing at present, but with that frank and amiable generosity by which he is distinguished, its author has laid the manuscript entirely at my disposition. It is an excellent free translation, following in most essential points that of Schlegel and Lassen, but preferable to it from its superior clearness and explicitness. Of these four translations the only one available to the general English reader was that of Wilkins, and even were this still easily obtainable, it would be far from giving a clear idea of the work in question, and still less of its philosophy. The work of Schlegel and Lassen contains no agcount whatever of the philosophical ideas of the Bhagavad-Gita, nor is any attempt made in their notes to explain the more obscure passages ; while I BHAGAVAD-GITA. think it will be admitted that the student who knows little of Sanskrit philosophy, will often be as much puzzled to divine the meaning of the Latin translation, as of the original Sanskrit text. Lastly, the excellent work of M. Galanos is in Greek, which woxild deter many from its perusal. I cannot pretend that I have departed very materially from any of these translations in the more essential points ; it will be seen later in what details I may differ from each, and on what points I may claim the right of a fresh version. Yet it is not so much, be it well understood, the details of my translation which I seek to thrust before the public, but the popular form with which I have attempted to invest it. The Introduction presents a general view of the rise of philosophical ideas in India, and of the principal schools into which they distributed themselves. It then par- ticularizes the Sdnkhya system, and the Yoga and Karmayoga branches of it, and proceeds to a minute investigation of the doctrines contained in our poem. Lastly, it presents a Critical and Historical Review of the whole work. In the Translation itself, I have attempted to preserve, if not the order of the words, at least that of the sense of the original, and while making it so literal that the beginner may employ it as a key to the text, have endeavoured to render it sufficiently English, for the general reader not to be turned back by its peculiarities. The Notes have been placed at the foot of each page that the sense of every obscure word or passage may be grasped at once, and long explanations are given wherever they are required. Lastly, an Index of Proper Names contains all that I have been able to gather on the subject, and is much more extended than that of Lassen. The task has not b^n an easy one, and I leave it to the reader to judge if I have performed it suitably. I can only say that it was not -undertaken without the countenance of one whom I am proud to be able to call my friend and preceptor, and who is justly considered as the first of living Orientalists, Horace Hayman Wilson, and with that I courageously face criticism. I cannot refrain, ere I conclude, from paying some slight tribute to the liberality of those among whom I write this. During the last year I have continually enjoyed the friendship and assist- ance of some of the most illustrious savans of France ; and, indeed, to their generosity and aid it is owing that I have been enabled to complete the attempt which I now submit to the public. jT. COCKBURN THOMSON. Paris, 1855. INTEODTJCTION. 05r THE PHILOSOPHY OP THE HINDUS. PAET I. ON THE ORIGIN OF PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS IN INDIA. When we strive to furnish, a definition of the meaning of the word "Philosophy," we are startled at the difficulty of the task. We are met hy one of those many abstract ideas which cannot be handled, or reduced within the narrow circle which a definition requires ; one of those vague expansive conceptions which belong only to a high state of civilization, and which if they existed at all ia the mind of the past did so as mysteries only, and found no words by means of which they might be vulgarised for the use of a licentious world. The word 'philosophy' has a far narrower and better defined meaning in the distant past, in the rude methodical school-days of mankind, than in the present age. And this meaning is sufficiently demonstrated in its very etymology, to which we are compelled to have recourse. There are few countries, among aU that can boast a literature, where philosophy has developed itself clearly, independently, and, so to speak, spontaneously ; and demanded for itself a name. Perhaps Greece and India may be considered as the only two such, and the philosophies of other nations may be looked upon, either as the offspring of these, or as a species of religious mysticism. Under the former we may rank all the modern European schools : under the latter the grout systems of China, Persia, BHAGATAD-GITA. Syria, and Egypt. In India and Greece, then, the names for philosophy have the same meaning — ' the desire for knowledge' — (ftiXocro^ui and jijndsd ; and in them we find a true definition of its origin and original form. It is the dawning consQJousness of the power of the in- tellect, which, blushing at its ignorance and its blind belief, urges the search after hidden and unknown truth through the immediate channels of internal investigation, rather than the surer but more tedious path of established science. The birth of Philosophy is an era in the annals of every people; and the enquiry as to the causes of its origin is inseparable from the investigation of their religious and social history. Thus the history of most nations is divisible into three great periods, which serve alike for their religious and social peculiarities; 1st. The age of Barbarism; 2nd. The age of Mysticism ; 3rd. The age of Investigation. Let us examine these briefly. 1st. The age of Barbarism. When man went forth from Ararat and spread himself over the face of the earth, little was left him but in- stinct and conscience. Instinct prompted self-preservation, and this again suggested invention, t Hence the origin of useful arts. ' According to the nature of the climate, and the soil to which he wandered, he became husbandman or shepherd. Choice would send him to the pleasant district which could be tilled, necessity drive him to the mountain, or the wild plain, where cattle would yield him equal support. But in either case he was dependent on nature. If a husbandman, earth afforded Mm grain, which he laid in her bosom, and left, as it were, to her to foster ; while, when the grain sprung up, sun, rain, and air, as he soon discovered, were necessary for its growth. If a herdsman, his flock no less required water to drink and warmth to cheer them ; and the air or wind could counteract the excesses of both, could cool the heat of the one, and dry the land when deluged by the other. Thus he felt his dependence. Sun, wind, and rain, were necessary for his happiness, and even for his support ; but they were above his control, and seemed to favour him at their own will. He felt that they were his superiors, and their spontaneous action suggested the idea of their personality. The elements and the common phenomena INTHODUCTION. were deified. But how to propitiate them, how to make the clouds rain, the sun shrue, the wind blow; when his crops, his herds, or himself required it? If his feUow-man were to be conciliated, and won to perform some act of favour, the request must be preceded with the indulgence of some wish of the other's, a gift must be offered. A gift, therefore, should be offered to the elements, and, forsooth, the best that might be. Hence the origin of sacrifice. But if the gift were wanting, instinct had abeady taught him the power of fiattery, and hence the origia of hymns of praise. Prayer naturally followed these, and we have thus a complete system of Element-worship. But while this was the work of instinct, conscience was not quite forgotten, though man's natural selfishness had led him to put it aside. Conscience taught him that there was some unseen, unknown, Almighty Being in and out of the world. Some one to create himself, some one to create the world around. Some one to bring death, and to receive him after death, and accordingly the notion of a Supreme Being took root deep in the mind, though always with mystery and uncertainty. This, then, constitutes the religion of the Barbarian age of most nations, and to this may the most complicated mythology, the most superstitious mysticism of after ages be reduced — the worship of the elements, and the idea of a Supreme Being. 2nd. The age of Mysticism. But as civilization progressed, when the city rose from the village, and arts became more and more polished, the elements, which had been all in all to the rude countrymen, were useless to the civilian. Every calling had now its patron, which, were he an element, an historical personage, or merely an abstract idea, was equally deified. Self-interest demanded a supernatural guardian for each man's vocation. The soldier must have a god of war, the sailor personifies and propitiates the storm and the waves, the woodman cannot be alone in the huge forest rustling around him, and peoples it with sylvan beings. Hence the origin of Polytheism and Hero-worship. But the dawn of civilization is also the age of poetry. It is not tiU man is severed from nature, that he loves and learns to imitate her, to dream of her, and picture her in glowing colours. The rustic may mingle rude verses in his village dance, XX, BHAGAVAD-GITA. and the savage warrior chant fierce couplets of war, but though these will possess a physical and majestic power, they will not be that poetry which touches the heart with its softness, and inflames it with its fancies. The true birth of poetry dates in every country from the first dawn of civilised life. And this poetry exercises a powerful influence on the religion of the people. It seizes greedily on all that is ideal ; all, too, that is ancient. Tradition has an untold charm for it, and it blindly receives the errors of the past, for the mere sake of their antiquity. Thus the idea of a great in- visible Supreme Being comes prominently forward, and the worship of the elements, no longer the simple, seMsh, but necessary faith of the shepherd and husbandman, is incorporated with this spiritual idea, and they them- selves invested with mystic personality. Hence we find in so manycountries the notion of a Trinity in Unity, superior to all deities ; and even where this distinct notion is wanting, as perhaps in the western mythology, the elements have stiU. lent their character to the chief of gods. Jupiter has become at once the giver of life and warmth, the lord of thunder and of rain. But the idea of a deity once removed irom the visible to the invisible — from the actual to the ideal — ^poetry — ^imagination — does the rest. A complete theogony and a world of gods is soon established. Man's relation to the superhuman world is now, too, placed on a different basis. Where before the gods were propitiated with an express selfish interest, they now claim worship as their due, and promise little in return. Something, however, must be promised, or their worship would soon fall into disuse and contempt; and the reward offered is an equally ideal one, that of happiness after death. But the hope of an uncertain future is not a sufficient encouiagement; some punishment must be added to frighten man into the worship of the ideal and invisible ; and the punishment is misery hereafter. These inventions, which follow in a natuial course upon the worship of ideal deities, are supported and developed by the priesthood a class which has arisen in every country at a very early period from the practice of performing sacrifices by proxy to the elements and primitive deities ; and who, when once established, lose no means of keeping the INTKODirCTION. XXI religion they administer ever before tlie minds of its followers. Hence the first ideas of right and wrong, future punishment and reward ; and hence too the first dawning notion of the immortality of the soul. In manners, then, this is the age of early civilization and commerce, of the establishment of government, andthe administration of justice; inUterature, it is the age of the Lyric and Epic ; in ideas, the age of superstition and mythology, of the establishment of a religion and a priesthood, of in- vention and imagination. But a faith of such fictitious origin as that of Polytheism could not long maintain its hold on thinking minds, at a period when man discovered that he could reason as well as imagine ; that, in short, he was gifted with intellect. The priesliiood might impose their invented cosmogonies and legions of gods and demigods on a timid populace, who dared not risk their crop or their cow for the sake of truth ; but men were found towards the end of this period, who were not only willing but determined to tUnk, and throwing the whole constitution of religion into the abyss of doubt, to hazard even futurity for the liberty of thought. 3rdly. The Age of Investigation. The consciousness of mental power and the desire of knowledge were disgusted at the corrupt theology thrust upon the mind by a now tyrannical and aU-powerful hierarchy, and com- mon sense began to triumph over superstition. But the doubt which had been cast on the fictions of the priesthood, went no further. In no country has early philosophy been sceptical : none among the first thinkers have sought to deny the existence of what is obvious to the senses, or of those senses themselves. Ifay, on the other hand, conscience has developed itself; and the inquirer has been- the first to establish the existence, and even the immortality, of the soul. The existence of self and of the world has been taken for granted, and the question has been, " Why, and how do I, — does this world, exist ? " "How long do we exist, and what do we become when we apparently cease ,to exist ? " The nature of the soul and of the universe rather than that of God, has been the topic of early philosophy. The soul aifoMed a freer field for investigation, unshackled as it was by the work of preceding ages. But when the nature of the 3 XXU BHAGAVAD-GITA. gods was proposed to the enquirer, lie generally accepted much from the established religion ; the deities were left alone in their places, nor were their various attributes disputed. But their glory had departed from them. A stiU higher being walked over |heir heads : the Great Unknown was higher than they, because more spiritual, less defined, and more absolute in his sovereignty. Thus, at least, was it with Socrates and KapUa. Both of them left their country's gods in their places, but both of them brought forward a new ideal deity to rob them of their divinity — Socrates his Unknown One, and KapUa his Pantheistic Soul. This, however, could not last. AU men were not such spiritualists as the first thinkers, and man demanded some more palpable notions of the deity whom he was asked to acknowledge. From this arose the attempt to reconcile philosophy and the established faith, and consequently the Age of Investigation has generally concluded with one of controversy, and schools of philosophy and sects of belief have divided the world between them. "We have thus seen the history of the mind of every nation divided into three periods, the Barbaric or physical — the period of conscience and instinct; the Mystic, superstitious, and mythological period — that of dawning civilization and Idealism; and the Intellectual period — ^that of enquiry and light. "We do not for a moment suppose that every nation of the earth has passed through these periods of development. Far from it. Had such been the case, we should have had fifty times the actual number of national philosophies. Both internal and external circumstances have occurred to obstruct and often annihilate the development of a race. Thus the Britons were conquered by the Eomans at a period of barbarism. The Slavonic races are still lingering in the second period. Egypt had never power to rise, from mysticism — which took such firm root along the borders of the NUe — to the light of philosophy ; and the Hebrew people is an exception to the whole theory, since they, and they only, have been favoured at aU times with direct revelations of the Truth. But of aU nations which have had time and opportunity to work out their own civilization, none affords so excellent an example of what has INTEODirCTIOIf. been just shown as the Aryan or Hindu race. For at least twenty centuries they were undisturbed possessors of the same seat, in a climate which was itself opposed to internal revolution, and with a character that, more than any in the world, favoured the progress of thought. When we speak of the Aryan race, we must not of course consider them as the aborigines of India. There seems little doubt that, at a period not long anterior to the use of the Vedio hymns, they were a race of simple cowherds who entered the Peninsula at the north-west corner, and long dwelt on the banks of the Scinde ere they penetrated into the interior. Whatever the aborigines were, one thing would at least seem clear, that the new race borrowed little from them, save perhaps a few generic names. But if the people they subdued or drove out had no influence on the character of the conquerors, the latter were not equally free from that of the climate, and a great difference of character can be remarked be- tween the Epics that were sung in the Panjab and the Drama that was acted on the banks of the Ganges. In the Vedas we can trace with ease the period of barbarism,' the nomad herdsman life, and the worship of the elements. In the Vedic period only four elements are known, or at least only four are personified, fire, water, air and earth. But the fourth, neither in India nor elsewhere, has been deified at an early epoch, and the reason is obvious. The worship of the elements is a selfish one. Sun, rain, and wind could administer, as they thought, voluntarily to the wants of man ; but the earth was under man's own control, he could plough or dig it, and it yielded fruit ; he could leave it alone, and it did not act spontaneously. Again, the other three had something unknown and unapproachable about them ; the earth, however, was man's own, and he could not worship the ground beneath his feet. Thus we find three elements deified in the Vedas, fire, water, air, • I do not mean by this that the Vedas, as writings, and as we possess them, belong to the age of Barbarism. Polytheism and Mysticism have already impregnated these ancient hymns. It must, however, be remembered that older songs, belonging to a simpler age, were handed down, and hero incorporated with the more recent ones, and it is among these that we find marked traces of Element-Worship. BHAGATAB-GITA. or in their more common forms of sun, rain, and wind, and tte chief of these is naturally the sun. The consciousness of a single Supreme Being, Creator and Guardian of the world, was then brought into play; and to invest the idea with a. palpable form, the^chief of tlie triad, the sun, was identified with it. Hence we find in the Vedas, hymns which attribute to the sun aU the qualities of a Supreme Being, omnipresence, omnipotence, the oversight and care of mankind, and a hundred more. Thus the idea of one God was established by the side of that of a Trinity, and in some degree connected with it. Meanwhile, however, the phenomena of nature found first wonderers, and afterwards worshippers ; or rather they received the respect, without the position of Gods. The thundercloud was personified in Indra, and as he was the most terrible' and least comprehended, he soon became the chief of the deities. Earthly fire and earthly water were distinguished from sun and rain, and Agni, Varuna, and even Vayu (the wind) were ranged among the demigods. But once the habit of deification established, and it extended in every direction ; the earth, the air, the water, and the upper regions of the clouds were peopled by the superstitious with beings favourable or obnoxious to mankind ; Gandharvas, the musicians, and Apsarasas, the beautiful nymphs, of heaven, on the one hand : Daityas, demons and giants ; Eakshasas, evil sprites ; and many more, on the other. To this second period moreover must be assigned the strange institution of Caste ; which, in its perfection, if not in its first idea, may be said to belong exclusively to India. W Its origin is to be traced, first to the separation of the conquered aborigines from their conquerors, and next to the power of the priesthood. A In an examination of the four castes, Brahmans or priests, Kshatriyas or warriors, Vaishyas or artizans, and Shudras or slaves ; we find that the three first are united, and severed widely from the last, by the privilege of investiture with the Brahmanical thread at years of maturity, which seems to indicate thattheyaU ranked among the conquerors; while the wretched Shudra, who claimed no right to such a privilege, was undoubtedly the converted but enslaved native. Meanwhile the priesthood, as is every- where the case, being the class to whom leai-ning of eveiy kind was confined INTROBUCTION. XXV felt and asserted their mental superiority ; and drawing themselves apart.T secured their right by making it a crime unpardonable in this or the next life, to kill a Brahman. The distinction, lastly, between the knight and the artizan, is but a natural one, which has sprung up in every land and every age. Thus the institution of Caste, so favourable to the supremacy of the hierarchy and the pride of the nobility, gained ground, tiU. a divine origin and supreme laws were arrogantly claimed for it, and the Vaishya and Shudra did not dare to rebel. But this very institution — established so firmly, and strengthened by every artifice of the priesthood, supported as they were by warriors and monarchs — was well nigh the cause of its own ruin. ^Five hundred years before Christ a social and religious revolution took place in India, which only failed because it was premature, but which nevertheless could send its doctrines over the whole earth, and gain a hold, which it has since kept, over nearly a third of the in- habitants of the entire globe. "We have said that learning was centered in the Brahmans. It was their profession, as war and kingship were that of the Kshatriya, The Brahman was therefore the first in whom the light of reason dispersed the cloud of superstition. The Brahman was the first to doubt the truth of the faith he upheld and administered to passive multitudes. The Brahman was the first philosopher : Kapila, PatanjaH, the Vyasa, Jaimini, Gautama and ICanada, the founders of the philosophic schools of India, were all Brahmans. Poets, astronomers, grammarians, musicians and physicians, belonged to the same caste. But if the light shone among the Brahmans, they were sensible enough to hide it beneath a bushel, and their policy was that of the priesthood of popery, to keep the people always in the dark. The schools that listened to the doctrines of Kapila and Patanjali were but small knots of studious Brahmans, and it was only when controversy broke in, that the fever of 1 The Hindus place Buddha 544, 643, or 546, B.C. This however is hy no means a certainty. The King Kanishlca or Kanerki is said to have flourished exactly 400 years after Buddha, and the coins of this monarch determine his date as 40, A.D., thus making the date of Buddha 360 B.C. For a full account of the controversy on the subject, see Weber's "Vorlcsungcn iiber Sanskritischc Littcratiir-Geschichte. BHAGAVAD-GITA. sectarianiBm was communicated to the people. Then was the power of the priesthood shaken, then was its infallibility declared a falsehood, when it could not agree in the tenets it taught; and, when nothing but the spark was wanting to set the whole in a blaze, Buddha came from the far west — a prophet of liberty appeared to preach the divine doctrines of equality and independence, and the people rose in a mass against their oppressors. But the foresight of the Brahmans had been judiciously employed. They had bound the strength of the nation firmly to their side. The Kshatriya had been taught that all his interests were with the priesthood, and opposed t» the artizan and the merchant ; and Buddhism, which flourished for a while, was at length driven by arms to seek a long home in China, in Ceylon, and in Thibet, and even to impregnate early Christianity with some of its forms,^ if not of its doctrines. "We have dwelt long on this Buddhist revolution, because we look on it as a visible manifestation of Hindu Philosophy. It is, on the one hand, a social, on the other, rather a philosophic than a religious revolution, and late studies have demonstrated that the doctrines of Buddha were, one and all, those of Kapila, the founder of the Sankhya school. 'Nor can we con- sider the latter to be very long anterior to the former. Whether Buddha be placed in the sixth or the fourth century before Christ, the rise of philosophical ideas cannot date much before the seventh century. The Aryans can scarcely have established themselves in the north and centre of India long before the ninth or tenth centuries before Christ. The system of castes had then to be established, the character of the whole nation had to change gradually, through the efiect of the climate ; from the hardy activity of the Doab, to the contemplative routine of the Ganges : the disgust to life, the great secret of the first ideas of Hindu Philosophy, had to be induced and fixed by a steady change, wrought by the climate and geographical peculiarities of tl\,e new country ; ere the Brahman even, ' Sucli for instance are the institutions of monastic and conventual life, the retirement from the world and self-torture of hermits, the use of bells for chmches, of rosaries, of pictures and relics of saints ; and many other other customs, the origin of which is difficult to account for in any other manner. INTKOBtrCTION. XXVU supported as he was by tittes, and faring on the fat of the land, without labour and with nothing but the mind to set in motion ; could find it necessary to seek consolation in a hidden and uncertain future. To this disgust to life must we therefore attribute the first blooming of contemplation in India, the first philosophical ideas ; and when we say that the Sankhya system must be regarded as the earliept development of such ideas ; and Eapila considered not only the founder of that school, but the originator of all Indian philosophy ; we must be understood to speak of those ideas reduced to a system. Singly, they must have had an eai'lier origin and much speculation, much demonstration even, must have preceded EapUa. UThe very regularity, simplicity, clearness, and decisiveness of his arrangement militate forcibly against the supposition that any man should have discovered, worked out, and perfected such a system, without any groundwork to build upon. We might as well believe Euclid to have been the earliest mathematician, as that Kapila was the first philosopher. He is, however, the first of whom we have any traces, and it will therefore be our object to delineate, as correctly as possible, the rise and development of those ideas which he borrowed from his predecessors. The first great tenet which Indian philosophers established, if we may not say discovered, was the individual but connected existence of souls. That man, endowed with a consciousness of his own existence, with the power of reflection, and the thirst for knowledge through internal investi- gation, should feel convinced, in the very outset, that there existed that within him which was neither matter nor mind, which was eternal and superior to matter, is only natural : but that, knowing that each man was more or less like himself, and therefore gifted with a like soul ; he should perceive any original connection between his own soul and his neigh- bour's, and seek a common origin for them ; is not consequent on mere contemplation. Some existing belief must have aided the earlier phi- losophers in arriving at this conclusion; and this we believe to have been metempsychosis or the transmigration of souls. As this belief constitutes the basis of all Indian philosophy, it may be well to give BHAQAVAD-GITA. some account of it. Undoubtedly it is the most novel and original idea ever started in, any age or country; undoubtedly, too, the place of its invention is India, and India only; and the age — that period immediately preceding the rise of what are properly called philosophical ideas, and immediately following the reduction of polytheism to a system. Greece owes it to Pythagoras, Pythagoras had it in person either from Egypt or India. Egypt received it from India with her Osiris and Isis, with her cargoes of apes, parrots, and gold. In India it originated ; and — though Voltaire would attribute it to the prohibition, necessitated by the climate, against killing certain animals, and the reverence thence attached to them, from which they were supposed to possess souls like man ; and though St. Hilaire would discover its origin in the absence of any feeling of . individual personality and spirituality, arising from the sensuality of the Indian disposition, — I cannot but think that it is to be traced to nothing more nor less than the polytheism which preceded it. We have already shown how the elements were personified. Other personifioatioiis followed quickly upon these ; but what did these personifications amount to ? In the most mystic periods of the mythological age, these elements, these natural phenomena, these beings which peopled space, were undoubtedly believed to possess bodies more or less like those of men ; but this did not constitute their personification: it was not by these invisible bodies alone that they could witness, judge of, and interfere in the affairs of men ; they must have possessed more than a mere corporeal likeness to man in order to do this, they must have had minds to discriminate and wills to apply ; and this will constitutes, in the earliest ideas, the soul itself. The deities, then, possessed an individual personality like that of man. But the system of deification had gone still further. Admiration had given heroes an apotheosis ; and, in the meanwhile, the life of the jungle, and the love of, and necessity for, the chase, had rendered the Indian more intimate with the inferior animals than any other race. He had learnt to descry several of the attributes of man in each of the wUd beasts with which he had to deal. The ape had afforded him a most striking instance of this ; and from India do we thus derive those many fables which attribute INISODUCTION. XXtX human thoughts and human voices to quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles.' Thus gods, animals, and even elements and natural phenomena, were, so to speak, humanized ; while, on the other hand, men and beasts were deified ; and hence the recognition of like souls in all three classes of beings. But the Hkeness of these souls to one another would immediately give rise to the idea that the same souls passed through certain grades of bodies, from animals to man, from man to gods. This idea once im- planted, the belief in the eternity of the soul would immediately ensue, since it would be seen that in passing from one body to another, the body it quitted died, whereas the soul died not, and this idea would be repeated to infinity. The eternity of the soul once established, a certain number of individual souls would be supposed to exist and to have existed from the creation of matter, which they occupy, and thus a common origin would have been easily asserted for them. This common origin was Spirit, which was later only identified with the Supreme Being ; and since the individual souls emanated from it, they must also, at the dissolution of matter, be re-absorbed into it. It therefore exists, and continues to exist, and keeps up its connection to a certain degree with the souls which have emanated from it. Thus, then, we have the first tenet of philosophy, the individual exist- ence and connection of souls, with which are connected the eternity of the soul and its transmigrations. The disgust to this life, the certainty of its repetition by means of those transmigrations, the knowledge of the eternity of the soul, and of the existence of a spiritual essence, into which it would eventually be re-absorbed, now induced men to ask how this re- absorption might be hastened, and transmigration thus avoided. The answer was both natural and noble — Knowledge. The grades through which the soul had been traced, from reptile to beast, from beast to man. ' It is worthy of notice that those animals chiefly are introduced in these fables with which the Hindii was most intimately acquainted— domestic animals and the larger beasts of the forest, (fish and insects appearing but rarely). The characters given to each — the good-natured gullibility of the elephant, the bumptious stupidity of the ass, the insidious pandering of the jackall, the calm philosophy of the tortoise, and the folly of the ape, — are proofs of the early attempt to afSrm their possession of souls, endowed with the same peculiarities as those' of man. 4 XXX BHAGATAB-GITA. from man to inferior deity, from inferior to superior deity : — ^when the' soul had reached this point, it was at the utmost limit of material hodies : what was heyond ? The essence of spirit, into which it was to be event- ually re-absorbed. How then could this point be gained without the long process of transmigrating from body to body? Of course, by render- ing the soul as much as possible like that of the superior deity. And in what did his superiority consist ? The superiority of man over beasts was that of his mind, his knowledge ; that of the gods over man would be the same ; and it Was therefore knowledge which made perfect, and perfec- tion which emancipated the soul from matter. This superior knowledge, said the earlier philosophers, is philosophy itself acquired by contemplation. The next great tenet established by the early Aryan philosophers was the individual existence and connection of material bodies. This, of course, resulted from perception and reflection, a very little of which showed them that when a body of any kind lost its individuality, it decomposed and yielded up each of its elementary parts to those other combinations of elements which were ready to receive them. But though they were fully convinced that each body of matter was composed of elementary parts, they did not recognize the fact that these elementary parts re-appeared in other bodies, after the decomposition of the first and they consequently attributed the apparent disappearance of these elements to re-absorption in a new principle, which Kapila was probably the first to systematize, and which we shall have occasion to describe later. It is now sufficient to say that it was to matter what the essence of spirit was to the individual soul. From it the elementaiy parts emanated, and into it they were again absorbed. Thus, in the earliest ages of investigation, was the great question, ' "What am I ? ' answered in its psychological and physiological points of view; and in all this, inquiry, not doubt, was the impulse. The existence of the soul was first established, and consciousness was the means em- ployed. From this fact was deduced the existence of spirit. Again, the existence of matter was received as a thing of course, and perception was here the instrument of investigation. From the existence of matter, that INTEODTJCIION. XXXI of a material essence was deduced by a like process. In both these deductions, inference had to supply the place which Eevelation on the one hand, and science on the other, occupy in Christian philosophy. But it remained for a later age, it remained for Kapila to draw the line accurately between matter and soul, soul and spirit, and to reduce to a regular system their respective developments. But a loftier question was soon to be proposed, and doubt was soon to replace investigation. This question was ' Why do I exist ? Why does matter exist ? ' 'I grant,' said the enquirer, ' that matter and soul, that spirit and material essence, exist under the given conditions ; I feel the same disgust to Kfe, and I am convinced that there is a future of some kind; that, when my body is exhausted by age and disease, my soul quits it, but still exists. I have perfect confidence in the grades of transmi- gration you put before me ; I believe that I shall be a deity, and that I have been an animal ; I can judge for myself that one such state of existence is better than another, and since all are more or less bad, I admit that the only real state of happiness for my soul, will be liberation from material existence of every kind, and re-absorption into the spiritual essence. But what is the reason of this existence, what is that which condemns me to what I loathe ; to what can we ascribe this regular organization of spirit and matter ? I know the how, I wish to know the whf.' It was this question which first divided philosophers. As long as investigation was confined to perception, to inference drawn from percep- tion, and lastly to Eevelation, the final resource when these two failed, philosophers had been united. But this was a question of speculation, and as sach many views might be maintained of it according to each man's ideas rather than his belief. At this period of enquiry, Kapila stood up, not however to answer, bu rather to evade the question. He had turned his attention rather to the physiological than to the psychological view of the universe, and he became, without an effort, materialist. Perception and inference had taught him a system for matter, which removed the necessity of the existence of a Creator. He had infeiTed the existence of a material essence. BHAGAVAD-GITA. and the regular emanation of all matter from it, and its re-absorption into it. One thing only was wanting, the will to decree this emanation and this re-absorption. This will he gave to the material essence, and this, under the name of Prakriti, or nature, beq^me the plastic principle, and, to a certain degree, the deity of his system. At the same time he did not deny the superiority of spirit, and the inferiority of matter. He tacitly admitted the spiritual essence side by side with Prakriti, the material essence ; and the connection of soul — the emanation froih the one, with body, — the emanation from the other; but he went no further. Had he given to that spiritual essence the wiH which he gave to Prakriti, acknow- ledging, as he did, the superiority of spirit, he would have dubbed it a deity — a supreme being, the efiacient, though not the material, cause of the existence both of soul and matter. But this was a point of speculation beyond the limits of his field of enquiry. KapUa is silent on this point, and his silence has acquired for him the name of atheist (ni/r'mhward). The question of ' why V was now taken up, and while Kapila, followed by minds the most remarkable in India, if not in the whole ancient world, formed a school which laid the basis of Buddhism, and through it, was destined hereafter to iofluence the minds of a third part of the human race; another school arose, scarcely less atheist indeed to our ideas, but theist compared with what had gone 'before. Of this school we have no actual remains, but its existence cannot be doubted from that of the two schools which grew out of it,- namely, Patanjali's, and that of the Bhagavad-Gita. This school we may denominate the Theistic (seshwwraj Sankhya. It received from Kapila all but the concession of will to Prakriti, the material essence. Its great addition was the assertion of the existence of a Supreme Being. This idea was not a new one, it was no invention, but simply a revival. We have already seen that it existed in the worship of the elements, but whether it were there the remains of a tradition handed down from Ararat, or the pure detection of conscience, is of no importance here. It is suflcient to know that it was not entirely lost sight of in the age of superstition and polytheism which followed, and that it was now again brought forward to solve the doubt which rose, as speculation INIBODUCIION. XXXIH » advanced upon investigation. But the Supreme Being of early philosophy- was the necessary result of Kapila's system. Will was denied to the material, and conceded to the spiritual essence. The latter was deified, and the material essence was then in a mystic manner made a portion of this deity. In short all existence was referred to the existence of this Being, all action to his will. His will it was which caused souls to emanate from himself, and which, working on the material portion of him- self, caused matter to emanate from the material essence. Thus the position which Kapila had demanded for Prakriti, the material essence, was not refused to it. It was still deified in being made a portion of the Deity himself; but volition, and that only, was denied it. The why was now explained. It was the will of the Supreme Being that he himself should undergo this development into individual soul and organised matter. It was his will that evil should exist beside good, which alone existed in him ; and that the soul, placed in a body the lowest in the scale, should gradually ascend tiU. it reached that of man. To man alone was the choice between good and evil granted, to him alone was it possible to efiiect his emancipation from material Ufe, by the same means which Kapila had set forward — perfection through knowledge ; or by the neglect of this means, to rise in the scale of material bodies by obedience to the established religion, or to sink by neglect of both. Thus a new school was formed which seemed to satisfy doubt, and was the more attractive to the Hindu mind, since it offered it a mystery on which to contemplate, and a theory to be worked out according to fancy. It was a more pliable, a more acceptable, a more tangible system than that of Kapila ; and while the latter, careless of the future, and seeking truth in the explanation of the present, gained admirers and followers among the less selfish, the more courageous, and the higher class of minds ; the Theistic Sdnkhya found many to espouse its cause among those secondary intellects which a fear of the future urged to demand some palpable object of worship. These followers, however, were not men of the first class of intelligence, and we have consequently no writings left by them, whUe those of the schools which were grafted on the pure Theistic Sankhya were XXXIV BHAeATAD-GlTA. 'i tte prodiictions of later ages, and the works of £rahmans, who could not forget their office of preceptor in their love of philosophy. ,Their systems are so closely connected with the history of the changes of the Indian mind, that we shall devote the next sect^n to the attempt to demonstrate the causes that give rise to their formation, and the controversies which, ensuing on their promulgation, were the origin of the foundation of the other so-called schools of Indian Philosophy. INTRODUCTION. PART II. ON THE SCHOOLS OP INDIAN PHILOSOPHY. The schools of which we have received actual remains are considered by the Hindus themselves as six in number, in the following order : — 1. The Atheistical fnw'uhwmraj Sankhya, attributed to Eapila. 2. The Yoga Schools of Patanjali and the Bhagavad-Gita. 3. The Piirva-Mimansa, attributed to Jaimini. 4. The Yedanta or Uttara-Mimansa, to the Vyasa, Krishna I Dwaipdyana. 5. The Nyaya, of Gautama. 6. The Vaisheshika, of Kanada. Our own arrangement would differ somewhat from that of the natives. We would reject the Purva-Miminsa entirely from the list. As will afterwards be seen, when we come to speak of it, this work is not a treatise on Philosophy, but a mystical, superstitious, Brahmanical essay on the Vedas, to oaU which Philosophy would be to insult the schools which properly bear that title. "We would also supply that school mentioned in the last part of the preceding section, of which, it is true, we have no actual remains, but which must necessarily have preceded the Yoga of Patanjali and the Bhagavad-Gita. Our list would then stand as follows, as far as is possible, in chronological order : — 1. The Atheistical Sankhya, of Kapila. The plastic principle. 2. The Theistical Sankhya. The Supreme Being. 3. The Nyaya, of Gautama. The logical method. 4. The Yoga, of Patanjali. Emancipation by asceticism. XXXVl BHAGATAr-GIXA. 5- The Vaisheshika, of Kaaida.' The Atomic system. 6. The Karma-Toga, of the Bhagavad-G-fta. The principles of Asceticism applied to every-day Hfe. 7. The Vedanta, or controversial and mystic Brahmanical school. These seven schools, however, are comprehended in not more than three principal systems, which for the sake of conciseness may he denominated the Sankhya, the Nyaya, and the Vedic systems. The first wUl include Nos. 1, 2, 4, and 6 ; the second, Nos. 3 and 5 ; the third is 1^0. 7. Of the sis schools recognised by the Hindus, none are considered as strictly heterodox ; none, in short, denied the existence of the deities of the established mythology, none subverted the existing forms of worship ; but the Piirva-Mimansa is the only one which is considered as strictly orthodox. The Brahman was permitted to study the Sankhya, the Toga, the Nyaya and the Vaisheshika systems, but while much of their doctrine might be received without danger, much also was to be rejected. In our own arrangement, the first three schools probably preceded the revolution of Buddha. When once that great blow had been aimed and struck with effect at Brahmanism, an age of sectarianism followed; not however till the shock had been recovered, the malcontents again forcibly reduced to submission, and the hierarchy resumed its tyrannical supremacy. It was impossible for a contemplative race like that which dwelt on the banks of the sacred river, when once the chains had been snapped asunder, to submit tranquiUy whUe the links were being mended ; but the Brahman was now determined to fortify his rule against all such con- spiracies, and the new schools were declared heterodox and heretic, and their followers compelled to gather themselves into sects. As in the period which succeeded the first spread of Christianity in the east, and that which followed our own reformation in the west, the spirit of ' Weber ^"Indisclie Litteratur-Geschiolite," Berlin 1852) considers that the Ny&ya and Vaisheshika were composed much about the same time, and sees no reason to doubt that the latter is the more ancient. I am far from insisting on anything so doubtful as a chronological arrangement, but the school of Kan&da bears, to my mind, marks of being posterior to that of Gautama. INTKODTJCTIOir. sectarianism grew apace. Sects multiplied on all sides, divided and sub- divided chiefly by minute pMLosophical distinctions ; and ere long, India was severed into more classes of belief than perhaps any country, including America at the present moment, ever contained. ' The founders, however, of the schools of philosophy recognised by the established religion, had a better claim to the clemency of the priesthood. Unlike those of the earlier heterodox sects, they were Brahmans ; and however little they may have credited the doctrines upheld by their caste — however little respect they may have entertained for their text-books, the Vedas ; — ^they were certainly too much wedded to the institutions of their country, and had too little reason to complain of a system which gave to the' caste to which they belonged a position of undisturbed ascendancy. They were also, perhaps, too negligent of the things of this world, wedded as they were to their own theories, to attempt to infuse their dogmata into the minds of the populace, and by so doing to undermine the existing state of government. As it is to the system which we have generally termed Sankhya that the doctrines of the Bhagavad-Gfta most directly draw our attention, its separate branches will be sepai'ately treated ; and we shall now confine our- selves to a view of the causes which influenced the rise of those branches, and shall then proceed to a brief sketch of the Ifyaya and Vedic, more properly called the Logical and Mystic, systems. We have already said that the history of Indian philosophy was in- timately connected with that of Indian civilization and development. This is more particularly perceived in observing the rise of those branches of the Sankhya system which seem to be posterior to the revolution of Buddha. The Theistic Sankhya, which placed the philosophic doctrines already uttered by Kapila on a more certain and tangible footing, by in- troducing and uniting with them the notion of one Supreme Being, had already been received and gained ground; but — though the existence of such 1 For an account of these sects, consult Colebrooke's Miscell. Essays, vol i., ' On Indian Sectaries,' and Wilson's Essay on the same subject in vols. xvi. and xvii. of the ' Asiatic Eesearches.' XXXVlll BHAGATAD-GITA a Being had been admitted, and that, too, not only among the philosophers who now formed themselves into a school, but even among the Brahmans themselves, who afterwards incorporated this idea with their own religion, and even found it expedient to prove its existence in the Vedas — though no one denied the importance of eflfeoting by some means the emancipation of the soul from material existence ; — no one had as yet thought it necessary to diverge from the existing' state of things, by raising this Being to the position of an object of worship, and making the accomplishment of emancipation dependent on adoration of him. The followers of the Theistic Sankhya, while they insisted on the existence of a Supreme Being, as uniting the essences of matter and soul, as creator of the universe, and as receiving into himself on emancipation the souls which had emanated from him ; still received the same means of effecting that emancipation as Kapila had put forward, namely knowledge ; that is, a correct knowledge of the nature of matter and spirit, and of the causes which occasioned the union of these two. When asked how such knowledge was to be acquired, Kapila, imbued with a thorough belief in his own system, had triumphantly pointed to it. To be a faithful believer in that system was to ensure emancipation. But when a school was formed which denied one of its principal dogmata, and inserted another still more important, the study of that philosophy was no longer a sufficient means of emancipa- tion. Practice had hitherto been confined to the established religion; theory and belief only had been brought into the field by philosophy. But this philosophy was now to become practical — ^this speculation was to be superseded by application, and a mere theoretical belief was to be extended to a system of religious worship. This extension was the work of Patanjali. We have then much reason to believe that this extension, this adapta- tion, and, so to speak, organization of the Sankhya system was posterior to the revolution of Buddha. In the first place the Toga of Patanjali offered a new scheme of religious worship ; and, though it is true that in so doing it did not displace the established religion, its very principles were of so absorbing a character, that it rendered that religion an useless and INIEOD0CIION. XXXIX worthless formality. Before the shock which Brahmanism received from Buddha, such a proceeding would have heen impossible. The very- despotism which caused that revolution would have prevented a form of worship rising up in its own bosom to replace the one which it cherished. As long as philosophy was confined to theory, Brahmanism could leave it undisturbed, but when it was organised into practice, and threatened to displace what the Brahman used all his influence to uphold ; it became dangerous, and had to be treated accordingly. "When, however, Buddhism had burst forth, when the Brahman was attacked, not in his belief only, but in the ordinances of his practice ; when the altars of the established religion were abandoned by thousands, and its temples destroyed, — ^he was but too glad quietly to connive at the introduction of a system which, from the very difficulties it offered, threatened no extensive injury to his profession ; or, at least, he was too much occupied with Buddha, and the rising of other castes, to attend to a movement which took place in his own under the calm direction of Patanjali. The system of ascetic exercises, of austere mortification of the flesh, and the eremite life in the jungle, did not originate with the Yoga school. The very cause — ^which induced the whole Indian nation, Aryan and aboriginal — when once settled on the banks of the Ganges, and in the in- terior and east of the Peninsula, — to submit without a murmur to, if not to receive with acquiescnce, at least for some centuries, the system of caste imposed on them by the Brahman ; while, when yet but an unorganized horde pushing on from the west and north-west, the Kshatriya, then the most extensive and most powerful caste, had struggled against his growing supremacy in that insurrection of which we have traces in the legend of Parashu-Eama (see Index), — that very enervating settled stillness of the climate had also wrought in the character of the nation a complete and general change. TSo longer itching for activity from the vital energy boiling in their blood — no longer exhilarated by a fresher and less leaden sty — ^the Kshatriya and the Vaishya gradually succumbed to the same irresistible climatic influence which had made the Shudra, once their opponent, now their slave. Too inert for ambition, too torpid for action, Xl BHAGAVAD-GITA. they were fain to receive a system which, prescribed limits to their field of duty, and was satisfied so long as those bounds were not passed. Nor would they ever have been passed, had the hierarchy, acting with judg- ment, never exceeded moderation in laying the yoke too closely on their shoulders. The cljmate induced inertness and sloth ; inertness gave time to an Indian mind to turn its power towards contemplation. Contemplation loves isolation, and, in all ages, isolation and contemplation have induced that self-examination which has resulted in an internal war of soul against body, of the conscious sentiment of religion agaiast the senses. This war was carried out by mortification, which the very burning of the southern sun rendered still more necessary. Wben once the senses gained the ascendancy, the climate rendered their victim more beast than man. He became like an elephant in the season of rut — mad, raging. What fasting effected, and still effects in the south-west of Asia, mortification was found necessEuy to supply in India ; and this mortification had already been necessitated — already brought into general usage — long, perhaps many centuries, before FatanjaU endeavoured to reduce it to a system, and employ it as a means to organise philosophy into a religion. FatanjaU was, moreover, a follower of the Theistic Sankhya. He tacitly received KapUa's psychological and physiological system ; denying, of course, the deification of Prakriti, the plastic principle, by itself alone ; admitting it when incorporated with the deification of spirit, and with it forming one Supreme Being. But since the establishment of a Theistic Sankhya school, it had become necessary to render these doctrines more practically applicable. The revolution of Buddha, and the gradual enlightenment which smoothed its path, had made it needful to place philosophy on the same footing as religion had hitherto maintained, and so to break down the limits which confined it exclusively to a small circle of intelligent and studious Brahmans. Emancipation was to be acquired by all alike. But the means whieh the Theistic Sankhya had offered were the exclusive property of the learned. Knowledge, acquired by instruction and study— even when contemplation was added to these — was within the reach of the Brahman alone. Patanjali did not deny the efiicacy of INTKODUCllON. Xli knowledge, but extended the facilities for its acquirement. Contemplation and ascetic exercises superseded instruction and study, and his system was thus made open to aU. There is reason to believe that in the period which followed the expul- sion of the .Buddhists from India, Patanjali's school spread very generally through the wide regions which owned the sway of Brahmanism. Ono portion of the system in particular afforded a bait for the wordly and self- interested of all castes to adopt it in practice, if not in faith. The lengths to which mortification was carried by men whose contemplation and solitude had rendered them more than ordinary fanatics, had often reached the marvellous ; and the apparent ease with which the austerest hardships and the most excruciating tortures were endured by these ascetics, gave rise to the belief that these very exercises endowed them with super- human powers. In systematizing the whole, Patanjali had brought this idea prominently forward. He believed that such powers — ^which he classed under the name of vibkkti (see Section IV) — were actually acquired by the exercises he enjoined ; and that the latter, united with devotion of the heart, thoughts, and soul to the Supreme Being, obtained for their practiser a state in which — though still existing in the material body — the soul was virtually severed from it, though not so completely as at the final emanci- pation. This state of existence he called jwanmulcti, and among the miraculous powers which the being possessed while in this state was that of destroying one's private enemies by a curse. This then was the lure which drew so many followers to the practice of Yoga ; and when to this is added the awe and reverence naturally felt for a man endowed with such superhuman capabilities, and the good treatment and hospitality which aU to whom he came would be careful to show him, we cannot wonder that a class of hypocrite Tapaswins should have sprung up and infested the land, as they stiU do in most parts of our Indian pos- 1 Of the prevalence of this custom we have many hints in our ovfn poem, e.g. Chapter XVII., shiokas 5, 6, and 7. Xlii BHAGAVAD-eriA. Wherever a burning sun scorclied, and a hot wind stifled, the broad plains of eastern and central India ; the disgust to Ufe, the disposition to contemplation, and the desire for final emancipation, drove the populace to the consolation of asceticism. The very nature of the life led by the Muni, the cool retreat by some refreshing stream in the distant solitude of the jungle, the serenity to which he reduced his heart, the taming of burning lusts and luxuriant senses, and the halo of pure and aU-powerful sanctity which surrounded him, allured first the Brahman, but soon the Kshatriya also, from the toils of an active Hfe to the enjoyments of such profitable repose. Xingdoms and principalities were abandoned to their own guidance, states were left defenceless, and nobles and princes vied with priests and pietists in the sanctity of their monastic lives, the austerity of their devotions, and the supernatural powers acquired by their means.' Nor was this all. In virtue of the powers they acquired, the nobility would seem to have asserted their equality with the hierarchy, and even to have attempted to wrest from them their exclusive rights of administer- ing to the mental and spiritual necessities of the people. The Brahman trembled at this new danger ; and, no longer able to seek support in any of the other castes, had recourse to conciliatory means ; and the way was thus prepared for the teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita. Such, however, were not the only causes which gave rise to the Earma-Yoga doctiines of our poem ; and a long interval of perhaps several centuries must have in- tervened between the Yoga of Patanjali, and the new branch of that school. Indeed if we may place the probable date of the Yoga-sutras between 400 b.c. and 100 b.c, we must consider that of the Bhagavad- Gita to lie between 100 B.C. and 300 a.d. But this only by-the-way. From the first revival of the idea of a Supreme Being, a considerable change had been wrought in the established religion. The Brahmans had found it expedient gradually to admit and incorporate with their own teaching the more general and broader theories of philosophy, while in the I A story of sucn rivalry between Church and State is found in the Vishw&initra an episode inserted in the well-known epic, Eamiyana. ' iNTKODtJCTiosf xliii meantime they wove around them a peculiar mysticism of their own, which formed at once their charm and their defence. The mystic triad of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, had succeeded to those of the Elements, the Vedas, and the Epos ; and were soon identified with the Supreme Being. Brahma was considered the manifestation of the creative, Vishnu of the preservative, Shiva of the destructive and regenerative, powers of the One Supreme. But though these three dignities had been recognized as a triad, they do not appear to have been regarded as a Trinity in Unity until a much later period. Brahma, as the first — and for a long time the most important — person of this triad ; and as having taken the place of the sun in the worship of the elements, was first identified with the Supreme Being ; and this identification would seem to have held good for a long period, while the established religion was occupied in combating the numerous heresies which succeeded Buddhism. But the very elevation of his position rendered the worship of Brahma less general than that of the other persons of the triad, and Shiva and Vishnu each rejoiced in more numerous shrines. It would seem that the awful character as Destroyer which Shiva (who replaced Vayu, or the wind, in the elementary, Agni, or fire, in the Vedic, and Yama, or death, in the Epic triad,) bore ; won him more followers than Vishnu, his brother deity ; and at an early period his worshippers identified him with the One Supreme. At length reason and love surmounted fear and superstition, and Vishnu, the preserver — the kind, the merciful, the tender — was identified with the Supreme Being in like manner. All this took place in the established religion, and was the work of Brahmans themselves ; but the spirit of schism had already crept in, and the animosity between the Shaivyas, or worshippers of Shiva, and the Vaishnavas, adorers of Vishnu, was far more hot and bitter than any that had existed between the established religion and the seceding heresies. Lastly, Krishna, the eighth and most important of the incarnations of Vishnu — who in his character of Preserver of mankind was supposed to descend to earth in certain earthly forms {cmatdras) for the purpose of pro- tecting or extending his religion — Krishna was himself raised to an equality Xliy BHAGATAD-GIT-i. with Yishnu, and identified with the Supreme One. To this sect of the Vaishnavas — which is commonly called the Bhagavata sect, iromBhetgavat, ' the Holy One,' a title of Krishna — does our author belong ; and at this period — when the strife between the Vaishnavas and Shaivyas was first growing warm — when religious enthusiasm, pervading the whole nation, had rendered asceticism dangerous to the community, on the one hand, as threatening to destroy its vitality and energy : and to the Brahmans, on the other, as raising rivals on their own hitherto-undisputed ground in the persons of fanatic Kshatriyas — when the taste for literature, which civilization had infused into the people was sufficiently cultivated to appre- ciate and encourage the dramas of a Kalidasa, and to revive the elegant and measured shlokas of a Vahniki — when the crafty Brahman seized this growing taste to turn it to his own account in the diffusion of didactic writings — the Bhagavad-Gita appeared. It was the work of a Brahman, a philosopher and a poet united in one man. "With unparalleled skill, its author converted the very doctrines — which, originating with PatanjaU, had seduced thousands from the active duties of the city or the provinces to the monastic seclusion of the jungle — to a means of recaUing them to those duties, of setting a Umit to the fanaticism and ambition of the nobility, of establishing the necessity of the restrictions of caste even under the most difficult circumstances, and of infusing into the hearts of all, a religious, a philosophic, and, in some respects, almost a Christian, morality. As a Brahman he belonged to the more liberal, and less Vedic party ; and while conciliating the Kshatriya, sought to place Brahmanism on a more generous and less prejudiced footing. As a philosopher, he united the metaphj'sics of the Theistic Sankhya with a system of ethics quite his own, though formed on the basis of those most popularly received. As a poet he incorporated his piece vnth the most favourite of the ancient epics, and worked on the feelings as well as on the minds of his readers, by interlacing with his sterner dogmata the fanciful, the mysterious, and the awful. In a word, if the Bhagavad-Gita be the work of one man, and we have no reason for believing the contrary, its author was undoubtedly the most remarkable man of his own age, and would have been an INTRODUCTION. xlv honour to any nation and any epoch. To unite the skilful and elegant poet with the clear and systematic philosopher, and these two with the shrewd and successful reformer, is an undertaking of no small merit ; and this was achieved by the author of our poem. // "We have now traced the causes which gave rise to the foundation and formation of the Toga and Karma-yoga schools. In Sections IV. and V. the doctrines of these schools will be examined in detail. It only remains at present to give a concise description of the principal objects in the Vedic, the Nyaya, and the Vaisheshika schools. As these schools present no direct bearing on the teaching of the Bhagavad-Grita, we cannot do more than give a general outline of their distinctive features, and must refer the student who would examine them more minutely to the fountain-heads whence we draw our information.' At the period when the sun of civilization was first dawning upon the night of superstition and blind faith, and the more refined among the Indian nation sought those deep waters which they believed would quench their thirst for knowledge of the truth, the learned Brahmans employed two means for arriving at this end. The less superstitious applied them- selves to investigation by means of the powers which they felt they pos- sessed, and the result was the development of that Sankhya system which we have traced through its various changes. The more conservative had recourse to revelation, and laid the foundation of what we have termed the Vedic school. Both, however, felt that no certain conclusion could be educed without a systematic process of reasoning ; and by the side of these schools, which hurried past the means in their haste to arrive at the end, arose a third, which made the arrangement of the means their more particular object. This school was that which not long after was moulded in the Nyaya, and maintained its position till, in after ages, it flourished in the Vaisheshika system. The existing revelation (for such it was believed to be), embodied in the Vedas and sacred writings, belonged chiefly to a period anterior by 1 Such as Colebrooke's Essays, Vol. I., ' On the Philosophy of the Hindus.' Windischmann'a ' Geschichte der Philosophic.' Bonn, 1827 — 34, pp. 1740, 1904, etc. 6 ■jlJ^yl BHAGAYAD-GITA. some centuries to that of the dawn of enlightenment; and every day the real meaning of that writ became more and more obscure, partly from the changes which the Sanskrit language was undergoing, and partly from the attempts of the Brahmans themselves to turn its tenets to their own purposes, and the mysterious complications that resulted from such efforts. It would appear that schools were soon formed for the sake of discussing and disputing the meaning contained in the Vedic writings, and among the fruits of these discussions we have received the Piirva- or Karma-Mlmans4,' which is attributed to Jaimini, and the principal commentary on which is by KumarUa Bhatta, the cHef opponent of BuddHsm. The Hindus rank is among their six Darshanas, or schools of philosophy; but, as we have already said, it cannot be considered to possess any title lo that position. It treats of the practical part of the Brahmanical religion, and consists of 915 adUkwrams, or topics of discussion, each of which contains five sub- divisions, as follows : — 1 . The subject to be investigated. 2. The doubt and question relative to it. 3. The first view and comprehension of the grounds of proof, the primd-fade argument f piirva palcsha). 4. The answer futta/ra-paksliaj. 5. The conclusive test. The only phHosophical dogma which it appears to contain is, that aU. actions are mystically connected with their results, so that from the moment the act is concluded, the agent acquires a mystic virtue (apiiroa) which does not quit him until, whether in this or in a future existence, the reward of the action be administered to him ; in short, a species of spiritual promissory note for services performed. "When — a century or more after the establishment of such theological schools — the revolution of Buddha broke out, Brahmanism was for a long ' For a detailed account of this Darsliana, see Colebrooke's Miscel. Essays, Vol. I., p. 295, and 'Windischmann's Gesch. der Philos., p. 1760. The meaning of the name is ' The first investigation,' or, ' The investigation as to actions.' Mimdmd has almost the same meaning as Jijndsd, It is the abstract substantive from mimdns, the desiderative form of mdn, ' to investigate,' and would therefore mean, ' the desire to investigate the truth.' INTRODUCTION. xlvil time too much occupied with its avowed enemies to attend much to its own internal changes. The Brahmans gradually received — ^partly from conviction, partly from expediency — ^the broader tenets which philosophy was daily establishing. The change was slow, for the conservative spirit was difiicult to combat ; and the Vedas, for which a divine authorship had long been arrogated and conceded, and even the later works which professed to explain and elucidate them, were regarded by aU with a degree of reverence, which the di£B.culty of comprehending them materially increased. "Whenever a new idea, propagated by the schools of philosophy, obtained so profound a credence in the minds of the rational and intelli- gent, and was supported by such irresistible arguments as to render it dangerous ; the Brahman, adopting a wise policy, did not oppose it with his Vedio texts ; hut, on the contrary, used all his logic to prove that somewhere or other in the sacred writings the very dogma had been hinted at, if not clearly expressed. But a considerable change had taken place in the relative position of the Brahmanical religion. 'If o longer the universal church of civilized India, it was surrounded by new sects more or less popular. Like the once universal church of civilized Europe, when, after the Eeformation, it was compassed by sectaries ; Brahmanism employed an admirable and prudent policy. It gathered itself firmly together, and — supported by its antiquity, and its asserted divine authority — it declared the new doctrines unworthy of its refutation, and damned them as heretical and destructive. When its external enemies were thus shaken off, and the established church stood firm in its com- pactness, it at length found time and tranquillity to examine its own organization. The Darshanas or schools of philosophy which had grown up within its own bosom, and quietly influenced its own changes, now became the object of its inquiries ; and the line was at length distinctly chalked out between what of their theories could be received, and what must be rejected. Several centuries after our own era, the Vedanta or Uttara-Mi'mansa ' school collected its forces, revised its materials. ' That is, ' The Latter Mim&ns?i.' It is also called the ShSjIraka or metaphysical Mim&ns&. Both ti';les are meant to distinguish it from the Vfma.- or Karma-Mlmansd, xlviii BHAGAVAD-GIIA. and came forward as the philosophical opponent of the philosophical schools. The foundation of this school was attributed, like many other works of very different ages and contradictory doctrines, to the Vyasa, Krishna Dwaipayana, the supposed compiler and arranger of the Vedas. He is otherwise called Badarayana ; and in order to claim a divine authority for the doctrines attributed to him, he was said, as a Brahman of the name of Apantara-Tamas, to have once attained final emancipation, and have been absorbed in the Supreme Being ; but, at his command, to have emanated again and assumed a corporeal form as Krishna Dwaipayana. The principal Scholiast on his writings is Shankara-ilcharya, who is thought to have flourished in the eighth century of our era,' and his work is entitled the Shariraka-Mimansa-Bhashya, or commentary on the Shariraka-Mfmansa. As a theological school, the name Vedanta refers to the whole Vedic School, which explains the whole theological portions of the Vedas ; and among the works belonging to it are numbered many of the Upanishads or Vedic writings, as the Isha, Keneshitam, Mundaka, and Kathaka and parts of the Chandagya. The doctrines of the pure Vedanta school are, to a great extent, those which we shall find put forward in our own poem; but there are very considerable and very important differences, which it is not in our plan to particularise here.^ Their chief peculiarity is, of course, the Brahmanical and superstitious odour which pervades them aU, and the mystery and obscurity which have been purposely introduced. The arguments employed against the doctrines of the other schools are extremely subtle and refined, but one instance will suffice to show their worth. As in the Bhagavad-Gita, the Supreme Being is regarded as the with which, however, there is little danger of confounding it. It is generally said by the Hindus that the Pdrva treats of the practical (karma^lcdndaj, the TTttara of the theological part fjndna-MndaJ of the Vedas. 1 Weber (Ind PhU. Gesch.) places the composition of the Vedknta two or three hundred years before Shankara Ach&rya, thus about 400 or 500 a.d. It cannot be earlier than the third century after Christ. 2 We must therefore refer the reader to Colebrooke's Misc. Essays vol I n 325 • and Windischmann's ' Gesch. der Philosophic' pp. 1767, etc. • • i^- , INXRODUCIION. 3dix material as well as the efficient cause of creation ; in other words, he is supposed to have formed everything by changing himself into matter. This was opposed by the assertion that in every creation an instrument or instruments are required besides the creator and the material. To this the Yedanta replies by comparing this change of the deity himself into matter with that of milk into curds. The objection is thus raised that here too an instrument, namely, heat, is employed ; and the Vedanta replies by asserting that milk will turn of itself, and that heat merely hastens the action of turning ; or, again, that other things are subjected to heat without-becoming curds. The triviality of such arguments is sufficiently obvious to all ; but there is a grand fallacy at the bottom which we are astonished the would-be philosopher has not perceived. If spontaneity of change be admitted, as he would have it, in milk, and if, as he also insists, the same rule holds good for the Supreme Being as for milk, then milk must be on equality with the Supreme Being. He asserts that the spontaneity of change in the Supreme Being is the proof of his having created the imiverse. But since the same rule holds good for milk, the spontaneity of change in milk must also be a proof of its having created the universe, and milk is there- fore creator of all things, which is absurd, etc. The IS'yaya ' system has been attributed to a celebrated sage named Gotama, or Gautama (who must not, however, be confounded with Gautama, or Buddha, the founder of Buddhism). The order he observes is Enuntiation fuddeshaj, Definition flakshanaj, the mention of some pro- perty peculiar to the thing enuntiated, and Investigation (pa/r'iksha), examination of the pertinence of the definition ; and with his method he has treated sixteen topics, as follows. I. Proof fprmndnaj of four kinds, viz., Perception ; — ^Inference, both consequent (a priori J, antecedent (H posteriori) and analogous; Com- parison ; Affirmation, i.e., revelation and tradition. ' For minuter details, see Barthelemy St. Hilaire, 'Premiere Memoire sur le NyS,ya,' published by the Institut de France; and Colebrooke's Misc. Essays, vol. I. p. 261. 1 BHAGAVAD-GITA. II. Things to be proven fprameyaj. Under this head he includes all the psychological and physiological theories, borrowed with little alteration from the Sankhya, viz. : — 1. Soul, of two kinds — ^the Paramaima, or supreme soul, creator of all things ; and Jivdtmd, individual souls of men. 2. Body, of four kinds — aqueous, igneous, aerial, and terrene. 3. Organs of sense — five in number. 4. Objects of sense — ^including all external matter. 5. Intellect — part of internal matter. 6. Heart fmanasj — another part of internal matter, the internal organ of sense. III. Doubt (sawihaya). IV. Motive fpraycganaj. V. Instance fdrishtdntaj — a point on which both disputants agree. VI. Demonstrated Truth (nMhAnta) of four kinds, according as it is universally, partially, hypotheticaUy, or argumentatively acknowledged. VII. A complete syllogism (nyaya) consists of the following five members (maya/oa), of which the first two are simply enuntiative. ' 1. The proposition (pratyndj, as. This bill is fiery. 2. The reason (hetu or apadeshaj, as, For it smokes. 3. Instance (ud&kmram, or nidmrshanaj, as, "What smokes is fiery, e.g., Afire-place. 4. Application (wpanwya). Accordingly the hill is smoking. 5. Conclusion (niyamana), Therefore it is fiery. VIII. Reduction to absurdity (twrha). IX. Ascertainment fvirmyaj, the result of proof. X. Disputation (leatM) of the kind called jalpa, of adversaries con- tending for victory. XI. Disputation fkathd) of the kind called vdda, or discussion of adversaries only in pursuit of truth. XII. Disputation fhatJidj of the kind called mtandd, or wrangling, wherein one seeks to overthrow the other, without putting forward a proposition of his own. INTRODUCTION. H XIII. Fallacy or mere semblance of reason fheiwdhhdsaj. XIV. Fraud fchhalaj of three kinds. XV. A futile answer fjdUj of twenty-four kinds. XVI. Failure in argument fnigrahasthdnaj, or, Eeason of defeat /'pardjm/ahetuj of twenty-two kinds. The Vaisheshika school is attributed to the Muni Kanada, who follows the same method as Gautama. The chief difference is the introduction of a theory of atoms, in the physiological portion of his arrangement. His atom is however a different object, being the sixth part of a mote in a sunbeam. The mote is divided into three parts, each of which is a double atom. The cause of the concurrence of these atoms is either the will of the Creator, or time, or any other competent one. The single atoms unite with one another to form a double atom ; three double atoms unite to form the smallest visible body, and these bodies unite to form larger bodies, or so on. The atoms themselves are eternal. The dissolution of matter is merely its resolution into atoms. Under the head of ' Things to be proven,' the second topic of Gautama's system, Kanada has — I. Objects of sense, consisting of six paddrthas, or categories, as follows : — 1. Substances — nine in number, viz. : — I. Earth — eternal as atoms, transient as aggregates. The latter are either organised or inorganic, n. Water — the same. in. Light — the same, identified with heat. Organic light includes the bodies of the solar realm ; inorganic is of four kinds, terrestial, celestial, alvine, and mineral. IV. Air — the same. Organic aerial bodies are angels and demons. Inorganic air is wind. V. Ether (dhdsha) — is infinite and therefore eternal. VI. TivM — is one, eternal and infinite, vn. Space — the same. VIII. &oui — ^immaterial. IX. Sea/rt (mamas) — ^the internal organ of sense. lii BHAQATAB-GIIA. 2. Quality, of twenty-four kinds, viz. : colour, savour, odour, feel, number, quantity, individuality, conjunction, disjunction, priority, posterity, gravity, fluidity, viscidity, sound, intelli- gence, pleasure, pain, desire, aversion, volition, virtue, vice, and faculty {samMra). 3. Action ijia/rma), of five kinds. It is motion, devoid of quality, abiding only in substance. 4. Community {sdmdnya), of three kinds, abides in substances, quality, and action. 5. Difference {vishesha), the direct opposite of oommunity. 6. Aggregation {s&mavayay 7. I^egation {alMva), of two kinds, universal and mutual. II. Activity (pravriiti), is oral, mental, and corporeal. III. Faults {doshdh), are desire {rdga), aversion [vvrdga), and delu- sion [moha). VI. Condition after death {pretydbhdva), is transmigration. V. Eetribution {phdla), is the result of fruition {punarbhoga). VI. Pain {Mikha). VII. Liberation from pain, or beatitude, is of twenty-one kinds. It has thus been seen that there is a strong connection between the logical system of Gautama and the physics of Eanada,' but both are indebted for their truly philosophical portion to the Sankhya. In short, when we reconsider the six Darshanas, acknowledged by the Hindus, -we shall find that one of them, the Uttara-Mimansa, bears no title to be ranked by the side of the others, and is really little more than a mystical explanation of the practical injunctions of the Vedas. We shall also admit that the earlier Vedanta, very different from the School of Nihilists now existing under that name, was chiefly a controversial essay, seeking to support the theology of Sacred Writ, but borrowing all its philosophical portions from the Yoga school, the most popular at the time of its composition. ' For further details of the Vaisheshika, see Colebrooke's Miscellaneous Essays, vol I. p. 261, '' ' iNTEonrcTioir. liii Lastly, the Nyaya is little more than a treatise on Logic, introducing the doctrines of the theistic Sankhya ; while the Vaisheshika is an essay on Physics, with, it is true, the theory of atoms as its distinguishing mark, though even to this we feel inclined to refuse the imputation of novelty, since we find some idea of it lurking obscurely in the theory of tanmdtrdni, or subtile elements, which is brought forward in KapUa's Sankhya.' In short, the basis of all Indian philosophy, if, indeed, we may not say the only system of philosophy really discovered in India, is the Sankhya ; and this, as it forms the basis of the doctrines expounded in the Bhagavad- Gita, we shall now attempt to explain in detail. 1 See Section III. Ht BHASiVAD-GITA. PAET III. THE SjfNKHYA SYSTEM. To a European of educatioa a name is of trifling import. When once his reading or his experience has connected a certain idea, however vague, with, a certain name, however inconsistent with it ; that name wUl be as good as, and better than any, other to convey that idea. Not so to the literal and logical Hindu of some six or seven centuries before Christ, and accordingly the names of the schools of philosophy convey the meaning of the most prominent doctrine which they put forward; Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, and even Vedanta, are titles which indicate at once the school and its principal peculiarity, and irom internal evidence these names would mostly seem to have been assumed by the earliest writers themselves on the doctrines they designate. The word Sankhya has been interpreted in two ways. It is an adjective derived from the substantive sanhhyd, the first meaning of which is ' number,' and has hence been rendered ' the numerical system ' by those who were misled by the distribution of its principles into twenty-five categories. But besides this first meaning the word smkh/d has also that of 'numeration, computation, calculation,' and hence 'deliberation, reasoning,' and sankhya has with more reason been translated ' the rational system.' Kapila, like Descartes, refused to accept the authority of anything which had preceded him ; he placed revelation in the lowest rank of the sources of ascertainment ; he would accept only what his reason or his conviction would accept, and hence the origin of the title. The Sankhya system was the first and only real system of philosophy to which the Indian mind gave birth. Though six or even seven schools IHTEODtrCTIOJT. Iv of philosophers may be admitted to have existed in the earlier ages of that nation, they were all more or less indebted to this school for their fundamental dogmata. Some of these, however, have followed more closely in its steps, and have been generally ranked under the same name. Of these we may distinguish four, viz. : — 1 . The pure Sankhya fnirkhwa/raj, of which we have remains. 2. The Theistic Sankhya {seshwarti), of which we have no remains, but which must have existed, and is undoubtedly meant by the allusions in the Bhagavad-Gita, as for instance, in Chapter III., shloka 3, etc. 3. The Yoga of Patanjali; see Section IV. 4. The Karma-Toga of the Bhagavad-Gita. These doctrines extended however still further, and in the 12th and 13th centuries of our era we find them somewhat changed, and frightfully dis- figured by Brahmanical mysticism in many of the Puranas. A Pauranika- Sankhya school is therefore generally enumerated among the branches of the general system; but, as far as it is possible to judge of the philosophical tenets contained in those eighteen extradorinary works of the debased age of the Indian mind, they bear no title to be considered as a separate school of philosophy. It is with the first of these schools, the pure, the nirishwa/ra, or atheistic Sankhya, that we have now to do ; and the first questions which inquiry prompts are, who and what were its founder and its earliest teachers ? what the existing remains of it which we have received ? To the first question we must answer, the Hindu-Kapila : not neces- sarily that this great Eishi was the first philospher of which India could boast, or even the first to discover the doctrines of this system, but that to him has its foundation always been referred ; while the Sutras attributed to him are the earliest which reduced these theories to a system. Kapila was in aU probability a man, and not a myth, though his Asiatic admirers have done all they could to make him one. Though he has been called an incarnation of Agni, the personification of fire ; and of Vishnu himself, he was probably, like most early philosophers both in India and Greece, a Ivi BHAGAVAD-GITA. simple schoolmaster. He was a brahman, whose learning had acquired for him the privilege of instructing the young of his own caste, when they had finished the rudiments of their Vedical education; and he taught them, for want of text books and a printing press, in short well-composed, well- defined, sentences which his pupils committed to memory, and which, as they strung them together one with another, in the best way they could, were called Sutras, or ' threads.' The first disciple of Kapila of whom we have mention in the Sankhya-karika (shl. 70) is l.suri, of whom we know nothing more. Asaii delivered the doctrines he had received to Panchashikha, to whom Sdtras are attributed, and who is named in the Mahabharata as teaching the Sankhya to Janaka, the celebrated King of Mithila. Panchashikha is said by Ishwara Erishna (Sankh.-kar. shl. 70), to have made these doctrines generally known, and may therefore possibly have lived but a short time previous to the revolution of Buddha, one of the causes of which was im- doubtedly the propagation of these philosophical theories. Perhaps some six or seven hundred years ' later, at an age when literature was generally appreciated, and when aU learning was greedily sought after, when the garb which enclosed it had become sufficiently attractive, Ishwara Krishna, who had received these doctrines transmitted from brahman to brahman, sat down to arrange them in a new and more comprehensible form, and to invest them with the charms of an epic metre. Ishwara Krishna was not, like Kapila, a schoolmaster. He did not detail his doctrines to studious ears; but, an author of no mean merit, he experienced the difficulties of acquiring the Sankhya from the existing Sutras ; and being superior to the drudgery and dependence of a mere scholiast, undertook to put them before a reading public in a elear and systematic form. The works from which we gather our knowledge of the Sankhya system in its purity consist, firstiy, of the Sutras. These are attributed to ' Barthaemy St. Hilaire suggests that Ishwara Krishna may have been one of the many learned men gathered rounS the throne of the patro'n of sciences, Vikramaditya, who flonnshed 56 B.C. Weber would place him in the 6th century of our era INTBOBTTCTION. Ivil Kapila bimself, but it is not on that account to be imagined that that philosopher ever descended to the transmission of his ideas to the page. The collections of his dogmata, as they have been handed down, were probably made by studious disciples, long after he had ceased to exist. They are entitled the ' Sankhya-pravachana, or Introduction to the Sankhya,' a work of four hundred and ninety-nine Sutras, comprised in sis Adhyayas or readings. This work was printed at Serampore in 1821, and is now extremely rare. Another collection, an abbreviation of this, and also attributed to the great founder, is the Tattwa-samasa, published at Mirzapore, by Doctor BaUantyne, in 1851-. The first of these works is accompanied by a commentary by VijnanaBhikshu, entitled Sankhya- pravachana-bhashya. Our next source is the Sankhya-karika of Ishwara Krishna, the text of which was published by Lassen at Bonn in 1832, to which was added a Latin translation. In 1833, M. Pauthier added to his translation of Colebrooke's Essays, a text in Latin characters, and a Erench translation. Windischmann gave a German translation in his ' Geschichte der Philo- sophie,' vol. I. p. 1812, published at Bonn in 1834. In 1837, Professor Wilson published the translation made by Colebrooke, with the addition of the text, a translation of the Scholia of Gaudapada, and a short com- mentary of his own. Lastly, in 1852, M. Barthdlemy St. HUaire has given us an able Erench translation, with explanations and essays, which do great honour to his thorough insight into the philosophical ideas of India. These works, and the well-known treatise by Colebrooke, are the reliable sources from which a knowledge of the Sankhya system may be derived. Indian commentators have distinguished the pure Sankhya as nirishwm-a, which has been inj adiciously translated by ' atheistic. ' Ishwara, lit., ' lord, ' is the title given by the Theistic Sankhya to the Supreme Being, whose existence is their chief doctrine. This branch has therefore been called seshwara (= sa, 'with,' -f 'uhwma), 'possessing,' that is, ' acknowledging such a Supreme Deity ' ; and to distinguish it, the other has been termed nirishwm-a (= nir, 'without,' -t- 'uhwara), 'not possessing,' that is. Iviii BHAGAVAD-aiTA ' omitting to acknowledge such a Being.' But the word ' atheist,' as we are accustomed to use it, is a term of the greatest reproach, and signifies one who actually denies the existence of a Being superior both to matter and to man. KapUa has not done this. He- does not, it is true, mention the existence of such a Being, but he leaves it doubtful whether he exists or not. He treats of philosophy rather in relation to matter and man than to spirit; for, as has been already asserted, the earliest phHosophers rather desired to satisfy the enquiry as to ' what is man ? and what is this world ? ' than to push speculation beyond the limits of obvious proof; and it was left to a later school to inquire into the final cause, when once matter and spirit had been fully investigated and firmly established. Again, it is true that he grants volition to nature, and thus in some sort deifies it ; but when, by the side of this, we find him, at the same time, asserting the superiority of spirit even to this deified nature, we cannot accuse him of complete materialispi. Lastly, he admits the existence of a spiritual essence, from which individual souls have emanated, and into which they are eventually to be re-absorbed; and though he confines himself to this simple admission, and does not investigate the real nature of this spiritual essence, the very fact that he makes it superior to nature is suflS.cient to show that, had he gone farther, he would, like his suc- cessors, have declared it to be the Supreme Being. The piu'e Sankhya is therefore so far atheistic as it refers the creation of matter to a systcnl of emanation, obedient to the wUl, not of a creator, but of Prakriti, ' nature,' the essence of matter ; but not only does it not deny the existence of a Supreme Being, but even hints at it in referring the emanation of individual souls to a spiritual essence gifted with volition. "What is KapUa's idea of philosophy ? A cure for the evils of this ' life : ' and since the heavens, and deities to which we are supposed to go, are also material, and since we are subject to the necessity of trans- migration, it is a cure for the evils, not only of this life, but of any k&,rikS,, ' Kapila, Simkhya-pravachaua, ch. I., sfitras 1—4 ; and Ish-wara Krishna, S&aikbya- j j ikS,, shl. I. ' ' ' f' INTRODUCTION. llX material existence through, which we may pass. It has abeady been said that the disgust to life was the cause of the rise of philosophy, and we have here the proof of it. That these evils exist no man will deny. But where is the remedy for them ? The specific remedies which each man may practically apply to each particular evil are obviously faulty ; for the evils will return again, and even the necessary means of cure cannot always be obtained. Again, the established religion of Brahmanism is of no validity. It offers, as a reward to its followers, a material heaven, in which even the gods themselves are liable to evils, and are not immortal. The only means of overcoming evil — which is of three kinds, internal or personal, external or that which is received from without; and, lastly, that which is beyond our power to oppose or check, the superhuman — is by liberating the soul from the shackles of matter, and this is performed by the perfection of knowledge. In granting so much power to knowledge, Kapila is undoubtedly on the right tack. Knowledge is power ; knowledge is the highest perfection of man; the superiority of one man over another, of gods over man, and of the Supreme Being over gods, is according to the superiority of their knowledge ; but we must lot allow ourselves to be beguiled by this siren-like dogma. E!apUa has omitted by the side of knowledge what is undoubtedly superior to it, virtue ; and in so doing has incurred the censure of making it of no avail. This is a most dangerous principle, since morality is at once destroyed by it ; and though Kapila himself, accepting as he does the established religion, the useful- ness of sacrifice, and the excellence of doing one's prescribed duty, is far from inculcating it ; the resiilt of the mere omission was that the Theistic Sankhya, which succeeded him, in raising a deity above the gods of Brahmanism, threw such contempt on the ordinances of that religion as threatened to subvert all morality, and necessitated the adoption of the devotional system contained in the Toga of Patanjali, where the ordinances of Brahmanism were superseded by a new system of practical morality. Thus the object of philosophy is final emancipation, and in the meantime that consolation for the evils of this world, which practical philosophy affords. The means proposed is knowledge.' Ix BHAGAVAD-MTA. But what is this knowledge ? It is the knowledge of the whole truth, which philosophy teaches, and which defines the reason of our existence here on earth, by drawing the line between matter and soul, nature and spirit ; and showing the connection of ,these four to one another ; the reason of their connection, and their final disconnection.' How then is this knowledge acquired ? Whfit, in short, is the philosophical method adopted by KapUa ? Perception, inference, and testimony. Perception is the use of our senses in grasping those objects which are within their reach, such as developed matter. Inference is the use of our reason, in proving the existence of what is beyond the reach of our senses from that which is within their reach, and it is of three kinds, viz., that of effect from cause, that of cause from effect, and from comparison. Testimony is of two kinds, actual revelation and tradition. By inference the great doctrine of causality is established, and the existence of the im- perceptible is proved, as that of nature, or the material essence, from that of developed matter. When both perception and inference fail, we must often accept revelation and tradition, and from this are received the doctrine of transmigration, and the existence of the gods.' KapUa has often been accused of scepticism, from a misunderstanding of shl. 64 of the Sankhya- karika, but for two reasons we should rather impute to him too great credulity. In the first place he has accepted without a murmur two important dogmata, transmigration and the existence of the gods, from Brahmanism, and in the second place he has omitted, as quite unnecessary, the greatest means in the true philosophical method — conscience, or internal conviction. The excuse for the first is that transmigration was a theory which chimed in wonderfully with his own ideas, besides being long firmly implanted in the Indian miud, while the gods interfered not the slightest with his system ; but at the same time he has made testi- mony the last resource of investigation, and placed it on a far inferior footing to perception and inference. The excuse for the second is his > Kapila, ch. I., siitras 6, Ifl, 18, 19, and 81. Sankh.-k&r., shl. I and II 2 S&nkh.-k&r., sM. IV— VIII ; Kap., oh. I., sritras 99, 100, 61—65, 107, 108. INTRODUCIION. Ixi distance from scepticism. He never doubted for a moment Ms own existence, he never dreamed of denying the truth of the impressions made on the senses, and by them conveyed to the mind and the soul. The questions he proposed to answer were not " Do I exist ? " " Does matter exist ? " but " What am I ? " " What is matter ? " : and tacitly receiving conscience as an axiom, he thought it needless to make it a means of proof, since what it could prove was already admitted. So far we have followed the order of the Sankhya-karika, and, as far as possible that of Kapila's Sutras also. We have shown his idea of philosophy, and his method, and we must now proceed to his doctrines and system. It is here unnecessary, and would become tedious, to follow the order of the originals, and we shall therefore endeavour to putl)efore the reader a general view of the system, under the most convenient arrangement. We have first to treat of the general system, and the psychological portion of it. The pure Sankhya itself, and aU the schools which follow it, distin- guish everything which exists (the latter of course excluding the Supreme Being) into the following twenty-five categories. 1. Nature: the material essence, which is Kapila's plastic principle, by him gifted with volition. It is called by the following names, Prakriti, or Mulaprakriti ; Pradhana, or Mulapradhana ; Avyakta, (the undeveloped principle) ; Maya (the magic illusion) ; and in Bhagavad- Glta, Ch. XIV., Shi. 3, Brahma (neuter). This principle has no cause, no origin, is not produced by anything ; but eternal, universal, immutable, single, independant, free from qualities, simple and sovereign. With these nine attributes it produces 2. Matter : the developed principle, which emanates from it, is called vydkta ovjagat, and has nine attributes opposed to those of nature, viz., (a) it has a cause or origin (namely nature), (J) is not eternal, (c) not universal, {d) mutable, («) multiple, (/) accidental, {g) attributive or gifted with qualities, {h) compound, («') subordinate, which are thus accounted for : — {a) Because it emanates from nature. (J) It has been created, and must therefore perish ; it has emanated from nature, and will be reabsorbed into it. Ijdi BnAOAVAD-GITA,-- («) It is this universe only, and must therefore be finite. {d) It varies in its various component parts, which it produces in order. (e) It is composed of twenty-three parts. (/) It depends on nature for its ex^tence. (g) It has various attributes, {h) And components. («■) It is subordinate to the will of nature, on which it depends. This general term comprises twenty-three components, viz. : — 2. Intelligence {huddU, mahat, dsw'i, mati, hhydti, prafnd) : the first and immediate production of nature. Although it is material, it is the link between the soul and matter, and in the same relation to the soul as the senses are to the body, it is the actual vehicle and material manifesta- tation of the faculty given to the soul, of perceiving and employing matter. "Without it the soul could never be connected with matter. This category produces, or rather from it emanates 3. Consciousness {ahcmhdra, abhimdna, IMtddi, faijasa, vaiTcrita) : the conviction inherent in us of our own individuality. It produces two classes of material components : firstly 4 — 8. The five subtile elements (tanrndtra) : the elements of the elements, which would seem to be essences containing the attributes of the five grosser elements. They are sound or noise, tangibleness, odour, visibleness, and taste, which each in turn produce 9 — 13. The five grosser elements {mdhdh}iit,ta) : which are ether {dlcdshd) ; which is produced by the subtile element of sound ; and is that subtUe fluid which fills all space, and exists everywhere and in every thing : — air {vdyu) ; atmosphere and wind, which is produced by the subtile element of tangibleness, which is its peculiar attribute : — earth, produced by the subtile element of smell : — light, heat, or fire, produced by that of of visibility : — and water, produced by that of sapidity. On the other hand, consciousness also produces 14 — 18. The five senses {indriya), faculties of perception, corresponding respectively with the elements, viz., hearing, touching, smelling, seeing, and tasting, and also INTKODUCTION. Ixiil 19 — 23, the five organs of action {karmendrit/a), viz. : the voice, the hands, the feet, the anus and the penis. Lastly, consciousness produces 24. The heart (manas), which is considered as an eleventh or internal organ. It is the general power of sensibility, it receives and arranges the impressions made on the senses by external objects, transmits them, thus arranged, to the consciousness, which transmits them to the intelligence, which transmits them to the soul. It is also the seat of desires and passions. These twenty-three components, then, make up the Vyakta, the developed principle, perceptible matter. 25. Spirit (dtmd, purusha, pumdn, h^hetrcyna), special, and independent of both nature and matter. It is not produced by anything, nor can it produce anything ; and while nature and matter are irrational, it is all reason. ITature and matter have thus each nine opposite attributes, but they have also six attributes common to both,' viz. : 1. Want and com- prehension. 2. Objectiveness ; being the objects of use to the soul. 3. Commonness; they are common to all aliie, and objects of use to all. 4. Insensibility ; for though the senses themselves belong to matter, it is not really they which feel, and are impressed, but the soul ; they being merely the material vehicles and instruments of sensibility. 5. Intelligence; for though intelligence is the first product of nature, and, in turn, produces all the categories of matter ; it is, like the senses, a mere material and physical machine, dead and useless without the soul, which sets it in motion, as the steam engine is only locomotive when united with the steam. 6. Productiveness ; nature produces matter, which produces its own components. Lastly, they are in common subject to the three qualities of good, bad, and indifferent, of which anon. Such is the outline of the system to which the Sankhya reduces all that exists. But before inquiring into the relationship of these parts, and the positions, independent and relative, which they hold, we must show some proofs of their existence. As scepticism has no place in the philo- 1 Sank.-ka,r., shl. XI. Kapila, Ch. I., s that is, they emanate from the Supreme Being only to be connected with matter, and when matter is finally dissolved, they are reabsorbed into his bosom. But the highest kind of spirit, superior to both of these, as the whole is superior to the part, is the Supreme Being himself, who has no connection with matter, except as its creator, master, sustainer, and regulator. In speaking of these three kinds of spirit, it wiU be seen that Krishna speaks of individual soul in the third person, while he identifies the universal spirit and the Supreme Being with himself, by using the INTRODTJCIION. XOV first person. By this it is seen that no personality is allowed to the universal spirit, which is closely identified with the Supreme Being, and should therefore be considered father as the Supreme Being himself in his character of pervader and enlivener of matter, than as an individual emanation from him.^ So much for spirit generally. As regards the nature of the Supreme Being as a deity and object of worship, we must not encroach on the second portion of the Bhagavad-Gita at present ; but we may say that, philosophically, he is considered to be twofold, comprising the essence of matter and the essence of spirit. The latter is, of course, the superior portion, spirit being in everything superior to matter ; and is therefore considered as the male, while the material essence is considered the female ; and the result of their connection at the will of spirit, is the emanation of the universe from the female. The will of the spirit is thus likened to the seed deposed within the womb of the material essence which, impelled by it, gives birth to matter. In this case the deified material essence, being a portion of the Supreme Being, is itself called Brahma (neut.), the name generally given to the Supreme Being as a whole and in his personality, but here' confined to this portion of him. Thus the Supreme Being is both the material and efficient cause of creation. He cannot make any thing out of nothing. The great principle of causality, established by Kapila, denies the possibility of something which exists being produced even by a Supreme, aU-powerful, Being, out of nothing. As the pot is made of earth, and the earth again of certain subtile elements, which again are produced out of material consciousness, which is a product of nature ; so must nature itself be either produced by something else, or be eternal and have no beginning. The latter alternative is preferred. Nature is made eternal. But spirit is also eternal. If, then, nature and spirit were independent of one another, they would botb be gods ; but this 1 It may be useful to mention here, what the reader would soon discover for himself in studying the poem, that wherever Krishna uses the first person, he means to speak of the Supreme Being with whom he is identified. The exceptions to this rule are few and will he noticed where they occur. 2 Viz : Ch. XIV., shl. 3. XCVl BHAGAVAD-QITA. is avoided by uniting them in one Supreme Being, and thus making nature, or the material essence, a portion of the great eternal Deity. In so doing, the Hindu philosophers of the Theistic Sankhya school were guided by reason rather than conscience, and were quite unprovided with revelation. Conscience and revelation taught the antediluvian races, and Moses himself, who has handed it down to ourselves, that the law of causality is merely a law of matter, made by God himself for matter, but can go no farther. Matter itself, as we believe, has no material cause, and needs none. The Supreme Being whom we worship is really all-powerful, and is not subject to the laws which He himself has made for matter. He is able to create anything out of nothing ; and His wUl causes to exist what did not exist in any form whatever. Such, alone, can be the true character of a Supreme Being ; and, in the notion put forward by the Theistic Sankhya philosophers, this character is denied to their Supreme One, and his supremacy therefore removed, since his power is not sufficient to rise above a law of nature. ^ We now proceed with our author to consider the important question of the origin of good and evil, and their consequences to man. In speaking here of good, it must be understood to be imperfect. The goodness which belongs to the Supreme Being is a positive quality ; it is perfection, and is therefore capable of no direct opposite. The goodness which belongs to matter, and is consequently within the reach of man, is a comparative quality only : it is imperfect, and only good according to our notions of superiority and inferiority; but, when regarded with spiritual eyes, must be considered as really bad, since perfection alone is really good, and aU imperfection more or less bad. Perfection is, therefore, the object of the devotee ; and, when he attains it, he is emancipated from the flesh, because he is fit for reabsorption in the Supreme Being, who alone is perfect. But the three qualities of goodness, badness, and indif- ference must all alike be avoided, for they aU alike hinder perfection. They spring from, belong to, and effect nature, the material essence. But it would seem that their production is only coeval with the emanation of matter from nature, and that though nature is eternal, these qualities INTEODTJCTION. do not eternally effect it, since in that case imperfection would be the attribute of nature, and since the latter is a portion of the Supreme Being, that Being would be capable of imperfection, and therefore conld not he perfect. These three qualities {gum) working on the heart are the real cause of all actions both internal and external, mental and physical. Por, as has already been explained in speaking of the Sankhya system (Part III.), their effect is always united, never single, hut varying according to the predominance of each of the three. Thus, when goodness predominates, although it is in itself inactive, it receives the appearance of being active from its union with badness, which is active. It then prompts good — that is, upright, legally, morally and religiously good — actions. It& influence on the soul is to enlighten it, and convey pleasure to it, and thus when a mortal dies under the predominant effect of this quality, his soul migrates to the upper regions, the worlds of the deities. The quality of badness predominating, prompts bad actions ; the only impulse and object of which are selfishness, self-interest, and mundane desires. The soul is thus bUndly attached to the world ; and, consequently, when a mortal dies in this state, he is immediately bom again in a body which has the same kind of disposition. The quality of indifference prompts actions which are neither upright, nor have a selfish object; but are totally without sense or reason, and its effect on a being is to induce sloth, unwillingness to act at aU from sheer laziness, and a species of ignorant folly, which is considered the lowest possible condition of man. When, therefore, he dies under the influence of these qualities, he suffers torment in Naraka, and is afterwards bom again in the body of some animal.' The effect of the three qualities on man is further exemplified in his religion. This consists generally of three parts, which constitute both the spirit and the practice of religion, — worship or sacrifice, self-govern- ment or mortification, and charity both in heart and deed. In other words, religion consists of one's duty to God, one's duty to one's self, and For the details, see Ch. XIV., shls. 5—20. BHAGA'tAD-GITA. one's duty to one's neighbour. The inward and spiritual duty to God is devotion or mental worship, which is outwardly manifested in sacrifice. The duty to self is to accomplish one's own salvation, which is aided by self-government, outwardly manifested in mortification of the flesh, whether of word, thought or deed. The duty to one's neigh- bour is goodwill, charity, love and kindness; and this is outwardly/ manifested in liberality and almsgiving. Such constitutes good religion. ' But the mere practice of these duties is often employed with interested motives, and they then become bad. Thus sacrifice or religious ceremonies may be hypocritically performed with a false show of piety ; mortification may be severely carried out for the sake of the support and hospitality accorded to Tapaswins, or self-torturers, while alms may be given in the hope of being amply rewarded at some future time. "When, again, these religious offices are performed carelessly, irregularly, senselessly and without any internal feeling corresponding to them, they are then said to be under the influence of the quality of indifference.' Again, the good worship the deities ; the bad worship evil demons, who willingly pander to their evil desires, and the indifferent, actuated by low superstitious fear, worship ghosts and shades (Ch. XVII., shl. 4). The effect of the three qualities on man is further exemplified in the disposition or character attached at birth to the body, or according to the pure Sanhkya ideas to the migratory body fLinga-shariraJ, which accom- panies the soul from its first conjunction with matter till the moment of its final emancipation. In either case these dispositions affect souls through the medium of the flesh. They are considered to be of two kinds, good and bad ; the former tending towards the gods, and thence called divine, the latter called infernal as tending towards the demons. With one or other of these dispositions every man is born, and it then becomes his duty to combat the bad, or to cherish and improve the good. But if he neglect to do so, a good disposition becomes bad, or a bad one still worse ; occasioning his punishment in Naraka, and regeneration in the body of an See Ch. XVII., 11—22. INTRODirCTION. XCIX animal ; whence he sinks lower and lower in the scale of bodies, and is at last united with inorganic matter till the final dissolution. If, on the other hand, he combats a bad disposition successfully, he may be trans- ported at death to the regions of the just, or the worlds of the dieties ; whUe if, bom with a good disposition, he cherishes and improves it, the working out of his emancipation becomes easier to him. Thus we see in this theory the same divine will, or, as some are pleased to call it, divine injustice, which the ancients of the "West attributed to the power of the Fates ; and we ourselves find, in the ' circumstance' of life, which places one man in some distant race of savages, to whom the gospel-light has never penetrated, and who has never received the blessing of baptism, and another in our own happy island, where every facility enlightenment can oifer, is afforded him to work out his salvation. But while we refer the question to the indisputable wisdom of Providence, and seek its solution in His unlimited mercy, warned as we are by the Parable of the Talents, which our Master has left us, there would seem to be nothing in the Hindiktheory to remove the injustice of this destiny ; and if we praise the schools of philosophy for their liberality in allowing to all castes the chance of emancipation, which Brahmanism refused to some, we cannot but blame so severe a doctrine, which has nothing to palliate it.' We have now explained the physiological and speculative doctrines of our philosopher, contained in the last six chapters of his poem. "We have seen that with some modification he follows the theories of the pure Sankhya school very closely. Thus he accepts the system of the twenty- five categories, admits the eternity, activity, and unintelligence of nature, and the eternity, inactivity, and intelligence of the soul ; though when he comes to speak of spirit, having the idea of the Supreme Being before him, he cannot deny its activity, at least according to our acceptation of the word. But our poem is a didactic work, our philosopher a teacher of ethics, and he does not permit himself to indulge at greater length in the consideration of physiological theories, and is therefore silent on the 1 This theory is expounded in Ch. XVI. of our poem. BHAGAVAD-QITA. subject of the Linga-shar'vra, and of the system of intellectual creation brought forward by Kapila. On the other hand, he enlarges with more freedom on the theory of the three qualities, which materially aifect his ethical doctrines, and here proceeds much farther than his predecessors. "We must now turn to the theological portion of our work, consisting in the second aggregate of six chapters, and following more particularly the peculiar dogmata of the Theistic Sankhya. Of these six chapters the last cannot properly be said to treat of the deity, while the others mingle with their theology various practical injunctions, and expositions of the future states of men. The great point of the Theistic Sankhya in forming a Being to supply the deficiencies in KapUa's theories, was his universality. It was found expedient, when once that deity was admitted to exist, to attribute and refer everything to him. The first thing was to unite the material essence or nature {prahriti), to which Kapila had granted volition in creation, with a spiritual essence, from which individual souls emanated. This essence was superior to the material. To it volition was granted and refused to nature, and the two together formed one Supreme Being, creator, sustainer and destroyer of the universe. Thus the deity con- tained the essences of all that existed, whether spirit or matter. The individual soul, which emanated from the essence of spirit; and the developed material objects, which emanated in like manner from the essence of matter, could not properly be considered as identical with the Supreme Being ; but were justly regarded as distinct individuate, portions of him, which, for the period of their individual existence, had a separate and independent personality. But the author of the Bhagavad- Gita seems to have gone farther. In order to conciliate the Vedic school, he constantly mentions individual soul as the Supreme Being himself actually existing in the body of man in the personification only of an individual soul, and early in the seventh chapter he identifies nature or the material essence with the Supreme Being; but at the same time includes under this head of nature, not only the material Essence, but developed matter generally included under the broad categories of external INTBOBUCTION. 01 and internal matter, the latter being the material machinery for intelli- gence, consciousness and sensibility. (Ch. VII., shls. 4 — 11). Thus the universality of the deity comprehends all things which exist, ■whether spirit or matter, either in their essences or in their individual development. But this deity is also regarded under two different aspects. "We have already said that, of the three kinds of spirit supposed to exist, two were identifled, and must be looked upon as different aspects only of the same spirit. These two were the Supreme Being and the universal spirit or energy, the difference between them being the personality of the former, and the impersonality of the latter ; and, in other words, they may be called the Supreme Being in his independence, and the Supreme Being in his relation to matter. This latter aspect requires some explana- tion. We have already seen that, in order to create a Supreme Being, the Theistic Sankhya had united the spiritual and material essences, and to this combination granted a personality. The Bhagavad-Gita, with the desire of conciliating the Vedic school, adopted by the side of this deity, which it admitted, an universal being to which this personality was refused. Thus, while the Supreme Being united in himself the essences of spirit and matter, from which souls and developed matter had respec- tively emanated and now left independent, the universal energy in like manner united these essences, which, however, were still connected with matter. Thus the material essence in its independence was nature, the material cause of the universe : — in its relation to matter it is only vital energy, the life which revolves throughout all matter. Again, the spiritual essence in its independence was the spiritual cause of individual souls, that from which they emanated, and into which they were again finally absorbed ; — in its relation to matter, it was the universal spiritual energy supposed to exist throughout all matter, and in it to represent the deity.' 1 In speaking above of the three kinds of spirit, we were perhaps wrong to use that term as the translation of the purmha found in Chap. XV. of our poem, where we have more correctly rendered it ' person.' It designates three kinds of beings, the Supreme Being, the universal energy, and the individual soul. From this passage it may be seen how the two first contain both spirit and matter, at least in their essences, while the last depends on its connection with matter for its individuality. "We may therefore consider the word purusha, ' man or person,' to signify ' spirit combined with mattir,' 13 BHAGATAB-OITA Thus this universal energy, which is an aspect of the Supreme Being, consists in the vital energy which gives life and motion to all matter in greater or less proportion, and the spiritual energy which seems to he the representative of the Supreme Being in every material hody. This universal spirit exists in hodies besides the individual soul, and thus every body contains the Supreme Being himself independent of its own individual soul, a distinct portion of that Being. This gives to each hody a certain divinity, hy means of which Polytheism, Hero-worship and even animal worship is defended hy the Bhagavad-Gita. For, since each hody contains the Supreme Being, in worshipping any material body properly and not blindly, we worship the Supreme Being vsdthin it. We are then inclined to remark that, if every material body contains the Supreme Being under his universal impersonal aspect, each man might as well worship the Being within himself, and thus become his own God. To this our philosopher gives no answer ; but, while introducing this universal deification — which neither Kapila nor the Theistic Sankhyahad dreamed of — :for the sake merely of conciliating the Vedic school, he places the worship of it on a far inferior footing to that of the Supreme Being in his personal independence. (Ch. XII., shls. 2 — 7). At the same time, the worship of the universal energy is far more easy than that of the Supreme Being in his personality, for the former is manifested in different developed bodies, and is thus more open to contemplation. This worship, however, must be distinguished from the mere Brahmanical worship of the deities,, etc., since the latter adores those things in their own individual material character, while the former discovers and adores in each of them the Supreme Being, towards which his worship is really directed. (Comp. Ch. IX., shl. 23) The different aspects and characters of the Supreme Being are, then, thus classed (Ch. VIII., shl. 3, 4). 1 . Adhidaivata, the Supreme Being in his personality, considered as a deity, and therefore the Supreme Being in his relation to the gods. This includes the two parts, the essence of spirit and matter, called INTfiODTJCTlON. cm 2. Adhydtmd, the essence of spirit, the origin of souls, and therefore the Supreme Being in his relation to man or individual soul, and 3. AdhilMta, the material essence, or the Supreme Being in his relation to matter. 4. The One Indivisible {akshara) ; that is, the universal energy called indivisible, as contrasted with individual souls (Jcsha/ra)} 5. AdMyajna, the Supreme Being as Yishnu or Krishna, a manifest object of worship, and therefore the Supreme Being in his rela- tion to religion. ''^^ We have thus seen that the universality of the Supreme Being was vigorously asserted by the Bhagavad-Gita ; and, in order to do so without annuUing his supreme individual and personal character, ita author regards him in two aspects, really identical, but dififering in the per- sonality of the one, and the want of it in the other. This universality is very prominent in several passages where the Supremos Being is declared to be everything that exists, such as Ch. X., shl. 39, where Krishna says, " There exists no one thing, moveable or immoveable (that is, animate or inanimate), which is without me,' or Ch. XI., shls. 36 — 40, where Ajjuna concludes his burst of enthusiasm with the exclamation, ' Thou All!' " ______ The attributes of this Supreme Being are those which we might expect to find in such a deity. His powers are unlimited, no less than his exist- ence and extent. He is creator, preserver, and sustainer ; destroyer and reproducer of the universe ; omniscient, omnipresent, minuter than an atom, and greater than the greatest idea which we can form of infinity : and he, and he alone, is perfect. These attributes are brought forward throughout our poem, but particularly in Chs. VIII., shl. 9, IX., shl. 9, 18, and XI , shl. 37 — 39 ; whUe descriptions of his universality are given in Chs. VII., shls. 7—11, X.^ shls. 20—39, and XI., shls. 9—31 ; the last passage being a description of his universal omnipresence in an imagfinary visible form. But though his relations to the world are such as Compare Chap. XV., sMs. 7 — 16. BHAGATAD-OITA. we might expect, Ms relative position to man is very different from that of our ideas of a supreme deity. In the Supreme Being of Hindu Philosophy, there is no paternal character, no fatherly affection and interest in men, his offspring. Certain laws are made for nature, and, with the superintendence of the deity, these laws keep matter constantly revol^g ; and it does not depend on a separate decree of the Creator, at what exact moment each hody dies and another springs up, but on these laws and destiny — an arrangement which supersedes divine will, or Providence. In the same manner the ' chances and changes of this mortal life ' are not, as we should suppose them to be, dependent on a separate act of volition for each from the sustainer and preserver. Man is gifted at birth with a certain disposition, and certain laws regulate the influences of good and evil on matter, and he is then left to take care of himself, the worship of the deity not consisting in prayers for his aid, or for strength to combat evil, but in a species of devotion which we shall soon have to explain. That affection for all that he has created, which could mark when even a sparrow falls to the ground ; that omniscience which could number and preserve every hair upon our heads, is unknown to the Being adored by the Hindus, and hence the absence of love in their worship, and the identification of the Supreme Being at one period with Shiva, the god of destruction, and the horrors purposely introduced in the description of his identification with Vishnu even, in the eleventh chapter of our poem. '' "We now come to speak of the practical, the ethical, and didactic portion of the Bhagavad-Gita, generally contained in the first six chapters and in Chapters XII. and XVIII. For his original ideas, the philosopher is undoubtedly considerably indebted to PatanjaU, and traces may be found in his work of the rules of his predecessor's system;, but the character now given to them is so new, and the whole theory is so changed, and, in some respects, even contrary to that school ; that we may at once call the practical doctrines of the Bhagavad-Gita, the exclusive property of its author. In order, however, to comprehend their tendency, we must recal to mind the causes which obliged the establishment of this new school of Yoga. The system of Pantanjali had, as we have seen, been INTEODnCUON. CV found far too seductive to so contemplative and splenetic a race as the Hindu ; who preferred its hard injunctions, since they insured emancipation, to the vicissitudes of a hated existence, which was certain to be resumed hereafter with nothing but a change, perhaps for the worse, of body. It was found that it destroyed the institution of caste by aUuring all classes alite from their prescribed duties to follow an ascetic life, hitherto open only to Brahmans ; and, since on the institution of caste hung the vitality of Brahmanism it was necessary to counteract this evil influence. The author of the Bhagavad-Grita, whoever he may have been, was a Brahman, a philosopher, and more — a man of much more common sense than usually fell to the lot of either one or other of these characters. He stepped forward and accepted thq charge. The plan of violent opposition had long since been abandoned as useless, and even dangerous by the priesthood ; that of conciliation was now preferred. Two principal points were to be established, the necessity of preserving the institution of caste, and the application of the very doctrines which were to be opposed, to every-day life, and the consequent reconciliation of Yoga and Brahmanism. At the same time our author was himself a follower of Patanjali, and while he upholds the institution of caste, and seeks to recal men from asceticism to the world, he does not deny the efficacy and excellence of asceticism as taught by PatanjaU; but prudently asserts that his own appKcation of it to every-day life, is still more excellent, yet more efficacious. The arguments as to the institution of caste are negative rather than positive, and are skillfully brought in by our poet. They are mainly directed against the Kshatriyas ; and Arjuna, a prince of that caste is re- presented with one of those rare characters which unite the courage of the one with the tender compassion of the other sex. At the very moment when he is called upon to draw his bow upon his enemies, when the battle is already commencing, l^is struck powerless by the horrible idea of the slaughter about to take place, and refuses to fight. His arguments are favoured by the circumstance that the enemies who opposed him were all more or less--felated to him by blood, and that war therefore became literariSatricide, and could not be undertaken without crime. Cvi BHAGAVAD-GITA. , ^ Tot these and. many other specious arguments, the only reply is the stem iJlgcesgitjjifJi^ jiitjufflf .ojieis-caate. The duty of the warrior-caste was "to combat the foes of one's country, and if this were abandoned even from the best feelings of human nature, the whole organization of the State would be undermined. The reproach of effeminate weakness is then added, and, •on the other hand, glory is depicted in glowing colours. From this it would seem that the civilization of the period at which our author wrote, had gone far to mollify the natural savage and warlike character of the Kshatriya, while enlightenment and art had induced a general feeling of sympathy for others' sufferings, which little accorded with the Brahmanical views of the nature of a warrior's duty. In this respect the arguments of our philosopher are often contradictory. He constantly urges throughout our poem the excellence of charity, brotherly love, and consideration for others ; but, while admitting and appproving these, he asserts that the duties of caste rise above all such considerations, and his arguments are so nicely introduced that the contradiction is not striking. The necessity of performing the duties of one's caste is then the didactic burden of the whole poem. At the end of nearly every chapter Arjuna is .exhorted to arise and fight, and the great dogma seems to be that however bad or obnoxious one's own duty may be, it is better than that of another (Ch. III., 35, XVIII, 47). -""IXL attempting to adapt the doctrines of Patanjali's school — so directly opposed to them, and inculcating a monastic retirement from this life's duties — to those which have just been explained, our author divides the general system of Toga, of which he is a follower, into two classes,'^ Patanjali's and his own. The former he calls Jnanayoga, or devotional worship of the deity by means of spiritual knowledge fjndnaj ; and the latter Ka/rma/yoga, or the like worship by means of the actions (hwma)' of every-day life. He describes the tendency and the rules pertaining to each. PatanjaK, as has been seen, acknowledged, in company with the Theistic Sankhya and Kapila, that spiritual knowledge of the truth was the means of acquiring final emancipation ; but he reduced the acquire- INTHOBTTCTION. CVll ment of this knowledge to a certain system, and made its employment the ■worship of a definite object. The chief instrument in its acquirement was contemplation or internal investigation, and since the practice of this required a renuntiation of the world and the common actions of this life,, renuntiation of actions {sannydsa) was his principal dogma. The rules for this renuntiation and the acquirement of knowledge, which it preceded, are given by our poet as follows (Ch. VI., shls. 10 — 32). The man who devotes himself to such a life, in the hope of working out his emancipation from the flesh, must begin by renouncing aU his connection with the world. Abandoning his home, his friends, his pos- sessions, and everything that is dear to him, he must retire into the jungle. Here he should choose a spot which is unpoUuted in the eyes of the Brahmans. It must be situated neither too high nor too low, and he must here make a couch of Kusha grass {Poa cynoswroiAas), on which to sit or lie. A woollen or cotton sheet, and the skin of some animal, should serve him for a covering. On this couch he should sit in contemplation. His posture should be easy, but erect, and as steady and motionless as possible ; in order that his thoughts may not be disturbed by the move- ments of his body, nor sleep be induced by recumbence. His eyes should be fixed on the end of his nose, and he should never move his gaze, lest the worldly objects around should distract his attention ; whUe, if he shut his eyes, he would be more liable to slumber. Lastly, his mind should be intently fixed on the one object of contemplation, the Supreme Being. This exercise should be repeated during inoreasulg lengths of time, until the Togin, or devotee, becomes capable of sustaining it with perfection for any period. Meanwhile he must preserve a just medium in his mode of life. He must be moderate in eating, sleeping, and recreation, but should not starve completely, nor entirely refrain from sleep ; but, as he advances, he will find it more jeasy- to dispense^with-bQljL^rest and food. His heart also should be cleared of all worldly aversions or desires, an3' should preserve an equanimity which wiU render him indifferent to all external influences, whether pleasant or unpleasant, good or bad; and make him feel alike towards aU things and beings. In this state the Cviii BHAGAVAD-GrTA. light of the truth is gradually kindled within him, and he experiences a feeling of internal satisfaction and pleasure superior to any sensual enjoy- ment. This state is internal devotion, through knowledge, to the Supreme Peing, and a steady continuance in it concludes with final emancipation. Its chief requirement is the renuntiation of the actions of every-day Hfe, and a,bstinence even from every kind of action. Action, according to this school, was always followed with consequences more or less disagreeable ; action was always imperfect, and, therefore in the way of perfection; action distracted the thoughts, and was therefore opposed to contemplation. Lastly, action was incited by the three qualities, which it was the object of the devotee to combat and subdue, and for these reasons action was to be avoided. In replying to these arguments our author admits the excellence of sannydsa, or renuntiation, but explains it in a very difierent manner. Action, he says, is only attended with consequences when the agent has any interest or motive whatsoever in what he does. •'Performed simply as a duty, or as a necessity in supporting life, it is attended with no con- sequences which can affect the soul or hinder its emancipation. It is true that action is incited by the three qualities, but the devotee should rather attack those qualities themselves in their influence on his heart, by walling his heart and senses against them, than seek to annul their power by restraining their results. Again, he admits the power of perfection in knowledge to obtain emancipation, but he would substitute for it a state of miud and heart so devoted to the Supreme Being that all actions of this life will be performed as so many sacrifices to that Being, he being their motive and always present in the mind of their agent. The Karma-yoga, therefore, which he would teach, requires no actual retire- ment from the woiid, but, on the contrary, the fuU performance of that earthly calling to which we may chance to be bom. He asserts that the two schools virtually teach the same dogma, viz., Renuntiation. This however is understood by PatanjaU as the actual physical retirement from the world, and abandonment of worldly actions and duties ; while our author would explain it as the moral retirement from the influences of INTROmrCTION. this world and the abandonment of all worldly interests and anxieties. Actions must still be performed, but they are just as much renounced if performed as a duty and a sacrifice, without any self-interest or worldly motive, as they would be if altogether rejected. Again, this view of renuntiation is supported by the fallacy of the other, since the actual physical abstinence from action cannot be fully carried out in this life. However much we may abstain from the performance of actions, the corporeal routine action of life must still continue. The limbs must still be moved, the heart still beat and the" blood circulate ; we must still eat and drink, and however simple this food may be, be it the mere leaves off the ground, which formed the dainties of some austere anchorets — we must stiU employ action to obtain it. Thus, as long as life continues, action, however slight, continues also, and the total abstinence from it is, therefore, an impossibility. ISTor is the mere abstinence from action real renuntiation. If a man could even acquire complete inaction, he would not be a true renouncer if he did not also restrain the desires of his heart, and all worldly thoughts. The mere restraint of the senses is worth nothing, unless accompanied by a corresponding restraint of the heart ; and if the latter be fuUy accomplished, the action of the senses will do but little harm, if any, since it will have no influence on the heart, and and cannot therefore reach the soul (Ch. V., shl. 4 — 9.) The doctrines of the two schools may, therefore, be thus epitomised. The Jnanayoga, or school of Patanjali, enjoins the avoidance of tempta- tions/The Karmayoga, or school of the Bhagayad-Grita, enjoins the combating of temptation. Both teach that the world is evU, and that its influence, which tends to obstruct devotion, must be destroyed. The one says, " Avoid the world ;" the other more courageously bids us meet it with a well-armed faith and a weU-fortified heart The difference between them is the same as that between the monk and the priest of '^^Sodefn'S^pancrour author has justly appreciated the superiority of the latter. The method of combating the influence of the world, put forward by the Bhagavad-Gri'ta, in place of asceticism, is simple, if not easy. It 14 ex BHAQAVAD-GITA. consists in destroying all attachment to it. When this is done, our actions are no longer prompted by interested motives, but performed as a duty or a sacrifice, with the Supreme Being ever before our eyes. But this attachment to the world can only be conquered by subjection of the heart, which is, of course, its seat. The affections of the heart are, - however, received from without. The heart naturally dislikes that which does not please it, and affects that which does please it; but the perception of such external objects as please or displease, is acquired through the medium of the senses, which connect the internal man with external matter. Patanjali, therefore, would annul their influence on the heart by removing them from the objects which are likely to please or displease it most. Our author, on . the other hand, would allow their influence to continue, bHt \vouId subject the heart so completely, as to make it of no effect. This subjection is accomplished by devotion. Man must be resolute and firm. He must keep the one object of final emancipation ever before him, and while he restrains his thoughts from all worldly and external objects, meditating only on the Supreme Being, he must, by the power of the soul over the body, and by the strength of his own will, prevent his heart from experiencing either affection or aversion towards the objects of which it receives impressions through the senses. Passion of every kind is the gate of destruction, and must, therefore, be subdued. One object of desire alone is allowed to the heart, and this is final emancipation. One thing alone must be loved ; one thing alone atten- tively thought upon, and this is the Supreme Being. Complete equa- nimity, complete indiflference to pain or pleasure, love or hate, to all worldly matters ; must be acquired before this devotion to the Supreme One can be steadily fixed in the heart. In every action of life, that Being alone must be uppermost in our thoughts. We must remember that the action performed is not done for our own sakes, with any interested motive, but as an offering of love and duty to the Supreme Being, in purity and equality of heart. In this, at least, there is no fanaticism, as there may be in the asceti- cism taught by Patanjali. This is, at least, a sensible and religious INl'fiOBUCTlON. GXl doctrine; and if we add to it faith and Xoyv, will be even u Christian doctrine. And would that in the present selfish age, and this northern active clime, it could be applied and successfully carried out by Christians, as we call ourselves ! It is the teaching of our Saviour when he bids us hate father and mother, and take up the cross, and when He points to the lily of the field, which toils and spins not, but puts faith in its Creator to give it nourishment. We, too, should have our final emancipation, our solvation ever as our only desire, and our Supreme Being — so far superior, so far more loveable than the imperfect deity of the Hindu philosopher — ever as our chief object of love. We, too, should do our duty in this world without self-interest and attachment, and morally renounce the world in the rejection of all interest in it. The great outcry against this doctrine is, that it is unnatural. Nature bids us take an interest in the world. Nature fills us with emidation and ambition. It is natural to love advancement, prosj)erity, increase of wealth. It is natural to depend on ourselves alone, and not to put much faith in the promises of God, who will not help us, if we do not help ourselves. All this, it is true, is natural. But it is natural to sin, and very unnatural to act uprightly ; and the want of nature is no ground for accusation of our doctrines. But we must not be carried away by enthusiasm at the apparent Christianity of the doctrines of our philosopher. We must not forget how much of the genuine Brahman lies beneath this upper coating, nor arrogate for him more than the praise due to a clever reformer and a wise ethical philosopher. Had our author had more courage, had his policy been less conciliatory, had he sought to establish the theories of which he dreamed, independent of the rank systems to which he~coaee4ed so much, the results of his teaching might have been different. We say nngM, for as well strive to wash the Ethiopian white, as to convert the native of the north and centre of India from the belief which the climate, aided by the continual teaching of master minds through long ages, has planted deeply in his bosom. The Bhagavad-Gita obtained an exalted reputation in India, but its doctrines, like those of the Vedas, where applied as its students listed. The resignation, the indifference, the inertness, and eXU BHAGtAVAD-GITA. the fatalism of the Hindu stUl remained, as it will remain for ages, and the banks of the Ganges will never be crowded by a Christian population tOl the doctrines taught be enslaved to the character of the audience. One thing may, however, be said for the strange nation among whom these doctrines are stUl disseminated. In no country, under no climate in the world, has religious feeling, in whatever shape, been so firm and constant in the hearts of all classes as in India. Ifo nation, no people under the sun, has had the future after death so constantly before their j Mnds, h as been so little wedded to this life, and so intent on their emancipation from it. This would seem to be a fine groundwork for the eternal teaching of the Sacred Book ; but the climate which has effected this, has also nourished and sustained the mysticism and the fatalism of Brahmanism and its Darshanas, and the sward that looks so green and tempting to the eye, covers a morass, in which the pure doctrines of the gospel would sink to be swamped. INTRODUCTION. EEMAEK8 ON THE BHAGAVAD-GITA. The great drawback in speaking of Hindii literature, is the complete absence of any chronological data. The nations which chronicle their own existence, and hand to posterity the history of their glories, are those over which some vainglorious dynasty has ruled, who delighted to display their splendour to the eyes of the future as well as to those of the present. India has been always more or less governed by a hierarchy, and it was not till the minor states gradually melted together into a northern empire, in the first centuries of our own era, that any history was composed, or any dates given. The epics of the earlier ages were only partially chronicles. We know that Sutas, or bards, were attached to each tribe or principal family, and that their hereditary office was to preserve and recite to their masters the glories of their ancestors. But the very fact of their being also charioteers, would seem to indicate that these recitals were originally made at the moment of battle, in order to inspire courage in the followers of the chieftains, and certainly no archives, but vague tradition thus, handed from father to son, were ever preserved. Wben the power of the priesthood was somewhat broken by the prevalence of Buddhism, the kingly caste gained strength and vitality. Literature flourished, and scholars and archsEologists sprang up, who pre- ferred to exa!mine the work of their predecessors to risking any novelties of their own. Hence arose the first enquiry into the past, and dates were given to every work that had been hitherto composed. But since the lan- guage of these was no longer the vernacular, since nothing could be really known of the true dates, and since their authority was respected, and the superiority of their contents acknowledged ; the dates given by the natives CXIV BUAGAVAD-GITA to most works were purely fictitious, and as remote as possible. Among others which received this distinction was the Bhagavad-Gita, whose conciliatory doctrines, receivable by all classes of belief, met on all sides with a welcome. No actual numerical date was stated for it, but it was unhesitatingly attributed to the same personage who is said to have com- piled the Vedas, and composed most of the Puranas. The slight know- ledge of Indian history, which has been gathered from Indian literature, and the strong internal evidence of the language, enable us to interpose at least some nine or ten centuries betvs^een the sacred text-books and our poem, and some five or six, at least, between our poem and the Pufanas. This would give to the Vyasa the unwonted longevity of fifteen centuries, which not even Brahmanical scholiasts care to allow him. In the 'Index' it may be seen that the Vyasa, Krishna Dwaipayana, to whom the Vedas are attributed, is rather a mythological than an historical personage ; and, if, by the side of this it be remembered that the modesty of the real author at an age when truth would be sacrificed to effect, might prompt him to attribute the composition of his own work to so celebrated a writer, we shall not be surprised to find that Sanjaya (Ch. XVIII., shl. 75) refers his knowledge of what he relates to the favour of the Vyasa. This, however, is no admission that the work was his composition ; and when we finally call to mind that it was intended by its author to be considered as an episode in the Mahabharata, which was also attributed to the same compiler, we shall understand his silence as to his own name, and resign ourselves to consider the authorship of the finest specimen of Hindu literature as lost in oblivion for ever. Not so however its date. We have already shown to what period its doctrines should refer it ; we have already approximated its date between one century before and three after Christ, and by this we feel inclined to abide. The character of the Bhagavad-Gita as a literary composition, obliges us to place it at the prime age of Sanskrit literature. This age seems to have been that of the drama. Kalidasa and our author must have been bred in the same school of civilization, and nurtured in the same lap of national taste. It is quite possible that our poet may have . INTRODUCTION. CXV moved among those great minds, those philosophers and men of science, those poets, dramatists, and wits, who thronged, as wu know, round the throne of Vikramaditya,' as bright planets round a brighter sun. There is uo doubt that our author, whatever his name, age, or birth- place, was more of a philosopher than a poet ; still his work contains much that deserves the title of poetry, even according to our more delicate ideas. Though it is in form rather a dialogue than a narration, the author has succeeded in giving some portraiture of character in the personages he introduces. We may instance the delicacy, generosity, and almost womanly tenderness of Arjuna {e.g., in Ch. I., shl. 23), the ambition and odium in Diiryodhana, the ferocity of Bhima, and the mysterious con- fidence of Krishna. Nor is the bosom friendship of the two principal speakers ill described, stUl less the delicate fears of Arjuna lest he should have offended his friend by his former familiarity, when he discovers in him the One Almighty Being (Ch. XI., shl. 41, 42). The Bhagavad-Gita has been called an episode of the Mahabharata, and some of the MSS. insert it in its proper place in that poem. It must not, however, be imagined for a moment that it has any further con- nection with it. The Mahabharata, as all students of Sanskrit well know, is the great epic of India, which, from its popularity and extent, would seem to correspond with the Iliad among the Greeks. The theme of the whole work is a certain war which was carried on between two branches of one tribe, the descendants of Kuru, for the sovereignty of Hastinapura, commonly supposed to be the same as the modern Delhi. The elder branch is called by the general name of the whole tribe, Kurus ; the younger goes by the patronymic from Pandu, the father of its five principal leaders. This war between the Kurus and Pandavas occupies about twenty thousand shlokas, or a quarter of the whole work, as we now possess it. 1 This emperor is supposed to have flourished about 56 b.c, and nine men of genius- and learning, including ^Slid4sa, the poet, and Amarasinha, the lexicograph, are called the pearls that adorned his court at Ujjayini, the modern Oujein. CXVl EHAGAVAD-GITA. The rest is filled with, episodes and legends, chiefly didactic, of a much later date, inserted, from time to time, by authors who wished to give the authority of antiquity to their teaching. The whole forms a collection of the traditions of the early history of the Aryan people during their first settlement in India. The plan of inserting didactic and other works into the old and well-known epics of earlier ages ; was very common when civilization and literature had progressed to such a point that a Jesuitical fiction was a matter of small account. Thus the story of Nala is considered as an episode of the Mahabharata, that of Vishwamitra and the Eagha- Vansha of the Eamayana, and these, and many others, are all of later 'date, perhaps, by some centuries, than >the original works. Some ingentdty. is, however, always employed by the authors of these episodes in adapting them to ths peculiar passage of the greater works to which they are to be tacked on, and accordingly we find the first chapter of our poem occupied exclusively with narrative, which savours very strongly of the epic' In order to understand the allusions there made, a knowledge is requisite of the preceding history of the tribe, which will now be given as follows. Of the name Kuru we know but little, but that little is suflicient to prove that it is one of great importance. We have no means of deriving it froui any Sanskrit root, nor has it, like too many of the old Indian names, the appearance of being explanatory of the peculiarities of the person or persons whom it designates. It is, therefore, in all probability, a name of considerable antiquity, brought by the Aryan race from their first seat in Central Asia. Its use in Sanskrit is fourfold. It is the nam of the northern quarter, or Dwipa, of the world, and is described as lying between the most northern range of snowy mountains and the polar sea. It is, farther, the name of the most northern of the nine Varshas of the known world. Among the long genealogies of the tribe itself, it is .found as the name of an ancient king, to whom the foundation of the tribe is attributed. Lastly, it designates an Aryan tribe of sufficient importance to disturb the whole of northern India with its factions, and to make its battles the theme of the longest epic of olden time. INTKODUCIION. CXVll Viewing these facts together, we should be incliaed to draw the con- clusion that the name was originally that of a race inhabiting central Asia, beyond the Himalaya, who emigrated with other races into the north-west of the Peninsula, and witt them formed the great people who styled themselves unitedly Arya, or the Noble, to distinguish them from the aborigines whom they subdued, and on whose territories they even- tually settled. These Aryans are the people who brought Brahmanism and the Sanskrit tongue into India, and whom etymologists and anti- quaries know to be of the same blood and origin as the races which people the whole of Persia, and almost all the continent of Europe, in short, the Indo-Germanic or Indo-Soythic class. At the time ■ when the plot of the Mahabharata was enacted, this tribe was situated in the plain of the Doab, and their particular region, lying between the Jumna and Sursooty rivers, was called Kurukshetra, or the plain of the Kurus. The' capital of this country was Hastinapura and here reigned, at a period of which we cannot give the exact date, a king named Yichitravirya. He was the son of Shantanu and Satyavati ; and Bhishma and Ejishna Dwaipayana, the Vyasa, were his half-brothers; the former being his father's, the latter his mother's son. He married two sisters, Amba and Ambalika, but dying shortly after his marriage from excessive connubial rites, he left no progeny ; and his half-brother, the Vyasa, instigated by divine command, married his widows, and begot two sons, Dhritarashtra and Pandu. The former had one hundred sons, the eldest of whom was Duryodhana. , The latter married firstly Pritha, or Kunti, the daughter of Shura, and secondly Madri. The children of these wives were the five Pandava princes ; but as their mortal father had been cursed by a deer while hunting to be childless aU his life, these children were mystically begotten by difflerent deities. Thus Yudhishthira, Bhima, and Arjuna, were the sons of Pritha, by Dharma, Vayu, and Indra, respectively. Nakula was the son of Madri, by Nasatya the elder, and Sahadeva, by Dasra, the younger, of the twin Ashwinau, the physicians of the gods. This story would seem to be a fiction, invented to give a divine origin to the five heroes of the poem, but, however this 15 CXVlll I'nAGAVAD-GtTA. may be, Diiryodhana and his brothers are the leaders of the Kuru, or elder branch of the tribe; and the five Pandava princes those of the Pandava, or younger branch. Dhritarashtra was blind, but althougi Jc. s incapacitated for govern- ing, he retained the tteone, while his son D'iiytdbana really directed the affairs of the state. The latter seems to have cizz the type of an ambi- tious and contentious intriguer, and among other things, he prevailed on his father to banish his cousins, the Pandava princes, from the country. After long wanderings and varied hardships, these princes collected their friends around them, formed by the help of many neighbouring kings a vast army, and prepared to attack their unjust oppressor, wto had, in like manner, assembled his forces. The hostile armies meet on the plain of the Kurus. Bhishma, the half-brother of Vichitravirya, being the oldest warrior among them, has the command of the Kuru faction ; Bhima, the second son of Pandu, noted for his strength and prowess, is the general of the other party. The scene of our poem now opens, and remains throughout the same, — the field of battle. In order to introduce to the reader the names of the principal chieftains in each army, Duryodhana is made to approach Drona, his military preceptor, and name them one by one. The challenge is then suddenly given by Bhi'shma the Kuru general, by blowing his conch ; and he is seconded by aU his followers. It is returned by Arjuna, who is in the same chariot with the god Krishna, who, in compassion for the per- secution he suffered had become his intimate friend, and was now acting the part of a charioteer to him. He is followed by all the generals of the Pandavas. The fight then begins with a volley of arrows from both sides;: but when Arjuna perceives it, he begs Krishna to draw up the charixit; ia the space between the two armies, while he examines the lines of the enemy. The god does so, and points out in those lines; the numerous relatives of his friend. Arjuna is horror-struck at the idea of com- mitting fratricide by slaying his near relations, and throws dbwnhis bow and arrow, deolaxing that he would rather be killed without defending- himself, than fight against' them. Kpshna replies with the argumeatS) lyTEODUCTION. CXIX which form, the didactic and philosophical doctrines of the work, and endeavours to persuade him that he is mistaken in forming such a resolu- tion. Aijuna is eventually over-ruled. The fight goes on, and the Pandavas defeat their opponents with most complete victory. Such is the plot by which the ideas and doctrines of one age are woven in with those of a far earlier one, and we cannot deny at least the ingenuity and perhaps too the elegance with which the undertaking is o^ied out. This brief explanation will sufilce to make the reader at home in the study of the poem, and we therefore leave him at once to its perusal. CHAPTEE THE FIKST. OM!' BHBITABASHTEA SPOKE. What did my followers and those of Pandu do, when assembled for the purpose of fighting on the sacred plaia,'' the plain of Kiiru,' Sanjaya ? SANJATA SPOKE. When king Dnryodhana beheld the army of the Pandavas drawn up ' This was the mystic monosyllable with which all the hymns of the Vedas, and after- wards all works which treated of theology were commenced. It is composed of the three letters a, «, and m; the a and u combining to form the diphthong o. The Hindfis look upon it as a vocal represesentation of the Supreme Being, in his simple character of Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer of the universe. Thus, the a is said to represent Vishnu, the preserver ; the «, Shiva, the destroyer ; and the m, Brahmi, the creator. A more probable origin is, that it is composed of the initials of the three personifications of the triad of elements, which is a much more ancient trinity than that of Brahmi, Vishnu, and Shiva. The a would then represent Agui, or fire ; the « Varuna, water ; and the m Marut, wind or air. The reverence attached to this monosyllable may be inferred from the fact that some transcribers of MSS. have been afraid to write the awful word itself, and have substituted some other. See Wilson's ' Vishnu PurEina,' p. 273, note 4. ' The name of a flat region situate in the Doab, the strip of land between the Indus, the Ganges, and the HimSlaya range. It lies between the rivers YamimS. (Jumna), and SarasvatI (Sursooty), and comprises according to Manu (II. 19) the districts of feuru- kshetra, of the Matsyas, the F^chala^, and me Shfirasenakas. It is there called the country of the Brahmarshis. The Sarasvati (Sursooty) is an insignificant stream flowing through Sirhind, between the Tamun^ and the Shatadru. It eventually loses itself in the sand of the desert, and is, on that account, fabled by the Hindus to flow underground into the ocean. It is held, however, as one of the most sacred streams of India. Lassen (Indische Alterthumskunde, vol. i., p. 123) calls the Doab the Belgium of India. It is the gateway of the peninsula, where the eastern and western races have always met in battle. Here, in later days, was fought the battle of Paniput ; and here was laid the scene of that war which transferred the sovereignty of middle India from the Kurus to the P&ndavas. As it was the gate of India, so (foes it in aU probability derive its sacred name from being the first seat of the Aryan race, whence it worked its way from the Indus to the Ganges, and from being retained in their memory with all the respect due to a &therland. ' Apart of Dharmakshetra, the flat plain around Delhi, which city is often identified with Eastin&pura, the capital of Kurukshetra, and the seat of the government of Dhntarii^htra, and of his son Duryodhana, 2 BHASAVAB-GITA. CHAPTEK THE FIEST. in order,^ he then approached his preceptor^ and spoke these words. 'Behold, preceptor! this huge army of the sons of Pandu, drawn up by thy cleyer pupil, the son of Drupada." In it are warriors with huge bows, equal to Bhima and Arjuna in battle, (namely) Tuyudhana and Vira*a, and Drupada on his great car ; Dhrishtaketu, Chekitana, and the valiant king of Kashi' ; Purujit and Kuntibhoja and Shaivya, chief of men ; and Yudhamanyu the strong, and Uttamaujas the brave, the son of Subhadra,^ and all the sons of Draupadi,' too, in their huge chariots. But remark those, who are the most distinguished amongst us, the leaders of my axmy, best of Brahmans !" I will name them to thee, that thou mayst know them. ' There are thyself," and Bhishma, and Karna, and Kripa, victorious in battle, Ashwatthaman, and Vikarna, and Sainnadatti too, and many other heroes, who risk their lives for my sake, armed with divers weapons, aU experienced in war. This army of mine, which is com- manded by Bhishma,^^ is not sufficient; but that army of theirs, commanded by Bhfma, is sufficient. And do you, even aU of you, drawn up iu all the ranks of the army, according to your grades, attend even to Bhishma.' * Be careful to derive vyidha from vi -)- uh, not from vi -\- vah. ' Drona, who was the military instructor of many warriors of hoth parties, though himself by birth a Brihman. Note that dchdrya is used for a preceptor in general, whether in religious or profane sciences ; guru for one in the former only. ^ Dhrishtadyumna, the elder son of Drupada. ' K^hi or Vai&nasi is the modem Benares. 8 Ahhimanyu, the son of Aijuna and Subhadr&, the sister of Krishna, from whom he is also called Saubhadra. ^ Draupadi, otherwise called Krishn& or PSnchail, was daughter of Drupada, and wife of each of the fire sons of P&ndu. Her son by Tudhishthira was Prativindhya, by Bhima Sdtasoma or Shrutasoma, by Arjuna Shrutakirti, hy Naiula ShatSnika, and hy Sahadeva Shrutasena. 1° Lit., ' Twice-born,' which was a title given especially to BrSimans, and generaEy to Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, all of whom were considered to be spiritually horn again when invested at the age of maturity with the sacrificial thread. By this ceremony the Aryan race was distinguished from the aborigines. " Bhmdn is a word of respect, often used for the second person, and equivalent to 'your honour,' ' your worship,' etc. 12 Bhishma, the great step-uncle of Duryodhana and his cousins, received the com- mand of the former's army, from being the oldest of all the warriors, and the most renowned. THE BESPONDENCr OF AEJIWA. 3 Then, in order to encourage him," the ardent old ancestor of the Knras^* blew his trumpet,^' sounding loud as the roar of a Uon. Then, on a sudden, trumpets, kettle-drums, cymbals, drums, and horns were sounded. That noise grew to an uproar. And standing on a huge car drawn by white horses, the slayer of Madhu,^'^ and the son of Pandu" blew their celestial triumpets. Krishna'^ (blew his horn called) Panchajanya" ; the Despiser of Wealth," blew 'the Gift of the Gods' ; he of dreadful deeds and wolfish entrails"" blew a great trumpet called Paundra; '^ king 13 Duryodliaiia, who had just complained that his army was insufficient to cope with the enemy. i* Bhishma. '■^ Lit., ' Conch-shell,' which was used as a war-trumpet, and received a ' nom-de- guerre' from its owner. " Krishna. — See Index, imder ' Madhu.' w Arjuna. Krishna and Arjuna were in the same chariot, the former acting for the time as Arjuna's sate or charioteer. '* In shloka 24, this name recurs coupled with a similar one, Gud&iesha, applied to Aijuna. A twofold method of translating them is open to each ; and as the difficulty in deciding which to choose throughout our poem is great, I have preferred to leave them alone. The grammarians derive HrishiJcesha from hrkhika, 'a sense,' and isha, 'lord,' — 'the ord of the senses,' a name applicable to Krishna, when looked on in a philosophical point of view, as identical with the Supreme Spirit. Guddlcesha they derive from gitddka, 'sleep,' and Uha, 'lord,' — 'the lord of sleep.' The ohjection to both is that the words hnahika and gvMka occur nowhere but in the grammarians' writings, and are justly sus- pected of being coined by them. Again, however appropriate the first epithet may be to Krishna, we Imow no good reason frtiy the second should be applied to Arjuna. Sohlegel has sought another derivation. He considers the second part of each word to be kesim, ' hair : ' and hrishi, to be an elongated form derived from hrish, ' to be rough,' while gtidd means the Euphorbia plant. He would therefore render the first word 'with upraised or tumed-up hair,' the second ' with hair twisted, or matted like the leaves of the Euphorbia' ; and he considers the first epithet duly supported by that of keshma, ' hairy,' so constantly applied to Krishna. The difficulty lies iu the want of authority for the first, and the strained nature of the second, derivation. Bumouf, whose opinion must always have great weight, says, in the preface to his translation of the ' Bh&gavata PurSna,' vol. i. p. 168, that as the derivations given by the grammarians and by the translators are equally unsatisfactory, we should make the best of them, while waiting for better ; and he proposes that the meaning attributed to these words by the gram- marians should be retained in works of a metaphysical or philosophical nature, such as the Purinas ; that of the translators, in works of an epic and historical character. Since the ' Bhagavad-GitEi' may side with the former in its contents, and with the latter in its form as an episode of the ' MahibhSrata,' we prefer to leave these epithets untranslated. 19 Made of the bones of the giant Panchajana. — See Index. 2" Bhlma. The first epithet is a play on his name, which means ' dreadful' ; the second denotes his ferocious and implacable disposition. 2' Lit., ' He whose standard is an ape.' It seems to have been the custom to cari-y some device as a war-ensign on the chariot. 4 BHA6AVAD-GIIA. CHAPTEE THE PlEST. Tudhislithira, the son of Kuntf, blew ' the Eternal Victory' ; Nakula and Sahadeva blew 'the Sweet-toned' and the ' Blooming- with-jewels.' The king of Kashi, renowned for the excellence of his bow, and Shikandin in his huge chariot, Dhrishtadyumna, and Tirata and SatyaM, nncon- quered by his foes ; and Drupada and the sons of Draupadi, altogether, O king of earth ! and the strong-armed son of Snbhadra, each severally blew their trumpets. That noise lacerated the hearts of the sons of Dhritarashtra, an uproar resounding both through heaven and earth. Now when Arjuna"' beheld the Dhartarashtras^^ drawn up, and that the flying of arrows had commenced, he raised his bow, and then addressed these wprds, king of earth ! to Krishna. ' Draw up my chariot, Eternal One ! between the two amiieB, that I may examine these men drawn up and anxious for battle, (and see) . with whom I have to fight in the strife of war. I perceive that those who are assembled here are about to j&ght, from a wish by so doing to do a favour to the evil-minded son of Dhritarashtra.'^ SAlfJAYA SPOKE. Krishna'^ being thus addressed by Aijuna, ^^ Bharata ! drew up that best of chariots between the two armies ; and before Bhishma and Drona and all the kings of the earth, he said : ' Behold, king ! tbese Kurus here assembled.' Standing there, the king beheld fathers and grandfathers, preceptors and maternal uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, and friends, fathers-in-law and acquaintances,"* ^ lit., The sons of Dhritar&slitra, Duryodhana and his brothers; hut here put generally for themselves and their followers, the whole Kuru party. ^ Duryodhana. By this Arjuna, whose character is drawn throughout as one of almost feminine delicacy of feeling and noble generositj^, wishes to exciupate the rest of the Kurus from the charge of cruelty towards their relations, and to throw all the blame on the odious Duryodhana. ''* Here, and at shl. 34, relations of every kind are mentioned to give more effect to Arjuna's feelings, but those of which we know are comparatively few. Bhishma, as great- uncle to both Kirus and P^ndavas, may be placed among the grandfathers. Dhritarishtra was uncle to the sons of P6ndu, Drupada their father-in-law, and Dhrishtadyumna, his son, their brother-in-law. Lastly, Kama was half-brother to Aijuna. Moreover the principal actors in each party were cousins. THE BBSPONDENCr OF AMONA. 5 in both of the armies. Gazing on all these relations dra-vm up (in battle array), the son of Kunti,^* moved by extreme compassion, spoke with sadness, as follows : AEJTTNA SPOKE. ' ISow that I have beheld this kindred standing here near together for the purpose of fighting, my hmbs give way, and my face is dried np'^ (of the blood in my veins), and tremour is produced throughout my body, and my hair stands on end. My bow, Gandiva," dips from my hand, and my skin, too, bums (with fever). Nor am I able to remain upright, and my mind is, as it were, whirling round. And I perceive adverse omens, ''^ hairy one ! Nor do I foresee anything better, even when I shall have slain these relations in battle. I seek not victory, Krishna, nor a kingdom, hor pleasures. "What should we do with a kingdom, Govinda ? Wiat with enjoyments, or with life itself, (if we slew these relatives) ? Those very men — on whose account'' we might desire a kingdom, enjoyments, or pleasures — are assembled for battle, having given up their lives and riches. Teachers, fathers, and even sons, and grandfathers, uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law, with connections also — these I would not wish to slay, though I were slain myself,'" kiUer of Madhu ! — ^not even for the sake of the sovereignty of the triple world,'' how much less for 25 Arjiina. —See Index. '« This is quite an Indian mode of depicting horror. We florid Europeans would say, ' My face grows pale ;' hut the swarthy Hindli, not seeinff the effect on account of his colour, has recourse to the fedmg of the hlood rushing hack from the surface, and leaving the face dry and Woodless. '' G&ndiva is the name of the miraculous how which Aquna received as a gift from Indra. 28 This may he taken literally, as birds, etc., actually passing before Arjuna's eyes ; or, figuratively, as refering to his fears for the event of the battle. I confess the con- text immediately followiag favours the latter acceptation : the scholiasts throw no light on the matter. "9 Since he deems these pleasures only enjoyable when surrounded and partaken by relations. 30 Though my life depended on it. 31 Earth, the firmament and heaven, the last including also the regions of the demons. The sovereignty of this triple world was Vishnu's, he havjng gained it by artifice from Bali, in the form of a tiny dwarf. See Index under ' Vishnu.' 6 BHAGAVAD-GITA. CHAPIEK THE FIEST. that of this earth ! Wien we had killed the Dhartarashtras, what pleasure should we have, thou who art prayed to by mortals?'" We should incur a crime were we to put to death these villains.^ Therefore we are not right to kill the Dhartarashtras, our own relations, for how could we be happy, after killing our own kindred, slayer of Madhu ? ' Even if they whose reason is obscured by covetousness, do not perceive the crime committed in destroying their own tribe, nor a sin in the oppression of their friends, should we not know how to recoil from such a sin — ^we, who do look upon the slaughter of one's tribeas a crime, thou who art supplicated by mortals ? In the destruction of a tribe, the eternal institutions (laws) of the tribe are destroyed. These laws being destroyed, lawlessness prevails throughout the whole tribe. From the existence of lawlessness the women of the tribe become corrupted, Krishna; and when the women are corrupted, son of Vrishni! confusion of caste takes place.'' Confusion of caste is (a gate) to heU"^ both for the destroyers s* The fiist meaning of the root ard, is ' to trouble,' from which the grammarians, followed by Bopp, have translated this word ' the troubler of (bad) men.' '3 This word is explained as comprising six species of villains, tIz., incendiaries, poisoners, cut-throats, stealers of property, robbers of one's land, or one's wife, all pi which pleasant and friendly parts had been, according to Shridarasv&min, the schoUastJ filled by the Kurus against the P^indavas. *" '* The women, for instance, whose husbands, friends, or relations, have been all slain in battle, no longer restrained by law, seek husbands among other and lower castes or tribes, causing a mixture of blood, which many nations at all ages have regarded as a most serious evil ; but particularly those who, like the Aryans, the Jews and the Scotch — were at first surrounded by foreigners very different to themselves, and thus preserved the distinction and genealogies of their races more effectively than any other. 35 A distinction is to be made between Naraka and P&t&la, at least according to the Pur&^as. In them Naraka only is the place of punishment for mortals, Pktfla being the region immediately below the earth, which is inhabited by all the ' opposition' of the Hindd Pantheon, the Daityas, D&navas, Takshas, N&gas, etc. It is divided into seven regions, placed one below the other ; and if we may credit the account of the Muni NSirada, who, like Orpheus, went down to the regions below, the evil genii take great care to provide most comfortably for their bodily and sensual enioymentB, and make their habitation far more attractive than the cold virtue of Swarga. "Thus the daughters of the demons wander about lavish of their fascinations, the sun shines for light and not for heat ; the demons themselves revel on excellent dinners and the best cellars, attended by bands of music and the songs of the Ko'il {Oueulua Indicm) the nightingale of India (See Wilson's 'Vishnu Pur&,ua,' p. 204). Naraka is a very different place. It is said to consist of twenty-eight, and sometimes of many more divisions, each more terrible than the last, and allotted to the punishment of different crimes. For a descrip- tion, see ' Vishnu Purfaa,' p. 207. IHE DESPONDENCY OP AEJUNA. 7 of the tribe, and for the tribe itself. For their fathers are deprived of the rites of funeral-cakes and Ubations of water, and thus fall (from heaven).^" By the crimes of the destroyers of a tribe, and by those who cause con- fusion of caste,'' the eternal institutions of caste and tribe '^ are subversed. We have learnt (from sacred writ) that a sojourn '' in heU necessarily awaits the men who subvert the institutions of their tribe, Krishna ! Alas ! we have determined to commit a great crime, since, from the desire of sovereignty and pleasures, we are prepared to slay our own kin. Better were it for me, if the Dhartarashjrras, being armed, would slay me, harm- less and unresisting in the fight.' SANJATA SPOKE. Having thus spoken in the midst of the battle, Arjuna, whose heart was troubled with grief, let fall his bow and arrow, and sat down on the bench of the chariot. 's In bringing forward these and other melancholy superstitions of Brihmanism in the mouth of Aquna, we are not to suppose that our poet, — though as much Br&hman as philosopher in many unimportant points of belief, — himself received and approved of , them. The present is one of those deplorable perversions of common sense wmch make the happiness, and even salvation of the dead, depend on the practice of the living, and which are found in many churches where the hierarchy have had recourse even to menaces, to enforce their injunctions on an ignorant and superstitions populace. For a full account of the ceremonies here alluded to we must refer the reader to Colebrooke's 'Essays,' vol. i., p. 187, etc., and vol. ii., p. 363; and to the 'Asiatic Eesearches,' vol. vii., p. 245. It IS only necessary here to state that the Shr&ddha was a funeral ceremony performed at different periods by the nearest relatives of the deceased, and for fathers, grandfathers,, and great-grandfathers. It consisted in offering libations of pure water, and of Pindjls, (balls of meat or rice mixed with curds). The latter were offered for dead relatives generally, on* The desire of copiilation,-which nothing can prevent, though religion may restrain it. Be careful to separate the compound into dharma -(- aviruddha, by neglect of which WiUdns, Ch6zy, and Langlois have fallen into egregious error. See Schlegel's note. 15 These are the characters of aU beings, whether gods, demons, men, or animals, and are mixtures of the three qualities (fima) in different proportions. When he says that he does not exist in them, he does not detract from his character of universal and omnipresent Being. These dispositions belong to none of the categories of existing things. They are neither nature, matter, soul, nor spirit, but abstract independent forces influencing all matter. '6 As the qualities {gam) are three in number, so are the dispositions three in kind, according to the preponderance of each quality in each of them. " This mdyd, which is explained at length in the Introduction, generally refers as in the Ved&nta system, which borders on nihilism, to the whole creation, con- sidered as having no real existence, but only appearing to man to exist. It would seem here to allude to the influence of the qualities on matter, by which the real relation of matter to spirit is disguised, and the former only appears really to exist. '^ Asura is here a general name fur the enemies of the gods, the giants and demons DEVOTION THEOUGH SPISITTIAL DISCEKNMKNT. 53 not have recourse to me. Four kinds of npright men worship me, Arjuna ! (viz.) the aiHicted, he who is desirous of knowledge, he who is desirous of some possession,'' and he who is possessed of spiritual know- ledge, prince of the Bharatas! Of these, the best'"' is the one who is possessed of spiritual knowledge, if he always practices devotion, and confines his worship to me alone. For I am dear to the spiritually-wise beyond possessions,^' and he is dear to me. All of these (four) are indeed excellent, but the spiritually- wise is verily myself ^^ to my thinking. For, with devoted soul, he has approached even me, the highest path. At the conclusion of many generations the spiritually-wise proceeds towards me. A great-minded man who (is convinced) that ' Yasudeva is everything,' is dificult to find. Those who are deprived of spiritual knowledge by a diversity^ of desires, adopt divers" rites of worship, directed by their own natures, and have recourse to other deities (than me).'° If any one worshipping with faith, desire to reverence any personage, I make that faith of his constant. Gifted with such faith, 23 who inhabit P5.taia, below the earth. As the sattwa-gma, or quality of goodness, pre- dominates in the gods, and the rajo-gtma, or active badness, in man ; so the tamo-gima, or bad indifference and obscurity, preponderates in the disposition of the Asuras ; and those men whose dispositions resemble tiieirs, are therefore the worst and lowest, and blinded by the influence of the quaUties, deceived by the appearance only of the universe, do not recognise the existence of the Supreme Being. 19 "Wliether wealth, progeny, happiness, or anything else of that kind. 2" Because the motives of the other three were selfish. *' The translators have all taken the commoner meaning of atymrtham as an adverb, and rendered it by ' extremely.' I confess I think the word has here a more prominent and emphatic force, and that the context demands the translation I have given. To the afflicted, hoping for consolation, to the seeker of some possession, and the thirster after knowledge, some object (a/rfha) is dear, and prompts their worship. To the spiritually- wise the Supreme Being alone is dear above all such objects. 22 A preferable reading, not, however, supported by any MS., would be dtmd + ma. As they stand, the words dtmd + eva can only be explained by supposing iti to be understood after them. Madhjislidana, the scholiast, explains them by na maito bhimnah, ' not severed from me,' i.e. ' united with me in spirit ' ; and this is, perhaps, supported by the next arddha-shloka. 23 Properly a name of Krishna, as son of Vasudeva (see Index) ; but generally usurped for Vishnu himself, particularly in his identification with the Supreme Spirit. 2* The indefiniteness is expressed by the repetition of the pronoun. 2» Those, for instance, who desire future happiness in heaven, worship Indra ; those who wish for wealth, Kuvera ; those who long for victory, Skanda ; and so on. 54 BHAGATAD-GITA. CHAPIEE THE SETENTH. he seeks the propitiation of this (personage), and from him receives the pleasant objects of his desires, which were directed by me alone.^ But the reward of these little-minded men is finite." They who sacrifice to the gods, go to the gods. They who worship me, come to me. The foolish, ignorant of my lofty, incorruptible supreme being, thiuk that I, who am not manifested, am endowed with a manifest form.^ Surrounded by my magic illusion, I am not manifest to everybody. This deluded ^ world does not comprehend me, who neither am bom nor die. I know all beings, past, present, and future, Arjuna ! but no one knows me. All beings fall into error as to the nature of the creation, Bharata ! by reason of that delusion of natural opposites,'" which springs from lildng and disliking, tormentor of thy foes ! But those men who act uprightly, in whom sin is dead, freed from this delusion of the natural opposites, worship me firm in devotion. They who turn to me and strive after ** The translation of this passage by Schlegel is (^uite arhitraiy and incomprehensible. If I have not succeeded in making it more intelligible, I have at least confined myself to the literal meaning of the words, and can only offer an explanation of the sense generally. Tcmu is literally ' a body,' and is here used to distinguish all objects of worship generally, whether gods, demons, or earthly objects, from the one object of the spiritually-wise — ^the Supreme Spirit. If a man, then, having some desire at heart, and belie-ving that prayers and sacrifice wiH bring it abou^ seeks to what deity, demon, or other object of worship he shall address himself, the Supreme Spirit himself, existing within such objects, directs his faith in the right direction, confirms and establishes it. Thus the man, with his faith directed to the proper object, propitiates it by prayer and sacrifice, and obtains his reward. In other words, the Supreme Being not only recognizes the established religion, but even arranges it as it should be, and is the means of encouraging and directing the connection between mam and his superiors. Schlegel rightly observes that tasydrddhana must be resolved into tasyds and drddhana, and quotes ES.m4yana I., 44, 9. Tasyds is feminine as referring to tanu. 2' Since even the Gods are doomed to a final destruction. The reward of those who worship the Supreme Spirit is eternal, since he and he only is immortal. 28 Believe some one of the gods, as Brahma, Vishnu, or Shiva to be the Supreme Spirit himself. Our philosopher would seem to be cutting his own throat on this ground. 29 Deluded by mdyd, or the appearance of things, some believe even the highest Being to be bom and mortal, since they perceive that this is the lot of all matter. 3" These natural opposites are heat or cold, pain or pleasure ; and" tlie delusion they cause, arises from aversion from the one, or liking for the other. By these feelings man seeks his own interest only in his worship, and then falls into error as to the real cause of the creation of matter, which he believes to be subservient to his enjoyment, and not to the emancipation of the soul from material life. DETOTION THEOUGH SPIEITUAL DISOEENMENT. 65 liberation from regeneration and death, know that whole supreme spirit, and the Adhydtma,^' and entire action. They who know me to be the Adhibhtita,'^ the Adhidaiva,'' and the Adhiyajna," and also (know me to be thus), in the hour of death know me indeed.' ^^ Thus in the Upanishads, etc., (stands) the Seventh Chapter, by name 'DEVOTION IHKOTJGH SPIEIHTAI DISCEENMEIfT.' " As these words arc explained in the beginning of the next chapter, it is super- fluous to attempt to do so here. 32 Compare VIII. 2, 5, and 13. Vidm has here an emphatic force, as pashyati has in V. 5, and XIII. 29. It not only indicates the possession of spiritual knowledge, but the attainment of that final emancipation itself, which is acquired by that knowledge. ' They know me indeed, thoroughly, truly ; and, since this knowledge continues with them tiU the hour of their death, they are by it liberated from material life.' 56 BHAQAVAD-GITA. CHAPIEB IHE EIGHTH. CHAPTEE THE EIGHTH. ABJTJlfA SPOKE. ' What is that Supreme Spirit ? "What is Adhyatma ? ' what action ? best of men ! and what is called Adhibhuta ? ' and what is said to be Adhidaiva ? ' and how can there be any Adhiyajna ' here in this 1 Before entering on an explanation of these terms, we must remind the reader that this portion of our poem is a treatise on Theology, an explanation of that Supreme Being ■who IS the object of the ■worship of the TogI, and the head of the whole theistic (seshwara) hranch of the SSukhya school. This Being may he regarded under many diTCrs aspects, and Brahma, or the Supreme Spirit, which he mentions first, is the general name which includes these four others. — First, Adhydtma is composed of the prep. ■ adhi, which has the signification of ' above,' ' superior to,' ' presiding over,' and dtmd, ' soul.' It means, therefore, ' that which presides over the soul.' In shloka 3, it is said to be awabhdva, ' own nature,' where a reflective force must be given to swa, as referring to the Supreme Spirit. It is, then, the Supreme Spirit viewea in his relation to the soul, in which he is kno^wn to be at the same time that soul itself and superior to it ; the spirit from which it has emanated, but with which it is still intimately connected, in the relation of an inferior part to a superior whole. — Second, Adhibhuta is composed of adhi, ' superior to,' ' presiding over,' and bhiita, ' that which exists.' It is, therefore, ' that which presides over what exists ;' and refers to the Supreme Being in his relation to the whole universe, in his connection with matter, as himself containing the essence of matter ■with him. In shloka 4 it is explained by the words ksharo-bhdvah, ' divisible nature,' which must refer to prahyti, the essence of matter, which we know is divisible in its development into twenty-three categories. This, again, is referred to the Supreme Spirit, by what he says in Ch. VII. 30.— Third, Adhidawa, or, as in shloka 4 ; adhidaivata, is composed of adhi, ' presiding over,' deva or devatd, ' a deity,' and here a general term for aU superhuman beings. It is, therefore, that ' which presides over the divine part of creation." In shloka 4 it is explained by the word pwruisha, for a fiill explanation of which we must refer the reader to the Introduction, and to chap. XV. of our poem. Its literal meaning is ' man ' and in the S&nkhya system it means ' the soul,' which is the real person of man, his body being merely a temporary setting, as it were. In the system of Patanjali, and the Bhagavad-Gitli, in which an universal spirit, from which the soul emanated, was first brought forward, it has two meanings : firstly, that of the soul, the individual man ; and, secondly, that of the Supreme Spirit, from which the soul emanates, more usually called mahdpwmha, or pmushottama, the great or highest soul. In ch. XV. of our poem, we shall find a third meaning attached to this word (shlokas 16 — 18), hut it is in the second that we must here understand it, although Humboldt (ZeitBchrift der K. Academie zu Berlin, 1825) thinks that the word can only have this meaning when an epithet is attached to it ; as in VIII. 22 ; X. 12 ; XI. 18 and 38 ; XV. 4, etc. Of these, XI. 38 seems to favour my rendering, the DEVOTION TO THE INDIVISIBLE SUPREME SPIRIT. 57 body,' slayer of Madhu ? And how art thou to be known by the temperate in the hour of death?' THE HOLT ONE SPOKE. ' The supreme universal spirit is the One simple and iadivisible,' and my own nature is called Adhyatma. The emanation which causes the existence and reproduction ■* of existing things bears the name of Action. Adhibhtita is (my) own indivisible nature, and Adhidaivata is the spiritual person. Adhiyajna is myself here upon earth, iu the body, best of embodied men ! And he who, remembering me at the moment of death, quits the body and comes forth, enters my nature ; there is no doubt about that. Or, again, whatever nature he thinks on, when he abandons the body at the last, to that only does he go,* son of Kunti ! having been always conformed to that nature. Therefore think on me at aU times epithet ddideva having so much similarity with the present one of adhidaiva. — Fourth, Adhiyajna, compounded of adhi, ' presiding over,' and yajna, ' sacrifice,' ' worship,' is the ohject of worship, the keystone of religion. This, says Krishna, is myself, Vishnu, in this my present incarnation of Krishna, under which form the Supreme Being is worshiped. Man is too material to be able to worship the pure abstract idea of a Supreme uni-versal Spirit. Some tangible and manifest personification was required for the less philosophic portion of mankind, some adhiyajna, to give a definition and name to their faith ; and Krishna is that adhiyajna. Galauos would take the word dehabhritdm with dehe, and translate, ' And Adhiyajna is I in aW bodies.' This con- struction affords no explanation of adhiyajna; and, moreover, forces on dehe a plural or at least coUective sense, which it cannot sustain. — To recapitulate, adhydtmd is the Supremo Spirit in his relation to man's soul ; adhibhuta in his relation to matter ; adhidaiva, in his relation to the divers objects of worship ; adhiyajna, in his relation to religion, the personified type. ■i Alluding to Krishna's body. 3 See Chapter III. note 18. * Causes their original existence and the further production of other objects from them. 5 The morality of this passage at first sight seems dubious. It would appear to rest u, man's salvation on a mere chance ; or, at oest, on a death-bed repentance. Nothing of the kind is meant. No sudden death is here hinted at ; but a man is supposed, when the awful hour of dissolution approaches, to turn with all his might and soul to that Deity, whom a lifelong worship has taught him to consider his protector. If the desire of his heart has been the enjoyment of heaven, the Deity will have been Indra, and on him will he think in the hour of death ; and by his heaven is his worship consequently rewarded, and so on. Moreover, a wholesome warning is hereby administered against relaxing in devotion ; for if death overtake him, when the world and its cares have driven the object of his worship from his mind, his former devotion will avail him nought. 58 BHA6ATAD-GITA. CnAPTEK THE EIGHTH. and fight. If thy heart and mind are turned to me, thou wilt doubtless attain to me alone. By thoughts applied to diligent devotion, and turned to no other object (than me), meditating* on the Supreme Divine Person, one goes to him, son of Pritha ! He who may meditate on the Sage ' without beginning;* the regulator more minute than an atom; the Bustainer of all of incomprehensible form ; bright as the sun beyond the darkness, at the hour of death; with steady' heart, embued with worship and by the strength of devotion collecting his breath entirely between his eyebrows," attains that Supreme Divine Person. I wiU summarily expound to thee that place" which those who know the Vedas call the one Indivisible, which those who are temperate and free from passion enter, and with the desire of which, men foUow the life of a Brahmachari.'^ He who closes all the doors of the senses, '' restrains his desires within his heart," disposes his breath within his brow,'" practises perseverance in devotion, utters the monosyllable ' Om ! ' (which is) the Supreme Spirit," meditating on me, and thus continues when he is quitting the body, attains the highest walk." I am easy of access to that ever devoted ^ The same accusative is here governed by both verbs, t/dti and anuchintaycm. ' This and the following are all epithets of the Supreme Being. He is called a sage (lit., ' poet ' ) as being omniscient. He is the regulator and ordamer of all things, more minute than an atom, yet greater than the whole universe. As the sun illumines the whole world, that spirit illumines everything ; superior to the darkness, which typifies the ignorance arising &om the illusion of matter, and the influence of the three qualities. * Lit., ' ancient,' but used for ' eternal as to the past,' for which no word exists in Sanskrit. Compare Chapter II., note 19. " Fixed on the one object only. 10 Compare Chapter IV., note 33. " The being of the Supreme Spirit, the spiritual region which he inhabits, which, though infinite and undefined, is called a place. " See Chapter VI., note 19. " The organs of sense, through which external objects penetrate to the heart. '* Mark the distinction between mamas, 'the abstract,' and hrit, 'the concrete.' Mcmaa is the heart which desires, hrit that which beats. '5 The mystic word being the verbal representative of the Supreme Being, just as much as BrahmS. was the representative of his creative, Vishnu of his preservative, and Shiva of his destructive powers. ■ ' ' '6 Union with the Supreme. DEVOTION TO THE INDIVISIBLE SUPREME SPIKIT. 59 devotee who remembers me, son of Pritha ! with his thoughts never wandering to any other object. The great-minded, who have recourse to me, reach the highest perfection, and do not incur regeneration, which is the domain of pain, and is not eternal. AH worlds, up to that of Brahma," are subject to return,'* Arjuna ! But he who comes to me has no regene- ration, son of Kunti! Those men who know the day of Brahma," which ends after a thousand ages ; and the night which comes on at the end of those thousand ages ; '" know day and night indeed. At the approach of (that) aU (objects of) developed matter come forth from " See Chapter V., note 39. '8 The soul is always liable to return after a'certain sojourn, and be born again on earth, from any of the eight worlds, even including BrahmS.'s, which is the highest. 19 We have here a mythological allusion, which is another proof that our philosopher received much with imphcit faith from the established belief. To understand it properly, we must remember the true character of Brahm-i. On the one hand, he is the personi- fication of the creative power of the Supreme Being ; and, on the other, he has taken the place, in mythology, of Sfirya or the sun, the first person of the more primitive triadi As the sun begins the toy on earth, and brings all things into active life, Brahm^ begins that of the universe, by causing all developed matter to issue or emanate from the prakriti, the non-developed essence of matter. When, again, he sleeps, developed matter re-enters and is absorbed again into prahriti. Hence the supposed duration of the universe in each manifestation was called a day. Some have sought to attribute the system of reckoning the ages to astronomical observations ; but Wilson justly observes that it is simply derived from a descending arithmetical progression, as 4, 3, 2, 1,-— the conversion of units into thousands, and the mythological fiction that these were divine years, each composed of 360 years of men. Thus the four ages would be thus reckoned — « The Krita-yuga has 4,000 divine years, equal to 1,440,000 mortal years. Treta-yuga 3,000 „ „ 1,080,000 „ Dw¶-yuga 2,000 „ „ 720,000 „ Kali-yuga 1,000 „ „ 360,000 „ Total 3,600,000 „ Certain periods at the beginning and end of each yuga, called Sandhy&s and SandhySnshas, ito 720,000 „ Complete the period called Maha.yuga, or great age, which is equal to 4,320,000 „ 1,000 MahS,yugas make a day of BrahmSi, which is called a Kalpa ; 360 such days compose his year, and 100 such years are his lifetime, called a Para. Thus Brahm&'s lifefine consists of 255,620,000,000 mortal years, and during this period the universe is supposed to emanate from and re-enter the material essence 36,000 times. 2" Not common ages, but Mah^-yugas, or aggregates of the four common ones. See preceding note. 60 BHAGAfAB-eiTA. CHAPTEE THE EIQHIH. the non-developed principle." At the approach of (that) night they are absorbed into that (principle) called the non-developed. This collective mass itself of existing things, (thus) existing again and again, '^ is dissolved at the approach of t)iat night. At the approach of (that) day it emanates spontaneously,'" son of Pritha! But there is another invisible eternal existence, superior to this visible one, which does perish when aU things perish, called invisible and indivisible. This they call the highest walk. Those who obtain this never return. This is my supreme abode. But this supreme person, son of Pritha ! within whom aU existing things exist, and by whom aU this universe is caused to emanate, may bo approached by devotion, which is intent on him alone. But I will tell thee, prince of the Bharatas ! at what time devotees dying obtain freedom from or subjection to (the necessity of) return.'" Fire,''* day, the increasing moon, six months of the northern 21 Avyakta, prakriti, or nature, the non-deyeloped essence of matter. See Introduction. 2' The repetition of the particle marts that of the state. The universe exists again and again in each succeeding day of Brahm^. ^ Avasha cannot have its more usual signification of 'against their wUl,' since matter being irrational, could have no will of its own, but rather, without any will of their own,' i.e., in agreement with the laws of necessity. ^ Return to "earth, and investment with a new body. 25 This and the following shloka startle us at first light with the appearance of the meanest superstition, and have called forth the lamentations and reproaches of two able critics, Humboldt and Langlois. The matter is, however, somewhat explained by the contents of the Uttaramim&jisa writings (See Colebrooke, Misc. Essays, vol. i., p. 366). It must be remembered that the soul was supposed to be accompanied in its transmigration by a subtile body {limga sharira: sec Introduction) which it only abandons at final emancipation. This is a vehicle of the soul which enables it, as lone as it exists in a material life, to sustain its connection with matter, even when divested of a grosser body. In this subtile body, then, is the soul conducted to the divers material heavens, when it quits the mundane body ; and since this body requires a conductor and a light to show it the way, a beam of ,the sun is supposed to meet the crown "of the head at all seasons. The seat of the soul is supposed to be the heart, from which 1,001 arteries conduct to all parts of the bodies. The principal of these is the great coronal artery, which leads from the heart to the crown of the head ; by this passage flie soul, with its linga sharira, proceeds at the moment of death. At the crown of the head it meets with the guardian sunbeam ; and, at the periods first mentioned, the ray being brighter and stronger, the subtile body can find its way to the highest heaven, the Brahma-loka ; if, on the contrary, it be weaker, as at other periods, it only proceeds to an inferior region. See also note 27 infra. DEVOTION TO THE INDmSIBLE SUPEEME SPIBIT. 61 solstice; those who die in this period, and who know the Supreme Spirit, go to the Supreme Spirit. Again, smoke,'^ night, the waning moon, six months of the southern solstice ; a devotee dying in this period attains only a lunar" splendour, and returns. For these two ways of white and black are eternally decreed to the world. By the one a man goes without return, by the other he returns again. Ko devotee, son of Pritha ! who knows these two paths is ever confounded. Therefore, at all periods, be devoted to devotion, Arjuna ! A devotee who knows all this, surmounts whatever reward is promised to the study of the Vedas, or the practice of sacrifice, self-torture, and almsgiving, and obtains the highest and best place.' Thus in the TJpanishads, etc. (stands) the Eighth Chapter, by name 'DEVOTION TO THE INDIVISIBia; SXTPBEME SPIBIT.' ™ Smoke, as opposed to fire and light, is put for darkness. ^' This may mean that he attains to the Soma-lo/ca, the region of the moon, which is inferior to that of Brahm& (See ch. V. note 39). But I am inclined to think that the whole passage has a metaphorical, not a literal, force. The Supreme Being has been compared to the sufi. The whole aggregate of deities inferior to him, who reflect his glory, may be aptly likened to the moon. Following oat this figure, the whole passage may be divested of its superstitious character. The Supreme Being is the sun, the ray from which to the crown of the devotee's head, is the type of the spiritual connection of the Being with the mortal's soul. When devotion is at its highest pitch, this ray would be strongest, and the Supreme Being might be considered to he in greater proximity to the mortal, as the sun is to that portion of the earth which it lights up in day-time, in the light half of the month, and during the summer solstice. In the Uttaramim&nsa, this theory is doubtless taken literally and superstitiously ; but I cannot help thinking that our poet has borrowed a popular superstition merely as an apt and elegant poeticsd metaphor. Compare also Manu IV., 182, where the Somaloka, or heaven of the moon, is replaced by a Devaloka, or heaven of the inferior deities. 62 bhagatad-gitI. chaftee the ninth. CHAPTEK THE l^TINTH. THE HOLT ONE SPOKE. ' But no-w' I will declare unto thee, if thou objectest not, the most mystic spiritual knowledge coupled with spiritual discernment, having learnt which, thou wilt be liberated from evil. This is a kingly science and a kingly mystery,'' the most excellent of purifications, clearly com- prehensible, in accordance with law,' very easy to carry out, and im- mutable. Men who do not put faith in this religion, harasser of thy foes ! do not attain to me, but return to the path of this world of mortality. All this universe has been created by me, embodied as the undeveloped principle.* All thingsexist in me. I do not dwell within them and yet things do not exist in me.* Behold this my lordly mystery. My spirit, which causes^ things to exist, sustains existing things, but does not dwell in them. Understand that even as the mighty air,' which wanders ' Expressed in the idam, lit., ' the following.' '^ This must refer to the Yoga system, not merely to the philosophic explanation about to foUow, since he says that it is ' easy to carry out.' 3 With the established religion, since it admitted its principal tenets and ordinances, the existence of the gods, the institution of caste, etc., and urged a man to perform his duty according to those ordinances, in contradistinction to the pure Sinkhya system, which lauded the abandonment of all these. * Frahriti or nature, the material essence, which this school considered to he part of the Supreme Being himself, he being regarded as twofold, spirit and matter, or rather material essence, which the PurSnas call the wife of the Supreme Being. * Krishna is not wrong when he calls this apparent contradiction a sovereign mystery. But it is easily explained when we regard the Supreme Being in his twofold character of spirit and material essence. As material essence, the material cause of all things, they all exist within him ; as Spirit only, they, being matter, cannot exist within him, since spirit and matter have no direct connection. Again as spirit only, he does not exist in them, since the spirit cannot be inherent in matter. ^ Being the efficient and rational cause. ' Vdyu, ' wind,' is used in philosophical language for ' atmosphere,' distinct from dkdsha, ' the ether,' a subtile fluid supposed to pervade all space. While dkdsha is DEYOTION BY MEANS OF KINGLY KNOWLEDGE AND KINGLY MYSIEEY. 63 everywhere, always dwells within the ether, so all existing things exist within me. At the conclusion of a Kalpa,' aU existing things, son of Kunti ! re-enter nature, which is cognate with me. But I cause them to come forth again at the beginning of a Ealpa. Supported by my material essence, I cause this entire system of existing things to emanate again and again, without any power of their own, by the power of the material essence. Nor do these actions implicate me," despiser of wealth ! me who remain tranquil, as one imconcerned by them, and not interested by these actions. Under my superintendence, nature produces moveable and immoveable things." By this means," son of Kunti ! does the world revolve. The deluded despise me, when invested with a human form, not understanding my high existence, ^^ which is the lord of all things, — vain in their hopes," their actions,'* and their knowledge ; '^ devoid of reflection, and iijclining to the deluded nature of the Asuras'* and Eakshasas. But the high-minded, inclining to the nature of the gods," worship me with supposed to te perfectly immovatle and existing everywhere, air is always moving, and penetrates only where it can effect an entrance. The two words stand in almost the same relation as our wind and air, with the exception that they are distinct substances, and that dkdsha is not merely atmospheric air, but that which fills all infinity. * A day of BrahmS. (see chap. VIII. note 19). It may be useful here to remark that the only word existing in Sansmt to convey the idea of creation by God, has the literal meaning of 'emit,' 'cause to come forth, or emanate;' and this, too, in the oldest Sanskrit works. May we not receive this fact as evidence of the antiquity of the belief that the Creator was the material as well as the efficient cause of the creation, and of the philosophic bias of the Aryan mind even at a very early period ? ' In chap. VIII. shloka 4, he has mentioned that the action of the Supreme Being was the creation and the dissolution of matter. But it has also been said that all action, except what is undertaken with devotion, etc., implicates the actor, entails upon him their good or evil results. He now states that he himself caimot be liable to these restrictions, since he acts without interest or concern in what he does. '^1 Animate and inanimate matter. " By my superintendence of the work of nature. " Those who are deluded by the appearance of the universe, and the action of the three qualities, despise me, the Supreme Spirit, when I descend to earth in the form of Krishna ; for they do know my real character, superior to and monarch of all. " Since these hopes are not of final emancipation, but of earthly, or at best heavenly, enjoyments. '* Since they are undertaken with interested motives. 15 Since they believe matter supreme, and do not know the truth of things. 10 See chap. VII. note 18. " In the Devas, the quality of goodness and light {saiiwa) predominates. 64 BHAGAVAD-GITA. CHAPIEB THE NINTH. their hearts turned to no other object, knowing me to be the imperishable principle of all things. Always glorifying me and striving with unbroken vows, and prostrating themselves before me, they worship me, constant in devotion. Others also, offering the sacrifice of knowledge,'* worship me, who am present everywhere in divers forms, by means of my singleness and separability." I am the immolation. I am the whole sacrificial rite." I am the libation offered to ancestors. I am the drug. I am the incantation. I am the sacrificial butter also. I am the fire. I am the incense. I am the father, the mother,^' the sustainer, the grandfather*' of this universe, — the mystic doctrine, the purification, the syllable ' Om ! ' ^ — the Eich-, the Saman-, and also the Tajur-, Veda, — ^the path,** the supporter, the master, the witness,'* the habitation, the refuge, the friend, the origin, the dissolution,^ the place, the receptacle," the inexhaustible seed."* I heat (the world). I withhold and pour out the " Recognizing me in every otject of worship, from a complete knowledge of my true nature : Compare Manu iv. 24. 19 My single nature as the one Supreme Being, and my power of separate existence in the diiferent deities, etc. I have rendered these words, as if they were explanations of vUho/yatamukham. They might, however, be construed as if governed by u^amU, and referring to the different characters, under which the deity was actually worshiped. Galanos has adopted this method, though 1 can scarcely say, judiciously. *•• Galanos (though on what authority I know not) distinguishes between leratn and yitjna, making the former a ' bloody,' the latter a ' bloodless ' sacrifice. 2' Father and mother of matter, as being both efficient and material cause. See notes 4 and 5 supra. *2 Grandfather was a name which inspired reverence and affection in the Hindi grandchild. ^ This triad would seem to include all religion, whether practical or doctrinal. Vedycim, in the first case, would be theological study and belief ; pa/vitram would include all the practice of religion, whether sacrifice, mortification, etc. ; and onkdra, would comprehend prayer and praise. In the second case the three words would represent the theology, the injunctions for practice, and the hymns and prayers of the Vedas. ** Supply ' of the universe,' to each of the words in this shloka. He is the path by which mortals obtain final emancipation. ^* Being gifted with the power of omniscience. ^ The cause of emanation and reabsorption. " As being the material essence, into which all things are absorbed finally. ^ Having already identified nature, or the material essence, with himself, as we have seen. DEVOTION BY MEANS OF KINGLY KNOWIEBSE AND KINGLY MYSTERY. 65 ram. I am ambrosia ^^ and death, the existing and the non-existin^.s" Those who know the three Vedas,'' who drink the Soma, who purify themselves from sin, and offer sacrifices, implore of me the attainment of heaven : these, obtaining as their reward the world of the holy Indra, eat in heaven the divine food of the gods.'^ Having enjoyed this great world of heaven, they re-enter the world of mortals, when the reward is exhausted.^ FoHowing in this manner the law of the Vedas, they indulge in their desires, and obtain a happiness which comes and goes. I bear the responsibiUty^ of the happiness of those men, who, constant in devotion, worship me, meditating on me, and having no other object. And even those also who devotedly worship other gods with the gift of faith, worship me, too, son of Kunti ! but not properly .^^ For I am the devourer and lord also of all sacrifices ; but they do not understand me truly, therefore they fall.^ Those who devote themselves to the gods, go to the gods; those who do so to the Pitris, go to the Pitris. The worshipers of the Bhutas go to the Bhutas. Only my worshipers come to me. If any one offer me a leaf, a flower, fruit or water,'' with devotional intention, I eaf* it, thus piously offered by one of devoted '' Those who worship me obtain immortality, even as those do who eat of ambrosia. '" That which has, and that which has not a real existence, i.e. spirit and matter. He merely sums up all that he has declared himself to be, and says in two words, ' I am both all spirit and all matter.' The Scholiasts, however, explaia sad by m/a&ta, ' developed matter,' and aaad by mydkta, ' non-developed matter.' Comp. XI. 37 ; and XIII. 12. 31 Our author does not, iu this, condemn the established faith, or theVedas ; or deny the propriety of religious rites ; but only condemns the spirit in which those who rely on them, prosecute them ; namely, in the hope of heavenly enjoyments. '* Enjoy their pleasures. ^ Their sojourn in heaven, though very long, according to their merits, is finite ; and at its conclusion they are bom again on earth. 3* Lit., 'the insurance,' vide chap. II., note 43. '* Since the gods are impersonifications of each of my attributes : but they ought to worship me as a whole. 36 From heaven, and are bom again on earth. 3' The simplicity of the offerings here mentioned, may be contrasted with the pomp and expense of such sacrifices as the Ashwa-medha, which were made to the deities. The victim, says Ejishna, is nothing, but the spirit in which it is offered — ^the disinterestedness of the sacrificer. '9 That is, accept it, since the deities were supposed, originally, to devour the 66 BHAGAVAB-GITA. CHAPTER THE NINTH. mmd. "Wliatever thou doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou saeriflcest, whatever thou givest away, whatever mortificatiou thou per- formest, son of Kunti ! that do as an offering to me.^' Thus thou shalt he freed from the bonds of action, , which are the good and bad results (of actions), and if thou be devoted to devotion and renuntiation, when discharged (from the body), thou wilt come to me. I am the same to all beings. I have neither foe nor friend. But those, who worship me with devotion, dwell in me and I also in them. Even if one who has led a very bad life worship me, devoted to no other object, he must be considered as a good man ;** for he has judged aright. He soon becomes religiously disposed, and enters eternal rest. Eest assured, son of Kunti ! that he who worships me, never perishes. For even those who are bom in sin" — even women, ^ Vaishyas and Shudras" — ^take the highest offerings made, and this word is therefore used in the sense of accept. Of course the Supreme Spirit could not be supposed to eat, even by the most materially-inolined philosophers. 39 The very commonest actions of life may be looked upon as sacrifices to the Supreme Being, if performed -without interestedness and in a devotional spirit. *" His former bad life must be forgotten, and his present devotion vpipes it all out. "■ The offspring, probably, of illicit marriages, of those between different castes, etc. Or perhaps a general term for aU but the privileged Aryans, including all foreigners, etc. ^ The fair sex has fared as Ul in India as in many other parts of the world, where man, who owes all to her, has ungratefoUy cast her physical weaiaess in her face, and has gone so far as to declare her unfit for Heaven. It is easy to account for this shameful conduct, as for many other peculiarities of Eastern character, by the heat of the climate, which deprives women of the exclusive esteem, and the halo of superiority which surrounds her beneath less enervating and passionate siies ; and by the warUke habits and ideas of these nations who were wont to despise aU that was physically weak. But even in the drama, which flourished at a much more civilized period (about our own era), the ladies are not supposed competent to speak the same language even as their husbands, but, with slaves and outcasts, must be content to Usp their loves in the softer tones of the PrSkrit dialect. *3 That the Shtidras, slaves, and probably, too, descendants of the conquered abori- gines ; should be denied a place in heaven by the imperious Br&hman, astonishes us but Uttle ; but that the same fate should attend the Taishya — the merchant caste — who were dignified with the Br&hmanical thread and undoubtedly belonged to the Aryan race, is a significant fact, which marks the period at which our poet wrote. The struggle had hitherto been between Br&hman and Kshatriya — church and state — and as must have resulted from the meditative character of the Hindii, the former had triumphed. The Kshatriya had consented to receive his laws, as well as his religion, from the Br&hman, and even an alliance, offensive and defensive, was mutually agreed on, both uniting to turn the channel of their animosities against the people. The " bourgeoisie " were DEVOTION BY MEAlfS OP KINGLY KNOWLEDGE AND KINGLT MYSTEEY. 67 patt, if they have recourse to me. How much more, then, sacred Brahmans and pious Eajarshis." Worship me hy obtaining this finite and wretched world.*' Place thy heart on me, worshiping me, sacrificing to me, saluting me. Thus shalt thou come to me, if thou thus devotest thyself, intent on me.' Thus in the Upanishads, etc., (stands) the Ninth Chapter, by name 'devotion by means of KINGLY KNOWLEDGE AND KINGLY MYSTERY.' growing powerful by their wealth, and the ShCidras impatient of oppression. Know- ledge and philosophy found its way out of the exclusive, but now leaky schools of the BrShman ; and the Vaishya learnt from the latter, the real equality of all men. When at length the revolution of Buddha hrote out, the Br&hman compelled the warrior-caste to join him against the hulk of the populace, and their united weight obliged the latter to succumb. From that time, the Vaishya was denied the privilege of heaven, and hence, among other reasons, it may be inferred that this poem was composed after the rise of Buddhism. " Derived from rdiwith the characteristics of Vishnu. THE TISION Of THE rNIVEBSAL FOEM. 75 moveable and immoveable' objects, and whatever else thou wouldest behold, Krishna ! * But thou wilt not be able to behold me merely with this (human) eye of thine. I give thee a divine eye. Behold my sovereign mystery.' SANJAYA SPOKE. ' Having thus spoken, king ! ° Hari,' the mighty lord of devotion, showed to the son of Pritha his sovereign form, gifted with many moiiths' and eyes,' with many wonderful appearances, with many divine orna- ments, '" holding many celestial weapons," wearing celestial wreaths" and robes," anoiated with celestial perfumes, the all-miraculous infinite deity, with his face turned in all directions. If the light of a thousand suns were to break forth in the sky at the same time, it would be simUar to the brilliance of that mighty one. There did the son of Pandu then behold the whole universe, so multifariously distributed, coUeeted in one in the person of the god of gods. Thereupon the despiser of wealth, struck with amazement, and with his hair standing on end, saluted the god by bowing his head, folded his hands reverentially,^' and spoke as follows :' AHJTmA SPOKE. ' I " behold all the gods in thy body, god ! and crowds of diiferent beings, the lord iBrahma on a throne of a lotus-cup, and all the Eishis and ' Animate and inanimate. 5 See Chapter I. note 18. 5 Thia is addressed to Dhritar&shtra. ' A name of Vislinu and Krishna. See Index. 8 As will be seen afterwards, these mouths, filled with flames, were typical of the material essence {prahriti), in which aU things are re-absorbed, and thus, as it were, destroyed. ' Typical of his power of seeing everything. 10 Vearing the peculiar wonders and' ornaments of each deity, typical of his pos- sessing aU the peculiar powers and attributes of each. " The weapons, wreaths, and dresses peculiar to each of the deities. 12 This is done by placing the hands together, hollowing the palms so as to hold water, and carrying them in this position to the forehead. This is the usual reyerencc of inferiors of respectability to their superiors. 13 We may here remark that the poet has shown great taste and judgment in placing the details of the appearance in the mouth of Arfuna, and Hot of SanJHya. It gives the 76 BHAGAYAB-eiTA. CHAPTEE THE ELEVENTH. celestial serpents. I see ttee with many arms," stomaclis," moutlis, and eyes, everywhere of infinite form. I see neither end, nor middle, nor yet beginning of thee, Lord of AU ! of the form of All ! " crowned with a diadem, hearing a club, and a discus." I see thee, a mass of light, beam- ing everywhere, hard to look upon, bright as a kindled fire or the sun, on all sides, immeasurable. I believe thee to be the indivisible, the highest object of knowledge, the supreme receptacle ^ of this universe, the imperishable preserver of eternal law, the everlasting person." I see thee without beginning, middle or end, of infinite strength, with the sun and moon as eyes, mouths like a kindled fire, heating all the universe with thy splendour. For this space between heaven aud earth,*" and every quarter of heaven, are pervaded by thee alone. The triple world is astounded, mighty one ! having beheld this miraculous and terrific form of thine. For these crowds of Suras turn to thee (as their refuge). Some, a&ighted, murmur with folded hands. The multitudes of Maharshis*' and Siddhas praise thee in most excellent hymns, crying ' Hail to thee ! ' Eudras, Adityas, Yasus, and all the ™ Sadhyas, Vishwas, the twin Ashwinau, and Maruts and TTshmapas, the crowds of Gandharvas, Takshas, Asuras, and Siddhas behold thee, and are all amazed. Having seen thy mighty form. description more force, and enables him to mark the increasing awe of the spectator; concluding with a prayer for mercy, of much beauty. The conception of the whole passage renders it, perhaps, the finest in the Sanskrit language. The change of metre, too, from the common Anushtubh to Trishtubh, lends additional spirit to the whole. " Typical of his infinite strength and power. "■ Typical of his power of containing and comprehending all things. 16 'Whose form is the universe. 1' Typical of his power of incarnation, — ^the club, the discus, and the tiara being the insignia of Krishna : compare shloka 46. The discus is a warlike missile in the uape of a quoit, but that of Krishna has the additional advantage of being surrounded with flames ; and with it accordingly he set on fire and destroyed the city of K^shi (Benares), when engaged in the war against the Daityas under Kansa. '8 The material essence, into which all matter was re-absorbed, being a portion of the Supreme Being. 1' See Chapter VIII. note 1, under ' Adhidaiea.' 2" The air, in which the transfiguration appeared. ^'^ See Index, under ' Eishi.' 2' Expressed by the relative pronoun, ye : lit. ' the SMhyas whatever.' HIE VISION OF THE UNlVEKSAi TOKM. 77 with many mouths and eyes, great-armed one ! and with many arms, thighs, and feet, many stomachs and many projecting teeth, the worlds^ and I, too, are astounded. For since I have seen thee, touching the skies (in height), beaming with divers colours, with open mouth, and huge glittering eyes, my inmost soul is troubled, and I lose both^ my firmness and tranquillity, Vishnu ! I cease to recognise the regions of heaven "' and experience no joy, merely from beholding thy mouths with their pro- jecting teeth, like the fire of death. Be merciful, Lord of gods ! habitation of the universe ! and all these sons of Dhritarashtra, together with multitudes of the kings of the earth, Bhishma, Drona, and yon son of a charioteer,^ together with our principal warriors also, — ^hasten to enter thy mouths,*' formidable with projecting teeth. Some are seen clinging in the interstices between thy teeth, with their heads ground dovpTi. As many torrents of rivers flow down direct'^ even to the ocean, these heroes of the human race enter thy flaming mouths. As flies, carried away by a strong impetus, fly into a lighted candle to their own destruction, even multitudes (of beings,) impelled by a strong impetus enter thy mouths also for destruction."' Devouring all inhabitants of the world from every quarter, thou Hckest them in thy flaming Hps. Filling the whole universe with thy splendour, thy sharp beams burn, Vishnu P" Tell me who thou art, of awful form. Salutation to the, best of gods ! ^ The three worlds, — ^heaven, earth, and hell. « Literally, ' I find neither,' etc. '^ ' I lose my senses, and do not know where I am.' The regions of heaven are the points of the compass. ^ Karna. See Index. " 'Will speedily do so. Speaking prophetically of their death, so soon to follow. Their entrance in the mouths of the Supreme Being is typical only of the dissolution of their bodies, not of their souls ; the re-absorption of the material body into the material essence {prakriW). 28 Even from their sources they take the direction of the ocean. M They rush headlong into battle, as moths fly into the flame. 3» Here, and in shloka 24, we find Vishnu addressed and not Krishna. The change of form was not merely to that of the Supreme Spirit, hut firstly from the earthly body of Krishna, the incarnation, to the typical one of Vishnu, and then to the personified appearance of the universal energy. 78 BHAGAVAB-GITA. CHAPTEE THE ELEVENTH. Be merciful ! I desire to know thee, the primeval one, for I cannot divine what thou art about.' '' THE HOLT ONE SPOKE. ' I am Death, '^ that causes the destruction of mankind, (already) mature. I am come hither to destroy mankind. Not one,'' except thee, of the warriors, who axe here drawn up in their respective armies,*' will survive.'* Therefore do thou arise and seize glory! Conquer thy foes and enjoy the ample kingdom'* I also have already slain these enemies." Be thou only the instrument, lefthanded'* one ! Slay Drona, and Bhishma, and Jayadratha, Karna and others too, strong in war, who are (really) slain by me. Be not troubled !'' Kght, thou wilt conquer thy rivals^" in the fray.' SANJATA SPOKE. ' Having heard these words of the hairy one, he of the tiara," with his hands folded in supplication, and trembling, again saluted" EJrishna and addressed him, bending with a low murmur, overwhelmed with fear.' " Lit., ' tliy action.' Arjuna is alarmed at seeing all these warriors thus devoured in effigy, as it were, and wants to know what it all means. 32 I risk this translation, though it is not supported by any of the translators, who have all 'Time,' (Schlegel, ' Dies,') as Doing the only one which will render the sense of the passage clear, and supported by all that is said before and after it. ^ Lit., ' not all,' which, in Sanskrit, is equivalent to our ' not any.' 3* Lit., ' in the hoBtUe armies,' alluding to both. '5 This prophesy is not quite correct. The Mahibhirata tells us that all perished on either side except the five sons of Pindu. 36 Of HastinS.pura, about which they were going to fight. 3', As Krishna has already told us, in Chapter II., one man does not really kill another. He kills and has killed the Dh&rtar&shtras in determination, Arjuna is only the instrument. '8 From scmya, ' left,' and sdchin, which only occurs in this compound. It is probably derived from a theoretical root, sack, ' to curve or bend,' and the compound would mean, ' bending the bow with the left hand.' See "Westergaard's ' Radices Linguse Sanskritse/f. p. 104. 39 This is the 2nd person of the 3rd preterite without the augment, which, with md, is constantly used as an imperative. (See Wilson's Grammar, p. 305, 6.) The final visarga is dropped before the semi-vowel in the next half-line. *" Rivals for the possession of Dhritar&shtra's kingdom. *' Arjuna. *3 Namaskritwd, irregular for namaskritya, on account of the metre. Schlegel thinks that the rule, which requires the termination ya for twd in indeclinable participles THE VISION OP THE USIVEKSAL FOB.M. 79 AEJUNA SPOKK. ' The universe, Krishna ! ^ is justly delighted with thy glory, and devoted to thee. The Eakshasas flee, affrighted, to the divers quarters of heaven, and all the multitudes of the Siddhas salute thee. And, indeed, ■why should they not adore thee, great one ! thee, the first creator, more important even than Brahma himself? " infinite king of gods! habitation of the universe! thou art the one indivisible, the existing and not existing,** that which is supreme.** Thou art the first of the gods, the most ancient person. Thou art the supreme receptacle of this universe. Thou knowest aU, and mayest be known, and art the supreme mansion. By thee is this universe caused to emanate, thou of endless forms ! Air, Yama, fire, Varuna, the moon, the progenitor, and the great grandfather (of the world) art thou. HaU ! hail to thee ! haQ to thee a thousand times ! and again, yet again, hail ! hail to thee ! Hail to thee from before ! Hail to thee from behind ! Hail to thee from all sides too ! Thou All ! Of infinite power and immense might, thou compre- hendest aU ; therefore thou art All." As I took thee merely for a friend,** I beseech thee without measure to pardon whatever I may, in ignorance of this thy greatness, have said from negligence or affection, such as, ' of compound verbs, holds good only for those compounded with prepositions, not for those ■with other particles. The grammarians are chiefly silent on this point. " See Chapter I. note 18. ** Since BrahmS, the impersonification of the creative power of the Supreme Being, is, at best, a mere perishable, material deity. *^ Spirit and matter. See Chapter IX. note 30. *« The translation of this passage has been much disputed ; but as it would rather perplex than enlighten the reader to repeat the arguments used on both sides, we must refer him to the critique of Langlois in the ' Journal Asiatique,' (vol. vi. 1825, p. 249), and Lassen's reply in a note on this passage. Compare, moreover,, Ch. IX. shloka 19, and Ch. XIII. shloka 12. ^' No one can deny the beauty of this passionate burst of enthusiasm from the lips of Ariuna, as he strives to grasp the idea of the infinity and universality of the Supreme god, and ■winds up ■with the cry of ' Thou all ! ' It is such passages as this and the one that follows, and which is unrivalled in its tender pathos, that make the Bhagavad-Glt-i really a poem, and not merely a collection of philosophical dogmata reduced to shlokas. *» Awed by the spectacle of Krishna's real greatness, Arjuna shudders at the familiarity with which he has always treated him, when in his muudane form, as a friend and comrade ; and imploros forgiveness. 80 DHAGATAD-GII.i. CHAPTEB THE ELEVENTH. Krishna ! son of Yadu ! Mend ! ' and everything in which I may have treated thee in a joking manner, in recreation, repose, sitting, or meals, whether in private or in the presence of these. Eternal One ! Thou art the father of the animate and inanimate world. Thou art to be honoured as more important than that Guru himself.*' There is none equal to thee, and how could there he another superior (to thee) even in the triple world, thou of unrivalled power ? Therefore I implore thee, saluting thee and prostrating my body ; thee, the Lord, worthy of praises. Thou shouldest bear with me, god ! as a father with a son, as a friend with. a friend, as a lover with his beloved one.™ "Now that I see what I have never seen before, I am delighted, and my heart is shaken with awe. Show me that '' other form only, god ! Be gracious, king of gods ! habitation of the universe ! With thy tiara, thy staff and thy discus in thy hand, thus only do I desire to see thee. Invest thyself with that four-armed form, thou of a thousand arms, of every form ! ' THE HOLY OKE SPOKE. ' I have shown thee that supreme form, Arjuna ! in kindness to thee, by my own mystic virtue, — that, which is my splendid, universal, infinite, *' Compare mor miydnsam in Chapter VIII. sUoke 9. This is in the same manner a play on the word guru, which, as an adjective, means ' weighty, important,' as a sub- etantive, ' a spiritual teacher.' The comparative gariydn has, of course, thfe meaning of the former. Aaya must be taken as agreeing with guros, and the allusion is to Brahml, who is considered in the light of a spiritual teacher of the world, in having delivered to it the Vedas. Another reading found in the Calcutta edition, the emtion of the Mah^bh^ata, and the Scholia of MadhusAdana is gn/m/r, the nom. sing, instead of guroa, the gen. sing., which would render the translation of the sentence, ' thou art to be honoured as me most important teacher of the universe,' aeya being supposed to refer to lokasya in the preceding line. Both the sense and the construction make the reading, adopted preferable. 50 Friydydrhasi = priydydh -)- arhasi, the former word being in the genitive fem. sing., and the final visarga rejected, an irregularity supported by Schlegel in his note, by quoting E&m&yana, I. XLIV. 9, and VII. 22 of our own poem. (See Note). It would be simpler to resolve it into priydya + arhasi, the former word being taken for the flat. sing. masc. ; but, as Schlegel observes, the genitive is demanded by its presence in the preceding couples of words, and both the sense and the construction favour the genitive feminine. 5* Tad, ' that yonder,' as opposed to id(m, ' this present,' refers to the mundane form, which he had quitted. THE VISION OF I'HE UNITEKSAL FORM. 81 primeval form, never yet beheld by other than thee. Not by studying the Vedas, nor by almsgiving, nor rites, nor severe mortification, can I be seen in this form, in the world of man, by other than thee, best of the Eurus ! Be not alarmed, or in a troubled condition, at having seen this so terrible form of mine. But look, free from fear, with happy heart, upon ■ that other form only of mine, namely, this.' ^' SANJATA. SPOKE. ' Vasudeva, having thus addressed Arj una, showed him again his proper form, and the Great One consoled him who was alarmed, by again assuming a pleasant ^ shape.' AKJDNA SPOKE. ' Now that I behold this thy pleasant human shape, thou who art prayed to by mortals ! I am composed in my right mind, and brought back to my natural condition.' THE HOLT ONE SPOKE. ' That form of mine which thou hast seen is very difficult to behold. Even the gods are always anxious to behold that form. Neither by studying the Vedas, nor mortification, nor almsgiving, nor sacrifice, can I be seen in such a form as thou hast seen me. But only by worship, of which alone I am the object, can I be really known and seen, Arj una, and approached in this form, harasser of thy foes ! He who performs his actions for me,^ intent on me, devoted to me, free from interest, and from enmity towards any being, comes to me, son of Pandu ! ' Thus in the Upanishads, etc. (stands) the Eleventh Chapter, by name ' THE VISION or THE UNIVEESAI, EOEM.' ^^ The use of idam after tad is not here a redundancy, but marks the actual change of form taking place at the time he is speakiag. At the moment at which he says tad, he is still in his universal form ; but when merwards he adds idam, he has resumed his mundane form, which is consequently idam, ' this present.' 53 As contrasted with ffhora, ' terrible,' the epithet of his universal form. 54 "Who does not neglect his duties, but performs them without any selfish interest, and as sacrifices to me. Schlegel has, ' mihi grata opera qui perficit,' a freedom which, I think, neither precedent nor the composition authorizes. M 82 BHAOAVAB-GITA. CHArTEll HIE TWELFTH. CHAPTER THE TWELFTH. AKJTJNA SPOKE. ' Of those wio reverence thee as -worshippers, thus' over devoted, and those also who worship the indivisible and unmanifested, which are the most skilled in devotion ? ' THE HOLT OSTE SPOKE. ' Those who worship me, placing their hearts on me with constant devotion, and gifted with the highest faith ; are considered by me as the most devoted. But those who worship the indivisible, indemonstrable, unmanifested, omnipresent, difficult to contemplate,^ aU-pervading, im* ' Evtmt must be taken with satatayuktah, and be understood to refer to the last shloka of the preceding chapter. The opposition is not merely between the forms under which the Supreme Being is worshipped, but between the nature of the worship addressed to him under each of these forms. These forms are two, the vyakta and the myaUa. The vyakta, or manifested form, is that which was described by Krishna himself in Chapter X., and which has been shown to Aijuna, as detailed in Chapter XI. It is the Supreme Being considered in his universality and in his relation to matter. It is his manifestation in his own works throughout the universe. The myakta, or unmanifested form, on the other hand, is the Supreme Being considered in his exclusively spiritual unity, as spirit separate from matter, apart from and exclusive of everything else. This is, of course, the higher, as being the more spiritual character of the Supreme One ; but when Aijuna asks under which form it is better to worship him, Krishna replies imme- diately under the lyyakta, or manifested form, and immediately adds his reasons, namely, that contemplation of the Supreme Being, in his purely spiritual character, was too difficult to be practical. The mode of worshipping the vyakta, or universal manifesta- tion, would be almost the same as that of worshipping him in his separate manifestations, as some one of the deities, etc., namely, practice, the rites of religion, practical devotion (km^mayoga) , and adherence to the duties of caste. The mode of worshipping the myakta can only be the most abstract contemplation and elevation of thought ; and though this is very praiseworthy when it can be accomplished, its very difficulty, and the necessity it entails of neglect of one's duties, render it less acceptable. " Lit., ' not to be thought upon,' on account of his spiritual, formless, and immaterial character. DEVOTION THEOTTGH WORSHIP. §3 moveable, and fii-m, — if they restrain all the senses,' and are equally minded to'wards everything, and rejoice in the good of aU beings, (also) attain to me only. Their labour is greater, since their thoughts are directed to an object which has no manifest form. For the path * which is not manifest is with difficulty attained by mortals. But if men renounce in me all their actions, intent on me, and meditating on me with exclusive devotion, worship me, — ^if their thoughts are directed towards me, I become ere long, son of Pritha ! their extricator from the ocean of the world of mortedity. Dispose thy heart towards me only, to me attach thy thoughts, without doubt thou wilt dweU. within me on high after this life. But if' thou art not able to compose thy thoughts immoveably on me, strive then to reach me by assiduous devotion, despiser of wealth ! If* thou art not capable even of assiduity, be intent on the performance of actions for me.' Thou wilt attain beatitude even if thou only performest actions for my sake.' If ° thou art unable to do even this, though filled with devotion to me, then abemdon (the consideration of) the fruit of every action, beiug self-restrained. For knowledge is better than assiduity, contemplation is preferred to knowledge, the abandonment of self-interest in every action to contemplation; final emancipation (results) immediately from such abandonment. He who is free from aversion, well-disposed towards all beings, and also com- passionate, unselfish and unconceited, the same in pain and pleasure, patient, contented, always devotional, self-governed, firmly resolute, who directs his heart and thoughts to me (only), and worships me, is dear to me ; and he from whom the world receives no emotions,' and who receives ' Lit., ' the collection of the senses,' viz., five senses of perception, five organs of action, and the heart. * The mental approach of the invisible and unmanifested Being. 5 Atha is here put for atjmched. Compare 'Rkaiky. II. 60, 3 ; Hitopadesha, III. 139, etc. * The ahsence of atha in these two shlokas is accounted for by the hypothetical force being carried on from shloka 9. Compare Gita-Govinda, p. 112. ' As a sacrifice to me, offered in a spirit of devotion. * These emotions are immediately explained as joy, envy, and fear, or anxiety, — feelings -which a man receives from his relations with his fellow-creatures. 84 BHAftiVAD-QiTA. CHAPTEK THE TWELFTH. no emotions from the world, who is free from the emotions of joy, envy, and fear, is dear to me. He who has no worldly expectations, who is pure, upright, unconcerned, free from anxiety, and from any interest ia all his undertakings, and worships me, is dear to me. He who neither rejoices, nor hates, nor grieves, nor loves, who has no interest ia good or bad, and is full of devotion, is dear to me. The man who is the same to a foe or a friend, in honour or ignominy, the same in cold or heat, plea- sure and pain, and free from interests, alike in blame or praise, taciturn, and content with whatever may be ; who has no home,' who is steady- minded and full of devotion, is dear to me. But those who attend (at the banquets of) this sacred ambrosia,'" as I have explained it, full of faith, intent on me and worshippers of me, are dear to me above all.' Thus in the TJpanishads, etc. (stands) the Twelfth Chapter, by name ' DEVOTION THKOTJOH WOESHIP.' ' Wii.0 abandons his relation with the world, even so far as to quit his home and retire to solitary contemplation in the woods. '0 In Chapter 5. shloka 18, Arjima has designated the mystic doctrine of the universal manifestation of the Supreme Being as ambrosia, or food for immortality. The word is used with the same reference here, and Krishna again declares what he has said in shloka 2, that those who worship him under this universal form — the Supreme Being in his ■ relation to matter — are the best of all devotees. ' DEVOTION IN CONNECTION WITH THE KSHETEA AND THE KSHEIKAJNA. 85 CHAPTEE THE THIETEEN TH.' THE HOLT ONE SPOKE." ' This body, son of Kunti ! is called kshetra? Those who know the ' We now commence the third division of our poem. As has been said in Chap. VII., note 1, its first six chapters treat of the practical dogmata of the Yoga system, following, of course, Patanjali's school. In the next six our philosopher has treated of its theology, the peculiar province of the ' Bhagavad-GitS." itself; while in these last six chapters he will bring forward the speculative or S&nkhya portion, following more closely in the steps of KapUa and Ishwara Krishna, though, of course, distinguished from them by the introduction of a deity throughout. In the Introduction it will have been seen that all which exists, is divided into two great heads, — matter and spirit. Each of these is again subdivided, — matter into the developed principle, commonly called jagat, the universe ; and the undeveloped principle, called prakriti, or nature :' — spirit into dividuated and non-dividuate, or the soul of man and the universal spirit, caUed the Supreme Being. From these four categories, triads or rather triplets are sometimes formed, such as God, soul, and matter, which is the one here treated of ; or spirit, nature, and the world, as afterwards employed; — nature and the world being in the first comprehended under ' matter ;' God and soul in the second under ' spirit.' ^ In the MS. D of the Eoyal Library at Paris, in two MSS. of London, and in the Calcutta edition of the ' MahS-bhSrata,' this chapter is commenced by the following shloka : "akjuna spokb. Nature and also spirit, kshetra and also kshetrajna. This I desire to learn, and spiritual knowledge and the object of spiritual knowledge, Hairy One !" Wilkins had it also before him in the Benares MS. from which he translated. The majority of the MSS., and the Calcutta edition pf the ' Bhagavad-Git&,' do not contain it, and as it bears all the impress of an insertion by some studious and verse-making copyist, who did not see his way very clearly in the order here followed, we imitate ■ Scblegel and Galanos in entirely omitting it. 3 We leave these words untranslated, as they are philosophical terms which it is impossible to render correctly by any corresponding terms in English. Kshetra is literally ' body,' not merely the personal body, but the body considered as an aggregate of all the components (23 in number), all the attributes, and all the life of matter in its development. This is explained m shloka 5, and, in short, it is matter generally, 86 BHAGAVAB-SITA. CHAPTEK THE THIETEENTH. truth of things* call that which knows this i hhetraj, hhetrqfna.' And know also that I am the kshetrafna in all Icshetras,^ Bharata ! That which is the knowledge of the hhetra and the hhetrafna is considered hy me to be spiritual knowledge.' What that hhe^a is, and what it is like, and to what changes it is Hahle, and from what it originates, all this, what- ever' (it may he), and what that (hshetrajnaj is, and of what it is capable, learn in a compendious form from me, — which has been sung in various ways by the Eishis,^ separately, in different hymns,* and also in metres of the well-demonstrated Brahmasiitras,' which treat of causes.'" The represented by the body. Kor must this be supposed to be merely the body of man. It signifies every organic aggregate of matter (and by the Hindfls even inorganic bodies, as stones, minerals, etc., are comprehended under this head) which contains a soul. The kshetrajna is the individual soul which exists in such hshetras, and is in the next line declared to be (that is, to be part of) the Supreme Spirit. The literal meaning of the word is, ' that which understands the kshetra.' It must be remembered that the Hindfi philosophers believed the soul to be placed within the body in order to work out its emancipation from material and individual existence, to which the Supreme Spirit has consigned it, by causing it to emanate from himself. That emancipation can only be worked out by a complete and just comprehension of the nature of matter and its true relations with individual soul and the Supreme Spirit. Hence it is called the ' comprehender of matter.' * Philosophers : alluding to Kapila, Ishwara Krishna, and their followers. * In this declaration, that the Supreme Spirit is the soul within all bodies, there is no denial of the individuality of the soul, merely an assertion that it is part, though a dividuated part, of the Universal Spirit; * The knowledge by which emancipation is attained. ' The word yat, repeated here at the end of the shloka, though already introduced as the third word in it, is not, however, redundant, but refers not to tat Icshetram, which is answered by the first yat, but to the tat before samdsma. It is the peculiarity of the relative sentence in Sanskrit, that every relative pronoun should, if possible, be balanced by a demonstrative 6ne, and vice rersd ; but it is impossible to mark this swinging in an English translation. * The use of the word chhandaa would seem to denote that the allusion was to the Yedas, and that the Bishis here mentioned were those to one of whom each of the hymns in those books is inscribed. The context, however, demands a wider signification for both Rishi and chlumdas, the former being, probably, the philosophers of the S&nkhya and Toga schools, as Kapila, Fatanjali, etc., called so from their piety and wisdom : th$ latter alluding to their productions. » This is the title of the well-known work of B&d&r&yana, on the Vedinta system. It has, however, been generally considered as posterior to the ' Bhagavad-Git& ;' nor could our author attribute the teaching of purely S&nkhya doctrines to a Yed&nta philosophers. I should conjecture that the name refened generally to works on the Yoga system, Brahma being understood to mean the Supreme Bing. '" That is, generally, of philosophy, the object of philosophy being to explain the causes of the existence oi the universe, and the connection of the soul with matter, etc. DEVOTION IN CONNECTION WITII THE KSHETKA AND THE ISHETKAJNA. 87 great elements," the egotism, the intellect, and also the principle of life, and the eleven organs and the five objects of sense — desire, aversion, happiness, unhappiness, multiplicity of condition, reflection, resolution, (all) this is briefly denominated kshetra with its passions." Modesty, " It would be beyond the limits of these notes to enter in detail into the nature of the S&nkhya system of cosmology, of which we have here so brief a summaiy. We must refer the reader to that part of our introduction which treats of the S&nkhya system, and it will here suffice to recapitulate the meamng of the terms used, merely calling to remembrance that the order here employed is not the philosophical arrangement, nor even that of our author's fancy, hut purely subservient to the metre. The twenty-five components of all existing things, whether spirit or matter, with the exception of the Supreme Being himself, — in short, of the whole creation, — are thus ranked in the S&nkhya system : — a. 1. Frakriti (here called avyakia), the undeveloped principle or essence of matter, from which the next twenty-three components, called altogether vyahta, or developed matter, emanate, viz. : h. 2. Bttddhi, intelligence, that which transmits external impressions received through the senses to the soul, — the eyes, as it were, of the soul, — which produces, e. 3. Alumkdra, egotism, the consciousness of individual existence, which produces, d. i — 8. Tcmmdirdm (here called indrtyaffochara), the five subtile elements of matter, the elements of the elements ; the atoms which, when aggregated, form the elements. They are sound, feel, colour, sapidity, and odour ; each of these, in their turn, produces each of the, e. 9 — 13. Mahdbhitdm, five grosser elements, ether fdMshJ, air fvdyu), fire fagni, Ught and heat), water (dp), and earth. Thus sound produces ether ; feel, air; odour, light, etc. The subtUe elements being united to the grosser elements, next produce, /. 14 — 18. IncHya, the five senses of perception, hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting and smelling, and next, g, 19 — 23. Karrmndriya, the five organs of action, also considered as senses, which are the voice, the hands, the feet, the anus, and the penis. Lastly, ahankdra produces, h. 24. Manas, the heart, the internal organ of perception, which receives the external impressions of the senses, and transmits them through the ahankdra and the intellect to the soul, and is the seat of the passions, etc. i. 25. ^fe«d or ^tw-MsAa, the individual soul. It is the twenty-three components from b to A inclusive which form the kshetra : thus the mahdbhutdni are ' « ' ; the ahankdra is ' « ' ; the buddhi, ' i ' ; the eleven mdriydni are '/, f , and ' A ', (maims being considered Ss an internal sense) ; the five mOriyagocharas, \ d.' Another component, however, is here mentioned, which requires some explanation— namely, aioyakta. This we know to be a name for prakriti, the undeveloped pnnciple or essence of matter ; but since Jcshetra can with strictness only refer to developed matter, it can scarcely be understood to include the undeveloped pnnciple also. This principle, how- ever, while apart from matter, as the essence from which it emanates, is also connected with it as being the principle of vital existence, and in this sense it must be here understood. '» The passions (lit., ' changes,') belonging to animate matter are those seven just named (desire, etc.), and must, of course, be referred to the sensitive part of matter, the manas. 88 BHAGATAD-GITA. CHArTER THE THIEIEENTH. sincerity, innocence, patience, honesty, reverence towards preceptors, purify, constancy, self-government, — indifference towards objects of sense; and also unselflshness, contemplation of birth, death, old age, sickness, pain, and error," — disinterestedness, and indiG^rence towards- one's children, wife, and household," and constant equanimity both in pleasant and un- pleasant circumstances, — attentive worship by exclusive devotion to me, frequenting of solitary spots, a distaste for the society of men, — perseve- rance in acquiring knowledge of the Adhyatma,^' consideration of the advantage of a knowledge of the truth,^* — this is called spiritual knowledge ; that which is contrary to this, ignorance. I wUl declare to thee what the object of spiritual knowledge is." He who knows it eats ambrosia.'* It is called the Supreme Being, without beginning, neither the existent nor non-existent." It possesses hands and feet in aU directions ; eyes, heads, and faces in aU directions ; having ears in aU. directions, he exists in the world, comprehending all things ; — resplendent with the faculties of all the senses,"' yet disconnected from aU the senses ; disinterested, and yet 13 Consideration of the btiI and misery of this life, in order that he may not hecome seduced and attached to it by its apparent good and happiness. 1* If this doctrine he accused of unnatural austerity, we can only reply that the salvation of one's soul was justly deemed paramount to all wordly ties, the nearest and dearest of which are here mentioned ; and refer our readers to the same injunction, in almost the same terms, from the mouth of the only unerring Preceptor, ' If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.' St. Luke, xiy. 26. Neither the Divine guide nor the Hindfi philosopher meant that these words should be construed literally ; both, on the contrary, exhort their hearers to brotherly love, with which it would he impossible to hate one's father and mother, etc. ; but they only mean that where one's salvation requires it, even the nearest earthly ties must be disregarded. 15 See Chapter VIII. note 1. m Consideration that such knowledge is necessary to the attainment of final emancipation. " The object to be known is, of course, the Supreme Being in all phases. IS That is, enjoys immortality, which is final emancipation. " Compare Chapter IX. note 30, and XI. shl. 37, in which places it is said that the Supreme Being is both spirit and matter ; here Krishna says that the Supreme Being is not called either one or the other. He is not called spirit, because he is not spirit alone, but both spirit and matter ; he is not called matter for the same reason. ™ He possesses all those faculties of seeing, hearing, etc., which the senses give to man ; but since he has no material body like man, he does not possess those senses themselves, and is therefore, of course, free from the evil influence which they "have in attaching man to the world, etc. DEVOTION IN CONNECTION WITH THE KSHETBA AND KSHETKAJNA. 89 sustaining all things ;'' free from (the influence of the three) qualities, yet possessing every quality ; ^ existing both apart from and within existing things,^ both inanimate and also animate. It cannot be recognized on account of its subtilty, and it exists both far and near. Not distributed among beings, and yet existing as if (it were so) distributed.^ And it is to be known as that which sustains existing things, and both devours and produces them again.^ This light, also, of luminous bodies is said to be superior to darkness.^ It is spiritual knowledge itself,^' the object of that knowledge to be obtained by spiritual knowledge implanted in every heart. Thus have the kshetra, the spiritual knowledge, and the object of that knowledge been briefly declared. He who worships me and can discern this (spirit in all things) is conformed to my nature. Learn that nature and spirit,^ also, are both of them indeed without beginning. And know that the passions and the (three) qualities are sprung from nature. Nature is said to be that which causes the power of doing what must be done in the organs.^' Spirit is said to be that which causes the power of "' That is, he acts without interest in his actions. As Krishna himself says else- where, he has nothing to gain, since all things are his ; he can, therefore, have no interest in his actions, but nevertheless he continues to act. He has created the universe, but does not now cease from actions, but sustains and cherishes that which he has formed. '^ The three qualities that influence matter, sattwa, rajas, and tamas, have no effect on him, in spite of his connection with matter, still he possesses the powers which those qualities give to matter. 23 In his individuality, he is separate from matter; in his universality, exists within it. ii* Considered as a single indivisible personal spirit, he is not really divisible among beings ; but since the soul which exists within them emanates from and is actually identical with him, he is within them, as if he were divisible. 25 He here speaks of him as the material essence (prahriti), into which all things are re-absorbed, as if it devoured them and again caused them to emanate. 2« This is said metaphorically. The light is the Supreme Being considered as illumining or inspiring vrith knowledge those who are devoted to him, and thus sur- mounting darkness, which is ignorance. 2' This is so forced an idea that we should greatly prefer to read jndmjneycm. But ? 28 See Chapter VIII. note 1, under adhidcma. Here, however, it is said of spirit generally, the nature of which will be explained in Chapter XV. He has already explained matter (leshetra), god fjneyaj, and spiritual knowledge (5Vjrf««>. It remams for him to treat of the material essence or nature (prahnti) and the soul, and of the general connection of matter and spirit. _ _ . 29 The material essence is also the vital principle, and this it is which gives Me, motion, and the power of action to the organs of all animate things. 90 EHAOAVAB-GITA.. CHAPTER THE IHIETEKNTH. experiencing pleasure and pain (in matter).'" For spiiit, when invested with matter," experiences the influence of the qualities which spring from nature. Its connection with those qualities is. the cause of its regenera- tion in a good or evil womh.'* The Supreme Spirit within this body'' is called the spectator and admonisher, sustainer, enjoyer, great lord, and also highest soul. He who thus understands -spirit and nature with its qualities, in whatever way he may have lived, is never horn again (on earth). Some behold the soul by their mind's eye, by means of contem- plation on themselves, others by Sankhya-Yoga, and others by Karma- Yoga.^ But others respect it, not knowing it in this manner, but having heard it esplained by others.'* And even these, if studious of such tradi- tion, even surmount mortality.^ Know, Prince of the Bharatas ! that as often as anything which exists," animate or inanimate, is produced, it is so on account of the conjunction of body and soul.''' He, who perceives '" Still, thougli tlie organs may be put in motion by the vital principle, there can be no real sensibility or perception of external objects without a soul within the body. " This is an explanation of the manner m which the soul gives that sensibility to the body. When the soul is disconnected from matter, i.e., before and after its individual existence, the three qualities whose influence is confined to matter, can have no effect upon it ; when, however, the soul is once united to matter, they have effect on it through the medium of matter, and thus the sool before incapable of receiving any impressions from external objects, when influenced by these qualities, is enabled to appreciate the good or bad in external matter. '2 Since these qualities are, at best, all bad, their influence on the soul through the medium of matter is productive of that dreaded evil, — regeneration on earth ; but if the soul has acquired more of the influence of the sattwn-ffima, or quality of goodness, it is born again in a good womb : that is, in the family of Brihmans or superior Kshatriyas ; if more of rajo-gum, or quality of badness, it is bom in a bad womb, such as Vaishyas or Shudras, etc. " Alluding to the Supreme Being in his own body, in the person of Krishna. ^ These are devotees who follow different systems. The first is that of contempla- tion, — the pure S&nkhya system ; the second, which 'he calls S&nkhya-Toga, is that branch of the Yoga system which confines itself to exclusive, ascetic, and contemplative devotion, and rejects all works ; the third is the choice doctrine of the ' Bhagavad-Gita,' devotion united to works and actions. Compare III., 3^6. The S&nkhya-Yoga is also called Jnina-Toga, and the only difference between it and the pure S&nkhya is, that the former acknowledges and enjoins worship of a Supreme Being, the latter is virtually atheistic. '^ These, as contrasted with devotees themselves, are merely studious and zealous disciples. so And attain to the only true immortality, — final emancipation. " The abstract (lit. ■ existence) is here put for the concrete, ' that which exists.' '? All the translators have 'by the conjunction," etc., as if the reading were smi- yogena and not scmyogdt. They have evidently been misled by the idea that Tishttm and kshefrajnn alluded to matter and spirit, and the knowledge that the emanation of DETOIION IN CONNECTION WITH THE KSHETKA AND KSHEIEAJNA. 91 that the highest lord exists alike imperishahle in all perishable things, sees indeed; for, perceiving the same lord present in everything, he does not himself destroy his own soul,'' but attains the highest path. But he who perceives that all actions are entirely performed by nature *" only, perceives that he himself is therefore not an agent. When he recognizes the individual existence of everything to he comprehended in one, and to be only an emanation from it,*^ he then attains to the Supreme Being. This supreme eternal soul, even when existing within the body, son of Kunti ! neither acts nor is affected*' by action, on account of its eternity, and freedom from the qualities.*' As the ether, though it penetrates everywhere, is not polluted on account of its rarity, so the soul, though present in every (kind of) body, is not polluted (by action). As one sun iQuniines the whole of this world, so does (one) spirit illumine the whole of matter,** Bharata ! Those who thus perceive by the eye of knowledge the difference between kshetra and kshetrt^'na, and the emancipation of beings from nature,*^ go to the Supreme.' Thus in the Upanishads, etc., (stands) the Thirteenth Chapter, by name t DEVOTION IN CONNECTION WITH THE KSHETEA AND KSHETEAJNA.' developed matter from nature was caused by the conjunotion of the Supreme Spirit, as man, with the material essence or nature, as wife. The meaning seems to me to be simply that the eauSe of the emanation of developed matter was the conjunction of soul ana body, by means of which conjunction the soul effects its emancipation. He therefore merely states that the reason for the production of matter was to assist the soul in emancipating itself when once placed within the body for that purpose, since it is by a knowledge of the real truth, acquired through the investigation of visible developed matter by the senses, that emancipation is achieved. 2' Since he perceives that his soul is a portion of the Supreme Being existing within him, and on that account, if on no other, he is desirous to work out his emancipation, and not by his neglect and crimes to precipitate the ' divine spark' into hell. *" That is, by the action of the three qualities which spring from nature. " That ail existing things, although they ejtist separately, are one and the same Supreme Being, and merely so far distinct from him, that they are emanations from his his material essence. « Lit.. 'is;poUuted.' *' The qualities are what really act, by their influence, on matter. The soul is passive, and although the qualities influence it through the medium of the body, they cannot render it aetrve. " The souls in every body, although individual, are really only one and the same, viz., the Supreme Spirit. Thus one soul illumines every body. *5 From material existence. 92 BHASATAD-GITA. CHAPTEB IHE FOUETEENTH. CHAPTEE THE FOUETEENTH.' THE HOLY ONE SPOKE. ' I will explain further* the great spiritual knowledge, the chief of scienceB, by the knowledge of which all Munis" attain the highest beatitude after this life. Having acquired this knowledge, they attain to fellowship* with me, and are not regenerated even at the new creation, nor disturbed at the general destruction.' The great Brahma' is a womb for me ; in it I depose the foetus. The production of all existing things is from it, descendant of Bharata ! Brahma is the great womb for every form which is produced in any womb.' I am the father which ' In tliis chapter lie treats of the three gimae, or natural qualities, which influence all matter (for a detailed account of this doctrine see Introduction), but only in a very general manner. The qualities are firstly accurately described; their action is then specified; and, lastly, the fixture state of the beings influenced more particularly by each of them. ' I wiU continue to explain. ' Used generally for a pious derotee. * Sddharmya has been mis-understood by Willdns. The element dharma, from which it has been derived, has here no allusion to law or yirtue, but simply to offiee. Sddharmin is a man whose duty or office, or even business, is the same as one's own ; and hence means a fellow, a companion. 5 At the commencement or conclusion of each Kalpa. See Chap. VIII., note 19. 6 Brahma is here neuter. Throughout our poem the neuter of this word has been employed to designate the Supreme Being himself in his most general character. This cannot be the case here, since Eiishna speaks of himself as the Supreme Being, and Brahma as distinct from him. At the same time it has nothing to do with BrahmS, masculine. But as BrahmS. (masc.) is the mythological personification of the creative power of a Vedic or semi-mythological Supreme Being, so is Brahma here the philo- sophical type of the creative principle of the philosophical Supreme Being. He is not a personification, nor even separate from the Supreme Being, but merely a part of him distinct from spirit, the material essence inherent in him, by means of which, himself then both efficient and material creator, he produces the universe. ' Not merely those forms or bodies which are literally bom from the wombs of gods, men, or beasts ; but generally whatever is produced from anything else, and therefore DEVOIION IN CONNECTION WIIH THE THEEE fttJALITIES. 93 provide the seed. Goodness, badness, and indifference,' — the qualities thus called, sprung from nature, influence the imperishable soul ' within the body, strong-armed one ! Of these, goodness is lucid and free from disease, on account of its spotlessness, and implicates '" (the soul) by means of connection with the pleasant, and connection with knowledge, sinless one ! Know that badness, being of the nature of desire, arises from appetite and propensity. This implicates (the soul), son of Kunti ! by connection with action. But know that indifference, arising from ignorance, is the delusion of aU mortals. This implicates (the soul) by means of folly, idleness, and sloth, son of Bharata ! Goodness connects (the soul) with pleasure, badness with action, Bharata ! but indifference surrounding knowledge connects it indeed" with folly." "When one has surmounted badness and indifference, goodness exists, Bharata! badness when one has surmounted goodness and also indifference; indifference when one has surmounted goodness and badness.^' When knowledge. all things. The object in introducing these two shloka*, before explaining the three gimas, is to show what relation the material essence (commonly called prahriti, but here Brahma), from which they spring, bears to the Supreme Spirit on the one hand, and to matter on the other. * The words are translated freely, as otherwise the sense of the whole chapter would remain obscure. Literally they would be 'reality,' 'impulse,' and 'darkness.' See Introduction. ' Through the medium of matter, to which their direct influence is confined. Thus they affect the senses, which transmits their good or bad impressions to the seat of sensibility (memos) ; this, again, forwards them to individual consciousness (ahmihdra) , and this to the intellect fbuddhij, which being in direct communication with the soul, conveys them to it.- '" Lit. : ' binds,' viz., in the bonds of transmigration. 1' Lassen has a long irrelevant note on the force of uta, very useful in a grammar of the Vedas, but of doubtful value for a poem of the date of ours. Suffice it to say, that, as he has shown, the fanciful explanation of the scholiasts must be rejected, and the common use of the particle throughout the ' Mah&bhSiata,' and other works of like style and approximate date, be accepted, namely, that of a confirmative expletive. V' The whole of this shloka seems to me merely a recapitulation of shlokas 6, 7, and 8. " This is ill expressed, though the meaning is obvious. Goodness predominates when the other two qualities are conquered or suppressed ; badness when the other two are in the minority, etc. The three qualities, it must be remembered, are never sepa- rated ; they always act in concert, and, however good the soul may be, as even Brahm4 himself, the highest of material beings, some small portion of badness and indifference remains within it. It is only the proportion of their admixture which is here alluded to, since it is impossible that the sod, while united to material existence, can entirely subdue or eradicate any one of these qualities. 94 -BHAGAVAD-GITA. CHAPTEB THE FOURTEENTH. the bright light, has been produced through all the entrances '* into this body, then one may know that goodness iadeed is matured. Avidity, activity, undertaking of actions, restlessness and covetousness, these are produced when badness is matured, Prince of Bharata! Absence of light and of activity,^* foUy, and also delusion, — these are produced when indifference is matured, son of Kuru ! But when a mortal reaches his dissolution, and goodness is matured within him, he then approaches the spotless worlds of those who obtain the highest place." He who reaches dissolution during (the predominance of) badness, is horn again in those who are attached to actions," and one who dies in indiflferenoe, is horn again in the wombs of the senseless." They call the reward of a good action, of the quality of goodness and spotless; the reward of badness, pain ; the reward of indifference, ignorance.'" From goodness is produced knowledge, from badness only desire ; from indifference spring foUy, delusion, and also ignorance. Those who remain in good- ness, go upwards; those of the quality of badness remain in a middle state. Those of indifference, remaining in a state of the lowest qualities. " As the body lias been called the mansion of the soul, so are the senses, through which the inhabiting spirit receives knowledge, considered as its doors. '5 The absence of light, the distinguishing attribute of goodness ; and of acti-vity, that of badness. 16 Wilkins, Schlegel, and Galanos have here rendered uttamaviddm as if it meant ' those who understand the Supreme Spirit.' Such understanding is, however, constantly declared to be the gate to emancipation, and the sentence would therefore signify that those in whom goodness predominated were emancipated. This is obviously not the sense, since in shlokas 20 and 26 we are told that one must entirely overcome the influ- ence of all three qualities, in order to be emancipated. As the scholiast Shridharasw&min tells us, the word is compounded of uttmna, ' highest,' (as place, joy, path, etc.) and vid, a root of the sixth class, ' to obtain.' The highest place is not the highest of all, but only the highest of the three places here mentioned as the futures of the three different classes of beings, and the allusion is to the worlds of Brahm&, the Pitris, the Devas, etc. (see Chap. V., note 39), as contrasted with the bodies of men or beasts on earth. Hence, too, the use of the word lokdn in the plural. Had it referred to the Supreme Spirit, as the translations would lead us to suppose, the word lo/ea, if used at all, must have been been in the singular number. -' The worldly, and consequently wicked, among men. '8 Beasts and inorganic matter. " As knowledge is to the Hindu philosopher, as well as to the Hebrew, monarch, the greatest good, ignorance is the greatest evil to which the soul can be subjected. DEVOTION IN CONNECTION WITH THE THEEE OTALITIES. 95 go downwards. »" When the spectator" acknowledges no agent but the qualities, and comprehends that which is superior'^ to the qualities, he approaches my being. Having overcome the three qualities which co- originate "* with the body, the soul, released from regeneration, mortality, age, and pain,eats of ambrosia.' ^ ABJT7NA SPOKE. ' By what marks is one who has overcome these three qualities (dis- tinguished), master ? What is his course of life ? and how does he overcome these three qualities ? ' THE HOLT ONE SPOKE. ' He who'* who does not hate (the three qualities), brightness, activity, and also delusion,^ son of Pandu ! when they come forth (from nature's bosom), nor long for them when they return to it," — ^who, sitting as if unconcerned, is not agitated by the qualities, and who does not waver, '«' This is merely a recapitulation of sMokas 14 and 15. Upwards and downwards must be understood to allude to the scale of states, or rather bodies, in which the soul may be confined in transmigration. According to Kapila (S^nkhya Prayachana, III., 42) and his disciple Ishwara Krishna (S&nkhya KSrika, shloka 53), these bodies are fourteen in number, distributed in three classes, in the following descending order : — The first class were deemed divine, or rather superhuman, and were eight in number, viz. : 1. Brahm^ and the superior gods ; 2. The Prajipatis or great progenitors of the human race ; 3. Saumya or lunar bodies; 4. Indra and the inferior go& (Devas) ; 6. Gandharvas, heavenly minstrels or angels ; 6. Ea.kshasas ; 7. Yakshas ; 8. Piah&chas. The second class was man. The third was beings inferior to man, of five kinds, viz. : 10. Pashu, domestic animals ; 11. Mriga, wild beasts ; 12. Birds; 13. Keptiles, fishes, and insects. 14. Vegetables and inorganic bodies. Going upwards was, therefore, entering the region of any of the first eight ; going downwards being re-born in any of the last five. The middle state was man. 2' , The soul, which Kapila and other philosophers compare to a spectator sitting passively in the body, and watching the operations of nature, which is likened to a ballet- girl dancing on the stage of life. 22 The Supreme Being. 23 Schlegel wrongly ' e corpore genitis.' They do not spring from the body, but from nature, and are, therefore, co-originate with aU matter, and, consequently, with the body. Eemark the force of the preposition sum in samudbhtmdn. ^ The food of immortality, which is union with the Supreme Being. 25 The yo in the next shloka is also the subject here. 26 Merely other names for the three qualities, aattwa, rajas, and tamos. See Introduction. 2' "WTien they come forth from nature, their action begins ; and ceases when they return to it. 96 BHAGiTAD-GIIA. CHAPTER THE FOFBTEENTH. but (clings to the persuasion) 'that the qualities exist;''* who is the the same in pain and pleasure, self-contained, with the same (feelings) towards a lump of earth, a stone, or gold ; equally-minded to those whom he likes and those whom he dislikes, constant, equally-minded in blame or praise of himself, — in honour or disgrace, — towards both parties, friends or foes ; free from self-interest in all undertakings : he is said to have overcome the qualities. And he who worships me'^ with religious and exclusive devotion, when he has overcome the qualities, is fitted for the existence of the Supreme Spirit. For I '° indeed am the representative of the Supreme Spirit, and of the imperishable ambrosia, and of eternal law, and of intense happiness.' Thus in the TJpanishads, etc., (stands) the Fourteenth Chapter, by name ' DEVOTION IN CONIfECTION WITH THE THEBE ftTTAlITIBS.' ^ Compare, tut do not confound, Chap. III., 28, note 31. The meaning is here, that he knows them to exist, and, therefore, that it la they alone which impel him towards, or keep him back from, action. '^ Krishna himself. "We have here a declaration of what has been understood throughout our poem, — ^the identification of Krishna himself with the Supreme Being. 30 We should conceive that this clause had been added by our artful author, that his more Brihmanical and orthodox reader might not take advantage of the genitive hrahnumas, which may be either neuter or masculine, and interpret it as alluding to BrahmS.', the first person of the mythological triad. This he prevents by identifying it it with himself, Krishna or Vishnu. DEVOTION BY THE ATIAINMENT TO THE HI8HE9T FEBSON. 97 CHAPTEE THE FIFTEENTH.' THE HOLT OITE SPOKE. 'They say that the eternal sacred fig-tree' grows with its roots ' This chapter contains a treatise on the nature of spirit generally. It commences •with an allegory (shlokas 1—6), which alludes to the whole universe, the eternal revolvmg current of life, under the figure of the Banyan, or sacred fig-tree. It then proceeds to describe spirit in the human body or the individual soul ^hlokas 7—11) ; then to the universal spirit (shlokas 12—17) ; and lastly, specifies spirit, as individual god, the Supreme Being. This division is quite necessary for a right comprehension of the whole chapter. 2 For a complete and most interesting account of this tree, which the limits of our note will not allow us to transcribe, we must refer the reader to Lassen's excellent work, 'Indische Alterthumskunde,' Vol. I., p. 255-260. The Ashwattha is known to botanists as theficus religiosa, and is considered as the male of thsfious Indica, or Indian fig-tree, more commonly known to Europeans as the Banyan. It is found in aU parts of India and Ceylon, except on the table land of the Dekkan ; and every village has one specimen which it honours with aU the reverence due to its sanctity. It is found separately, and not in the forests, forming, as it does, a forest in itself. At an incon- siderable height from the ground, the stem puts forth a crown of branches, which, grow- ing for some distance horizontally, each lets fall a single shoot, which grows downwards till it reaches the earth, and there takes root, thus forming a pillar, which supports the parent branch. Above the first crown of branches another is presently produced, which, growing beyond the first, lets fall another circle of pillars outside them. This process continues till the whole sometimes reaches the height of 200 feet, and an unUmited number of secondary stems circle around the original trunk. A vast house is thus formed, with innumerable chambers one within another, and increasing, as one pene- trates further inward, in mysterious darkness and exhilarating coolness, which the hottest sun of India cannot aflTect. No wonder, then, that this natural dwelling, offered, as it were, to man, in the place of his ovm far less elegant or pleasant constructions ; — no wonder that these circling mysterious bowers, — these cool but not close retreats, — ^planted by Providence, not in the wild jungle, but in the midst of fertile plains, should win the reverence of the native whom they sheltered ! No wonder that its branches, taking root on earth and forming new stems, should figure to the refiective the idea of eternal life ! And such is, indeed, the type which they presented. Lassen is of opinion that the whole passage here inserted is borrowed from an older source, and quotes a passage, supposed to be alluded to by the scholiast, from the K^thaka Upanishad, VI., 1, in which the tree is said to be the Semen and Brahma(n). He himself, however, believes the allegory to allude only to the Vedas, from what is said in shloka 1, that ' he who knows it, knows 98 BHAQAT-iS-oirA. CHAPT£E THE PlnEENTH. above' and its branclies downwards. He wbo knows tHs tree, the leaves of whicli are Vedio hymns,* knows the Vedas. Its branches' shoot forth downwards and upwards, nourished and increased by the qualities, and having objects of sense as tendrils. And their roots, which extend downwards, are the connecting bonds of action in the world of man.' Its form is not thus understood in this world, neither its end, nor beginning, nor its constitution. When one has hewn down this sacred fig-tree, together with its wide-spreading roots,' with the steady axe of indifference" (to the world), then may that' place be sought, to which those who go return no more. And I allude" to that primeval spirit the Vedas.' If I might be permitted to differ from so high an authority, I should con- ceive that this phrase referred to what is said immediately before, that its leaves were Vedio hymns, for he who knows the whole tree would know the leaves too, and conse- quently the Vedas, of which they are the hymns. He further quotes a passage transcribed by the scholiast Madhustidana, from some unknown smriti, in which the tree is said to represent developed matter, the trunk being intellect, the senses forming the interior cavity, the branches being the grosser elements of matter, its leaves the objects of sense, and its fruits the pains and pleasures of this life. Judging from the description in our own poem, which bears some resemblance to this, I am inclined to think with the scholiast, that the allegory is a figure of the whole universe, the mass of creation, the whole current of revolving material existence. The earth, then, from which it springs would be nature, the material essence : and the branches, the individual bodies, which spring from matter originally, and again, eventually, return to it ; the sap that runs through and influences the whole would be the three qualities ; the tendrils, would be the the objects of sense ; which are connected to the individual bodies by the senses, and so on. ^ Alluding to the branches themselves afterwards taking root. * This may be explained in many ways. In the first place, tradition asserted that the Vedic hymns were originally written on dry leaves. Again, as a tree puts forth its leaves for the shelter of the earth, and then discards them to manure it, so has the • material deity (Brahm&) put forth the Vedic institutions to shelter mankind from evil, and delivered tnem to him for his improvement and cultivation. Or, as the leaves are the honour and ornament of a tree, the Vedas are the glory of the world, etc. ^ The individual bodies of all things and beiugs, nourished by thci three qualities, as the branches are by the sap. 8 As the roots connect the branches more firmly with the earth from which they originally sprung, so does action connect the bodies and the souls they contain more closely with the world, and implicate them in the necessity of regeneration. ' The actions which implicate their agents in regeneration. 8 When one has annulled the power of matter and of action by a resolute indiffer- ence to the world. ' The Supreme Being. '0 In speaking of that place. Schlegel translates this word by dedMo, Galanos by '■ I am,' and Wilkins (Parraud's trans.) ' j 'ai rendu manifesto.' Let the reader choose. DEVOTION BY TttE ATTAINMENT TO THE HIGHEST PEBSON. 99 only, from which the eternal" stream (of life)" emanates. Those who axe free from arrogance and delusion, who have subdued the vice of attachment to the world, always constant to the Adhyatma," who have repulsed desires, and are free from the influence of those opposites known as pleasure and pain, proceed unbewUdered to that imperishable place. Neither sun nor moon illumines that spot. The place, to which those who go return not, is my supreme dwelling. An eternal portion" of me only, having assumed life" in this world of life, attracts" the heart and ' the five senses," which belong to nature. Whatever body the sovereign spirit '* enters or quits, it is connected with it by snatching those senses from nature, even as the breeze snatches perfumes from their very bed." This spirit approaches the objects of sense, by presiding over the ear,*" the eye,'" the touch, the taste, and the smeU, and also over the heart." " Lit. : 'ancient,' i.e., without beginning. '2 Among otter meanings, pram-itti has thai of ' a continuous flow or current, the tide of events,' etc. '3 See Chap. VIII., note 1. '* He is now about to speak of the lowest kind of purusha, or spirit, the individual Boul. ^° Material life, which commences and ends with the universe. Life, like time, when contrasted with eternity, can only be said of the existence of what is perishable. Life being a conditional and dependent, noi a positive term, cannot be said of what never undergoes death. '° This is a mode of showing the connection between the soul and matter. The senses and the heart are the links between the soul and the external world. When, therefore, the soul enters the body, it attracts to itself, that is, connects with itself these senses, by which it is enabled to obtain that knowledge of the universe which aids its emancipation. " Lit: 'the senses, which have the heart as sixth.' The more correct rendering would therefore be, ' the six senses, including the heart ;' but as the latter is superior and distinct &om the senses, though improperly called a sense itself, I have preferred the given translation. Schlegel remarks, with truth, that this peculiar construction is not unwonted either in Sanskrit or other tongues. He cites, for the first, Hitopadesha, ed. Bonn, p. 63, 7 ; and 106,' 16. For the latter, Juvenal, Sat. I., 64, and the Mbelungen Lied, verse 1379. ' Selbe vierde degene vam vrir an den se.' IS The soul being a portion (that emanated) of the Supreme Spirit (iafmara). " From the flowers which contain them, ^0 In these two words the concrete is put for the abstract, the organ itself for the sense of which it is the site. '' The meaning of this shloka is, that without the soul, and the vital energy which 100 BHAGAVAD-6ITA. CHAPIEB THE FUTEENTH. Tte foolish, do not perceive it wien it quits the body, nor when it remains (in it), nor when, actuated by the qualities, it enjoys (the world). But those who have the eyes of knowledge do perceive it. And devotees, who strive to do so, perceive it dwelling within themselves; hut those who have not overcome themselves,*' being destitute of sense, do not perceive it, even though they strive to do so. Know that that briUiance '" which enters the sun and illumines the whole earth, and which is in the moon, and in fire, is of me. And I enter the ground and support all living things by my vigour ; and I nourish all herbs, becoming that moisture, of which the peculiar property is taste."* And becoming fire,"' I enter the body of the living, and being associated with their inspiration and expiration, cause food of the four kinds'"' to digest. And I enter the accompanies it, the senses would te passive, and have no connection with the worldly objects (viaha^a), which they are intended to grasp. By their intervention, the soul, when it has once pervaded and directed them, becomes cognizant of the objecte of sense. 2' Lit. . ' Have not formed themselves.' ^ He now comes to speak (in shlokas 12 — 16) of the second kind of Pmrmha, or spirit, the non-individuate universal vitality, by which all things are invigorated, ; not merely with life, hut with the properties of the soul in divers degrees. This is, the Supreme Being, though not in nis separate personality, but in his connection with matter. When we consider the universe in the light of a child produced in the womb of nature fpraJmtij, which is a part 6f the Supreme Being, by impregnation with spirit, the other portion of him, in the place of semen, we shall understand that that semen which gives the strength, the life, the vigour to the foetus, is the second purusha, which, though really an emanation from the Supreme Being, just as much as individual soul is, and remaining an emanation only so long as matter exists in its development, that is, during the existence of the universe, is so closely connected with the Supreme Spirit in his personal individuality, as to be identified with him, much more than individual soul can be. ** In the cosmology of the S&ukhya school, every element contains, aS we have seen, the subtile element which corresponds to each one of the senses. Thus the peculiai property of ether (dkdshaj is audibleness, or that which corresponds to the sense of hearing ; that of air is tangibleness, corresponding to the sense of touch, etc. The peculiar property of water is sapidity, which ccirresponds to the sense of taste. The water or moisture in the earth enters, then, the vegetable body, and, becoming sap, lends to it its sweet or sour, bitter or pungent, taste. ^^ Vaishwdnora is a name of Agni (see Indisx). It here means the heat of the stomach, which is supposed to eook the food -v^thin it, till all the nourishment is expunged and transmitted to the blood, etc., and nothing but the non-nutritious part left to pass away. This process of cooking is therefore nothing but that of digestion. ^ Which are explained by the scholiast Shridharasw&min to be — 1st, Bhdkshya, BETOTION BY THE ATTAINMENT TO THE HIGHEST PERSON. 101 heart of each one, and from me come memory, knowledge, and reason. And I alone am to he known hy aU the Vedas,'" and I am the composer of the Vedanta,^ and also the interpreter of the Vedas. These two spirits^' fPwushaaJ exist in the world,'" the divisible and also the indivisible. The divisible is every living being. The indivisible is said to be that which pervades all. But there is another, the highest spirit'^ {PwushaJ, designated by the name of the Supreme Soul, which, as the imperishable master, penetrates and sustains the triple world. Since 1^ surpass the divisible, and am higher also than the indivisible, I am, aerefore, celebrated in the world and in the Vedas as the highest Person (PwrushaJ. He who, not deluded (by the world), knows me to be thus the highest Person fPurushaj, knows all things, and worships me by every such as mar be chewed, as bread ; 2iid, Shojya, such as may be swallowed, as milk or curds ; 3rd, Lehya, what is licked with the tongue, as liquorice ; 4th, Ohoshya, what is sucked with the lips, as jelly, etc. " These and the following words would seem to be a Br&hmanical exemplification of the two preceding lines. To be known by the Vedas pre-supposes an exercise of memory on the part of the student. The Ved&nta is a phUosoplncal treatise on the theology of the Vedas, and would therefore require knowledge of the Supreme Being, etc., while to interpret the Vedas, the reasoning powers must be brought into fall force. This explanation is imdoubtedly fancifiil, but it is difficult otherwise to account for what is here so foreign to all that has gone before. The whole shloka bears the stamp of a copyist's interpolation, an idea which is favoured by the change of metre in so sudden a manner. 28 The name of a work and school of philosophy, the composition and founding of which are ascribed, among many other works, to the Vy&sa, Krishna Dwaip&,yana, who compiled the Vedas. As we know it, the work, which also bears the name of TJUwra, or second Mimdnad, bears internal evidence of being considerably posterior to the ' Bhagavad- Gitii,' and cannot, therefore, be here alluded to. The word, however, ( = veda + anta) means nothing more than the ' end of the Vedas,' and might be given to any school or treatise which had the expounding of the Vedic doctrines as its chief object. If this again be not meant, we must take the word in the general sense of the ' study of Vedic theology,' and the word Jerit must be rendered ' institutor.' 2" Namely, the individual soul, here called divisible (shlokas 7—11), and the universal vital energy, called the indivisible (shlokas 12 — 15.) so Put generally for the universe or matter, to which these two belong, and on the existence of which their own individual existence depends. 31 He now speaks of spirit entirely independent of matter, and of this there is but one form, the supreme, eternal, infinite, individual deity. '■' Xiishna again expressly identifies himself with the Supreme Being. 102 BHAOAtAD-GiTA. CHAPTEfi THE FIFTEENTH. condition.'' Thus have I declared, sinless one ! this most mystic science. A man, if he knows this science, wiU. be wise and do his duty,"* son of Bharata ! ' Thus in the ITpanishads, etc., (stands) the Fifteenth Chapter, by name ' DEVOTION BY THE ATTAINMDNT TO THE HIGHEST PERSON.' 's "Whatever he does, in whatever condition of life, hecomes a sacrifice to me. 3' The duty of his caste. Krishna takes care to bring all his teaching round to the eame point, the persuasion of Arjuna to fight. DKVOTION W REeARB TO THE LOT OF THE DEVAS AND OF THE ASURAS. 103 CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH.' THE HOLY ONE SPOKE. • 'Fearlessness, purification of his nature, continuance in devotion through spiiitual Imowledge, almsgiving, temperance and study, mortifi- cation, rectitude, harmlessness, truth, freedom from anger, indifference to the world,^ mental tranquillity, straightforwardness,' benevolence towards all beings, modesty, gentleness, bashfulness, stability, energy, patience, resolution, purity, freedom from vindictiveness and from conceit, — these are (the virtues) of the man who is born to the lot of the Devas, Bharata ! Deceit, pride and conceit, anger and abusiveness also, and ignorance, are (the vices) of him who is bom to the lot of the Asuras, son of Pritha ! The lot of the Devas is considered considered conducive to final liberation,'' ' This chapter treats of that part of the doctrine of transmigration which concerns the state immediately after this life. The deeds performed on earth affect a man's soul in five ways, two of which are had and three good, or, as they are here called, Sawipad Asuri, or the infernal fate, and Sampad Daivi, or the divine fate. The two had are as follows : — First. Those who act badly are dispatched to the regions inhabited and pre- sided over by the Asuras, the enemies of the gods, the giants and demons of Hindfl mythology. These regions are limited, in philosophical works, to three — the regions of the Yakshas, R^shasas, and Pish5.ehas. We have also mention of Naraka as a feneral term. (See Chap. I. note 35). Secondly, they are bom again on earth in the odies of inferior men or of animals. The good first receive the kingdoms of the Devas as their reward. These are five in number. (See Chap. V. note 39.) Secondly, after a sojourn in these regions proportionate to their merite they are bom again on earth in the bodies of the superior in rank and virtue among men. But the fifth fate, higher tfiau both of these, is the object of philosophy — ^flnal emancipation from material existence and union with the Supreme Being. 2 Tydga means either ' abandonment of worldly interests,' or simply ' liberality.' I have preferred the former as being the meaning more usual in philosophical language. 3 Tiahima, is a spy ; PaiaJmna, the character of a spy, a taste for watching and in- forming of the actions of others ; wpaishima, freedom from such disposition. As pishmia also means ' cruel,' apaishima might be rendered ' clemency.' * After a sojourn in the world of the Devas, the soul is again invested on earth with the body of the higher and superior among men, to whom the practice of devotion is 104 BHASATAD-GITA. CDAPIER THE SIXTEENTH. that of the Asuras to confinement (to material existence). Grieve not, son of Pandu ! thou art born to a divine lot. In this -world there are two sorts of natures in beings, that of the Devas (divine), and also that of the Asuras (infernal). The divine has been declared at fdl length.* Hear from me the infernal, son of Pritha ! Men of the infernal nature do not comprehend either the nature of action, or that of cessation from action. They possess neither purity, nor yet morality, nor truthfulness. They deny that the universe has any truth in. it, or is really constituted, or possesses a Lord,^ or that it has arisen in certain succession,' or any- thing else, save that it is there for the sake of enjoyment. Maintaining such a view, their souls being ruined and their minds contracted, baneful in their actions and hostile to the world, they prevail for destructipn. Indulging insatiable oovetousness, filled with deceit, pride, and madness, in their folly they adopt wrong conceptions,' and proceed, impure in their mode of Ufe, — indulging unlimited reflections that end in annihilation,' considering the enjoyment of their desires as the highest object, persuaded that such'" (is life). Caught in a hundred snares of false hopes, prone to desire and anger, they seek abundance of wealth by improper means, for easier than to others. On the other hand, after a sojoimi among the Asuras, it is invested with the body of some animal, or, at best, with that of an inferior man, to whom the practice of devotion is almost impossible, and transmigration consequently more liable to ensue. ^ In the first three shlokas of this chapter. ' They deny the truth of the creation and preservation of the world as taught by the Vedas or the Schools of Philosophy. They believe matter to be eternal and self- constituted, aoad are, in short, atheists of the most worldly and least intellectual kind. This is, of course, said of the worldly, who are atheists by neglect, indifference, and presumption, not of such reasoning atheists as Kapila. ' The regular succession of supreme spirit to nature, nature to manifest matter, and of this last again in the philosophical order already described. This is the translation of Scblegel. Wilkins and Galanos have followed the Scholiasts in an arbitrary explana- tion, which attributes to this compound the meaning of ' produced by man and woman,' and to Jcdmahaituka that of ' caused by love.' Lassen has so ably supported Schlegel's rendering that it would be superfluous to reiterate here the pros aud cons of the question. 8 As to the nature and the object of the universe. ' They support their false worldly views of the nature of things by speculative reasoning, which really amounts to nothing at all. The translators nave mostly very far-fetched interpretations of this simple compound. 1" Namely, Icdmalmituka, or made for the sake of enjoyment. DEVOTION IS BEOAHD TO THE LOT OP THE DEVAS AND 01' THE ASUHAS. 105 the sake of pandering to their own lusts. ' I have now obtained this thing, and I wiU obtain that pleasure. I possess this wealth, and that, too, I wlH yet possess. I have slain this enemy, and I wiU slay others also. I am sovereign, I am enjoyer (of the world). I am perfect, strong, and blessed. I am opulent, and of noble birth. Who else is like me? I will sacrifice, I will give alms, I will slay.' Thus speak those who are befooled by ignorance. Confused by many worldly thoughts, surrounded by the meshes of bewilderment, devoted to the enjoyment of their desires, they descend to foul Naraka." Esteeming themselves very highly, self- wiUed, full of possessions,^^ pride, and madness, they hypocritically worship with nominal sacrifices, not according to ritual." Indulging selfishness, violence, pride, desire and anger, detesting me (who live) in their own and others' bodies, revilers of me, — such as these, hating (me), cruel, the lowest of men among mankind, and wicked, I continually hurl into wombs of an infernal nature." Having entered an infernal womb, more and more deluded in every succeeding regeneration,'* they never come to me, son of Kunti ! and hence they proceed to the lowest walk." That gate of hell," which causes the destruction of the soul,'* is threefold •^^esire, anger, covetousness. One should therefore abandon this triad. Liberated from these three gates of obscurity," son of Kunti ! a man accomplishes the salvation of his soul, and thus attains the highest path.^ He who, neglecting the law of Holy Writ, lives after his own desires. " See Chapter I. note 35. '^ This compound occurs in shloka 10, with the slight change of dambha for dhema. It would be preferable to retain that reading here, but as we have no authority for the change we must explain dhana as- alluding to the costly ostentation of their offerings. >3 Merely for the sake of ostentation, their hearts taking no part therein, as Holy Writ enjoins. '* In their repeated transmigrations, their souls are invested with bodies which are considered of an infernal nature, as animals, insects, and inorganic matter. '5 The repetition of the substantive marks that of the act increasing in intensity. '6 Junction with inorganic matter. " So called, because they open Naraka to receive the soul, which gives way to them. " Its debasement in the scale of bodies. " Another name of Naraka. 2» Extinction in the Supreme Being. 106 BHAQATAD-eiTi. CHAPTEE THE SIXTEENTH. attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the highest walk.'*' Let Holy "Writ be therefore thy authority'^ in the determination of what should be done, and what not. Knowing that works are proclaimed in the precepts of Holy Writ, thou shouldest jerform actions.' Thus in the TJpanishads, etc. (stands) the Sixteenth Chapter, by name ' BETOTIOir IN EEGABB TO THE LOT OP THE BETAS AND THAT OE THE ASTJBAS.' "■ Perfection on earth, happiness in the heaven of the Deities, and final emancipation. '^ Schlegel has shown, hy numerous examples, that when the word pramdm is used without a verb, the imperative astu, not the present asti, must be generally supplied. He cites ' Hitopadesha,' Book i. line 114 (in Johnson's edition), and 'Nala,' iv., 13. DEVOTION AS EEOAEDS THE THEEE KINDS OF FAITH. 107 CHAPTEE THE SEVEl^'TEENTH.' AEJTJNA SPOKE. 'But what is the state of those who, neglecting the ordinance of Holy Writ, worship, full of faith, Krishna ? (Is it) goodness, badness, or indifference ? ' THE HOLT ONI SPOKE. ' The faith of mortals is of three kinds. It springs from each one's own disposition.' Learn that it is of the nature of goodness, and also of badness and indiflference. The faith of each man is in accordance with his nature, Bharata ! Mortal man, who is gifted with faith, is of the same nature as that (being) on whom he reposes his faith.' The good ' In Chap. XIV. an explanation has been given of the nature of the three qiialit:es which influence matter. The Bubject is now resumed, and the object of the present chapter is to show how these qualities a^ect the religious feelings of mankind generally, apart from the consideration of the established religion. !Krishna does not reply directly to Arjuna's question, but indirectly, by explaining the nature of religious faith. He distinguishes its practical manifestation as of three kinds : 1st, Sacrifice, which includes all worship, or the duty of man towards God ; 2nd, Mortification, or self- government, his duty towards himself ; 3rd, Almsgiving, which includes all charity, or his duty towards his feUow-creature ; and shows the influence of each of the qualities on these exercises severally. '' The disposition (swcibhdva) is, as we have already seen, the natural character of a man, which inclines him to good, evil, or inertness in aU that he does, and is a mixture of the three qualities in different proportions, — a good disposition containing more sattwa, or gooiiess, than badness or indifference ; a bad one, more badness, and so on. 3 The construction is here somewhat difficult, though the sense is clear enough. Taken in the order of the English, the Sanskrit words would stand thus, — Ayam.pm-u_ho, yo fmtij shraddhdmayah, ao faatij sa eva, yaehchhraddho (mti). 'This mortal, who is full of faith, he is that, indeed, towards which he is Mthful.' The usual construction in Sanskrit would be, — Yah shraddhdmayo aymn puru_ho yaehehhraddhah sa eva aah. Thus the first sa corresponds to the yat in yaehehhraddhah, the second to the yah. Two words, however, in this line have an unusual force. Ayam, which at first sight appears to be redundant, on account of the second sa, is really an attributive to ptirmlia, and 108 BHASAVAB-Mli.. CHAPIEE IHB SBVENTEENTH. worship the gods, the bad the Yatshas and Eakshasas. Other men, being indifferent, worship the Pretas and Bhutas.* Know that those men who practise severe self-mortification, not ia accordance with Holy Writ,' being full of hypocrisy and egotism, and gifted with desires, passions, and headstrong wiU, — torturing the collection of elementary parts' which com- pose the body, without sense, and torturing me' also, who exist in the inmost recesses of the body, are of an infernal tendency. But even the food, which is pleasant to each (kind of disposition), is of three kinds.' Sacrifice, mortification, and almsgiving (are each of three kinds).' Hear the following division of these. Those which increase life, vigour, marks that the latter word was to be iised in its commonest sense of man, the mortal, the united body and soul existing on this earth, and not in its wider philosophical meaning of 'spirit,' as described in Chap. XV. Again, the first m has here the force of 'such, of such a kind, or nature,' which renders the sense of the whole passage comprehensible. This is explained by the very next shloka. If a man worship the gods, whose nature contains a predominance of goodness, his own nature will contain a like predominaJl^e. If he worship the R&kshasas, and rely on them, his nature is a bad one, and so on. , i., * These are two species of spirits which are generally mentioned together. They both of them haunt cemeteries, and animate dead bodies, and their worshippers are of the lowest kind, since it is the blackest superstirion and the meanest fear only which prompts their worship. 5 He here deprecates all self-torture, except that which is practised in accordance with Holy Writ, and which he explains in shlokas 14, 16, and 16. We are inclined to think that the word shdstra, which we have rendered generally by ' Holy Writ,' alludes here, and elsewhere in this chapter, rather to the works which were authorities for the Yoga system (e. g., Patanjali's Yoga-sfitaras), than to the Vedas, which can scarcely be considered authorities for this species of exercise. The mortification here reprobated is that which affects the body only, while the heart and mind still remain fiUeiT with lusts and passions, it being, like the long fastings of the Pharisees, a matter of mere ostenta- tion or self-interest. ' This is said generally of the body, and includes all the principal parts of the more material portion'of the body, the five grosser and the five subtler elements, the senses, and the organs of action. Mere torture of the flesh, he says, is not real mortification, but should be used as a means of acquiring control over the heart and thoughts, — of self-government. ' That is, the Supreme Being : but alluding rather to the vital energy than to the soul itself, which could not be affected by the torture of matter. It alludes to immoderate fasting, which destroys that vital energy. 8 Namely : good, bad, and indifferent. 8 This shloka is merely an announcement of what he is going to explain. He is exemplifying the action of the three qualities on each man's disposition, and to make the subject more clear, he takes the commonest and most homely example, — ^that of food ; and shows how each man's disposition inclines him to a different mode of life, even in the commonest affairs. DEVOTION AS EEGABDS THE THREE KINDS OP FAITH. 109 strength, health, happiness, and gaiety, and which are savoury, rich,'" and substantial, are the pleasant foods dear to the good. The bitter, acid, salt, too hot, pungent, sour, and burning, are the foods beloved by the bad, and cause pain, srief, and disease. Whatever food is stale," tasteless, and corrupted with rottenness, and even left (after a meal), or impure, is the food preferred by those of the indifferent quality. That sacrifice which is performed in accordance with divine law by those who do not look selfishly for its recompense, and who dispose their hearts to (the conviction) that it is right to sacrifice, is a good one. But know that that sacrifice, which is offered by those who regard its recompense, and also for the sake of deceiving (by a false show of piety), best of the Bharatas ! is a bad one. That which is not according to law, and with- out distribution of the food, without sacred hymns, without paying the priest," and bereft of faith, they pronounce to be an indifferent sacrifice. Honouring the gods, the Brahmans, the preceptors and the wise, purity, straightforwardness, the vow of a Brahmaehari" and harmlessness, are said to be mortification of the body. Speech which causes no excite- ment,'* which is truthful and friendly, and also diligence in muttering prayers, is called mortification of the mouth. Serenity of heart, gentle- ness, silence, self-restraint, purification of one's nature, this is called mortification of the heart. This threefold mortification, practised with extreme faith, by men who disregard the fruit of their actions, and are devoted, is pronoxmced good. That mortification which is practised for the '" Lit. ; ' fat, oleaginous.' 1' Lit. : ' wHoh has passed a ■watch,' ' which has been cooked over-night.' The night of twelve hours was divided into three ydmaa, or watches of four hours each. '* The spirit of the Brihman here peers disgracefully through the mask of the philosopher. Like the Jew of old, and the priest of modem days, and perhaps more than either, the Br&hman knew how to acquire and keep his portion of this world's goods, and his pay for the services he performed. For every officiating priest, a fee, in proportion to the style of the offering, was specially exacted, and the offerer was enjoined to prepare a meal for all the Br&hmans who were present. '3 See Chap. VI., note 19. The allusion is here to the chastity and purity under- taken by that vow. " Such as abuse, which excites anger; or indecent conversation, which excites desire. 110 "BHAGAVAD-GIlX. CHAPTEB IHE SEVENTEENTH. sake of one's own good reception, honour, and respect," and in hypocrisy also, is here'* declared bad, fickle, and uncertain. That mortification which is performed by merely wounding one's self, from an erroneous view (of the nature of mortification)" or for another's destruction,'* is called indifferent. A gift which is given in a (right) place and time," and to a (fitting) person,"" with the conviction that one ought to give alms ; and to one who cannot return it,''' is related as a good gift.'® But that which is given for the sake of a gift in return ; or again, in the expectation of its recompense, and reluctantly, is called a bad gift. That gift which is given in a wrong place and time, and to the unworthy, without the proper attentions,'^ and disdainfully, is pronounced an indifferent gift. Om, Tat, Sat,'"' this is related as the threefold designa^ '* This proves the great esteem in which the Yogi must have been held even at the period at which our author writes, since impostors could assume that character as a means of being entertained and held in honour. '8 As Schlegel very properly translates it, ' secundum rationem nostram.' " Under the impression that mortification merely consists in cutting and wounding the flesh, without any subjection of the heart and passions, and that by this means final emancipation may be reached. " Patanjali had taught that a severe and continuous system of mortification, con- joined with meditation and self-subjection, was the means of acquiring supernatural powers (vibhitij, and among these was that of cursing whomever one pleased with immediate effect. The indifferent, then, having nothing out their own selfish objects in view, undertake mortification in order to acquire this power, and thus to destroy their private enemies. Of course, however, they do not succeed, from a want of the true spirit of that exercise. ." GalanoB, following the scholiast, explains the place to be any holy place, such as Benares, and the time to be an eclipse, the eleventh day of the moon, the full moon, or the morning. We confess we are unwilling to attribute so much Br&hmanical super- stition to ovx philosopher, but can give no better explanation. Comp. 'TSjnavalkya,' I., 6. «» Pdtre is, lit., ' in a fitting dish or receptacle.' Its sense is, however, determined by shloka 22, where it again occurs in the dative plural. The scholiast would explain the locative as standing for the dative case ; but if we consider that the person to whom the gift is made is regarded as the receptacle in which it is deposited, the locative is even more grammatically correct than the dative. Under these circumstances we are surprised that Lassen, in his note, should prefer to render it by ' data justa occasione.' 'i' The Christianity of this sentiment may, perhaps, be somewhat modified, by what' is said of the time and place. '2 The whole shloka is quoted in ' Hitopadesha,' I., 15. ^ Such as embracing and washing the feet. — Galanos. > 24 These three words occur in the Vedas, and are there explained as designating BrahmS.. They are together equivalent to the mystic .|)hrase, tat twam asi, 'thou (the DEVOTfOK AS fiEGAHDS THE THERE KINDS OF FAITH. Ill tion of the Supreme Being. By him were the Brahmans, and Vedas, and sacrifices instituted of yore.^^ Therefore the rites of sacrifice, alms, and mortification, enjoined by divine law, are always commenced by theo- logians,^ by pronouncing the word Om. (With the conviction that the Deity is) tat,^ the various rites of sacrifice, mortification, and almsgiving are performed '^^ by those who desire final emancipation, without con- sideration of the reward (of their actions).'" That word sat^ is used in reference to reality and goodness. And the word sat is likewise used in (reference to the) performance of a laudable action, son of Pritha ! A quiescent state'' of sacrifice, mortification, and almsgiving, is called sat. Supreme Being) art that (whole universe),' the Om ! as that by which the Deity is invoked, corresponding to twam, and sat to asi. The sentence indicates the Deity in his relation to the universe, and marks his divinity in the Om ! his universality in the tat, and his external existence in the sat. For an explanation of Om ! see Chap. I., note 1. Tat, the neuter of the demonstrative pronoun, signifies ' all that,' all that exists, — ^the universe. Sat, the present participle of the verb m, ' to be,' marks the existence and eternity (noted by the present tense) of the Om .' and its connection with the tat. Besides the meaning of ' existent,' sat has also that of ' real,' and it denotes the real existence of the Supreme Being, contrasted with the finite, and therefore unreal existence of matter. The whole passage seems to be nothing more than a conscience offering to the outraged BrShmanism, and an attempt to authorize the established doctrines by a species of mystic philosophical terminology, having for its object the exaltation of the BrShmans, the Vedas, and the established rites. We have more than once said that the plan of our author was conciliatory, and that he wrote at a period when contempt had been profusely heaped upon the hierarchical institutions, and this is one of the passages which seem to support us in our assertion. 25 Namely, at the creation. 2* Lit., By those who speak of the Supreme Being, that is generally those who understand and impart their knowledge of the truth of things. It probably refers to the philosophers especially, but may refer generally to aU learned theologians. 2' ' That all,' viz., the whole universe, everything which exists. SB From the conviction that the Supreme Being is everything, they perform sacrifices to him in the persons of the deities according to the Established Eeligion ; but not with the selfish motives that generally prompt the adherents to the law, but only from love of the Supreme Being. '' Final emancipation not being the reward of these actions, but obtained by devotion. ^ Lit., ' existent.' Hence really existent, real ; and since what is real is good as opposed to what has only the appearance of reality, it also means good, 31 These two words are strongly contrasted. These three things, worship, self- control, and charity are not necessarily actions in the usual acceptation of the word, but may be mental conditions, during which the body is quiescent. He says that they are called good fsatj when actually performed, when the person actually offers victims to the goM, or tortures his flesh or gives alms to fitting objects ; but they are no less so 112 BHAQAVAJJ-GITA. CHAPTEE THE SETENTEBWTH, And also action,^' on account of these (rites), is denomiaated sat. What- ever sacrifice, almsgiving, or mortification is performed, and whatever action is done, -without faith,'' is called asat,^ son of Pritha ! Nor is that (of any use) to us after death or ia this life. Thus in the TJpanishads, etc. (stands) the Seventeenth Chapter, hy name 'devotion as EEGAELS TKE THEEE kinds or EAITH.' when mentally perfonned, when the devotee who prefers rest to action, offers his pure thoughts as a sacrifice, keeps his body beneath the control of his soul, or maintains a benevolent sympathy towards all beings. 32 In opposition to those mentioned in shloka 27, which are done, as we are told in shloka 25, by those who desire final emancipation, etc., and therefore with faith. 33 The opposite to sat, lit., ' not existing,' thence unreal, bad. DEVOTION' iS REGARDS EMANCIPVnON AND REXUKTIATIOX. 113 CHAPTER THE EIGHTEENTH.' AEJTIKA SPOKE. ' I wish to learn, great-armed one ! the nature of renuntiation (of actions), and of disinterestedness (in actions),' Krishna! separately, slayer of Keshin ! ' THE HOLY ONE SPOKE. 'The sages' know that the rejection of (all) actions which have a desired ohject, is Eenuntiation. The learned call the disregard of the fruit of every action, disinterestedness. Some wise men ^ say ' An action must he avoided like a crime,' and others'' say ' The action in sacrifice, almsgiving, and mortification should not he avoided.' Hear my decision in this matter as to disinterestedness, hest of the Bharatas ! For it is said, first of men ! to he of three kinds." The action in sacrifice, alms- giving, and mortification should not be avoided. It should he practised '■ In this chapter he re-establishes and certifies the principal and favourite doctrines of the Bhagavad-GIt&.. Renuntiation of action is the watchword of this system, hut not inaction, only the abandonment of all interest in the action, and of all care as to its result. The two principal kinds of action are religious action, as sacrifice, etc., and duty, or fulfilment of the obligations of the station in which one is bom. All othe kinds of action can only have some specific interested object in view, and are, therefore, to be renounced. This having been established, he proceeds through the remainder of the chapter, beginning at shloka 12, to explain the nature of action and aU connected with it. From shloka 22 he shows the influence of the three qualities on all things. * Compare Chapter V. 3 See Chapter IV., note 17. * Kapila and his disciples. * Particularly those of the Mim&ns5. School, who relied on the actions enjoined by the Vedas. 6 According to the three qualities, though, of course, that of the sattwa quality was the only true one. 114 BHAGATAD-GITA. CHAPIEE THE EIGHTEENTH. only. Sacrifice, alms, aud also mortifieation, are the purifications' of the wise. But such actions, indeed, must he practised after having rejected selfish interests and their consequences. Such, son of Pritha ! is my certain and supreme decision. Again, the renuntiation of a necessary' action is not right. The rejection of such an action is said to he from foUy and of the quality of indifference." If "" one ahandon any action, merely alleging that it is difficult, from fear of personal annoyance, he practises renuntiation under the influence of hadness, and ■would not receive the reward of renuntiation. If one perform a necessary action, convinced that it must ho done, Aijuna ! putting aside self-interest and the fruit also (of his action), that disinterestedness is deemed good. The disinterested man, filled with goodness and with contemplation, and free from douhts, is not averse to unprosperoas, nor attached to prosperous action. For it is impossible for actions" to be entirely abandoned by a mortal ; but he who is not interested in the result of actions is called disinterested. The result of actions of three kinds, unwished for, wished for, and mixed,'^ accrues after death to those who do not renounce actions but not any result to those who do renounce. Learn from me, hero ! ' The extcrnnl visible forms of the internal spiritual purification. Sacrifice was the visible form of ■worship, which is the purification of the mind ; alms^viug, of charity, which is the purification of the heart ; and mortification is the purification of the flesh. >- That is, belonging to one's duties of caste. ' Since sloth and laziness were part of indifference. '» As Schlegel remarks, the neuter relative is here ungrammatical, and we should expect the masc. ym from the m which follows. Yat, however, is found in all the MSS., and we must therefore consider it as indefinite, and supply ' if to express the hypothesis implied in the subj. tense of tyajet. The same holds good for the next snloka. " The construction is here somewhat irregular. Shakyam is the neut. of the tax. part. pass, of shak, ' to be able,' and the passive meaning contained in it must be transferred in English to the inf. ti/uktum, as is often the case with this auxiliaiy. But instead of karmdui in the ace. plural, governed by iyaktmn, we should naturally have expected karma in the uom. sing, as subject to shakyam. As this, however, is not the case, we must consider shukyam to be here employed indefinitely. '2 That is, unpleasant, pleasant, and what is partly composed of each. Those who on this earth perform actions without entire absence of interest in the consequences, receive those consequences after death, according to their merits. The wicked go to Naraka, the good to Swarga ; those who have beun neither very good nor very bad, are born again on earth at once. Those, however, who do renounce all such interest obtain final emancipation. DEVOTION AS BEGARDS BMAKCIPATION AND EENUNTIATION. 115 the following five principles of action declared in the Sankhya (doctrine), and necessary for the completion of every action— the prescribed method, the agent," and the instrument of the particular description required," the different movements '= of the particular kind for each, and Divine will" also as the fifth. These five requisites (attend) every action which a man undertakes, whether proper or improper, with his body, his voice, and his heart." This'" being thus, he who regards himself only'» as the actor, by reason ofhis mental imperfections, is wrong-minded, and does not really see aright. He whose disposition is not egotistical, and whose mind is not polluted,''" does not kill, even though he slay yonder people, nor is implicated '*' (in the bonds of action). Knowledge, the thing to be known, and the person who knows, constitute the- threefold incitement to action.® The instrument, the act, and the agent, are the threefold collection of action,'" Knowledge, and the act and the agent, are also declared in '3 The person him-self, or, in a -n-ider sense, tbe mind. " The organs of action, as hands, feet, etc., or the senses. " The action of the senses and organs. '8 If the S&nkhya here mentioned refer either to Kapila's or Ishwara Krishna's writings, this word should be translated ' circumstance, destiny,' since they do not recognize a Divine will. " Here generally for the senses, over which the heart (manm) presides, '* Mark the unwonted use of tatra, as the loc. sing, of the pronoun lad, with- out any meaning of place, hut agreeing with sati in the loc. absolute. In all proba- bility this locative originally ended in tra rather than smin, until, from its constant use to denote place, the older form came to be used independently, and the later one was substituted for it. 19 Forgetting that four other things are requisite to the performance of every action, ^^ Is not perverted and defiled by false doctrine. '^ Galanos, misled by what is said in Chapter II. 19, 20, translates, 'and is not killed,' from the root badh, ' to kill,' which, however, does not occur in the conjugational tenses. "^ The object of this life is the emancipation of the soul from material existence, which is effected by the acquirement of knowledge, that is, of true spiiitual knowledge of the real nature of all things ; and this is acquired by the connection of the soul with the universe by means of the body. The soul therefore is the parijndtri, the spectator of the universe witliin the body, whose object is to comprehend the universe and the nature of things, which is therefore the jmya, the object of knowledge, which, being the means, is jndna. '^ Action, that is the whole action of life, by which this knowledge is acquired, itself consists of three components corresponding with these. Karma, ' the thing to be done,' 116 bhagatad-gIta. chapxbe the eighteenth. three ways, according to the difference of the three quaKties. Hear these also, properly, in the enumeration of the qualities. Kaow that that knowledge, by which one perceives a single imperishable principle of existence in all things, not separate in separate objects,^ is good. But that knowledge which perceives in all things, on account of their individuality, various individual principles of existence,^ is bad. But that knowledge which attaches to one object (to be performed), as if it were everything,'^ and does not recognise the true cause (of existence),*' which is not possessed of the real truth, '^ and is mean, is called indifferent. That action which is necessary,^ free from self-interest, done without love or hatred by one who is regardless of its reward, is said to be a good action. But that action which is performed with great exertion, by one who desires some pleasant object, or, again, is egotistical, is called a bad one. One under- takes an action from folly, without regarding the consequences, the loss, the harm (it may do), and his own power (to carry it out), that is called indifferent. (One who acts) free from self-interest, without self-praise, with perseverance and resolution, and unchanged in success and failure alike, is called a good agent. (One who acts) with passion, who is desirous of the reward of his actions, covetous, cruel by nature, impure, liable to joy and grief, is proclaimed to be a bad agent. (One who acts) without ability, without discrimination,^" who is obstinate, negli- answers tojneya, 'the thing to be known' ; karmia, 'the means,' to jndna; and kartri, ' the agent,' Xo parijndtri. _ w Which recognizes the fact that all individual souls belong to the same great spirit, all individual life to the same universal vitality, aU individual bodies of matter to the same material essence, and all of these consequently to the Supreme Being. ^ Which believes things to be as they at first appear, independent and distinct. '"' Which believes the sole object of life to be the particular one which it has marked out for itself; such as the acquirement of wealth, etc. " Is ignorant that final emancipation is the reason of our existence on earth. 28 Does not recognise the existence of a Supreme Being, and the temporary natm-e of matter. "^ Such as the rites of religion and the duties of caste. '" Lit., ' common,' that is, regarding everything from a common point of view, adojpting a common mode of action, not varying with the nature of the thmg to be done. This rendering, in which I am supported by Wilkins and Galanos, is far better adapted to the context than '«*'»■,' by which Schlegel has translated it. DETOIION AS EEaAIlDS EMANCIPATION AND BENUNTIATION. 117 gent, slothful, desponding, and dilatory, is called an indifferent agent. Hear the distribution of intellect and also of perseverance into three parts, according to the qualities, explained in full and separately, despiser of wealth ! The intellect -which comprehends the nature of action and of cessation from action, and what should be done and what not, danger and security ; and understands implication by actions and liberation from it,'' is a good intellect, son of Pritha ! That intellect by which one takes a wrong view of right and wrong, of what should he done and what not, it a bad intellect, son of Pritha ! The intellect which thinks wrong to be right, enveloped in obscurity, and believing all things to be just the con- trary (of what they are), is an indifferent intellect, son of Pritha ! The perseverance by means of which one resists the actions of the heart,''' the breath,'' and the senses, with exclusive'^ devotion, is good perseverance, son of Pritha ! But the perseverance with which one cherishes, from self- interest only, duty,'* pleasure, and wealth, being desirous of their fruits, is bad perseverance, son of Pritha ! The perseverance by which one fails, with foolish mind, to shake off sleep, fear, anxiety, despondency, and also rashness, is indifferent perseverance, son of Prithd ! But now learn from me the three kinds of pleasure, chief of the Bharatas ! That in which one experiences delight, from being habituated, and arrives at an end to pain, — whatever is first like poison, but in the end similar to ambrosia,'^ is called good pleasure, sprung from the serenity of one's mind. "Whatever is at first like ambrosia, from the connection of the senses with the objects of sense, but in the end is like poison,'^ is called " Knows that when actions are undertaken from interested motives, they implicate the actor in their consequences ; and when not, he is free from such obligations. 32 The passions and desires. 33 See Chapter IV. note 33. ^ Fixed on one object, the Supreme Being only. 35 In the hope of heaven. 3« Such as the restraint of the senses and mortification, which is at first painful and difficult, but at length induces a pleasant feeling of satisfaction. 3' Since pleasure received through the senses can last but a short time, and its cessation is of course painful ; while, if too much indulged, it produces satiety, disgust, and disease. 118 BHAGATAD-UIT.J. CHAPIEE THE EIGHTEENTH. bad pleasure. And that pleasure wHch, both at first and in its conse- quences, is a cause of the bewilderment of the soul,^ arising from sleep, sloth, or carelessness, is called indifferent pleasure. There is no nature" on earth, or again among the gods in heaven,*" which is free from these three qualities, which are born of nature. The offices of Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras, harasser of tjjy foes ! are distri- buted according to the qualities which predominate in the dispositions of each. Tranquillity, continence, mortification, purity, patience ; and also rectitude, spiritual knowledge, and spiritual discernment,*' belief in the existence of sinother world,*^ comprise the office of a Brahman, sprung from his disposition. Valour, glory, strength, firmness, ability in warfare, and also keeping one's ground, liberality, and a lordly character, are the office of a Kshatriya, sprung from his disposition. Agriculture, herding of kine, and commerce, are the office of a Vaishya, sprung from his disposition. Servitude is the peculiar office of a Shudra, sprung from his disposition. Each man who is satisfied with his own office attains perfection. Now hear how he attains perfection, if satisfied with his own office. If a man worship him from whom all things have their origin, and by whom all this universe is created, by performing his own duty, he attains perfection. It is better to perform one's own duty, even ^ Since it hinders the soul from obtaining a just Tiew and knowledge of the nature of things. 39 The innate nature or character of every thing. *o This and other passages of our poem^dctermine what position the deities of mythology held in the cosmology of the earliec Aryan philosophers. Since the influence of the qualities can affect matter only directly, and soiil indirectly, through the medium of the hody, it is evident that these deities were considered, like man, as individnal souls, invested with material bodies, though necessarily of a superior kind to those of mortals. Thus all beings, from Brahmli, himself down to the lowest development of matter, is liable sooner or later to destruction, and nothing is really immortal and immaterial but the Supreme Being and the soul which emanates from him. Compare Sankhya-KSiik^ shlokas 53, 54, and 65 ; and Kapila's S&nkhya-Eravachana, Book III. ; Sfltras, 42, 43, 44, etc. 62 ' Akshara, 23 '8 46 3i Ambrosia (Amrita), 34 3* 84 "> An5.maya, 17 *' Apaishuna, 103 ' Arjuna, 4 ^^ Asad, 64 ^ Ascetic, 49 so Ashwattha (sacred flg-tree), 71 ^s 97 ^ Asterisms (lunar), 71 ^' 'Astikya, 118 « Asura, 62 " 'Asuri Sampad, 103 ' Atha (the conjunction), 83 ""^ Atheism, 104 ^ Atirichyate, 13 ^9 Atman, 43« 47=" 87* Attributes of the Supreme Being, 75 *■"' 76 "-" Atyartham, 53 2' Avasha, 60 ^^ AvatS.ras of Vishnu, 30 ^ Avyakta, 513 ' S2 i 87" Badh, 115 " B&dir^yana, 86 » B. Banners, 3 ^' Bandhu, 43 " Banyan-tree, 97 ^ Being (Supreme), 1 ' 66 ' 62 * 63 » 64 21, 21-27 82 1 88 20 89 ^i-ss 96 »9 100 3' 101 32 121 57-59 Bhagavad-GIta, 79 " 85 ' Bhash^ 17 52 Bhakshya (kind of food), 100 «« Bhavin, 2" Bhishma, 2 1= Bhojya (kind of food), 100 ^ Bhdta, 70 «' 108 * Body, 39 " Bonds of action, 14 32 Brahma (neuter), 23 '^ S6 ' 92 » Brahmfc (the deity), 23 '2 79 « Brahma's Day (Kalpa), 59 '» BrahmachSxiu, 45 " Brahmaloka, 42 3^ 48 « Brahmasdtras, 86 ' Buddhi (inteUect), 15 35 51 3 37 " C. Caste, 6 ^ 13 2' 25 2' 31 " Change of metre, 76 " Chapters (Adhy&yas), 8 *» Character (natural), 48 ^ 52 '5-i6 Chhandas, 86 » Choshjra (kind of food), 100 26 108 » City with nine gates (the body), 39 21 Conch-shells, 3 '5 Cosmology of the S^khya-system, 87 * Cow of plenty, 23 " Creation, 63 ^ D. Daivi Sampad, 103 ' Day (Brahma's), 69 >' Dead (the worship of the) 7 3^ Deities, 118 " INDEX OF BEFEKENCE TO THE NOTES. 163 Destruction of caste, 6 '* Devotee, 49 48-" Dharmaishetra, 1 ' Digestion^ 100 '^ Discus (Krishna's), 76 " Dispositions (natural), 48 ^s 52 is-ie Division of the Bhagavad-Git&, 85 ' Doah, 1 3 Draupadi, 2 ^ Duty, 119 " Duties of castes, 13" 31 " Dw¶ (age), 59 '^ Dwandwa (natural opposites), 16 ^2 54 3° Dweshya, 44 " Dmja (twice born), 2 '" Earth, 52 " Elements, 87 " Emotions (human), 83 * Emancipation (final), 19 ^2 4I ^e 60 ^^ 61 " 91 38 119 45 120 48 Eternally past (pur&na), 12 '» 58 « Ether (6.k&sha), 52 'o 62 t Evam (the adverb), 31 '^ Existence (real), 11 '^ F. Faith, 35 43 54 ^ Family, 7 ^s Ficus Keligiosa, or Fig-tree (sacred), 71"'' 973 Final Emancipation {see Emancipation.) Flags, 3 21 Food, 100 26 108 s Future state, 103 1 G. Gandharva-loka, 42 '9 48 4o Gatapr&na," 69 '» Ghee, 33 ^ Gifts, 110, " » Gods, 117 ^' Gud&.kesha, 3 '8 Gunas (the three qualities), 15 4i 25 3i ■ 53 =8 91 1 93 8-9-13 95 23-26-27 Guru, 2 6 93 80 49 H. Hanta (inceptive), 70 24 HastinS-pura, 1 3 Heart, 22 '» 51 3 58 " 71 31 87 " Hcmanta (season), 72 '' Hindli year, 72 so-si Hrishikesha, 3 '8 Hrit (the heart), 58 '4 Hyinns of the Vedas, 98 * I. Idam (pronoun), 62 ' 80 " 81 '2 Immortality, 11 " Individuality of soul, 86 6 Indra's cow, 23 '3 Indra-loka, 42 39 48 4" ludriya (senses), 22 » 87 " Indriyagochara, 87 '^ Infinite, 48 4i Insignia of Krishna, 76 " Interpolation, 85 * Janaka (the saint), 24 23 JanS.rdana (Vishnu), 6 32 Jati, 7 38 Jlvanmukti, 19 62 41 38 119 45-46 Jntaa (knowledge), 44 i" 50 2 Jn&natapas 30 8 JnSinayoga, 90 34 Jumna (the river Yamuni), 1 2 K. Kali (age), 59 " Kalpa (Brahm&'s day), 59 ^9 K^mahaituka, 104 '-'» Kapila (the phUosopher), 71 4" Karmabandha 14 32 Karmendriya, 22 « 87 " Kavi, 32" " Knowledge (spiritual), 115 22 Krishna, 76 " 96 29 101 32 121 ^'-m Krita age, 59 '9 Kritsna, 120 66 Kshara, 23 '8 Kshetra (the body), 85 3 Kshetrajna (the soul), 85 3 Kiila (family), 7 38 Kuru, 34 36 KuTukshetra, 1 2 Kusha-grass, 44 '' Kutastha, 46 3o L. Lehya (kind of food), 100 26 Life, 99 16 118 45 Linga-sharira, 60 25 Lokas (divisions of the universe), 42 39 94 !« Lunar asterisms, 71 ^^ 154 BHAQATAB-GITA. M. Mah&bhlita, 51 ' 87 " MaharsUs, 68 * Mah&tmya, 74 ^ MaMyuga, 59 i' Manas, (the heart, etc.,) 22 i° 51 ^ 58 i* 71 31 87 " Mirgashirsha (thfi month), 72 *" Material essence, 50 3 51 «-6 87" 89 28-29 Matter, 27 =' 85 i 86 ^ 88 is M&.y^ 11 15 30 3 52 " Metre (change of), 75 i' Months (Hindu), 72 si Mortification of the flesh, 30 ^ 108 5-6 Mukhe (used as a pronoun), 35 ^8 Mutti (emancipation), 19 *^ 41 3» M Religion, 107 ' Renuntiation of actions, 22 ' 113 ^ Rishi, 41 33 86 8 Sacrifice, 23 12-14 33 28-32 Sacrificial thread, 2 i" S&dharmya, 92 * Salutation, 75 12 S&man, 72 « Sampad Daivi and 'Asfiri, 103 ' S&nkhya system of philosophy, 14 3i 21 * 37 ' 90 34 Sarva, 120 ^ Sat, 65 30 111 34 Savyasachin, 78 38 Seasons (Hindti), 72 » Seat of the Muni, 44 " Self, 43 6 ' Senses (indriya), 22 9 46 20 87 " 94 " 99 21 100 24 108 118 4' Sensibility, 90 si Shakshyam (use of) 114 " Sh^inti, 19 62 Sharad (the season), 72 *' INDEX OF EEFEEENCE TO THE NOTES. 155 Sh&stra, 108 ^ Shishira (the season), 72 ^' Shriddhas, 7 '^ Shrotavya, 17 ™ Shruta, 17 ^ Shwap&ka (outcaste), 40 ^^ Siddha, 71 *» Silence, 73 ^ Smriti, 17 ^ Somaloka, 42 »' 67 ^' Soul, 43 6 ' 86 3 90 ^i 91 « 44 gg 21 Spirit, 85 1 88 i^ 97 ^ ^ 100 '-^ 101 " Spiritual sacrifices, 33 ''"'^ Spring, 72 =1 Staleness, 109 " Standards, 3 ^^ Stha (use of) 70 " Sthita (force of) 73 59 Supernatural powers, 110 '» Supreme Being (see 'Being.') Swath&.Ta, 39 23 56 ' Systems of phUosophy, 37 ^ 90 '* T. Tanm&tra, 61 ^ 87 " Tanu, 54 ^ Tapas (mortification), 30 ' Tapaswin (ascetic), 49 ™ Tat, 80 51 81 53 111 34 Tatam (meaning of) 11 " Tatra (use of) 115 >8 Thread (sacrificial), 2 i<> Titles to chapters, 8 « Transformation of "Vishnu, 77 '" Transmigration of souls, 90 ^^ 9520 103 i"* Treta age, 59 i^ Triple world, 5 " Twicebom (dwija), 2 1° Ty&ga (renuntiation), 103 ^ Types of the attributes of the Supreme Being, 75 8-i» 76 "■" U. Universal vitality, 100 ^ .101 ^s Universe, 120 54 108 5* Uta, 93 " UttamavidSm, 94 '« V. Vaishw&nara, 100 ^ Vaishya (the caste), 66 43 V&rshSs (the season), 72 5i Vasanta (the season), 72 5i Vasudeva, 62 ^ V&yu, 62 7 Vedas, 16 44 Ved&nta system, 86 » 101 " ^s Vedio hymns, 98 4 Vedya, 64 23 Vibhtiti (supernatural powers), 69 ' 110 " Vidus (emphatic), 66 32 Viguna, 26 36 Viina!na, 44 i" villain, 6 33 Vishnu, 52 23 77 30 Vitaia, 35 38 Vitality (universal), 100 23 101 29 Vyakta (the developed principle), 51 3 82 1 87 " Vy^a (the) 69 " Vyddha, 2 4 "W. Water, 51 « "Watch (Yama), 109 "_ "Woman's place in India, 66 42 "Worlds, 6 31 42 39 48 4o (the next), 36 45 48 39 Worship, 82 1 (of the dead), 7 36 Y. Yajna (sacrifice), 64 20 Yaksha-loka, 42 39 Y6.ma (a watch), 109 " Yamun^ (the river Jumna), 1 2 Yathadarsha, 27 38 Ye (relat. pronoun), 76 22 Year (Hindti), 72 so 5i Yoga, 14 31 16 40 20 64 21 5 26 33 Yogakshema, 16 43 Yogeshwara, 26 33 Yuga;30 6 5919 STEPHEN AUSTIN, PEIKTEK, HEETFOED.