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THE BHAGAVAD
MAJU, HOWRAH
The Sacred Books of the East Described as amined.
GITA.
WITH
AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION, EXPLANATORY NOTES, AND
AN EXAMINATION OF ITS DOCTRINES.
COMPILED FROM VARIOUS WRITERS.
It is shown that the poem, while it contains some noble sentiments, teaches
Polytheism and Pantheism ; that God and the soul are one ; that Rajas and
Tamas proceed from God as well as Sattwa; that Casto lo a divine institution ;
while its Yoga doctrine is proved to be a delusion.'
SECOND EDITION, 3,000, TOTAL COPIBS, 6,000.
Estd. 1902.
PUBLIC
LIJIMA
MAJO
THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETY FOR INDIA :
LONDON AND MADRAS.
1899

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·PREFACE. The Bhagavad Gitá, 'The Divine Song,' or 'The Song of the Adorable One,' is allowed to represent the loftiest flight of Hindu philosophy. It consists of a supposed dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna. Its great aim is to harmonise the doctrines of the Yoga, the Sánkhya and the Vedanta, combining with them the doctrine of faith (bhakti) in Krishna, and of stern devotion to caste duties. The author also saw " that the pure abstraction of a religious devotee was not possible for all men, and that it was opposed to the just claims of family and caste. He contended still that mental devotion (buddhi yoga) was the best, but that devotion by work (karma yoga) might also lead to the great blessing of nirvana. But all work must be done without 'attachment (sanga), simply as a duty, and especially without any desire for reward (phala, fruit)..But though works are so far admitted into his system, the highest state below is that of perfect repose, with constancy in meditating on the Supreme; and his highest type of man is the recluse (muni), taking up a solitary resting place far from the haunts of men, renouncing all the blessings of this world, and even hope itself, holding the mind in check until thought ceases, and thus waiting in pious abstraction for the happy hour when he will be absorbed into the infinite Brahma."'* The author, although in some respects in advance of his age, was a Vaishnava Brahman, who held the usual polytheistic and pantheistic ideas. To gain authority, his opinions were attributed to Krishna, and the poem was foisted in as part of the Mahabharata. ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS. Of these there have been several. The first was made in 1785, by Sir Charles Wilkins, to which was prefixed an Introduction by Warren Hastings. This forms the basis of the translation in this volume, but it has been carefully revised by comparing it with more recent translations. It has been taken from an edition edited by the Rev. J. Garrett in 1846, containing the Sanskrit, Canarese, and English in parallel columns, for a copy of which the compiler is indebted to Colonel Jacob, translator of the Vedanta Sára. * Introduction to the Translation by Davies, pp. 10, 11.

·iv. PREFACE. 1 The next'o, anslation was made by Mr. J.C. Thompson in 1855, and published, y Trübner. Mr. Kasinath Trimbak Telang, of Bombay, published an English translation in 1875. This, probably revised, was adopted in 1887 by Max Müller in the "Sacred Books of the East." The author, in the Preface, gives the following account of the general principles followed in the translation: "My aim has been to make that translation as close and literal a render. ing as possible of the Gità, as interpreted by the commentators Sankarakarya, Sridharasvamin, and Madhusådana Sarasvati. Reference has also been frequently made to the commentary of Råmânugakarya and also to that of Nilakantha.": (p. 35.) There are numerous notes and two useful indexes. Translations of the Sanatsugattya and Anugità are appended. The volume is published by the Clarendon Press, price 108. 6d. It is strongly recommended to the student. In 1882, a translation was published by the Rev. John Davies in Trübner's “ Oriental Series.' The translation is excellent, and there are numerous valuable notes. It is now issued by Kegan Paal & Co., price 68. About 1888, a translation, with commentary by J. M. Chatterji, was published by Trübner. In 1895 a translation, professedly by Mrs. Besant, was published by the Theosophical Publishing Society, London, price 6d. cheap edition. She acknowledges that her knowledge of Banskrit is imperfect; but her translation has passed through the hands of Indian gentlemen whose names are given. Many of the technical terms are retained. Some of the renderings are happily expressed. During the same year a translation, price 4 annas, o edited and published by: Manmatha Nath Dutt, M.A.," appeared in Calcutta. There is a very free poetical translation by Sir Edwin Arnold, entitled " The Song Celestial.” The translations differ considerably with regard to particular verses. Indian commentators belonging to the Dwaita, Adwaita, and Visishtadwaita Sects, try to make the poem express their own views. The main features of the work, however, are given, more or less correctly, in all of them.

·CONTENTS. Page 1 INTRODUOTION ... ... ... ... THE MAHABHARATA THE NARRATIVE PRIOR TO THE BHAGAVAD GITA SUMMARY OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA 1 3 5 ... THE BHAGAVAD GITA 7 ... .. .. ... .. III. ... ... ... 7 10 15 18 21 24 27 29 ... ... .. . .. .. . 1. THE GRIEF OF. ARJUNA ... II. THE SANKHYA-YOGA DOCTRINE THE YOGA OF ACTION IV: TAB Yoga OF KNOWLEDGE v, YOGA BY RENOUNCING WORKS VI. YOGA BY SELF-RESTRAINT VII. YOGA THROUGH SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT VIII.. TAE YOGA OF THE SUPREME ETERNAL BRAAMA IX. YOGA THROUGH THE ROYAL KNOWLEDGE AND THE ROYAL MYSTERY X. YOGA BY THE DIVINE PERFECTIONS XI. THE MANIFESTATION OF THE UNIVERSAL FORM THE YOGA OF WORSHIP XIII. YOGA OF THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE KSHETRA AND THE KSHETRAJNA ... XIV. YOGA BY SEPARATION FROM THE THREE GUNAS XV. YOGA IN ATTAINING PURUSHOTTAMA XVI. THE YOGA OF DIVISION BETWEEN GODS AND ASURAS XVII. YOGA BY THE THREEFOLD KINDS OF FAITH XVIII. THE YOGA OF LIBERATION BY RENUNCIATION . 31 34 37 .. ... XII. 41 ... ... .. 42 45 46 48 49 51 ... ... THE BHAGAVAD GITA EXAMINED. 56 : : ... INTRODUOTION 1. ARJUNA MORE HUMANE THAN KRISHNA 2. KRISHNA'S REASONING WITH ARJUNA 3. THE TRUTH OF POLYTHEISM ACKNOWLEDGED.. 4. PANTHEISM TAUGAT 57 57 58 60 ... .. ... . ...

·vi CONTENTS. ... . . ... Page 62 64 66 66 67 - 70 73 75 ... ... . 5. KRISHNA'S INCARNATIONS 6. CREATION 7. THE THREE GUNAS PROCEED FROM KRISHNA 8. KRISHNA ALIKE TO ALL, WITH ITS CONTRADICTION 9. The SOUL 10. TRANSMIGRATION 11. MUKTI, THE GREAT AIM OF THE BHagavad Gita 12. ENCOURAGEMENT OF YOGA EXERCISES 13. Actions PERFORMED WITHOUT ATTACHMENT (SANGA) DO NOT “DEFILE" 14. CASTE ALLEGED TO BE A DIVINE INSTITUTION 15. THE BENEFIT OF SHRADDHAS ... 16. THE VALUE OF BHAKTI 17. KNOWLEDGE REDUCES SIN TO ASHES 18. DYING IN THE LIGHT AND DARK FORTNIGHTS ... ... .. ... ... ... ... ... 79 81 82 84 84 84 ... ... PROOFS THAT THE BHAGAVAD GITA IS NOT A DIVINE REVELATION 85 THE TRUE INCARNATION 87 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS FOR INDIAN READERS 91 ·YUDLIU LIBLARDA MAJU Estd 1902. JU, HOWRAH. THE BHAGAVAD GITA. INTRODUCTION, THE MAHABHARATA. The BHAGAVAD GITA; 'the Divine Song,' or 'The Song of the Adorable One,' is an episode in the sixth book, or Bhishma Parva, of the Mahabharata, "The great (war of the) Bháratas,' probably the longest epic poem in the world. It is divided into 18 Parvas or books, and contains about 220,000 lines. The reputed author is Krishna Dwaipayana (Island-born), the Vyása, or arranger, of the Vedas. The leading subject is the great war between the Kurus and Pandavas for the possession of the kingdom whose capital was Hastinapura (elephant city). It is called the war of the " Bháratas, from Bharata, à prince of the lunar race from whom the contending parties were descended. A supplementary Parva, the Harivansa, details at great length the genealogy, birth, and life of Krishna. The Work of different Authors.-Dowson says, “Different poets of different ages have added to it, and embellished it by the powers of their imagination. Great additions have been made in later times. The Bhagavad Gita and the episode of Nala, with some others, are the productions of later writers; the Harivansa, which affects to be a part of the Mahabharata, is of still later date, and besides these it cannot be doubted that numerous interpolations, from single verses to long passages, have been made to uphold and further the religious opinions of sects and individuals. To use the words of Max Müller, The epic character of the story has throughout been changed and almost obliterated by the didactic tendencies of the latest editors, who were clearly Brahmans brought up in the strict school of the laws of Manu.'"* The poem itself mentions that when it was recited by Vaisampáyana as he had been taught it by Vyása, it contained only 24,000 verses. The Calcutta edition now contains 91,011 verses, exclusive of the Harivansa. This shows how numerous have been the additions, The date of the Mahábhárata is uncertain. Some portions of it may be as old as 400 B. C. ; the larger portion is probably as. old as 200 B. C. * Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology, p. 189.

·2 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. Age and Authorship of the Bhagavad Gita.--Mr. Telang, in the Introduction to his Translation of the Bhagavad Gita in "The Sacred Books of the East,” makes the following admissions :- “It has become quite a literary common place, that-to borrow the words of Professor Max Müller in one of his recent lectures--history, in the ordinary sense of the word, is almost unknown in Indian literature... This inuch is certain, that the student of the Bhagavad Gitá must, for the present, go without that .reliable historical information touching the author of the work, the time at which it was composed, and even the place it occupies in literature, which one naturally desires, when entering upon the study of any work... There is no exaggeration in saying, that it is almost impossible to lay down even a single proposition respecting any important matter connected with the Bhagavad Gitá, about which something like a consensus of opinion uinong persons qualified to judge can be said to exist."' p. 1. Mr. Telang, to form approximate conclusions as to the age of the poem, considers it under the following heads :- 1. The general character of the Gítá with reference to its mode of handling its subject. 2. Its style and language. 3. The nature of the versification. 4. The attitude towards the Vedas, caste, &c. The result of his investigation is that he groups the prem with the Upanishads, placing it before the systematised philosophy of later times. In a note he says :- “ In the edition of the Gítá published in Bombay in Saka 1782, there is & stanza which says that the Upanishuds are the cows, Krishna the milkman, Arjuna the calf, and the milk is the nectar-like Gítá, which indicates tho traditional view of the Gítáma view in consonance with that which we have been led to by the facts and arguments contained in this Introduction." p. 34. Mr. Telang considers that the Gítá was written not later than the 2nd century before Christ. On the other hand some eminent Orientalists place it as late as the second century after the Christian era. It is claimed that there are references to the Yavanas, whose kingdom was established 160 B. C., and to the Andhra king of Magadha, who succeeded the Kanwas, B. C. 23, and continued to bear rule for 256 years. Metre.-" The metre," says Davies, used for the most part in the Bhagavad Gítá is the common heroic form called Sloka or Anushtub, consisting of two lines of sixteen syllables each, with a cæsura at the end of the eighth foot. Its forn is thiseach line being the same. In the more lyrical parts another form is used, called Trishtubh, containing eleven syllables in each half line or pádu, A common variety is of the following form- ·INTRODUCTION. 8 • the sons, A cæsura being generally found at the fifth syllable.'* TAE NARRATIVE PRIOR TO THE BHAGAVAD GITA. Krishna Dwaipayana Vyása is not only supposed to be the author of the Mahábharata, but the source from which the chief actors sprung. He was a rishi, living in the jungle, terrible in appearance. He was asked to raise up children to his half-brother by his two widows. The elder widow was so frightened that she shut her eyes when he came to her. She had a blind son who was named Dhritarashtra. The younger widow kept her eyes open, but she turned so pale that her son was called Pándu, pale. As Dhritarashtra was blind, Pándu came to the throne, but an account of a curse, he retired to the forest, and Dhritarashtra became king. Dhritarashtra's wife asked as a boon from Vyása a hundred After two years she gave birth to a lump of flesh, which Vyása divided into 101 parts, each about the size of the thumb. These were put into pots of ghi, and opened after two years. Duryodhand was the first born. As soon as he was born he began to brạy like an ass, which led all the asses and jackals that heard him to imitate him. Afterwards 99 other sons were born and a daughter.f. The sons of Dhritarashtra, from their ancestor Kuru, were known as the Kurus or Kauravas. Pándu had two wives, Kuntſ and Madri, but he did not consort with them. His wives had 5 sons, attributed to different gods, but Pandu acknowledged them, and they were called Pandavas. Yudhishthira (firm in fight), the eldest was said to be the son of Dharma, the judge of the dead, and was considered a pattern of justice. Bhima (the terrible), the second, was son of Váyu, the god of the wind, and was noted for his strength. Arjuna (the bright), the third, was the son of Indra; and was noted for his bravery and high-minded- Nakula and Sahadeva, the fourth and fifth sons, were the children of the Aswins. Dhritarashtra educated the five Pandavas with his own sons, The teacher was a Brahman, named Drona, who found in the Pándavas apt pupils. The sons of Dhritarashtra becoming jealous of the Pandavas when their father named Yudhishthira as the heirapparent, he had to send them away lest they should he murdered by his sons. At a Swayamvara the Pandavas won the princess Draupadi. They told Kuntí that they had made a great acquisition, and she unwittingly directed them to share it among them; 80 Draupadi became the wife of the five sons. ness. * Introduction to Translation, p. 16. + Seo Translation of the Mahabharata, Adi Parva, pp. 338, 339.

·THE BHAGAVAD GITA. Dhritarashtra then divided his kingdom, his sons receiving Hastinapura and the Pandavas, Indraprashta, on the Yamuna, close to the modern Delhi. Yudhishthira having conquered many countries, wished to perform the Rajasuya sacrifice, thus claiming to be a king over kings. The Kurus then prevailed upon Yudhishthira to gamble, when he lost his wealth, his palace, his kingdom, his brothers, himself, and, last of all, his wife, who was ignominiously treated. Through Dhritarashtra, Yudhishthira's dominions were restored, but he was once more tempted to play on condition that if he lost, he and his brothers should pass twelve years in the forest, and remain incognito during the thirteenth year. In the 13th year they entered the service of king Viráta in disguise. Arjuna, declaring himself a eunuch, put on a woman's dress, and said he would tell the king, if asked, that " he lived as a waiting maid of Draupadi in Yudhishthira's palace.";* The time of exile having expired, the princes made themselves known to Viráta, who agreed to help them to recover their kingdom. The preparations for war on both sides are described in the fifth Book, called Udyoga Parvan, 'Effort Book.' An assembly of the princes was called by Viráta, at which the Pandavas, Krishna and Balaráma were present. Krishna counselled negotiation; but the feeling was in favour of war, and both sides sought allies. Duryodhana and Arjuna came both to Dwaraka to seek the help of Krishna. They reached the door of Krishna's apartment at the same moment when he was asleep. Duryodhana entered first, and took up his station at Krishna's head. Arjuna followed behind, and stood at Krishna's feet. On waking, Krishna's eyes first fell on Arjuna. Duryodhana requested Krishna's aid in battle as he had first entered the room. Krishna answered that as he had seen Arjuna first, he should give him the choice of two things. On the one side he placed himself, but without fighting, and on the other his army of a hundred million warriors, named Narayans. Arjuna chose Krishna, and Duryodhana joyfully accepted the army. Krishna wondered that Arjuna had chosen him, since he was pledged not to fight. Arjuna replied that he hoped Krishna would act as his charioteer which he consented to do. Before war was commenced, an ambassador was sent to the Kurus, asking them to give back to the Pandavas their family inheritance. When this failed, Krishna himself went, but was equally unsuccessful. On his return to the Pandavas, he informed Yudhishthira that the army of the Kurus was assembling at Kurukshetra, a vast plain north-west of Delhi. The war was ushered in by strange portents. The moon Soe Translation of Viráta Parvan, pp. 4, 5.

·INTRODUCTION. 5 looked like fire, asses were born from cows, horses were born with horns and three legs; women gave birth to monstezs. Before the war commenced, Vyása offered to Dhritarashtra to restore his'sight that he might see the fight with his own eyes; but on Dhritarashtra's expressing his unwillingness, one Sanjaya was deputed to relate to him what happened. SUMMARY OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA. The great aim of the book is to harmonize the doctrines of the Yoga, the Sankhya, and the Vedanta, combining with them the doctrine of faith (bhaktı) in Krishna, and of stern devotion to caste duties (dharma). The poem is divided into three sections, each containing six chapters, the philosophical teaching in each being somewhat distinct. - The number of the verses is 700. The first section dwells chiefly on the benefits of the Yoga system, pointing out, however, that the asceticism and self-mortiðication of Yoga ought to be joined with action and the performance of caste duties, and winding up with a declaration that the grand aim of all self-suppression is to attain that state which enables a man to annihilate his own individuality and sec God in everything and everything in God. Arjuna is exhorted, as a member of the soldier-caste, to dismiss all doubt about the propriety of fighting and killing his relatives, by an argument drawn from the eternal existence of the soul. In the 2nd and 6th chapters the duty of Yoga, or 'intense concentration of the mind on one subject' (viz., the Supreme Being, here identified with Krishna), is enjoined, till at last the great end of freedom from all thought, perfect calm, and absorption in the Deity is obtained. In the second division the pantheistic doctrines of the Vedanta are more directly inculcated than in the other sections. Krishna here, in the plainest language, claims adoration as one with the great universal Spirit, pervading and constituting the universe. He reveals himself to Arjuna as possessed of countless faces, countless mouths, countless eyes, and blazing like a thousand suns. The third division of the poem, comprising the six last chapters, aims particularly at interweaving Sánkhya doctrines with the Vedanta, though this is done more or less throughout the work. It accepts the doctrine of a supreme presiding Spirit (called Param Brahma or Adhyatman, xiii. 12, viii. 1), as the first source of the universe, but asserts the eternal existence of Prakriti' and Purusha--that is, of an original eternal element and soul-both emanating from the Supreme Being (then regarded as Fara Prakrits, supreme Prakriti). It maintains the individụality and ·6 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. personality of souls, and affirms that the body (kshetra) and all the world of sense is, evolved out of Prakriti by the regular Sinkhya process, through Buddhi, Ahankára, the five subtile elements, the five grosser elements, and the eleven organs, including inind.* ' : : Abridged from Indian Wisdom, by Sir M. Monier-Williams, pp. 127-140.

·THE BHAGAVAD GITA, OR THE DIVINE SONG. LECTURE I. “THE GRIEF OF ARJUNA.” DHRITARASHTRA said : 1 Tell me, O Sanjaya, what the people of my own party, and those of the Pandavas, who are assembled at Kurukshetra resolved for war, have been doing. SANJAYA replied : 2 Duryodhana having seen the army of the Pandavas drawn up for battle, went to his preceptor,' and addressed him in the following words: 9“ Behold! O master," said he, “the mighty army of the sons of Pándu drawn forth by thy pupil,” the experienced son of Drupada. In it are heroes, such as Bhina and Arjuna : there is Yuyudhána,' and Viráta, and Drupada, and 5 Drishtaketu, and Chekitána, and the valiant prince of Kási, and Purujit, and Kunti. bhoja, and Saivya, a mighty chief, and 6 Yudhámanyu, the bold, and the daring Uttamanjas; the son of Subadrá,' and the sons of Draupadi,o all of great cars." T“Be acquainted also with the names of those of our party, 1 Drona, the son of Bharadvaja. He was afterwards slain by Drishtadyumna. He was Duryodhana's teacher in the art of war. 3 Dhrishtadyumna, king of the Pánchálas, and eldest son of Drupada. He was also called Satyaki from his father Satyaka. King of the Matsyas, whose territory formed part of the sacred plain. 3 Subadra was the sister of Krishna. • Draupadí, daughter of Drupada, was married to the five sons of Pandu, and had five sons. ..A "master of a great car" denoted a warrior who could fight single-handed a thousand archers.

·8 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. } who are the most distinguished. I will mention a few of those who are amongst my generals, by way of example. There is thyself, Bhishma and Karna and Kripa, conquering in battle; and Aswatthamán' and Vikarna, and the son of Somadatta, 9with others in vast numbers who for my service have forsaken the love of life. They are all of them practised in the use of arms, and experienced in every mode of fight. 10 Our innumerable forces are commanded by Bhishma, and the inconsiderable army of our foes is led by Bhima. 11 Let all the generals, according to their respective divisions, stand in their posts, and one and all resolve to support Bhishma." 12 The ancient chief and brother of the grandsire of the Kurus, then, shouting with a voice like a roaring lion, blew his shell to raise the spirits of the Kuru chief; 13 and instantly innumerable shells, and other warlike instruments, were struck up on all sides, so that the clangour was excessive. 14 At this time Madhavaº and Arjuna were standing in a splendid chariot, drawn by white horses. They also sounded their shells, which were of celestial form : 15 the name of the one which was blown by Hrishikesha,' was Panchajanya and that of Dhananjaya' was called Devadatta.10 16 Bhima, of dreadful deeds, blew his capacious shell Paundra, and Yudhishtira,'' the royal son of Kunti, sounded Anantavijaya.'' Nakula and Sahadeva 18 blew their shells also; the one called Sughosha,'* the other Manipushpaka.15 17 The prince of Kási of the mighty bow, Sakandin, Drishtadyumna, Viráta, Sátyaki of invincible arm. 18 Drupada and the sons of his royal daughter, Krishna, with the son of Subhadra, and all the other chiefs and nobles, blow also their respective shells. 19 So that their shrill-sounding voices pierced the hearts of the Kurus, and re-echoed with a dreadful noise from heaven to earth. 20 In the meantime Arjuna, he whose ensign is an ape, 16 perceiving that the sons of Dhritarashtra stood ready to begin the fight, and that the weapons began to fly abroad, having taken up his bow, 21 [addressed Krishna in the following words :] 1 Duryodhana. a Bhíshma, the commander-in-chief of the army of Duryodhana, great uncle to the sons of Pándu, was slain on the tenth day of the battle by Arjuna. * Karna was said to be the son of Surya and Kuntí. He was king of the Anga country. • Kripa, king of the Pánchálas, was a brother of Drona's wife. $ Asvatháman was a son of Drona. . Krishna was called Madhava, because he slew a demon called Madhu. 7 A name of Krishna, the meaning of which is disputed. Hindu commentators' give, " lord of the senses of perception." 8A conch said to have been formed of the bones of the demon Panobajana, "The conqueror of wealth," & Dame often given to Arjuna, 10 God-given, because the gift of his father Tödra. 11 Yudhishtira was the eldest of the three sons of Kunti. 136 Endless victory." 13 Nakula and Sabadeva were the twin sons of Madrí, the second wife of Pandu. 14" Honey-tone." 18" Jewel-blossom." 18 Arjuna's standard had an ape; hence he was called Kapadhwaja (ape-bannered).

·LECTURE I. 9 29 3 " I pray thee, 0 Achyuta,' cause my chariot to be driven and placed between the two armies, 22 that I may bebold who are the men that stand ready, anxious to commence the bloody fight; and with whom it is that I am to fight; 28 and who they are that are here assembled to support the vindictive son of Dritarashtra in the battle." SANJAYA said: 24 Krishna, being thus addressed by Gudakesa, drove the chariot; and, having caused it to halt in the midst of the space in front of the two armies, 25 bade Arjuna cast his eyes towards the ranks of the Kurus, and behold where stood the aged Bhisma, and Drona, with all the chief nobles of their party. 26 He looked at both the armies, and beheld, on either side, none but grandsires, uncles, cousins, tutors, sons, and brothers, near relations or bosom friends. 27 Then when he had gazed for a while and beheld such friends as these prepared for the fight, he was overcome by deepest pity, and uttered his sorrow in the following words : 28 “Having beheld, O Krishna ! my kindred thus standing anxious for the fight, my limbs fail me, my mouth is dried up, the hair standeth on end upon my body, and all my frame trembleth ! 30 Even Gándíva, my bow, falleth from my hand, and my skin burneth. I am not able to stand; for iny mind, as it were, turneth round. 31 Also, O Keshava I behold inauspicious omenson all sides. When I shall have destroyed my kindred, shall I longer look for happiness? 32 I wish not for victory, Krishna, for dominion, or pleasure ; for what is dominion, and the enjoyment of life, or even life itself, 33 when those, for whom dominion, pleasure, and enjoyment were to be coveted, have abandoned life and fortune, and stand here in the field ready for the battle ? 34 Preceptors, fathers, sons as well as grandfathers, maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothersin-law, as also (other) relatives ! 35 These I do not wish to kill though they kill.(me); not even for the sovereignty of the three worlds, how much less then for this earth! 36 Having killed the sons of Dritarashtra, what pleasure, O destroyer of Madhu, can we enjoy? Should we destroy these felons we shall only incur sin. 37 It therefore behoveth us not to kill such near relations as these. How, O Krishna, can we be happy after killing our own relatives ? 38 What if they, whose minds are depraved by the lust of power, see no sin in the extirpation of their race, no crime in the murder of their friends, 39 is that a reason why we should not resolve to turn away from such a crime, we who abhor the sin of extirpating the kindred of our blood ? 40 In the destruction of a family, the eternal rites of families are destroyed. By the destruction of 1 1 The name means immortal, changeless. The name means “lord of sleep," not indolent. 3Gándiva was the name of the bow which Arjuna received from his father Indra. It was supposed to possess miraculous powers. 2 ·10 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. rites, the tribe becometh impious. 41 From the influence of impiety the females of a family grow vicious; and from women that are become vicious the confusion of castes arises. .49 This confusion provideth hell both for those which are slain and those which survive ; and their forefathers, being deprived of pindas? and water, fall (from heaven). 43 By the crimes of those who murder their own relations, sore cause of contamination and birth of caste-confusion, the family virtue, and the virtue of a whole tribe is for ever done away ; 44 and we have been told, O Krishna, that the habitation of those mortals whose generation hath lost its virtue, shall be in hell. 45 Woe is me! what a great crime are we prepared to commit i Alas ! that for the lust of the enjoyments of dominion we stand here ready to murder the kindred of our own blood! 46. I would rather patiently suffer that the sons of Dritarashtra with their weapons in their hands, should come upon me, and, unopposed, kill me unarmed in the field.” SANJAYA. 47 Having spoken thus, Arjuna sat down in his chariot; and having put away bis bow and arrows, his heart was overwhelmed with grief. .- LECTURE II. "THE SANKHYA-YOGA DOCTRINE."* SANJAYA. 1 Krishna beholding him thus overcome with pity, his eyes full of tears, and his heart oppressed with deep affliction, thus spoke: KRISHNA. 2 Whence, 0 Arjuna, cometh unto thee, thus standing in the field of battle, this unworthy weakness, excluding from heaven, and causing disgrace? 3 Yield not thus to unmanliness, for it ill becometh one like thee. Cast off this base faint-heartedness, and stand up, O conqueror of foes."'t 1 Shraddhas would be neglected, no pindas would be offered.. * Here the poem begins as an exposition of philosophy. It may be divided into three parts, each containing six Chapters. The first treats mainly of the Yoga system; the second of the Supreme Being; the third of the Sankhya system. The author, however, regards all these subjects from his own standpoint as an independent thinker, and his system is therefore eclectic."-Davies. * Warriors dying bravely in battle were supposed to go to the heaven of Indra, while cowards were shut out.

·LECTURE II. 11 ARJUNA. How, 0 Krishna, shall I resolve to fight with my arrows in the field against such as Bhishma and Drona, who, of all men, are most worthy of my respect? 5I would rather beg my bread about the world, than be the murderer of my preceptors, to whom such reverence is due. Should I destroy.such friends as these, I should partake of possessions, wealth, and pleasures, polluted with their blood. 6 We know not whether it would be better that we should defeat them, or they us ; for those, whom having killed, I should not wish to live, are even the sons and people of Dritarashtra who are here drawn up before us. My compassionate nature is overcome by the dread of sin. Tell me truly what may be best for me to do. I am thy disciple, wherefore instruct me in my duty, who am under thy tuition ; for my understanding is confounded by the dictates of my duty: 8 And I see nothing that may assuage the grief which drieth up my faculties, although I were to obtain a kingdom without a rival upon earth, or dominion over the gods.” SANJAYA. 9 Arjuna having thus spoken to Krishna, and declared that he would not fight, was silent. 10 Krishna, smiling, addressed the afflicted prince, standing in the midst of the two armies, in the following words: KRISHNA 11 Thou grievest for those who are unworthy to be lamented, but thou speakest words of wisdom. The wise neither grieve for the dead nor for the living. 12 I myself never was not, nor thou, nor all the princes of the earth; nor shall we ever hereafter cease to be. 13 As the soul in this body findeth infancy, youth, and old age; so, in some body, will it find the like. One who is confirmed in this belief, is not disturbed by any thing that may come to pass. 14 The contacts of the senses: give heat and cold, pleasure and pain; which come and go, and are transient and inconstant. Bear them with patience, O son of Bhárata ; 15 for the wise man, whom these disturb not, and to whom pain and pleasure are the same, is fitted for immortality.* 16 A thing upreal hath no existence, whilst that which is real is a stranger to non-entity. By 1 The first doctrine ght is the immortality of the soul; it never had a beginning and nover will have an end. * The second dootrino taught is the transmigration of the soul to different bodies. 8 The contacts of the soul with matter by means of the organs of sense. The soul absorbed in meditation on the Supreme is indifferent to earthly things. The feelings of pain, &o., are unreal; the soul is real.

·12 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. those who look into the principles of things, the design of each is seen.. 17 Learn that he' by whom all things were formed is incorruptible, and that no one is able to effect the destruction of this thing which is imperishable. 18 These bodies, which envelop the souls which inhabit them, which are eternal, incorruptible, and surpassing all conception, are declared to be perishable; wherefore, 0 Arjuna, resolve to fight. 19 The man who believeth that it is the soul which killeth, and he who thinketh that the soul may be destroyed, are both alike đeceived; for it neither killeth, nor is it killed. 20 It is not bom, nor does it ever die, nor having existed before, does exist no more ; it is ancient, constant, and eternal, and is not to be destroyed in this its mortal frame. 21 How can the man, who believeth that this thing is incorruptible, eternal, inexhaustible, and without birth, think that he can either kill or cause it to be killed ? As a man throweth away old garments, and putteth on new, even so the soul, having quitted its old mortal frames, entereth into others which are new. 23 The weapon divideth it not, the fire burneth it not, the water corrupteth it not, the wind drieth it not'; 24 It is indivisible, inconsumable, incorruptible, and is not to be dried away: it is everlasting; all-pervading, stable, immovable, and eternal: 25 it is invisible, inconceivable, and unalterable; therefore, believing it to be thus, thou shouldst not grieve: 26 But whether thou believest it of eternal birth and duration, or that it dieth with the body, still thou hast no cause to lament it. 27.Death is certain to one that is born, and to one that dieth birth is certain. Wherefore it doth not behove thee to grieve about that which is inevitable. 28 The former state of beings is unknown ; the middle state is evident, and their future state is not to be discovered. Why then shouldst thou trouble thyself about such things as these ? 29 Some regard the soul as a wonder, whilst some speak and others hear of it with astonishment; but no one knoweth it, although he may have heard it described. 30 This spirit being never to be destroyed in the mortal frame which it inhabiteth, it is unworthy for thee to be troubled for all these mortals. 31 Regarding, too, thy proper duty, thou oughtest not to falter, for there is nothing better for a Kshatriya than a lawful battle. 32 Happy are the Kshatriyas who find such a battle freely offered to them as an open door to heaven. 88 But, if thou wilt not perform the duty of thy calling, and fight out the field, thou wilt abandon thy duty and thy honor, and be guilty of sin. 84 Then men will proclaim thiy eternal disgrace, and to & well-born man disgrace is worse than death. 35 The generals of the armies will think that thy retirement from the field arose from 1 He (That) the Supreme Brahma.

·LECTURE II. 13 fear, and thou wilt become despicable, oven amongst those by whom thou wert.wont to be respected. 86 Thy enervies will speak of thee in words which are unworthy to be spoken, and depreciate thy courage and abilities: what can be more dreadful than this! 87. If thou art slain thou wilt obtain heaven; if thou art victorious thou wilt enjoy a world for thy reward ; wherefore, son of Kuntí, arise and be determined for the battle. 98 Make pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, the same, and then prepare for battle ; thus thou shalt not incur sin. 82 The doctrine bere declared to you is according to the Sánkhya (system); hear now the Yoga (teaching). Possessed of this knowledge, thou wilt cast off the bonds of action.' 40 In this there is no waste of effort, nor any disappointment. Even a little of it delivereth one from great fear. 41 For those who enter on this påth, 0 son of Kuru, there is but one state of mind; but manybranched and endless are the doctrines of the inconstant. 42 Flowery speech is uttered by the unwise, who delight in the words of the Vedas,' O son of Prithá! saying, “There is nothing but this." 48 Whose souls are full of desires, whose goal is heaven, offering birth as the fruit of works, and prescribing many varied ceremonies for the attainment of pleasure and power. 44 The state of mind consisting in steady contemplation does not belong to those who are devoted to pleasures and power. 45 The Vedas deal with the three gunas ;be thou free from the three gunas,* O Arjuna : be free from the pairs of opposites,' ever fixed on truth : without anxious care, and self-possessed. 46 The knowing Brahman findeth as many uses in the whole Vedas collectively, as in a reservoir full flowing with water. * 47 Let the motive be in the deed and not in the fruit. Be not one whose motive for action is the hope of reward. Let not thy life be spent in inaction. 48 Steadfast in devotion, perform thy duty, abandon all thought of the consequence, and make the event equal, whether it terminate in good or evil; for such an equality is called yoga. 49 For work is far inferior to the devotion of the mind. Seek an asylum, then, in the mind; for the miserable and unhappy 8 1" Every action that is wrought for some purpose connected with self, though it be the hope of gaining heaven, is followed by the necessary result of a good or evil stato in another body. This result is called the 'bond of action,' or that to which the pork pecessarily binds the door. All works are exposed to the danger of such loss and gain. The aim of the true Yogi is to rise above all such changes and to gain by a mystio union (Ycgu) with the Supreme Brahma in devout meditation an absorption into his essence."-Davies. Attantion to Vedio ceremonies soouredonly happiness for a time in one of the heavens ; the reward of Yoga Was absorption into the Supreme Brahma. Sattva, purity, Rajas, activity or passion; Tamas, apathy or darkness. Arjuna should be free from all the influences of matter, whether good or evil. Davies. • Heat and cold, pleasure and pain, &o. The Vedas had a use, but it was far inferior to that of Yoga.

·14 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. & muni. are so on account of the fruit of things....50 Men who are endued with true wisdom cast off both good or evil deeds. Therefore apply thyself to yogo; yoga is wisdom in action. 61 Wise men, who have abandoned all thought of the fruit which is produced from their actions, are freed from the chains of birth, and go to the regions of eternal happiness. 52 When thy mind shall have passed through the snares of delusion, thou wilt attain to a disdain of what has been revealed or will be revealed hereafter. 58 When thy mind, bewildered by Sruti,' shall stand unshaken fixed in contemplation (Samadhi), thou shalt then attain to yoga. ARJUNA. 54 What, O Krishna, is the mark of that wise and steady man who is fixed in contemplation? How may such a sage speak ? Where may he dwell? How may he act? KRISHNA. 55 A man is said to be confirmed in wisdom, when he forsaketh every desire which entereth into his heart, and of himself is happy, and contented in himself. 66 His mind is undisturbed in adversity, he is happy and contented in prosperity, and he is a stranger to anxiety, fear, and anger. Such a wise man is called 57 The knowledge of that man is established, who in all things is without affection, and having received good or evil, neither rejoiceth at the one, nor is cast down by the other. 58 His knowledge is confirmed, when, like the tortoise, he can draw in all his senses and restrain then from their wonted purposes. 59 Objects of sense withdraw from an abstinent man; not so the taste (for them). But when he hath seen the Supreme, he loseth even that. 60 The tumultuous senses hurry away by force the heart even of the wise man who striveth to restrain them. 61 When he hath subdued them all, he may rest in devotion, intent on me. The man who hath his passions in subjection, is possessed of true wisdom. 62 When a man meditateth on the objects of sense, attachment to them ariseth; desire springeth from attachment; desire from anger. 63 From anger is produced folly; from folly a depravation of the memory; from the loss of memorythe loss of reason; and from 1 The Sacred Books of the Hindus are divided into two great classes, Sruti and Smriti. Sruti, which means hearing, denotos direct revelation ; Smriti, recollection, includes the books admitted to have been composed by human authors. The proper meaning is that even the Vedas would be despised, bat Hindu commentators explain it as only “hoaring" of means of obtaining the objects of the senses. - Anandagiri explains it as "all writings other than those on the science of the soul." * A bermit dovoted to the practice of yoga. * The loss of memory implies forgetfulness of right and wrong; from this comes wicked conduct, leading to future punishment in Naraka.

·> LECTURK III. 15 the loss of reason the loss of all! 64 A man of a governable mind, enjoying the objects of his senses, with all his faculties rendered obedient to his will and freed from pride and malice, obtaineth happiness supreme. 86 In this happiness is born to him an exemption from all his troubles, and his mind being thus at ease, wisdom presently floweth to him from all sides. 66 The man who attendeth not to this, is without wisdom or the power of contemplation. The man who is incapable of thinking, hath no rest. What happiness can he enjoy who hath no rest? 67 The heart, which followeth the dictates of the moving passions, carrietb away his reason, as the storm the ship in the raging ocean. 68 The man therefore who can restrain all his passions from their inordinate desires, is.endued with true wisdom. 69 Such a one waketh when all other beings, go to rest. The contemplative muni sleepeth when all other beings are awake. 70 The man whose passions enter bis heart as waters run into the unswelling passive ocean, obtaineth happiness; not he who cherisheth desires. 71. The man who, having abandoned all lusts of the flesh, walketh without inordinate desires, unassuming, and free from pride, obtaineth happiness. 72 This is the Brahmic state ;* attaining to this, one is never deluded ; and remaining in it till the hour of death,' one passes on to absorption (nirvana)in Brahma. LECTURE III. " THE YOGA OF ACTION." ARJUNA. ? LIf, according to thy opinion, knowledge be superior to action, why, then, dost thou urgê me to engage in an undertaking so dreadful as this? Thou, as it were, confoundest my reason with a mixture of sentiments: wherefore choose one amongst them, by which I may obtain happiness, and explain it unto me. KRISHNA. 8It hath before been observed by me, that in this world there i to the self-restrained man worldly objects are covered with the darkness of night, while to the worldly these things are seen as in the light of day, The state of identification of oneself with the Brahman, which results from & correct knowledge of Brahman...Telang. $ Absorption, nirudna, "blown out," like & lamp which is extinguished. It is thus explained in the Brihadarnnyaka : "It is with us, when we enter into the Divine Spirit is it a lump of salt was thrown into the sea; it becomes dissolved into the water (from which it was produced), and is not to be taken out again." ..

·16 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. - is a twofold rule of life, that of the Sankhyas' by devotion of knowledge, and that of the Yogis by devotion of action. 4 The man enjoyeth not freedom from action, by abstaining from action, nor doth he obtain perfection from a total inactivity. 5 No one ever resteth a moment inactive. Every man is involuntarily urged to act by those gunas which are inherent in his nature. 6 The man who restraineth his organs of action and sitteth down with his mind attentive to the objects of his senses, is called a bewildered soul, and a hypocrite. ?But the man is praised, who, having subdued all his passions, performeth with his active faculties all the functions of life, unconcerned about the event. Perform every appointed work, for action is preferable to inaction. Without action the support of thy body would not be possible. This world is fettered by all action except in work done on account of sacrifice. Do thou therefore work for this purpose, but without attachment. 10 When Prajapatis in ancient times created men together with sacrifice, he said: "By this propagate ; be this your cow of plenty. 11 Nourish the gods by this, and let the gods nourish you. Thus nourishing each other, ye shall obtain supreme happiness. 12 The gods nourished by sacrifice will grant you the enjoyment of your wishes. He who enjoyeth what hath been given unto him by them, and offereth not 'a portion unto them, is even as a thief." 13 The good who eat the remains of sacrifice are freed from all sins. Those who dress food but for themselves, eat the food of sin. 14 All things which have life are generated from the food which they eat. Food is generated from rain; rain from sacrifice; and sacrifice from action. 15 Know that action springeth from Brahma ;: Brahmá proceedeth from the Indivisible One. Therefore Brahma, the all-pervading, is ever present in sacrifice. 16 The sinful mortal, who delighteth in the gratification of his passions, and followeth not the wheel thus revolving in the world, liveth but in vain. 17 But the man who rejoiceth in his self, pleased with his self, and contented with his self alone hath nothing to do. 18 He hath no interest either in that which is done, or that which is not done :* and there is not, in all things which have been 1 Kapila, the founder of the Sánkhya school, did not recognise & personal Supreme Deity, but only primordial matter, emanating into distinct torms by a kind of blind instinct. Patanjali, of the Yoga school, acknowledged a creator. Kapila taught that mukti can be obtained only by knowledge, meaning by it chiefly his own philosophy. Patanjali taught that it is gained by pious meditation, whereby the soul is joined in thought to the great Supreme, and is finally absorbed in him.-.-Davlos. * Prajápati, * lord of creatures, the Supreme Brahma, in his form of Brahma, ordained, sacrifice by fire. The gods were supposed to partake of the sacrifices through Agni. 3 Brabmá, as the creator is the author of actions. He issued from the Indivisia , ble, the Supreme Brahma. Telang translates Brahmá here as the Vedas. *No good or evil accrues to him from anything he does or omits to do.

·LECTURE III. 17 created, any object on which he may place dependence. 19 Whereforé, perform thou that which thou hast to do, at all times without attachment.; for the man who doeth that which he hath to do, without attachment, attaineth to the Supreme. 20 Janaka! and others have attained perfection even by works. Thou oughtest also to work from regard to the good of mankind. 21 The man of low degree followeth the example of him who is above him, and doeth that which he doeth, 22 I myself, Arjuna, have not, in the three regions of the universe, any thing which is necessary for me to perform, nor any thing to obtain which is not obtained; and yet I am occupied in work. 23 If I were not vigilantly to attend to these duties, all men would presently follow my example. 24 If I should not work, these worlds would sink in ruin. I should be the cause of caste confusion, and should destroy these people. 25 As the ignorant perform the duties of life from the hope of reward, so the wise man, to promote the general good, should perform the same without motives of interest. 26 He should not cause destruction in the understandings of the ignorant who are inclined to outward works. The learned man, by industriously performing all the duties of life, should induce the vulgar to attend to them. 27 He whose mind is deluded by ahankára (self-consciousness) thinketh himself the doer of actions which in every way are done by the qualities of Prakriti. 28 But he who knoweth the truth about the difference from qualities and the difference from actions, formeth no attachments, believing that qualities deal with qualities. 29 Men who are confused by the gunas of Prakriti are bound by the works of the gunas. The man who knoweth the whole truth should not cause dull men, who know not the whole, to falter (in action). 30 Dedicating all actions to me, fixed in thought on the Supreme Spirit, free from hope and egoism, put away thy sorrow and fight. 31 Those who with a firm belief, and without reproach, shall constantly follow this my doctrine, shall be saved even by works.* 82 Know that those who, holding it in contempt, follow not this my counsel, are, astrayed from all wisdom, deprived of reason, and are lost. Janaka, a king of Videha, was reckoned among the great Rishis on account of his knowledge and piety. He is said to have had a hundred religious teachers. 3 The soul, which is the true self, never acts. All action is due to the gunas. The -wise knowing this are unconcerned. The ignorant who think that the soul acts, look for reward in heaven. This verse has been differently translated. Telang's version is given." Qualities (the senses) deal with qualities, objects of sense, This does not fully agree either with the Sankhya or Yoga system. According to the first, knowledge is the only means of obtaining liberation ; according to the second, devotion. The author assorts that liberation may bo attained even by works, if dono without attachment. 3 3 3 ·18 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. 38 But the wise man also seeketh for that which is conformed to his own nature. All things act according to their natures; what then will opposition effect? S4 In the objects of the senses are fixed affection and dislike. A wise man should not put himself in their power, for both of them are his opponents. 35 One's own duty (dharma)' though defèctive, is better than another's duty well-performed. Better is death in one's ownduty; another's duty is full of danger. ARJUNA. 36 By what, 0 Krishna, is man constrained to commit offences ? He seems as if, contrary to his wishes, he was impelled by some secret force. KRISHNA. 37 It is desire, it is wrath; born from the quality of passion (rajas); it is insatiable, full of sin. That is our foe in this world. 38 As fire is covered by smoke, a mirror by dirt, as a foetus is enveloped in the womb, so the world is enveloped by this. 39 The understanding of the wise man is obscured by this inveterate foe, in the shape of desire, which rageth like fire, and is hard to be appeased. 40 It is said that the senses, the heart, and the understanding, are the places which are its seat. By the assistance of these it overwhelmeth reason, and stupefieth the soul. 41 Thou shouldest, therefore, first subdue thy passions, and get the better of this sinful destroyer of knowledge (jnána) and experience (vijnana). 42 It is said that the senses are great; greater than the senses is the heart (manas) ; greater than the heart is the mind (buddhi); but what is greater than the mind is That (the Supreme Being). 43 Thus knowing that which is higher than the mind, restraining thyself by thyself, slay this unmanageable enemy in the shape of desire. LECTURE IV. "THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE." THE DEITY SAID: 1 This eternal (doctrine of) Yoga, I formerly taught unto Vivaswat," and Vivaswat taught it to Manu, and Manu made it By dharma is here meant the fulfilling of the caste-obligations, as that of a Kshatriya to fight. 2 The author of the Bhagavad Gitá, to give a divine sanction to his work, ascribes it to Krishna. He taught it to Vivaswat, or Aditya, the Sun. Manu, the son of Vivaswat, was the last of the seven Manus. He presides over the present Mantantara (= age of Manu) 4,820,000 years. Ikshwáku, his son, was the first King of the Solar dynasty, and one of the Rajarshis.

·LECTURE IV. 19 known unto Ikshwáku. 2 Being delivered down from one unto another, it was studied by the Rajarshis; until at length, in the course of time, this Yoga was lost. It is even the same Yoga which I have this day communicated unto thee, because thou art my servant and my friend. It is the supreme mystery. ARJUNA. 4 Seeing thy birth was later than that of Ikshwáku, how am I to understand that thou didst first declare this doctrine ? KRISHNA 5 Both I and thou have passed through many births. Mine are known unto me; but thou knowest not thine. 6 Although I am not in my nature subject to birth or decay, and am the lord of all created beings; yet, taking command over niy own nature, I am born by my delusive power (máyá).' 7 As often as there is a decline of dharma and an exaltation of adharma, in the world, I produce myself; 8 Thus I am born, from age to age, for the preservation of the good, the destruction of the wicked, and the re-establishment of dharma. 9He, O Arjuna, who, truly knoweth my divine birth and work, doth pot, upon his quitting his mortal frame, enter into another, for he entereth into me. 10 Many who were free from affection, fear, and anger, thinking on me, finding refuge in me, having been purified by the fire of knowledge, have entered into my being. 11 I serve men in the way in which they approach me. Men follow my path from every side. 12 Those who wish for success to their works in this life, worship the gods. For in this life success from works speedily cometh to pass. 18 The four castes were created by me according to the apportionment of qualities and works. Know that I, though action-less and inexhaustible, am the author of them.* 1 Mdyd is the mysterious power by which Brahma causos a seeming world to issue from himself. This world has no real existence according to the Vedantists, for the only real existence is the one universal Soul. It is not certain, however, that the word is here used in its Vediintint sense..-Davies. 1 His principal incarnations are reckoned as ten, but sometimes they are said to have been numberless. The first, as a fish, is said to have been in the Krita age; the tenth, the Kalki Avatára, has yet to come. * Knowledge is called tapas, (religious austerity) from its purifying influence.- Davies. 4 Krishna asserts that he is the author and not the author of the castes. This is explained in two ways. He who works without "attachment" is said not to really work. Krishna, es Brahms, was the author of the castes, but not in his supreme form as Brahma.

·20 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. 14 Actions defile me not; I have no desire for the fruit of actions. He who knoweth me thus is not bound by actions.' 15 The ancients who longed for liberation having discovered this, still performed works. Wherefore perform thou works, even as they were performed by the ancients in former times. 16 The learned even are puzzled to determine what is work, and what is not. I will tell thee what that work is, by knowing which thou wilt be delivered from misfortune. 17 The natures) of action, forbidden action, and inaction must be well understood. The path of action is obscure. is He who can see as it were, inaction in action, and action in inaction, is wise amongst mankind. He is a perfect performer of all duty. 19 Wise men call him learned whose every undertaking is free from the idea of desire, and whose actions are consumed by the fire of knowledge. 20 Abandoning the desire of a reward of bis actions; always contented and self-reliant, although he may be engaged in a work, he, as it were, doeth nothing. 21 Unsolicitous, of a subdued mind and spirit, rejecting all surroundings and performing merely bodily work, he committeth no offence. 22 Contented with whatever he may receive, unaffected by the pairs of opposites (pleasure and pain, &c.) free from envy, the same in good and evil fortune, he, though he worketh, is not bound. 23 The work of him in whom attachment is dead, who is freed, whose mind is fixed on knowledge, who performeth actions for (the purpose of) sacrifice, cometh altogether unto nothing. 24 Brahma is the oblation ; Brahma is the sacrificial butter; Brahma is in the fire; by Brahma is the offering made. Into Brahma will he enter who meditateth on Brahma in his work. 25 Some devotees offer up sacrifice to the gods; others offer sacrifice by sacrificing only in the fire of Brahma. 26 Others sacrifice hearing and the other senses in the fire of self-restraint; others sacrifice sound and the other objects of sense in the fire of the senses. 27 Others again sacrifice all the functions of the senses and life-breaths in the fire of self-restraint, kindled by knowledge. 28 Others, also, sacrifice by their wealth, or by austerities, by yoga, by silent study, and knowledge. 29 Soine sacrifice the upward breath in the downward, and the downward breath in the upward, stopping up the channels of the upward and downward breaths, intent on the restraint of breath. 30 Others, who practise abstinence, sacrifice their life-breaths in life-breaths. All these are skilled in sacrifice and by sacrifice their sins are destroyed. 1 He does not gain heaven or enter another body, but is absorbed into the divine nature. * Muktasya, freed from attachment to worldly concerns. Prinyama, restraint of breath, is breathing through one nostril only by closing the other. > ·LECTURE V. 21 81 Those who eat the nectar-like leavings of sacrifices go to the eternal Brahma. This world is not for him who offereth no sacrifice; much less the other. 32 Many kinds of sacrifice are offered in the presence of Brahma. Know them all to be produced from action; knowing this, thou shalt be free. 38 The sacrifice of knowledge is better than the sacrifice of wealth. Every action, in its completeness, is contained in knowledge. 34 Seek, then, this wisdom by prostrations, by questions, and by service, that those learned men who see its principles may instruct thee. 85 Having known this, thou shalt not again fall into this delusion; for thou wilt see all things first in thyself and then in Me. 36 Although thou wert the most sinful of all sinful men, thou wilt cross over all trespasses by the boat of knowledge. 37 As the natural fire, O Arjuna, reduceth the wood to ashes, so the fire of knowledge reduceth all actions to ashes. 88 There is not any thing in this world to be compared with knowledge as a purifier. He who is perfect in devotion, in due time findeth it in his own soul. 39 He who hath faith findeth knowledge; above all, he who hath gotten the better of his passions ; and having obtained it, he quickly enjoyeth supreme repose, 40 But the ignorant, and the man without faith, whose spirit is full of doubt, is lost. Neither this world, nor that which is above, nor happiness, can be enjoyed by the man of doubting mind.3 41 Actions do not fetter the man who is self-possessed, who bath renounced action by Yoga, who hath destroyed doubt by knowledge.* 42 Therefore slay this doubt, which is born of ignorance, by the sword of knowledge. Give thyself to devotion, and arise, O son of Bharata. LECTURE V. 6 YOGA BY RENOUNCING WORKS." yod ARJUNA. 1 Thou now speakest, Krishna, of the renunciation of works, and now again of performing them. Tell me positively which of the two is better. 1 By becoming the disciple of a religious teacher. .: Nirvana. * Neither the blessing of a higher birth, nor that of heaven, nor of nirvana, . Having spoken of the nature and effects of spiritual knowledge, the writer gues on to reconcile the Sankhya and Yoga systems by explaining that the Yoga system, in prescribing that all actions-be done without "attachment," enforces a real renunciation, and is based on true knowledge.-Davies.

·22 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. KRISHNA. 2 Renunciation of works) and Yoga by work, both procure the highest bliss; but of these Yoga by works is better than renunciation of works. 3 He should be regarded as always a Sannyasi' who neither hateth nor desireth; he who is free from the pairs of opposites is easily set free from bonds. 4 Children--not the learned-speak of the Sánkhya and Yoga (doctrines) as different; but he who devoteth himself to either obtaineth the fruit of both. 5 The seat' which the Sankhyas obtain is reached by Yogís also. He seeth truly who seeth that the Sánkhya and Yoga are one. 6 Renunciation is hard to gain without devotion. The muni who is fixed in devotion goes to Brahma without delay. He who is fixed in devotion, whose self is pure, who is master of himself and subdueth the senses, who identifieth himself with everything that existeth, is not polluted even though he work. 8, 9 The man of devotion who knoweth the truth thinketh, that he doeth nothing when seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, sleeping, breathing, talking, throwing out, taking, opening or closing the eyelids ; affirming that the senses deal with the objects of sense. 10 He who casting off attachment offereth his action to Brahma, is not tainted by sin, as the lotus leaf is not (tainted) in water. 11 Devotees, giving up attachment, perform actions for the purifying of themselves by the body, the heart (manas), by the mind, and even by the senses alone. 12 The devout man who hath abandoned the fruit of works attaineth the highest peace. The undevout, attached to the fruit (of works), through desire, is bound. 13 The man who hath his passions in subjection, and with his mind forsaketh all works, bis soul sitteth at rest in the nine-gate city of its abode, neither acting nor causing to act. 14 The Lord createth neither the faculty of working nor works, nor the connection of works and fruit; Nature (Prakriti) alone worketh. 15 The Lord receiveth the sin or merit of none. Mankind are led astray by their reason being obscured by ignorance ; 16 but when that ignorance of their souls is destroyed by knowledge, the Supreme is revealed by knowledge, shining as the sun. 17 Those whose thoughts are on him (That) whose souls are in him, whose One who has performed renunciation. * The "seat" is the divine nature of Brahma. But Kapila did not teach this doctrine. He taught that the soul, when finally emancipated from matter, remains in a state of unconscious repose, but in its own individuality. 3 The perfect Yogi is indifferent to all persons and things. He loses all sense of individuality, and is merged in the universal life of the world, as an emanation of Brahma. Davies. 4 The body which has nine gates to the outer world. The soul does not act. Brahma, like the soul, dwells apart, unaffected by the actions of men.

·LECTURE V. 23 confidence is in him, and whose asylum iş in him, are by knowledge purified from all their offences, and go from whence they shall never return. 18 The wise regard a Brahman gifted with knowledge and modesty, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a Svapaka' as alike. 19 Even here, those have conquered the world whose minds are equable : since Brahma is sinless and equable, therefore they abide in Brahma. 20 He who knoweth Brahma, whose mind is fixed, who is not deluded, and who abideth in Brahma, doth not rejoice finding anything agreeable, nor grieve on finding anything disagreeable. 21 He whose soul is not attached to external objects obtaineth the happiness that is in (one's) self; his self joined by devotion (Yoga) to Brahma, enjoyeth eternal bliss. 22 The enjoyments which proceed from the senses are as the wombs of future pain. The wise man, knowing that they begin and end, delighteth not in these. 23 He who can bear up against the violence which is produced from lust and anger in this mortal life, is devout (Yukta), and a happy man. 24 The man who is happy in his heart, at rest in his mind, and enlightened within, is a Yogi, one with Brahma, and findeth nirvana in Him. 25 Such Rishis as are purified from their offences, freed from doubt, of subdued ininds, and interested in the good of all mankind, obtain nirvána in Brahma. 26 Such as are free from lust and anger, of humble minds and subdued spirits, and who know the soul, are near to nirvana in Brahma. 27 The muni who excludeth (from his mind) external objects, (concentrating) the visual power between the brows, and making the upward and downward life-breaths, ever sending both through the nostrils,3 28 who restraineth the senses, mind and understanding, intent on final emancipation, from whom desire, fear, and wrath have departed, is indeed for ever free (from birth and death). 29 He knowing me to be the enjoyer of sacrifices and austerities,* the mighty lord of all the worlds, and the friend of every living being, attaineth to peace. Puli C LIBRARA WAJU Estd. 1902. MAJU, HOWRAH 1 The Svapaka carried out unclaimod dead bodies. They are regarded as aliko, being all manifestations of Brahma, though of different qualities. * The contact of the senses with their objects. 3 The reference is to Yoga exercises. This is contrary to the common Hindu idea, which conceives Brahma as dwellinglin & state of absolute reposo.-Davies. 6. The worlds are supposed to be eight, rising from that of the Pisáchas to that of Brahma.

·24 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. LECTURE VI. 9) “YOGA BY SELF-RESTRAINT." KRISHNA 2 1 He is both a Yogi and a Sannyási who performeth that which he hath to do independent of the fruit thereof; not be who liveth without the sacrificial fire and without action.' 2 Learn, O son of Pándu, that what they call renunciation is the same with Yoga. He cannot be a Yogí, who hath not renounced all worldly schemes. 3 Works are said to be the means by which a man who wisheth, may attain devotion; so rest is called the means for him who hath attained devotion. 4 He who is not attached to the objects of the senses or to works, renouncing all fancies, is called a perfect Yogi. 5 He should raise himself by himself: he should not suffer his soul to be depressed. Self is the friend of self; and, in like manner, self is its own enemy. 6 Self is the friend of him who by himself hath conquered self; but to him who hath not restrained himself, self becometh an enemy: 7 The soul of him who is self-restrained and placid, is self-contained in heat and cold, in pain and pleasure, in honor and disgrace. 8 The Yogi who is content with divine and human knowledge, who is unmoved (by any vexations of the world), whose senses are subdued, and to whom a clod, a stone, or gold are alike, is called a perfect devotee (yukta).* 9He iş esteemed highest who thinketh alike about companions, friends, enemies, strangers, the indifferent, foreigners ; and relations, yea to good and evil men. 10 Let the Yogi constantly practise devotion fixed in a secluded spot alone, with his mind and self subdued, without expectations and without belonging. 11 Fixing his seat firmly in a clean spot, neither high nor low, covered with a cloth, a deerskin and kusa grass. 12 There fixing his heart (manas) on one object, restraining his thoughts, senses and actions, seated on (that) seat he should practise yoga for the purifying of the self. 13 Holding his body, head and neck, even and unmoved, (remaining) steady, looking at the tip of his nose and not looking around; 14 tranquil in soul, free from anxiety, 1 The Sannyásí performs no sacrifices or ceremonies; but merely to omit those, without true renunciation, is not to bo a real Sannyábí. 2 Here the union of the essential principles of the Sánkhya and Yoga systems is again attempted. Both lead to a renunciation of works, even works of devotion ; but Kapila sought to obtain it by philosophical knowledge and Patanjali by mental abstraction, leading to the mystical union with Brahma which is called Yoga.---Davies. - For the attainment of absorption into the divine Being. *" Joined," to the Divine Being in pious meditation." -Davies.

·LECTURE VI. 25 and adhering to the rules of Brahmachárís, he shoulą restrain his mind, (concentrate it) on me, and sit down engaged in devotion, meditating and intent on me. 15 The Yogí, thus constantly devoting his self to abstraction, whose mind is restrained, attaineth peace, the supreme nirvána that is in Me. 16 Devotion is not for him who eateth too much, or for him who eateth too little ; nor for him who sleepeth too much, or who is ever wakeful. 17 The devotion which destroyeth trouble belongeth to him who is moderate in eating and in recreation, whose inclinations are moderate in action, and who is moderate in sleep. 18 When he fixeth his well-restrained thoughts on himself alone, and is indifferent to every object of desire, then he is called devoted (yukta). 19 The Yogi of a subdued mind, thus employed in the exercise of his devotion, is compared to a lamp, standing in a place without wind, which fickereth not. 20 When the mind is at rest, restrained by the practice of Yoga, and when seeing the self by the self, is pleased in the self. 21 He becometh acquainted with that boundless pleasure which is far more worthy of the understanding than that which ariseth from the senses ; depending upon which, the mind moveth not from its principles; 21 Which having obtained, he respecteth no other acquisition so great as it; on which depending, he is not moved by the severést pain. 23 This disunion from the conjunction of pain is called Yoga This Yoga must be practised with steadiness and a resolute heart. 24, 25 When he hath abandoned every desire that ariseth from the imagination, and subdued with his mind every inclination of the senses, he may, by degrees, find rest; and having, by a steady resolution, fixed his mind within itself, let him cease to think. 26 Wheresoever the unsteady mind wandereth, he should subdue it, bring it back, and place it on the self. 27 Supreme happiness attendeth the man whose heart is thus at peace ; whose passions are thus subdued; who is one with Brahma, and free from sin. 28 The man'who is thus constantly in the exercise of the soul, and free from sin, enjoyeth the eternal happiness of union with Brahma. 29 The man whose mind is endued with this devotion, and looketh on all things alike, beholdeth the supreme Soul in all things, and all things in the supreme Soul.' 80 He who beholdeth me in all things, and beholdeth all things in me, I forsake not him, and he forsaketh not me. 31 The Yogi who worshippeth me as abiding in all things, holding that all is one, dwelleth in me, however he may be living. 32. The man, O Arjuna, who, from what passeth in his own breast, whether it be pain or pleasure, beholdeth the same in others,' is esteemed the best Yogi. 1 Realises the essential unity of everything.-Telang. a Who believes that pleasure and pain are felt by others like himself. 4 ·26 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. ARJUNA. $3 From the fickleness of our natures, I conceive not the permanent duration of this doctrine of equanimity which thou hast told me. 34 The mind, O Krishna, is naturally unsteady, turbulent, strong, and stubborn. I esteem it as difficult to restrain as the wind. KRISHNA. 35 The mind, valiant youth, is undoubtedly unsteady, and difficult to be confined; yet, it may be restrained by practice and indifference (to worldly objects). 36 In my opinion, this divine discipline, which is called Yoga, is hard to be attained by him who hath not his soul in subjection; but it may be acquired by him who taketh pains, and is self-restrained. ARJUNA. 37 Whither, O Krishna, doth the man go after death, who, although he be endued with faith, hath not obtained perfection in his devotion, because his unsubdued mind wandered from the discipline ? 38 Doth he not perish like a broken cloud, being unsteadfast and deluded in the path (leading) to Brahma ? 39. B. pleased, O Krishna, to destroy completely this doubt of mine, for none but thyself is able to destroy this doubt. KRISHNA. 40 His destruction is found neither here nor in the world above. No man who hath done good goeth unto an evil place. 41 A man whose devotions have been broken off by death, having enjoyed for unnumbered years the rewards of his virtues in the regions above, at length is born again in some holy and respectable family; 42 or else he is born in the house of some learned Yogi. But such a birth in this life is difficult to attain. 43 Being thus born again, he is endued with the knowledge which he had in a former body; and here again he beginneth to labour for perfection. 44 By that former practice he is led on, even without his will. He who only desireth to know Yoga, goeth beyond the Brahmic word (the Vedas). 45 The Yogi who, labouring with all his might, is purified of his offences, and, after many births, is made perfect, at length goeth to the supreme abode. 46 The Yogi is superior to ascetics, respected above the men of knowledge, and superior to the doers of works; wherefore, O Arjuna, resolve thou to become a Yogi. 47 Of all Yogís, I respect him as the most devout, who hath faith in me, and who serveth me with his self stayed on me. C 1. The Yogt by devotion, rises above the desire of the fruit of actions prescribed by the Vedas.

·LECTURE VII. LECTURE VII. " YOGA THROUGH SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT." (Here a separate division of the Poem begins. The first six chapters are devoted mainly to the Yoga system of Patanjali. The six following treat of the Supreme Being, who is the source both of gods and, men, the only self-existent and eternal Being.-Davies.) KRISHNA. i Hear, 0 Arjuna, how having thy mind attached to me, being in the exercise of devotion, and making me alone thy asylum, thou wilt, without doubt, become acquainted with me. 21 will instruct thee in this wisdom and learning without reserve; which having learnt, there is not in this life any thing further to be known. 3 A few amongst ten thousand mortals strive for perfection ;' and but a few of these who strive and become perfect, know me according to my nature. Earth, water, fire, air, ether, the heart (manas) and also the mind (buddhi) and egoism (ahankára), these (form) the eightfold division of my material nature (Prakriti). This is the lower (nature), but know now my other higher nature,' the living principle by which the universe is sustained. 6Know that all things have these as their source. I am the producer and the destroyer of the whole universe. 7 There is nothing else higher than myself. All this is strung together in me as a row of pearls upon a string. 8I am taste' in the waters, I am the light in the sun and moon, I am Om in all the Vedas, sound in ether, the masculine force in 9I am the sweet smell in the earth, the brightness in the fire, the vital principle in all beings, and the austerity (tapas) of ascetics. 10 Know that I am the eternal seed of all things that exist. I am the intellect of the intelligent, the splendour of the splendid. 11 I am the strength of the strong; free from desire (kdma) and passion (rajas)., I am desire in living beings not forbidden by dharma. 12 Know also that the natures which are of the quality of goodness, and those which are of the quality of passion and of darkness are indeed all from me: I am not in them, but they are in me., 19 The whole of this world being bewildered by the influence man. 1 Knowledge of the self. . In the Sankhya system Prakriti (primal matter) is alone recognised. In the system of Patanjali this is regardod as only an inferior part of Brahma; there is a higher spiritual essenco which is the animating principle of all things.- Davies. * Taste is considered the peculiar quality of water; sound of other;- smell of earth.

·28 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. of these three gunas,' knoweth not that I am distinct from these and eternal.. 14. This divine illusion. (máyd) of mine, formed by the gunas, is hard to overcome: they who worship me alone pass over this illusion. 15 The wicked, the foolish and the low-minded come not unto me, because their understandings, being bewildered by máyá, they partake of the nature of Asuras. 16 Four classes of righteous men worship me: the distressed, one who is seeking after knowledge, one who wants wealth, and one who is possessed of knowledge. 17 Of these the best is the one possessed of knowledge, if he always practises devotion, and worships the one. I am extremely dear to the wise man and he is dear unto me. 18 All these are noble; but I esteem the man. possessed of knowledge even as myself, because his devout spirit dependeth upon me alone as his ultimate goal. 19. The wise man proceedeth not unto me until after many births; for the exalted mind, who sayeth that" Vásudeva is the All,"is hard to find. 20 Those whose understandings are drawn away by this and that pursuit, go unto other gods, observing divers rites, constrained by their own natures." 21 If any one, worshipping with faith, desire to worship any deity, I make that faith of his steady. 22 Possessed of that faith, he seeketh to propitiate the (deity in) that form, and obtaineth' from him the benefits which he desireth, (though they are really given by me. 23 But the gain of these men of narrow minds is perishable. 4 Those who sacrifice to the gods, go to the gods. Those who worship me, come to me. 24 The ignorant, being unacquainted with my supreme nature, which is superior to all things, and exempt from decay, believe 'me, who am invisible, to exist in the visible form under which they see me. 25 I am not visible to all, because I am concealed by my power of delusion (yoga máyá). The ignorant world do not discover this, that I am not subject to birth or decay. I These are the modes or constituent parts of Prakriti, which by their different combinations form the distinctive natures of individuals. The Supreme Spirit animates all the world (Nature): it is therefore in Nature, but Nature is not in it. Men generally see only the lower part of the Divine dual nature, which veils the higher spiritual part.-Daries. 2 Knowledge that Brahma and the soul are one. & The result of actions in former births. Because the gods are created beings, and they, with the worlds over which they preside, will be destroyed at the end of a Kalpa.-Davies. 6 The ignorant do not know the real divinity of Vishnu, thinking him to be no higher than as he is seen in human form.--Telang. 6 The Vedantist doctrine of máyá, denies all true reality in the world around This is of later origin than the Bhagavad Gitá. Here it simply means that the outward world is an illusion, because it veils the Supremo Being who pervades all things. us.

·LEOTURE VIII, 29 26 I know, O Arjuna, all the beings that have passed, all that are present, and all that shall hereafter be; but there is not one amongst them who knoweth me. 27 All beings are bewildered in this world by the delusion caused by the pairs of opposites,' arising from desire and aversion. 28 But the men who are pure in their deeds, in whom sin is dead, freed from the delusion of opposites, and firm in their beliefs, worship mė. 29 Those who finding refuge in me strive for deliverance from old age and death, know the Brabma, the Supreme Spirit (Adhyatma), and all Karma. 30 The men devoted in mind who know me as Adhibúta (Lord of beings), as Adhidaiva (Lord of gods), and as Adhiyajna (Lord of sacrifice), know me indeed at the time of departure (from this world). LECTURE VIII. "THE YOGA OF THE SUPREME ETERNAL BRAHMA." ARJUNA. 1 What is that Brahma ? What Adhyatina, and what is Karma (work, action)? What is that called Adhibúta, and that called Adhidaiva?' 2 Who is Adhiyajna and how here in this body? How do self-restrained men know thee at the time of their decease? KRISHNA. .8 Brahma is the Supreme, the Indestructible; his own nature is called Adhyatma. The emanation that causeth the birth of all living beings is called Karma (work). 4 Adhibúta is (my) perishable nature, and Adhidaiva is the male (creative) principle (purusha). The Adhiyajna is I myself in this body 5 At the end of time, he, who quitting the body, departeth 3 1 The pairs of opposites are love, hatred; gain, loss, etc. Men unduly attached to worldly things think that these should be liked or disliked. Such men are deceived. These things should be looked upon with indifference. They cannot benefit the soul, which must find its happiness in absorption. 9 Names of Krishna. 3 Brahms is called Adhyatma, because, in his spiritual form, he is the highest boing. When Brahma acts as creator, he takes a new name, Brahmá. Karma especial. ly denotes the production of all things. Telang explains Adhibúta as denoting the whole inanimate creation." Davies renders it " Lord of beings," because he is their source. Patanjali makes the Prakriti of the Supreme, described as his Sakti, or energy, that from which all beings have sprung. Brahmá, as the cause of all life, ia named Purusha (male); as he created the gods, he is called Adhidaiva. Krishna calls himself Adhiyajna, "Lord of sacrifice," as being an object of worship to men of limited capacities.

·30 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. 2 thinking only, of me, without doubt, entereth unto my being; or else, whatever other nature he shall call upon, at the end of life, when he shall quit his mortal shape, he sball ever go unto it. 7 Wherefore at all times think of me alone and fight. Let thy heart and mind be placed on me alone, and thou shalt, without doubt, go unto me. 8 The man who longeth after the Divine and Supreme Being, with his mind intent upon the practice of devotion, goeth unto him. 9, 10 The man who shall in his last hour meditate on the ancient sage, the Ruler, smaller than an atom, the Preserver of all, unimaginable in form, shining like the sun above the darkness, with unwavering heart, and by the force of Yoga draweth his breath together between his eyebrows,* that man goeth to this Supreme Divine Being. 11 I will now briefly explain to thee that path which they who know the Veda call Imperishable; which the men of subdued minds and conquered passions enter; and which, desirous of knowing, they live the lives of Brahmachárins. 12, 18 He who hath closed with the gates (of the senses), confined his heart (manas) inwardly, placed the vital breath in the head,: constant in devotion; repeating the syllable Om, signifying the eternal Brahma, thinking upon me, he who thus departeth, goeth, when he quitteth the body, to the highest place. 14 He who thinketh constantly of me, his mind undiverted by another object, I will at all times be easily found by that constantly devout Yogi. 15 These great-souled men, having attained to me, come not again to life which is transient and the seat of pain: they reach the highest perfection. 16 Know 0 Arjuna, that all the worlds, even to that of Brahma, return again; but he who findeth me, returpeth not again to mortal birth. 11 They are acquainted with day and night, who know that the day of Brahma is as a thousand revolutions of the yugas, and that his night extendeth for a thousand more. 18 At the approach of day all the visible (manifested) universe issues from the Unmanifested; on the approach of night it dissolves in Him who is called the Unmanifested. 19 This 'multitude of beings, produced again and again, dissolves at the approach of night; and comes forth, not by its own power, at the approach of day.* 1 If a man desires heaven only, at dying he will think of Indra, and go to his heaven. 2 Looking between the eyebrows. See v. 27. 3" Holding the breath as much as possible inwardly,"Daries. "Thinking of nothing, making the mind cease to work."-Telang. 4 All the cight worlds will be absorbed in Brabmá at the end of a Kalpa, and then come forth again. One year of men is oqual to a day of the gods. There are four Yugas, containing 12,000 divino years, equal to 4,320,000 common years. One thousand of these periods form a day of Brahms. This day of Brahma is called & Kalpa ; 360 Kalpas form his year, and a hundred such yoars form his life. time: at tho close of his life the universe is destroyed.

·LECTURE IX. 31 20 But there is another invisible eternal existence superior to this visible one which, when all created things perish, doth not . perish. 21 It is called the Unmanifested, the Imperishable; this men speak of as the highest way: those who attain it never return. This is my supreme abode. 22 He, the highest Purusha, in whom all things dwell, and by whom all this (universe) is spread out, may be reached by devotion to him only: 23 I will now speak to thee of that time in which, should Yogis die, they will never return; and of that time, in which dying, they shall return (to life). 24 Those holy men who know Brahma, departing this life in fire, light, the daytime, in the bright season of the moon, within the six months of the sun's northern course, go unto him. those who depart in smoke, night, the moon's dark season, and whilst the sun is yet within the southern path of his journey, ascend for a while into the regions of the moon, and again return to mortal birth. 26 These two, light and darkness, are esteemed the world's eternal ways: he who walketh in the former path returneth not; whilst he who walketh in the latter cometh back again upon the earth. 27 A Yogi, acquainted with these two paths will never be perplexed; wherefore, 0 Arjuna, be thou employed at all times in devotion. 28 The devotee who knoweth this obtaineth all the holy fruits offered by the Vedas, by sacrifices, austerities, and almsgiving, and he attaineth to the supreme primeval seat. 25 But LECTURE IX. • YOGA THROUGH THE ROYAL KNOWLEDGE AND THE YOGA ROYAL MYSTERY." KRISHNA. 1 I will now make known unto thee, who dost not cavil, that most mysterious secret, accompanied by experience, which having studied thou shalt be delivered from misfortune. 2 It is a royal' knowledge, a royal mystery, sublime and immaculate ; clear unto the sight, virtuous, eternal and easy to be performed. 3 Men who believe not this doctrine, attain not to me, but return into this world of death. 4,6 All this universe hath been spread out by me, by my unmanifested material nature (prakriti). All things dwell in me; I do not dwell in them. And yet these things dwell not in me, 1 Royal here means chief, supremo. 9 Prakriti, matter eternally existing, is said to a part of Brahma. They dwell in his material, but not in his spiritual nature. 3 ·32 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. 3 reason. See my royal mystery. My spirit, the source of all, supporteth all things, but doth not dwell in them. 6 Understand that all things rest in me, as the mighty air, which passeth everywhere, resteth, for ever in the ákásha. 7 At the end of a kalpa all things enter my material nature; at the beginning of a kalpa, I send them forth again. 8 Supported by my material nature, I send forth again and again all this collection of beings, without their own will, by the power of Prakriti. 9 But these actions do not bind me, who remaineth like one unconcerned, and who am unattached to those actions. 10 Under my supervision Prakriti produceth both the movable and the immovable. It is in this way, 0 Arjuna, that the universe revolveth. 11 The foolish, being unacquainted with my supreme and divine nature, as Lord of all things, despise me in this human form. 12 Partaking of the delusive nature of Rákshasas and Asuras, they are of vain hope, of vain endeavours, of vain wisdom, and void of 13 But men of great souls, partaking of the divine nature, discover that I am before all things and incorruptible, and serve me with their hearts undiverted by other gods. 14 Men of steadfast and laborious lives come before ms, humbly bowing down, for ever glorifying my name; and they are constantly employed in my service; 15 Others, offering up the sacrifice of knowledge,* worship me as one, as distinct, and as all-pervading in many forms. 16 I am the offering, I am the sacrifice, I am the offering to pitris, I am the sacred herb; I am the sacred verse and the sacrifi. cial butter; I am the fire; I am the burnt offering. 17 I am the father, mother, sustainer, the grandsire of this universe ; I am the object of knowledge, the means of purification, the syllable Om, the Rik, Sáma, and Yajus also. 18 I am the way, the sustainer, the Lord, the witness, dwelling, refuge and friend, the origin and destroyer (of life), the place, the receptacle, and the inexhaustible seed. 19 I cause heat; I withhold and send forth the rain; I am immortality and death; I am sat (that which is) and asat' (that which is not). 20 Those who know the three (Vedas), who drink of the soma juice being purified of their offences, offer sacrifices, and petition for heaven. These obtain the holy world of Indra, in which they feast 1 The works of Brahmá do not bind him as they are done without attachment. 2 The tamo-guna or dark quality, prevails in them. 3 The quality of goodness prevails in them. • The knowledge that Krishna is all. Krishna is the grandsire of the universe as the source of Prakriti. 6 Formed by the union of the letters a, ug m. Probably at first it represented Agri, Varuna, and Marut (wind); afterwards it denoted Brahmá, Vishnu, and Siva. 7 Different explanations are given of sat and asat. They have been translated spirit and matter, causes and effects.

·LEOTURE IX. :33 waves upon the divine food of the gods. 21. When they have partaken of that spacious heaven for a while, in proportion to their virtues, they sink again into this mortal world, as soon as their stock of merit is expended. In this manner those, who, longing for the accomplishment of their wishes, follow the religion pointed out by the three. (Vedas), obtain a transient reward. 22 To those who serve me alone, and who are thus constantly engaged in my service, I bring full assurance (of happiness). 28 Those also who serve other gods with a firm belief, in doing so, worship even me, but not according to ancient rule. 24 I am the partaker, and also the Lord of all sacrifices. Because mankind are unacquainted with my true nature, they fall again from heaven. 25 Those who make vows to the gods, go to the gods; those who make vows to the Pitris, go to the Pitris ; those who worship the Bhútas, go to the Bhútas; and those likewise who worship me, go to me. 26 I accept and enjoy the holy offerings of the humble soul, who in his worship presenteth leaves and flowers, and fruit and water unto me. 27 Whatever thou doest, O Arjuna, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou sacrificest, whatever thou givest, whatever thou shalt be zealous about, make each an offering unto me. 28 Thou shalt thus be delivered from the bond of works, producing good and evil fruits; and if thou be united to me by devotion and renunciation, thou, when freed, shalt come unto me. 29 I am alike to all beings; to me none is hateful, none is dear; but those who worship me devoutly dwell in me and I in them. 30 Even if one of evil life worshippeth me and not any other, he most certainly be deemed to be good, for he hath judged rightly. 81 Soon he becometh a pious one, and attaineth eternal peace. Rest assured that they who worship me never perish. 82 For even those of sinful birth, women, Vaisyas, and Sudras likewise resorting to me attain the supreme goal. 33 How much more then holy Brahmansand pious Rajarshis who are my devotees. Having come into this transient unhappy world, worship me. 34 Fix thy heart (manms) on me; become my devotee; my worshipper; reverence me, and thus making me the supreme object, thou wilt come to me. 1 Those who follow the Vedas obtain only temporary happiness. % The Bhútas are supposed to be a foul kind of demons, dwelling in graveyards and burning-grounds. * This mode of action is at once devotion and renunciation, the first, because one çares not for fruit, the second because it is offered to the Supreme.Telang. • That the Supreme Being alone should be reverenced.--Telang. * Sridhara explains this as “ low birth," Sankara, as birth resulting from sins. 5 ·THE BHAGAVAD GITA. LECTURE X. « YOGA BY THE DIVINE PERFECTIONS." . KRISHNA. 1 Hear again, O large-armed one, my supreme words, which I will speak unto thee, who art well pleased, because I am anxious for thy welfare. 2 Neither the hosts of Suras' nor the great Rishis know of my birth; because I am the origin of all the gods and great Rishis. · 3 The mortal who knoweth me, as unborn and without beginning, the mighty Lord of the world, is undeluded, and is freed from all sin. 4,5 The various qualities incident to natural beings, such as reason, knowledge, unembarrassed judgment, patience, truth, humility, meekness, pleasure and pain; birth and death, fear and 'courage; mercy, equality, gladness, charity, zeal, renown and infamy, all distinctly come from me. 6 So in former days the seven great Rishis, the four Ancients, and the Manus* partaking of my nature, were born from my mind, from whom are descended all the inhabitants of the earth. 7 He who knoweth truly this pre-eminence and mystic power of mine, is without doubt endued with an unerring devotion. am the creator of all things, and all things proceed from me. Those who are endued with spiritual wisdom believe this and worship me : 9 their very hearts and minds are in me; they rejoice amongst themselves, and delight in speaking of my name and teaching one another my doctrine. 10 I gladly, inspire those who are constantly employed in my service, with that mental devotion, (buddhi-yoga) by which they come unto me. 11 And, in compassion, dwelling in their souls, I dissipate the darkness of their ignorance with the light of the lamp of wisdom. ARJUNA. 12 Thou art the Supreme Brahma, the supreme abode, the holiest of the holy, the eternal Purusha, first of gods, the unborn, the Lord. 13 Thus all the Rishis proclaim, as also the divine Rishi, Nárada ;' thus also Asita, Devala," and Vyása ;8 tlaus thou thyself 1 An inferior class of gods connected with the sun. In the Mahabharata they fight against the Asuras. 2 The seven great Rishis were the mind-born sons of Brahma, vie., Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, and Kratu, with Vasishta. 'The four mind-born sons of Brahmá, Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanátana, Sanatkumára. The Manus, in the later mythology, are 14 in number. 5 Nárada is mentioned in Manu, i. 36, as one of the ten progenitors of mankind who came forth from Brahmá. & A Rishi who dwelt near the Himalayas. 7 A, son of Visvamitra, who becamo a Rishi by his austeritier. & The supposed compiler of the Mahábhárata, &c.

·LECTURE X. 35 bast told me. 14 I firmly believe, 0 Kesava, all thou tellest me. Neither the gods nor the dánavas' are acquainted, 'O Lord, with thy manifestations. 15 Thou alone, O best of beings ! knowest thyself by thyself ; thou, who art the creator of all things, Lord of all, the God of gods, and the universal Lord. 16 Be pleased to declare fully thy divine emanations by which thou constantly pervadest all these worlds. 17 How may I know thee, O Yogi, by always meditating on thee? In what manifestations, o mighty Lord, mayest thou be thought of by me? 18 Tell me again fully, O Janirdana, thy Yoga and thy perfections (vibhúti); for hearing this nectar I feel no satiety. KRISHNA. 19 Blessings be upon thee! I will make thee acquainted with only the chief of my divine emanations, as the extent of my nature is infinite. 20 I am the self seated in the hearts® of all beings. I am the beginning, the middle, and also the end of all beings. 21 Among the Adityas*I am Vishnu; among shining bodies the resplendent sun. I am Marichis among the Maruts, and the moon among the constellations. 22 Among the Vedas I am the Sáma-Veda ; I am Indra among the gods; of the senses I am the manas ; in living beings, the intellect (buddhi). 23 I am Sankara' among the Rudras, and Vittesa among the Yakshas and Rákshasas. Of the Vasus' I am Pávaka (fire) ; of mountain peaks I am Meru. 24 Amongst domestic priests know that I am Vrihaspati; amongst warriors. I am Skanda, and amongst waters I am the ocean. 25 I am Bhrigu amongst the great Rishis; and of words the syllable (OM). Of sacrifices, I am the japalo sacrifice; amongst firmly-fixed (mountains) the Himalaya. 26 Among the trees I am aswattha, and of divine Rishis Nárada; of Gandharvas!! I am Chitraratha; among the perfect ones the Muni Kapila. 27 Know that amongst 1 Descendants of Dánu, said to be demons of the air. A nanio of Krishna, explained as extirpator of the wicked ;" or "vexer of his foos." 8 Tho soul, usually said to be the size of tho thumb, is supposed to bo seated in the heart. 4 Solar deities. & Tho chief of the Maruts or storm gods. In Manu i. 25 ho is one of the ten progenitors of gods and men. 6 The 27 Nakshatras or lunar mansions travorscd by the moon. 7 A name of Siva, called at an early period Rudra, the father of the Rudras, ropresenting storms. 8 A name of Kuvora, the god of wcalth. Ho is chief of the demons who guard his treasures. Eight inforior gods, attendants of Indra. Their names mean water, wind, fire, &o. 10 Silent meditation or prayer. 11 Musicians of the gods. 18 Kapila was the author of the Sánkhya system of philosophy. 19 60 9 ·36 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. horses I am Uchchaihsravas,' born of amrita ; of elephants, Airavata, and among men, the king. 28 Among weapons I am the vajra (thunderbolt) ; of cows the Kámaduk; I am the progenitor Kandarpa ;* of serpents I'am Vásuki. 20 Among Nága snakes I am Ananta; among beings of the waters, Varuna. Of the Pitris I am Aryama,and of judges, Yama. 80 Among the Daityas I am Prahláda; of things that measure, I am Kála (time). Of wild beasts I am the lord of beasts (lion or tiger) ; and Vainateya of birds. 81 Of purifiers I am the wind; of those that bare weapons, Ráma. Of fishes I am Makara," and of rivers I am the Ganges. 32 Of emanations (creations) I am the beginning and the end, and also the middle. Among sciences I am the science of Adhyatman; of orators I am Speech. 88 I am the letter A among letters; the dwandwas in compound words; I am also endless Time; I am the Supporter whose face turns everywhere. 34 I am Death that seizes all, and the Origin of all to come; among female words I am Fame, Fortune, Speech, Memory, Intelligence, Constancy, and Patience. 35 Among the songs of the Sáma Veda I am the Vrihatsáman, the Gayatrí among metres; of months I am the Margasirsha;' and of seasons the flowery Spring. 36 Of cheats I am the game of Dice and the Splendour of the splendid. I am Victory, I am Perseverance, I am the Goodness of the good. 37 of the race of Vrishni I am Vásudeva, º of the Pándavas the Subduer of wealth, (Arjuna). Of the munis I am Vyása, and of wise men, Usana," the sage. 88 I am the Rod of those who restrain, and the Policy of those who wish to conquer. Of secret things I am Silence, and Knowledge of those who know. 89 I am, in like manner, O Arjuna, that which is the seed of all things in nature ; and there is not any thing, movable or immovable, that can exist without ine. 40 My divine perfections are without end, and the many which I have mentioned are only by way of example. 41 And learn, O Arjuna, that every thing which is worthy of distinction and pre-eminence, is the produce of a portion of my glory. 42 But what, 0 Arjana, hast thou to do with this manifold wisdom? I stand supporting all this by only a single part of myself. Ocean. 1 The name of the horse supposed to be created when the gods churned the He became the horse of Indra, as Airávata was his olephant. Káma, the god of love. a Tho king of the sorpents in Pátála, who was coiled round the mountain Mandara at the churning of the ocean. Originally the lord of heaven and earth ; afterwards lord of the waters. The chief of the ancient fathers. • Vishnu's bird, tho Garuda. 7 A sea monster on which Varuna rides, 8 The copulativo compound. Part of November and Decembor. 10 A name of Krishna, descended from Vrishni of the Yadava raco. 11 Usana was the teacher of the Asuras, the tutor of Bali.

·LECTURE XI. LECTURE XI. "THE MANIFESTATION OF THE UNIVERSAL FORM." ARJUNA. 1 This discourse of the supreme mystery, called Adhyatma, which thou hast spoken for my benefit, bath taken away my délusion. 2 I have heard from thee, O lotus-eyed, & full account of the creation, and destruction of all things, and also of the mightiness of thy inexhaustible spirit... & According as thou declarest thyself to be, O supreme Lord ! I desire to see thy form as Ishwara, O best of beings. If thou thinkest that it may be beheld by me, O Lord of Yoga, show me thy imperishable self. KRISHNA. 5 Behold my forms, by hundreds, and by thousands, various, heavenly, diverse in colour and shape. 6 See the Adityas,' Vašus, Rudrag, the two Aswins and the Maruts also. See wonders, in numbers never seen before. 7 Behold, in this my body, the whole world animate and inanimate, andul things else thou hast a mind to see. 8 But as thou art unable to see with these thy natural eyes, I give thee a divine eye. Behold my divine mystery. SANJAYA. 9 Having thus spoken, O King, Hari, the great Lord of Yoga, shewed to Arjuna his supreme form as Ishwara. .10 With many mouths and eyes, with many wonderful sights, with many heavenly ornaments, bearing many heavenly weapons ; 11 wearing heavenly garlands and vestments, anointed with heavenly unguents, that all-marvellous (form) shining, boundless, whose face is turned on every side. 12 If the lustre of a thousand suns were to burst forth at once in the sky, that would be like the splendour of that mighty One. 18 There the son of Pandu then beheld in the body of the God of gods, the whole universe in one, and divided into many parts. 14 Then Dhananjayat was overwhelmed with wonder, and his hair was raised on end. He bowed down his head before the God, and thus addressed him with joined hands. ARJUNA. 16 O God, within thy body I see all the gods, as also all the varied hosts of living beings and the Lord Brahmá seated on his 1 The Adityas were twelve solar deities represonting the months of the year. *The Aswins were sons of the Sun. The Maruts were the storm gods, the brothors of Indra. * Conqueror of wealth.

·38 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. 17 I see lotus-throne, and all the Rishis, celestial snakes. ,16 I see thee, of countless forms, possessed of many arms, stomachs, mouths, and eyes on all sides; but I can neither discover thy beginning, thy middle, nor thy end, 0 universal Lord of all forms: thee with a crown, and armed with mace and discus, a mass of glory, darting refulgent beanis around. I see thee, difficult to be seen, shining on all sides with light immeasurable, like the burning fire or glorious sun. 18 Thou art the Supreme Being, incorruptible, worthy to be known! Thou art the prime Supporter of the universel Thou art the neverfailing and eternal Guardian of religion! Thou art from all beginning, and I esteem thee the everlasting Cause. 19 I see thee without beginning, without middle, and without end; of valour infinite; of arins innumerable; the sthn and moon thy eyes; thy mouth a blazing fire, and the whole world shining with thy reflected glory! 20 The space between the heavens and the earth is possessed by thee alone, and every point around: the three worlds, O mighty Spirit ! behold the wonders of thy awful countenance with troubled minds. 21 Of the celestial hosts, some I see fly to thee for refuge; whilst some, afraid, with joined hands sing forth thy praise. The Maharshis and Siddhas cry “Swasti,"* glorifying thy name with abundant songs of praise. 22 The Rudras and Adityas, the Vasus, the Sádhyas," the Viswas, the two Afwins, the Maruts, the Ushiapas,* with the groups of Gandharvas, Yakshas, Demons, and Siddhas all stand gazing on thee amazed. 28 Seeing thy mighty form, with many mouths and eyes; with many arms, legs, and feet; with many stomachs and jaws set with fearful teeth; the worlds alike with me are terrified. 24 When I see thee, touching the heavens and shining with such glory; of such various hues, with widely-opened mouths, and bright expanded eyes, I am disturbed within me; my resolution faileth me, and I find no rest. 25 Having beholden thy dreadful teeth,' and gazed on thy countenance, emblem of Time's last fire, ' I know not which way to turn! I find no peace ! Have mercy then, O God of gods! thou mansion of the universe ! 26 & 27 The sons of Dritarashtra now, with all those rulers of the land, Bhishma, Drona, the son of Súta,' and even the fower of our army, seem to be precipitating themselves hastily into thy mouths, Deified morals, learned in the Vedas, said to be 88,000 in number, 2 Welfare! may it be well! 3 An order of inferior gods. 4 A class of pitris. 5 The world at the end of a kalpa is dostroyed by fire, which the serpent Ananta casts from his mouth. Súta means charioteer. Karna's fostor fathor was the charioteer of Dri. tarashtra. He was really the eldest brother of the Pandavas, but was brought up as & charioteor, ·LEOTURE XI. 39 tremendous-toothed ! whilst some appear to stick between thy teeth with their heads smashed. 28 As the rapid streams of full-flowing rivers roll on to meet the ocean's bed; even so these heroes of the human race rush on towards thy flaming mouths. 29. As troops of insects, with increasing speed, seek their own destruction in the flaming fire; even so these people, with swelling fury, seek their own destruction. 30 Swallowing all these people, thou lickest them from every side into thy flaming mouths. The whole universe, Vishnu, is burning with thy fierce rays. 31 Reverence be unto thee, thou most exalted ! Deign to make known to me who thou art in this awful form. I wish to know thy primal life, for this, thy form evolved, I cannot understand. KRISHNA. 32 I am Time, the destroyer of the worlds, made manifest to slay the human race. Except thyself, not one of all these warriors arrayed against us, in these numerous ranks, shall live. 33 Wherefore, arise I seek honor and renown! defeat the foe, and enjoy the ample kingdom! They are already, as it were, destroyed by me. Be thou alone the immediate agent, left-handed one. 34 Be not dismayed! Kill Drona, and Bhishma and Jayadratha' and Karna, and all the other heroes of the war already killed by me. Fight! and thou shalt defeat thy rivals in the fielă. SANJAYA. 85 When he who weareth a coronet (Arjuna) heard these words of Kesava, he saluted him with joined hands; and addressed him in broken accents, and bowed down terrified before him. ARJUNA. 86 The universe, O Krishna, rejoiceth because of thy renown, and is filled with zeal for thy service. The Rákshasas are terrified and flee on all sides; whilst the Siddhas bow down in adoration before thee. 37 And wherefore should they not, O supreme Soul ! bow down before thee, who, greater than Brahmå art the first Cause ! eternal God of gods! the world's abode ! Thou art indestructible Being, that which is, that which is not, and what is beyond them.* 38 Thou art the First of gods, the ancient Purusha, the supreme Supporter of 1 This is a sign of their approaching doath. a Kála, time or death. In the Atharva Veda, Kala is considered a god, and hymns are addressed to him. In the Vishnu Purána, Timo is a portion of Vishnu. Telang, following Ananda, translates tho word as death. 3 King of the Sindhavas, on the Indus. He was killed by Arjuna after the death of Bhishma. 4 Sat, asat, tat. Different explanations are given of these words.

·40 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. the universe. Thou art the Knower and the Known, the supreme Mansion ; by thee, O infinite Form, the universe is pervaded, Thou art Váyu, Yama, Agni, Varuna, the Moon, Prajapati,? and Grandsire. Hail to thee, a thousand times all hail. Again and yet again, all hail to thee. 40 Hail to thee from before, hail to thee from behind, hail to thee from all sides, O mighty All. Infinite is thy power and glory. Thou pervadest' all things, wherefore thou art all things. 41 If thinking thee my friend I cried lightly, 0 Krishnal 0 Yadava,' or O Friend ! not knowing thy greatness, and careless in the fondness of my love; 42 if jesting I have shown you' disrespect at play, sleeping, sitting or at meals, alone, O sinless One, or with others, pardon me, O Being inconceivable. 48 Thou art the Father of all things animate and inanimate; thou art the sage Instructor of the whole, worthy to be adored ! There is none like unto thee; where, then in the three worlds, is there one above thee? 44 Wherefore I bow down; and, with my body prostrate upon the ground, crave thy mercy, Lord ! worthy to be adored; for thou shouldst bear with me, even as a father with his son, a friend with his friend, a lover with his beloved. 45 I am well pleased with having beheld things hefore never seen; yet my mind is overwhelmed with fear. Have mercy, then, O heavenly Lord ! O mansion of the universe ! and show me thy celestial form. 46 I wish to behold thee with the diadem on thy head, and thy hands armed with mace and discus; assume then, O God of a thousand arms and endless forms, thy four-armed form. KRISHNA 47 Well pleased, 0 Arjuna, I have shown thee, by my mystic power, this my supreme form, universal, glorious, infinite, and eternal, which was never seen by any one except thyself ; 48 For no one, O valiant Kuru ! in the three worlds, except thyself, can such a sight of me obtain ; nor by the Vedas, nor sacrifice, nor profound study; nor by charitable gifts, nor by deeds, nor by the most severe mortifications of the flesh. 49 Having beholden my form, thus awful, be not disturbed, nor let thy faculties be confounded. Relieved from thy fears, and thy mind restored to peace, behold again my own familiar form. SANJAYA. 50 Vásudeva, having thus spoken unto Arjuna, showed him again bis natural form; and having re-assumed his milder shape, he presently assuaged the fears of the affrighted Arjuna. The god of the wind. 2. Lord of Oreatures,' progenitor, Orostor, • Krishna, as a man, belonged to the Yadava race.

·LECTURE XII. 41 ARJUNA, 51 Having beheld thy gentle human shape, I am again collected; my mind is no more disturbed, and I am once more restored to my natural state. KRISHNA. 52 Thou hast beholden this my marvellous shape, so very difficult to be seen, which even the gods are constantly anxious to behold. 53 But I am not to be seen, as thou hast seen me, even by the assistance of the Vedas, austerities, by, sacrifices, by charitable gifts ; 64 but I am to be seen, to be known in truth, and entered into by means of that worship which is offered up to me alone; 55 and he cometh unto me whose works are done for me, who esteemeth me supreme; who is my servant only ; who is free from attachment, and who liveth amongst all men without batred. LECTURE XII. " THE YOGA OF WORSHIP." ARJUNA. 1 of those thy.servants who are always thus employed, which know Yoga best ? those who worship thee as thou now art; or those who serve thee in thy unınanifested and imperishable nature ?" KRISHNA. 2 Those who having placed their minds in me, serve me with constant zeal, and are endued with steady faith, are esteemed the best devoted (yuktamás). 3 & 4 They too who, delighting in the welfare of all nature, serve me in my incorruptible, ineffable, and invisible form; all-pervading, incomprehensible, dwelling on high, fixed and immovable, with subdued passions and mind (buddhi), equal-minded to all around, shall also come unto me. 6 Those whose minds are attached to the Unmanifested have the greater labour to encounter; because the path of the Unmanifested is difficult to be found by embodied beings. 6 They also who, preferring me, renounce all works for me, and, free from the worship of all others, contemplate and serve me alone. ? I presently raise them up from the ocean of this world of death, whose minds are thus attached to me. 8 Place, then, thy 1 Those who worship Brahma in some natural form and those who worship him in his higher spiritual nature. In the first form he iş vyakta, manifested; in the other avyakta, unmanifested. The spiritual worship is the higher, but it is too difficult for the mass of mankind.Davies. 6 ·THE BHAGAVAD GITA. heart on me, let thy mind be stayed on me, and thou shalt, without doubt, hereafter enter unto me. 9 But if thou shouldst be unable, at once, steadfastly to fix thy mind on me, endeavour to find me by means of frequent devotion. 10 If thou art not equal to frequent devotion, then perform works for my sake; for by performing works with me for their object, thou shalt attain perfection. 11 But shouldst thou find thyselfunequal to this task, put thy trust in me alone, be of humble spirit, and renounce the fruit of action. 12 Knowledge is better than practice; meditation is better than knowledge; and renouncing the fruit of works than meditation; on renunciation peace follows close. 13 & 14 He my servant is dear unto me, who is free from enmity, the friend of all nature, merciful, exempt from pride and egoism, the same in pain and pleasure, patient of wrongs, contented, constantly devout, of subdued passions, and firm resolves, and whose heart and mind are fixed on me alone, 15 He also is my beloved of whom mankind are not afraid, and who of mankind is not afraid : and who is free from the influence of joy, impatience, and the dread of harm. 16 He my servant is dear unto me who wants nothing, is just and pure, impartial, free from distraction of mind, and who hath renounced every enterprsie. 17 He also is worthy of my love, who neither rejoiceth nor findeth fault; whoneither lamenteth nor coveteth, and, being my servant, hath renounced both good and evil. 1819 He also is my beloved servant, who is the same to friend and foe, in honor and in dishonor, in cold and in heat, in pain and pleasure; who is unsolicitous about the event of things; to whom praise and blame are as one; who is silent, and pleased with whatever cometh to pass; homeless and who is of a steady mind. But those devotees who, endowed with faith, attend at the (banquet of) this sacred nectar, making me their highest aim and worshipping me, these are the dearest to me. . LECTURE XIII. • YOGA OF THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE KSHETRA3 AND THE KSHETRAJNA." (Here the third part of the Poem begins, treating, in part, of the physical theory of the Sankhya Systern.) KRISANA. 2 Learn that by the word Kshetra is implied this body, and that he who is acquainted with it is called Kshetrajna. 8 Know that 1 Ahankdra, self-consciousness, the feoling that this is I, or that is mine. 2 These are the dearest who meditate upon the Supreme as a pure spirit. * Kshetra means literally field; hence matter, as that which is objective to the soul. Kshetrajna means matter-knowing, the soul.

·LECTURE XIII. 43 11 I am that Kshetrajna in every mortal frame. The knowledge of the Kshetra and the Kshetrajna is by me esteemed knowledge (indeed). Now hear what that Kshetra is, what it resembleth, what are its different parts, what it proceedeth from, who he is who knowoth it, and what are its powers. 5 Each hath been manifoldly sung by Rishis in various measures, and in well-thought-out Brahma-sútras, full of argument. & The great elements,' egoism (ahankára), intellect (buddhi), the unmanifested (Prakriti), the ten senses, the one (organ, the manas), and the five objects of sense; desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, body, thought, courage, these are briefly described as the kshetra in its modified forms. 7 Humility, sincerity, harmlessness, patience, honesty, service to & preceptor, purity, constancy, self-restraint, 8 indifference towards objects of sense, and absence of self-consciousness; perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease, 'freedom from attachment, indifference towards son, wife, home and the rest, and constant equanimity in desired or undesired events; 10 constant worship of me without meditation on any other; frequenting of solitary places and distaste for assemblages of men; perseverance in acquiring knowledge of the Adhyatma, and perception of the gain that comes from knowledge of the truth ; this is called knowledge; that is ignorance which is opposed to this. 12 I will now tell thee that which is the object of knowledge, knowing, which inmortality is gained; the supreme Brahma, without beginning, neither existent (sat) por non-existent (asat). 18 It has hands and feet on all sides; it has eyes, heads; and faces, and ears, on all sides; it pervades everything in the world. 14 Without the senses, but possessing all the knowledge derived from them; unattached, yet sustaining all things; free from the influence of the three) qualities, yet possessing every quality. 15 Without and within all beings; motionless and yet moving; undiscernible through its subtlety; afar and yet near. 16 It is undivided, yet in all things it standeth divided. It is to be known as the sustainer of all things; it is that which now destroyeth, and now produceth. 17 It is the right of lights, and it is declared to be beyond darkness. It is wisdom, that which is the object of wisdom, and that which is to be obtained by wisdom; and is placed in the hearts of all. 18 Thus hath been briefly described what is kshetra, knowledge, and the object of knowledge. He who worshippeth me 2 3 1 Karth, fire, water, sound, and other. * Different explanations are given of those terms. One is that sat means th: vyakta (manifested), and axat the aryakta (unmanifested). 8 Every thing being really one, the various manifostations of the Brahman are really one in essence.-Telang. At the end of a Kalpa.

·44 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. 3 knowing this is fitted to become one with me. 19 Learn that both Prakriti and Purusha are without beginning, and know that all developments' and their qualities spring from Prakriti. 20 Prakriti is said to be the cause of the activity of the organs of action; Purusha is called the cause of the sensation of pleasure and pain. 21 For Purusha, when joined with Prakriti, experiences the influence of the qualities which spring from Prakriti. " Its connection with these qualities is the cause of its birth in a good or evil womb. 22 The supreme Purusha in this body is called observer, director, protector, partaker, the great Lord, and the supreme self also. 28 He who knoweth this Purusha and the Prakriti, together with the qualities, to be even so as I have described them, however living, he is not again subject to mortal birth. 34 Some by meditation see the SELF in the self, by the SELF; others by the Sánkhya-yoga, and others by the Karma-yoga. 25 Others again, who are not acquainted with this, but have heard it from others, worship. But even these, who act but from the report of others, pass beyond the gulf of death. 26 Know, O chief of the race of Bhárata, that every thing which is produced in nature, whether animate or inanimate, is produced from the union of Kshetra and Kshetrajna, (matter eæd spirit). 27 He who seeth the Supreme Lord dwelling alike in all beings, and not destroyed though they are destroyed, seeth indeed. 28 Forhe who seeth the Lord abiding everywhere alike doth not destroy himself by himself, and thus goeth to the supreme self. 29 He who seeth that works are wrought in every case by Prakriti, and that therefore the soul is not the doer, seeth indeed. 30 When he seeth that the varied natures of beings exist in One,* and proceed from it, then he becometh one with Brahma. 31 This eternal Supreme Spirit, without beginning, without qualities, doth not act, and is not soiled even when it is embodied. 32 As the all-pervading akásha is not soiled through its subtlety, so the soul stationed everywhere in the body is not soiled. 33 As a single sun illuminateth the whole world, so the Kshetrajna lighteth up the whole Kshetra. 84 Those who by the eye of knowledge thus understand the difference between Kshetra (matter) and Kshetrajna (spirit, matter-knowing) and the deliverance of beings from Prakriti, go to the Supreme. 6 1 Developmonts=body, senses, &c. Qualities =plcasure, pain, &c.--Telang. 3" Though he may have transgressod rules.".--Telang, 3 Meditation, fixing the mind oxclusively on the soul. 'Seo the self,' i.e., the soul ; in the self,' within themselvos; by the self,' by the mind. Sankhya-yoga = belief that qualities are distinct from the self, which is only a passive spectator of their operations. Karma-yoga dodication of actions to the Suprome.--Telang. 4 Absorbed in one at the end of a Kalpa, and proceoding from it at the time of creation. s The soul is not connected with the bodily faults of tho gunay, and has therefore no guilt upon it. 6 The soul becoming froo from all contact with mattor on attaining mukti.

·LECTURE XIV. 45 LECTURE XIV. “ YOGA BY SEPARATION FROM THE THREE GUNAS.” KRISHNA. 1 I will now reveal unto thee the most sublime knowledge, superior to all others, which having learnt, all the munis have passed from it to supreme perfection. 2 Having acquired this knowledge, they enter into my nature and are not born again when a kalpa begins, nor disturbed at the general dissolution. The mighty Brahmat is my womb. In it I place my foetus; and from it cometh all things that exist. 4 The mighty Brahma is the womb of all those various forms which are conceived in every natural womb, and I am the father who soweth the seed. 5 There are three gunas arising from Prakriti : Sattwa (goodness), Rajas (passion), and Tamas (darkness); and each of them confineth the incorruptible spirit in the body. 6Of these goodness, because of its purity, is clear and free from defect, and entwineth the soul with the bond of happiness and knowledge. 7 Know that passion, being of the nature of desire, bindeth the soul with the oond of action. But know that darkness, born of ignorance, deludeth all embodied souls, and bindeth them by heedlessness, idleness, and sleep. 'Goodness bindeth by pleasure; passion by action ; but darkness, having shrouded knowledge, bindeth by folly. 10 When passion and darkness have been overcome, goodness remaineth ;when passion and goodness, then darkness ; when darkness and goodness, then passion (remaineth). 11 When the bright light of knowledge prevaileth at all the gates of the body, one may know that goodness is matured. 12 Avarice, activity, undertaking of works, restlessness, desire, are produced from the prevalency of passion. 13 Darkness, inertness,* stupidity and delusion are produced when darkness is matured. 14 If a mortal meeteth death when goodness prevaileth, he goeth to the spotless worlds of those who know the highest. 15 Encountering death when passion prevaileth, he is born amongst those who are attached to the fruits of their actions; if he depart when darkness prevaileth, he is born in the wombs of the ignorant." 16 The fruit of a good action is said to be goodness and to be spotless; the fruit of passion is pain; and the fruit of darkness is ignorance. 17 From goodness is produced knowledge; from passion, avarice; and from 1 Prakriti is tho womb. * Thcy bind it to bodily conditions in a new birth, preventing it from attaining absorption. 8 The effects of each quality assort themselves, when the other two are held in check.---Telang. 4.“ Doing absolutely nothing."--Telung. 5 Born as a boast, reptilo, &c.

·46 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. darkness, negligence, délusion, and ignorance. 18 Those who are settled in goodness, rise up;' those whose nature is of passion, remain in the middle; while the dark, who abide in a state of vile qualities, go down. 19 When the seer perceiveth no agent except the gunas, and knoweth what is above the gunas, he entereth into my being. 20 When the embodied (self) hath passed beyond the three gunas, from which all bodies have sprung, then, freed from birth, death, old age, and pain, it drinketh the nectar of amrita. ARJUNA. 21 By what marks is it known that a man hath passed over these three gunas ? What is bis practice? What are the means by which he overcometh them? KRISHNA. 22 He, O son of Pandu, who hateth not brightness, activity, nor even delusion, when they come upon him, nor longeth for them when they disappear ;8 28 who, like one who is of no party, is unagitated by the gunas, who standeth apart and wavereth not, thinking merely that the gunas are now in action. 24 He to whom pleasure and pain are alike, self-contained, to whom a cled a stone, and gold are alike; the same to things loved and unloved ; firm; to whom praise and blame are equal ; 25 the same in honour and disgrace; who regardeth friend and foe alike; who renounceth all action; such a one hath surmounted the gunas. 26 And he who serveth me alone by the yoga of devotion, having overcome the influence of the gunas, is fit for absorption into Brahma. 27 For I am the abode of Brahma, of imperishable ambrosia, of eternal dharma, and of complete happiness. 3 LECTURE XV. " YOGA IN ATTAINING PURUSHOTTAMA." 1 They say that the eternal Aswatthas hath its roots above, its branches below, its leaves are hymns; he who knoweth it, knoweth the Vedas. 2Its branches shoot forth upwards and downwards, nourished by the gunas ; its buds are the objects of the Bom as gods; "middle," as men; "down," as brutes. *“ Who does not feel troubled, for instance, thinking 'now I am sotuated by a motion of passion or darkness, and so forth."--Telang, a Krishna claims to be Brahma. The word means "the best of men," but hero the "supromo soul" is to be understood. It is a title of Vishnu. The sacred fig tree. Telang supposes Aswattha to denote the course of worldly life. The roots which extend downwards are the desires for various enjoyments. Davios supposes it to contain an attack on the authority of the Vedas. A passive state of indifference to all worldly interests is superior to the observance of the Vodic ritos.

·LECTURE XV. 47 senses its roots grown downwards, the bonds of action in the world of men. 8, 4 Its form is not to be known here, neither its beginning, nor its end, nor its nature. When a man hath cut down this Aswattha, whose root is so firmly fixed, with the strong axe of non-attachment, from that time, that place is to be sought from whence there is no return for those who find it; I refer to that original Purusha whence the eternal stream emanated. 5. Those who are free from pride and delusion, who have conquered the evil of attachment, who are always devoted to the Adhyatma, who have overcome desire, who are liberated from the pairs of opposites, known as pleasure and pain, go undeluded to the eternal geat. 6. Neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the fire enlighteneth that place from whence there is no return; that is my supreme abode. 7 An eternal portion of me having become an individual soul in the world of mortals, draweth to itself the five senses, with manas as the sixth, placed in Prakriti. 8Whenever the Lord entereth or abandoneth a body, these he taketh with him, as the wind doth the odour of flowers. 9 He presideth over the organs of hearing, seeing, feeling, tasting, and smelling, together with the manas, and enjoyeth the objects of the senses. 10 Those who are deluded do not see him when he departeth or stayeth; nor when connected with the gunas, he enjoyeth; but those who have the eyes of knowledge perceive. 11 Yogis, intent thereon, see him abiding within their selfs;. whilst those of unformed minds and weak judgments, fail although they try. 12 Know that the light which proceedeth from the sun, and illuminateth the whole world, and the light which is in the moon, and in the fire, are mine. 19 Entering the earth, I support all things by my energy, and having become the fragrant Soma, I nourish all plants. 14 Becoming fire and dwelling in the bodies of all creatures, and united with the upward and downward breaths, I cause digestion of the fivefold food. 15 I am placed in the heart of all; from me come memory, knowledge, and reason, I alone am to be learnt from all the Vedas, I am the author of the Vedantas, and I alone know the Vedas. 16 In this world there are two existences, the Perishable and the Imperishable. The Perishable includes all living things. The Imperishable is called * The unchanging.” 17 But there is another, The linga sarira (the subtle body) goes with the soul in its migrations. 2 Translated the "watery moon. ." According to the Puranas, rain comes from the moon. 3.What is drunk, what is licked, what is chewed, and what is eaten without chewing. * Telang supposes the reference to be to the Aranyakas, as the Vedantas were not written til after the Bhagavad Gítá. Davies supposes that the verse may be a lator addition, ·48 THE BHAGAVAD GITA, the highest existence, called the supreme Spirit, who as the eternal Lord (Iswara) pervadeth the three worlds and supporteth them, 18 Since I excel the Perishable and am higher than even the Imperishable, I am celebrated in the world and in the Vedas as the best of beings (Purushottama).' He who is not deluded and knoweth me to be thus, the Supreme Existence, he, knowing all, worshippeth me in every way. 19 Thus, 0 Arjuna, have I made known unto thee this most mysterious doctrine; and he who understandeth it shall be a wise man, and the performer of all that is fit to be done. LECTURE XVI. « THE YOGA OF DIVISION BETWEEN GODS AND ASURAS." 1 Fearlessness, purity of heart, steadfastness in the Yoga of wisdom, almsgiving, self-restraint, and sacrifice, study of the Vedas, austerity, uprightness, 3 harmlessness, truth, freedom from anger, renunciation, tranquillity, kindness, universal compassion, absence of desire, mildness, modesty, gravity, 3 courage, patience, firmness, chastity, freedom from vindictiveness and vanity; these & his who is born with divine qualities. 4 Deceit, pride, self-conceit, anger, and also harshness and ignorance are his who is born with demoniac (Asuric) qualities. 5 Divine qualities are deemed to be for fiberation; the demoniac for bondage.” Grieve not, O son of Bharata, thou art born with divine qualities. There are two kinds of beings in this world, the divine, and the demoniac. The divine hath been fully explained. Hear from me what is the demoniac. 7Demoniac persons know not action or inaction ;' no purity or good conduct or truth is found in them. 8“ The world,” they say, "is without truth, devoid of order or a ruler, produced by union (of the sexes), caused by lust, and nothing else.”+ 9Fixed in this view, those ruined souls, of little understanding and cruel in deeds, are born for the destruction of the world. 10 Entertaining insatiable desires, full of deceit, vanity and folly, they hold false notions through delusion, and lead impure lives. 11 Indulging in numberless thoughts ending in death, given up to the enjoyment of objects of desires, feeling sure that that is all. 12 Bound by the hundred bands of hope, and placing all their trust in lust and anger, they seek by injustice the accumulation of wealth, for the gratification of their lusts. This, to-day, bath been acquired by me. I shall obtain " that desire of my heart. This wealth I have, and that shall I The three existence are Prakriti, Brahmá, and the Supreme Spirit Brahma. Birth and death in this world. 3 What should be dono, and what should not be done. They deny the existence of a creator, and say that lust is the cause of this worla. 13 « ·LEOTURE XVII. 49 6 have also. 14 This foe have I already slain, and others will I .forthwith vanquish. I am a lord, and I enjoy; I am successful, I am powerful, and I am happy; 15 I am rich, of noble birth, and "where is there another like unto me? I will sacrifice, I will give 'alms, and be merry." In this manner do these men talk, deluded by ignorance. 16 Surrounded by the net of delusion, devoted to the enjoyment of their desires, they fall down into an impure hell (Naraka). 17 Being self-conceited, stubborn, and ever in pursuit of wealth and pride, they offer, with hypocrisy, lip-sacrifices and not according to divine ordination; 18 devoted to egotism, violence, lust and anger, these revilers hate me in their own bodies and in those of others. 19 These men, hating (me), cruel, the vilest of mankind, impure, I cast down perpetually into the wombs of asuras. 20 Having entered demoniac wombs, deluded in every birth, they go down to the vilest state without ever coming to me. 21 The threefold gate of helllust, wrath, and avarice--is the ruin of the soul; therefore let every man renounce these three. 22 The man released from these three ways to darkness, worketh out his own welfare, and thus proceedeth to the highest goal. 23 He who abandoneth the ordinances of the Sástras, tu follow the dictates of his lusts, attaineth neither perfection, happiness, nor the highest goal. 24 Therefore let the Sástras be thy, rule in determining what is to be done or left undone. Knowing what is declared by the ordinances of Scripture, so oughtest thou to act. LECTURE XVII. "YOGA BY THE THREEFOLD KINDS OF FAITH." ARJUNA. 1 What is the state of these men who offer sacrifice and worship with faith, yet neglect the precepts of the Sástras? Is it one of "Goodness," "Passion," or " Darkness?” 66 KRISHNA. 2 The faith of the embodied is threefold, each born of its own nature. It is "good," passionate," or "dark" in kind. Hear what these are: 3 The faith of every one agrees with his nature. Whatever is a man's faith, that is a man himself.3 4 Men of goodness worship the Devas; men of passion, Yakshas and Rákshasas; men of darkness, Pretas and Bhútas. * 5 Men who 1" There is trouble to oneself in sacrifices, and to the animals killed for them." ----Telang. 2 A man's swabháva, or individual nature, is supposed to arise from his actions in a former birth. 8 A man's faith or belief, shows his character. Foul demons frequenting graveyards or burning grounds. 7 ·50 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. 13 >> practise severe austerities, not authorised by the Sástra, full of hypocrisy and self-conceit, full of lust, passion, and violence. Those fools torturing the groups of organs in the body, and me also seated in the body; know that these have a demoniac tendency. 7 There are three kinds of food which are dear unto all men; so also are sacrifice, austerity, and almsgiving. Hear what are their distinctions. 8 The food that is dear unto the "good" is such as increases their length of days, their power and their strength, and keeps them free from sickness, happy, and contented. It is pleasing to the palate, nourishing, permanent, and congenial to the body. 9 Men of "passion ” desire bitter, sour, saline, over-hot, pungent, harsh, inflaming foods, causing pain, grief, and sickness. 10 That which is stale, tasteless, putrid and corrupt, leavings also and filth, is the food dear to men of “darkness. 11 That sacrifice which is directed by divine precept, and is performed without the desire of reward, as necessary to be done, and with an attentive mind, is "good.” 12 The sacrifice which is performed with a view to the fruit and for ostentation is “passionate." 13 The sacrifice which is performed against the recepts of (scripture), without the distribution of food, without the usual invocations, without gifts to the Brahmans, and without faith, is dark." Respect to the gods, Brahmans, Gurus, and the wise, with purity, rectitude, life as a Brahmachárin, and innocence, are called the austerity of the body. 15 Speech that causes no agitation, which is truthful, pleasant and good, with the constant recitation of the Sástras, is called the austerity of speech. 16 Calmness of mind, equanimity, silence, self-control, and purity of nature, these are called the austerity of the heart (manas). 17 This threefold austerity practised by devout men in perfect faith, who long not for the fruit of action, is called "good.” 18The austerity which is done for the sake of gaining respect, honour, and reverence, and with hypocrisy, is called "passion-born": it is uncertain and transitory. 19 That austerity is called " dark” which is done for a foolish purpose, for the torture of one's self, or to destroy another. 20The gift which is bestowed by the disinterested, because it is proper to be given, in due place and season, and to proper objects, is good. 21 That which is given in expectation of a retum, or for the sake of the fruit of the action, and with reluctancy, is passionate.' 22 That which is given out of place and season, and to unworthy objects, and, at the same time, ungraciously and scornfully, is pronounced to be “ dark." 23 OM, TAT and Sat are said to be the threefold designation of Brahma. By That Brahmans, the Vedas, and sacrifices were created of old. 24 Hence Om is always uttered by those who know 14 ·LEOTURE XVIII. 51 Brahma at the beginning of sacrifice, alms, and austerity ordained by rule: 25 TAT' (that) is said when the various kinds of sacrifice, austerity, and alms are done without expectation of fruit by those who desire emancipation. 26 SAT is employed to denote truth and goodness. It is also used in the sense of a praiseworthy act. 28. Whatever is performed without faith, whether it be sacrifice, deed of charity, or austerity, is called Asat ;3 and is of no account for this world or that which is above. LECTURE XVIII. " THE YOGA OF LIBERATION BY RENUNCIATION." (In this chapter the author asserts again some of the leading doctrines of the Yoga School.---(Davies.) ARJUNA. 1 I wish much to comprehend the true nature of abandonment (sannyása) and also of renunciation (tyága), each separately. KRISHNA. 2 By abandonment the wise understood the rejection of actions done with desire; the wise call the forsaking of the fruit of works renunciation. 3 Some wise men declare that (all) action should be abandoned as an evil; others that works of sacrifice, almsgiving, and austerity, are not to be given up. Sacrifices, alms, and austerities, are the purification of the wise. 4 It is my certain opinion and decree, that such works are absolutely to be performed, leaving aside attachment and fruit. 5 The abandonment of works which are appointed to be performed, is improper. The forsaking of them, through folly and distraction of mind, ariseth from the influence of darkness. 6 The forsaking of a work because it is painful, and from the dread of bodily affliction, ariseth from passion, and he who thus leaveth undone what he ought to do, shall not obtain the fruit of forsaking. 8 The work which is performed because it is appointed and esteemed necessary to be done, and with a forsaking of the consequences and the hope of a reward, is, with such forsaking, declared to be good. 10 The renouncer endowed with goodness, free from doubts, hath no aversion for an unprosperous work, and no attachment for 1 Tat, That, as used in Tat twam asi, Thou art that, means the whole universe; but more strictly it denotes the absolute existence of all things in Brahma. 2 Sat denotos “that which is"'--the sum of existing things. According to Sankara, it is employed at the birth of a son, marriago, &c. The use of these terms is said to oure apy defects in the actions, * Unreal, bad.

·52 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. one that is prosperous. 11 It is impossible for an embodied person to refrain entirely from action ; but he who abandoneth the fruit of action is said to be a renouncer. 12 The threefold fruit of action, wished for, unwished for, and mixed-accrues after death to those who are not possessed of abandonment, but never to renouncers.' 13 Learn from me the five conditions declared in the Sánkhya system as necessary for the completion of every act. 14 The seat of action, the agent, the various organs, the various movements, also, as fifth, the deities. 15 The work which a man undertaketh, either with his body, his speech, or his mind, whether it be lawful or unlawful, hath these five agents engaged in the performance. 16 This being so, the man dull in intellect who regards himself as solely the agent, doth not see rightly. 17 He who hath no feeling of egoism, and whose mind is not tainted, even though he kill (all) these people killeth not, is not bounds (by the action). 18 In the direction of a work are three things : knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the knower. The accomplishment of a work is also threefold : the implement, the action, and the agent. 19 The action and the agent are each distinguished by the influence of the three gunas. Hear in what manner, they are declared to be after the order of the three gunas. 20 That by which one eternal essence is seen in all beings, undivided in the divided, is good. 21 That knowledge is.of passion which sees in all things various existences severally divided. 22 That which is mean, interested in one single object alone as if it were the whole, without any just motive or design, and devoid of truth, is pronounced to be “dark." 23 The action which is appointed by divine precept, is performed free from the thought of its consequences and without passion or despite, by one who hath no regard for the fruit thereof, is “good. 24 The action which is performed by one who is fond of the gratification of his lusts, or by the proud and selfish, and is attended with great effort, is "dark.” 25 The action undertaken from delusion, without any foresight of its evil consequences, to others or to one's self,vis declared to be « dark.”' 26 The agent who is free from attachment and egoism, who is 1 Those who seek no reward in action, desire to be absorbod for over in Brahma. 2 Telang, explains them as follows: Seat of action, the body; the agent, ono who thinks himself the door of actions; the various organs, serses of perception, action, &c.; movements, the vital breaths in the body; the divine part, the deities which preside over the senses. The fifth condition, says Davies, would be admitted only by the theistic branch of the Sánkhya school. s The feeling that he is the doer of the action. The feeling that the fruit of the action must accruo to him. 6 His actions do not bind him to a future birth.

·LECTURE XVIII. 59 99 endued with fortitude and resolution, and is unaffected whether his work succeed or not, is said to be “good." 27. The agent who is passionate, desiring to obtain the fruit of action, who is avaricious, cruel, impure, who feels joy and sorrow, is said to be passionate. 28 The agent who is inattentive, indiscreet, stubborn, dissembling, mischieyous, indolent, melancholy, and dilatory, is dark." 29 Hear also what are the threefold divisions of intellect (buddhi) and firmness, according to the influence of the three gunas, which are about to be explained to thee distinctly and without reserve. 30 The intellect which knoweth action and inaction, what is necessary and what is unnecessary, what is fear and what is not, what is liberation and what is bondage, is good. 81 The intellect which doth not conceive justice and injustice, what is proper and what is iinproper, as they truly are, is passionate. 32 The intellect which, being enwrapped in darkness, mistaketh injustice for justice, and all things contrary to their true intent and meaning, is dark. 33 That steady firmness, with which a man, by Yoga, restraineth every action of the heart, the breath, and the senses, is good. 34 That firmness by which a man desirous of fruit, persisteth in dharma,' in the gratification of his lusts, and the acquisition of wealth, is declared to be passionate. 35 That firmness, by which a man of low capacity departeth not from sloth, fear, grief, melancholy, and folly, is dark. 36 Now hear what is the threefold division of pleasure: That pleasure which a man enjoyeth from his labour, and wherein he findeth the end of his pains ; 37 and that which, in the beginning, is a poison, and in the end as the nectar of immortality, is declared to be good, and to arise from a knowledge of the self. 38 That pleasure which ariseth from the conjunction of the organs with their objects, which in the beginning is as sweet as the nectar of immortality and in the end as a poison, is passionate. 39 That pleasure which in the beginning and the end tendeth to stupefy the soul, and ariseth from drowsiness, idleness, and. stupidity, is pronounced to be dark. 40 There is not anything either in heaven or earth, or amongst the hosts of heaven, which is free from the influence of these three gunas which arise from Prakriti. 41 The duties of Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras have been apportioned according to the qualities born of their own natures. 42 I'ranquillity, self-restraint, austerity (tapas), purity, patience, rectitude, spiritual knowledge, and faith, are the natural 1 Even religious acts (dharma) if done with attachment, do not lead to liber. ation; they are bad as leading to fresh births.

·54 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. duties of a Brahman. 48 Valour, glory, courage, resolution in battle, liberality, and lordly bearing, are the natural duties of a Kshatriya. 44 Agriculture, tending of cattle, and trade form the natural duties of a Vaisya. The natural duty of a Sudra consisteth in service. 45 A man being contented with his own particular lot and duty obtaineth perfection. Hear how that perfection is to be accomplished. 46 The man who maketh an offering of his own works to that Being from whom all beings 'proceed, and by whom the whole universe is pervaded, by that means obtaineth perfection,' 47 Better is one's own work, though faulty, than another's work well performed. He who doeth the work prescribed by nature incurreth no sin. 48 No one should abandon his natural work even though evil, for every work is surrounded by evil as fire by smoke. 49 He whose mind is unattached, self-restrained in every part, in whom desire is dead, obtaineth perfect freedom from action by renunciation. 50 Learn from me briefly how one who hath obtained perfection attaineth to Brahma, the highest knowledge. 51 Gifted with a pure mind, controlling his self by courage, rejecting sound and other objects of sense, casting off love and aversion ; 52 Frequenting lonely places, eating little, restraining speech, body, and heart, vonstantly intent on devotion, 53 free from egoism, violence, pride, lust, wrath, avarice, selfishness, and who is tranquil, -he is fit to be one with Brahma.' 54 Thus comprehending his identity with Brahma, calm in spirit, he grieveth not, wisheth not, being the same to all beings, he attaineth to supreme devotion in me. 55 By this devotion he knoweth me truly who I am, and how great I am. Then having known me truly, he entereth into my essence. 56 Ever. performing all actions, always depending on me, he, through my favour, gaineth the eternal imperishable seat. 57 With thy heart place all thy works on me; prefer me to all things else; given up to the yoga of the mind, think constantly of me; 58 for by doing so thou shalt, by my divine favor, surmount every difficulty which surroundeth thee. But if, through pride, thou wilt not listen unto my words, thou shalt undoubtedly be lost. 59 From a confidence in thy own self-sufficiency, thou mayst think that thou wilt not fight : such is a fallacious determination, for the principles of thy nature will impel thee. 60 Bound by thy own duty, springing from thy nature, thou wilt do even against thy will what through delusion thou desirest to avoid. 61 The Lord, residing in the hearts of all, maketh all things, as if mounted on a machine, revolve by his delusive power. 62 Take refuge in him alone; then by his favour thou shalt obtain supreme happiness, the eternal seat. 1 To be united with him by fixed devotion. 3 The supreme Brahma. 3 Naturo as a Kshatriya. 2 ·LECTURE XVIII. 55 me. 69 Thus have I made known unto thee the highest mystery. Ponder it well in thy mind, and then act as it seemeth best unto thee. 64 Attend now to these my supreme and most mysterious words, which I will now for thy good reveal unto thee, because thou art dearly beloved of me. 85 Devote thy heart to me, be my devotee, sacrifice unto me alone, and bow down humbly before me, and thou shalt verily come unto me. I promise thee truly (for) thou art dear unto me. 66 Forsaking all dharmas, come to me, as thy only refuge. I will release thee from all sins ;' grieve not. 67 This doctrine is never to be revealed by thee to any one who hath not subjected his body by devotion, who is not my servant, who is not anxious to learn; nor unto him who despiseth me. 68 He who shall teach this supreme mystery unto my devotees, having shown this highest devotion for me, shall doubtless come to 69 Nor is there any one among men who is superior to him in doing what is dear to me; nor shall any on earth be dearer to me than he. 70 He also who shall read this holy dialogue of ours, will have offered to me the sacrifice of knowledge. This is my decree. 71 The man, too, who may hear it in faith, without reviling, shall, whon liberated, obtain the happy worlds of the virtuous. 72 Hath what I have been speaking, O Arjuna, been heard with thy mind fixed on one point? Is the delusion which arose from thy ignorance, removed? ARJUNA. 78 By thy Divine favour, my delusion is destroyed, and the holy doctrine has been received by me. I am now fixed in my principles, and am freed from all doubt; and I will henceforth act according to thy words. SANJAYA. 74 Thus I heard this wonderful conversation between Vásudeva and the magnanimous son of Pritha, and my hair stood on end. 76 By the favour of Vyása, I heard this supreme mystery, yoga, as revealed from the mouth of Krishna himself, the Lord of yoga. 76 As, O king! I recollect again and again this holy and wonderful dialogue of Krishna and Arjuna, I continue more and more to rejoice; 77 And as I recall to my memory that most marvellous form of Hari, my astonishment is great, and I marvel and rejoice again 1 In the Sankhya systom, as taught by Kapila, the deliverance of the soul can be obtained only by knowledge. In the system of Patanjali, the soul, by pious meditation, emancipates itself. This divine agency in the deliverance of soul is a doctrine peculiar to the Bhagavad Gítá.-Davies. : The best of sacrifices.

·56 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. and again ! 78 Wherever Krishna, the Lord of yoga, may be, wherever Arjuna, the mighty archer, may be, there too, without doubt, are prosperity, victory, and justice. This is my firm belief. THE BHAGAVAD GITA EXAMINED, INTRODUCTION. As a Excellencies of the Bhagavad Gita.-It is gladly allowed that the poem contains some noble sentiments. The representations of Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita are far higher than those in other parts of the Mahabharata. In the latter, Krishna is simply a great hero, somewhat like Arjuna; in the former he is the Supreme Being. None of the degrading scenes connected with the history of Krishna in the Puranas are introduced. There are some sublime descriptions of God. He is eternal, of infinite power, of unmeasured glory, omnipresent, the source of all that exist. The poem is also strongly marked by the religiousness which has always characterised the Hindus. God is een in all things, and all things are seen in God. The highest pleasures and honours of the world, even the enjoyment of Indra's heaven, are considered far inferior to union with Brahma. The great object of the poem is to show how this end may be gained. poetical work, the Gítá is noted for its beauty and sweetness. The Question. Bishop Caldwell says : "The question before us is not,- does the Gítá abound in subtle distinctions and ingenious paradoxes? Nor is it the question,--do we discover in it here and there noble sentiments beautifully expressed? The question we have to decide is this,-is the claim set up in behalf of the Gítá, that it is inspired by the Moral Governor of the Universe, and that it is possessed in consequence of divine authority, warranted by the essential characteristics of its teaching?" Suppose a person is eating food containing a variety of wholesome articles, mixed with others which are poisonous. It is not necessary to tell him which are good; what he needs is caution against those that are hurtful. So here it is not requisite to point out the truths in the Bhagavad Gitá, but the deadly errors which it contains. As already mentioned, the Bhagavad Gitá seeks to reconcile the Sánkya and Yoga systems. Instead of difficult questions about philosophy, the points noticed will be mainly such as can be decided by common sense.

·EXAMINATION. EXAMINATION. sons as 1. ARJUNA MORE HUMANE THAN KRISHNA. Arjuna having asked Krishna to station his chariot between the two armies, thus spoke : Seeing these kinsmen desirous to engage in battle, my limbs fail me; my body trembleth, I do not wish for victory, for dominion or pleasure. Preceptors, fathers, well As grandfathers, inaternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law, as also (other) relatives : these I do not wish to kill though they kill me; not even for the sovereignty of the three worlds, how much less then for this earth? How shall we be happy after killing our own relatives? Having spoken thus Arjuna sat down in his chariot, overwhelmed with grief." (i. 28.46, abridged.) Krishna's reply: "Whence, 0 Arjuna, this unworthy weakness, excluding from heaven and causing disgrace? Be not unmanly; cast off this base faint-hearted. ness. (ii. 2, 3.) p. Krishna does not seem the least sorry that Arjuna should have grieved at slaying his dearest relatives and friends, and calls the feeling "base faint-heartedness.” Which feeling was the more humane? the more godlike? 2. KRISHNA'S REASONING WITH ARJUNA.. When Arjuna asked Krishna to tell him the right course of conduct, he received the reply given in pp. 11-14. Three reasons are assigned why he should fight : 1. The soul, unborn, everlasting, kills not, is not killed. Weapons cleave it not, nor does the fire burn it. As a man casting off old garments takes others, so the soul casting off old bodies enters others that are new. 2. A lawful battle was the highest duty of a Kshatriya, and death when fighting was an open door to heaven. 3. Looking alike on pleasure and pain, he would not incur sin. The 2nd and 3rd reasons will be considered afterwards. Bishop Caldwell shows the fallacy of the first reason by supposing it acted upon in common life: “A man accused of murder neither denies his guilt, nor pleads that he committed the act in self-defence, but addresses the Court in the language of Krishna. It is needless,' he says, 'to trouble yourselves about the inquiry any further, for it is impossible that any murder can have taken place. The soul can neither kill, nor be killed. It is eternal and indestructible. When driven from one body it passes into another. Death is inevitable, and another birth is equally inevitable. It is not the part there. fore of wise men, like tho judges of this Court, to trouble themselves about such things.' Would the judges regard this defence as conclusive? Cer- 0 ·58 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. 56 tainly not. Nor would it be regarded as a conclusive defence by the friends of the murdered person, or by the world at large. The criminal might borrow from the Gítá as many sounding nothings as he liked, but the moral sense of the community would continue to regard his inurder as a crime." If thé argument which Krishna uses respecting the slaughter of relations is good for any thing, it will hold good also when used respecting offences in general. Suppose then that a man accused of adultery should defend hinself by saying, the soul can neither pollute by adultery, nor be polluted by it. It is not the part of a wise man to feel any remorse about mere bodily phenomena ;'-would the injured husband appreciate this line of defence, or regard this philosophy as a consolation ? Suppose again that a thief were to defend himself after the manner of the Gitá - The youl can neither steal nor be stolen froin. Its walls cannot be dug through with a crow-bar. It cannot be tied up in a bundle and sold in the Thieving Bazaar. Every thing that is material is movable. Why trouble ye yourselves about the transfer of movables from one place to another would the owner of the stolen property regard this philosophy as a compensation for the loss he had sustained ? or would the Court hesitate to sentence the thief to the roads? " When we thus proceed to test the truth of Krishna's teaching by apply. ing it to the affairs of ordinary life, the rope breaks at the first pull. Here it wust be remeni bered that Krishna does not base his exhortations to Arjuna on the justice of the war in which he was engaged. That ground might have been taken with propriety, and Arjuna was evidently persuaded of the justice of the Pandava cause. But Krishna's arguments are not based on the • limited ideas' of justice and necessity, but upon transcendental doctrines respecting the immortality and impassibility of the soul, which, if they proved his point, would equally prove the most unjust war that ever was waged to be innocent." When we test the truth of Krishna's teaching by applying it to the affairs of ordinary life, its unsoundness is at once shown. 3. THE TRUTH OF POLYTHEISM ACKNOWLEDGED. Polytheism is a belief in the existence of many gods. It is opposed to monotheism, a belief in only one God. At a very early period the undivided Aryans, the ancestors of the Romans, Greeks, English, German, Persians, and Hindus, worshipped the same God, under the name of Heaven-Father. Max Müller says: “ There is a monotheism which precedes the polytheism of the Veda, and even in the invocation of their innumerable gods, the remembrance of a God, one and infinite, breaks through the mist of an idc'atrous phraseology, like the blue sky that is hidden by passing clouds." As time rolled on, the number of gods was increased. Some Hindus, unacquainted with the Vedas, think that they contain a pure monotheism. Such is not the case. The religion of the Vedas is polytheistic. The gods are usually spoken of as thriceeleven, with their wives, as the following quotations will show : In the third Mandala of the Rig Veda, Hymn 6, verse 10, Agni is thus addressed : On Krishna and the Bhagavad Gitd. p. 28.

·EXAMINATION. 59 " Bring, with their wives, the gods, the three-and-thirty, after thy god. Uke nature, and be joyful." The following invitation is given to the Asvins : **Come O Nasatyas, with the thrice eleven gods; come, O ye Asvins, to the drinking of the meath." I. 84. 11. A hymn to the Visvedevas concludes thus : “Oye eleven gods whose home is heaven, O ye eleven who make earth your dwelling. Ye who with might, eleven, live in waters, accept this sacrifice, O gods, with pleasure." I. 189. 11. The popular saying at present is that the divinities number 33 crores. It will be seen that the gods are reduced in number from 33 crores to 33 with their wives. In Book iv. 9. 9. the gods are mentioned as being much more numerous : “ Three hundred, three thousand, thirty and nine gods have worshipped Agni. Many Hindu suppose that monotheism is taught in the wellknown formula from the Chhándogya Upanishad, ekam evádvitiyam, “ One only without a second. This is a mistake. The real meaning ig, not that there is only one God, but that there is no second anything-a totally different doctrine. It will now be shown that polytheism is taught in the Bhagavad Gita. “ Nourish the gods by this, and let the gods nourish you. Thus nourish. ing each other, ye shall obtain supreme happiness." III. 11. "The gods nourished by sacrifice will grant you the enjoyment of your wishes. He who enjoyeth what hath been given to him by them, and offereth not a portion into them, is even as a thief." III. 12. "Those who desire for success to their works in this life, worship the gods. For in this life success from works speedily cometh to pass." IV. 12. "Those who sacrifice to the gods, go to the gods. Those who worship ine, come to me." VII. 23. " Those who know the three (Vedas), who drink of the soma-juice, being purified of their offences, offer sacrifices, and petition for heaven. These obtain the holy world of Indra, in which they feast upon the divine food of the gods. When they have partaken of that spacious heaven for a while, in proportion to their virtuos, they şink again into this mortal world, as soon as their stock of merit is exhausted. In this manner those who, longing for the accomplishment of their wishes, follow the religion pointed out by the three (Vedas), obtain a transient reward." IX. 20, 21. “ Those who make vows to the gods go to the gods; those who make vows to the Pitrís go to the pitrís; those who worship the Bhútas go to the Bhútas; and those likewise who worship me, go to me.” IX. 25. Bhútas are malignant demons, supposed to dwell in burning grounds. Thus, besides polytheism, demonolatry is acknowledged, and, according to the Gitá, secures its reward. The gods and goddesses have been so multiplied that they are Dow said to amount to 33 crores. Not content even with these, Hindus have accepted Muhammadan Pírs.

·60 THE BHAGAVAD GITA, It is alleged that all the gods are the same, though worshipped under different names. Take the three principal gods, Brahmá, Vishnu, and Siva :: their residences, wives, and children are all different. Brahmá is said to live in Satya-loka, his wife is Savitrí ; Vishnu lives in Vaikuntha, his wife is Lakshmi; Siva lives in Kailása, his wife is said to be Párvati. Different dispositions and actions are ascribed to these gods. Several times they are said to have fought with each other. If the 33 crores of the Hindu gods are all the same, it may as well be said that the 28 crores of people in India, with different houses, wives, children, occupations, are all one. If the gods are one, why are they reckoned as amounting to 33 crores? This is only an excuse for the folly of polytheism put forward by those who are somewhat more intelligent than the masses. Rammohun Roy says: “ The Hindus firmly believe in the real existence of innumerable gods and goddesses who possess, in their own departments full and independent powers, and to propitiate them, and not the true God, are templeserected and cereinonies performed. The Hindus theinselves call their religions by the name of the particular deity they worship: as Siva Bhakti, Vishnu Bhakti, &c. The vast majority would be indignant at the supposition, that their own religion and the detested heresy of their opponents, are, after all, the same. Monotheism is now accepted by all enlightened nations of the world, and educated Hindus are gradually adopting the same belief. The gods of the Hindu Pantheon have no existence'; they are mere names, not realities. A belief in them shows that the Bhagavad Gitá was not inspired by the God of truth. 19 4. PANTHEISM TAUGHT. Pantheism, from pan, all, theox, God, is the doctrine that God is all that exists. Perhaps no dogma is held more firmly by the Hindus. It pervades all, even the most unintelligent. The acknowledgment is universally made that God is one, while at the same time the countless divinities of the Hindu Pantheon are worshipped. It is admitted that pantheism is more clearly taught in the Upanishads, as in the following two quotations from the Chhándogya Upanishad :- Ekam evádvitiyan, “ One without a second." vii. 2. 1. Sarvam Kalvidam Bralna, " All this (universe) is Brahma." iii. But it is also found in the Bhagavad Gítá. In Lecture VII. Krishna says: Earth, water, fire, ether, the heart (manas) and also the mind (buildhi) and egoism (ahankára) these (forın) the eightfold division of my material nature (Prakriti) 4.

·EXAMINATION. 61 "This is the lower (nature); but know now my other higher nature, the living principle by which the universe is sustained. 6. * Know that all things have these as their source. I am the producer and the destroyer of the whole universe. 6. ". Know that I am the eternal seed of all things that exist." 10. Lecture X. contains a long description of what Krishna is: “I am the beginning, the middle, and also the end of all beings. 20. "I am Indra among the gods, 22. I am Vittesa (the lord of wealth) among Yakshas and Rákshasas. 23. Among Nága snakes I am Ananta. 29. “There is nothing movable or immovable which can exist without me." 39. Bishop Caldwell has the following remarks on the doctrine concerning God in the Bhagavad Gitá : " According to the Gîtá, God is the soul of the world ; its material cause as well as its efficient cause. The world is his body, framed by himself out of himself. A consequence of this doctrine, a consequence which is distinctly taught again and again, is that God is all things, as containing all things. Every thing that exists is a portion of God, and every action that is performed is an action of God. The doctrine knows no limitations, and is incapable of being exaggerated. The basert animals that creep on the face of the earth have not merely been created by God for some good purpose, but are divine inasmuch as they are portions of God's material forin; and the inost wicked actions which men, vainly fancying themselves free agents, are ever tempted to perform, are not only permitted by God, but are actually perpetrated by him, inasınuch as they are performed by his power and will, working out their ends through the human constitution, which is a part of himself. “This doctrine differs, it is true, from the Adwaita doctrine, to which alone the naine of Vedantism is popularly given, that the Supreine Spirit alone really exists and that the world is unreal; but it may be regarded as questionable whether the unreality of phenomena be not preferable to the doctrine that their reality consist in their inclusion in God as parts of his totality.” .Pantheism strikes at the root of all religious feeling. The essence of religion is to love, honour, and obey God, to pray to Him, to worship Him. If I am God, why should I worship myself? The following remarks on this subject are from Professor Flint : « The inystical piety of India, when strictly pantheistic, knows nothing of the gratitude for Divine mercy and the trust in Divine righteousness which characterise evangelical piety. Instead of love and communion in love, it can only commend to us the contemplation of an object which is incomprehensible, devoid of all, affections, and indifferent to all actions. When feelings like love, gratitude, and trust are expressed in the hymns and prayers of Hindu worship, it is in consequeuce of a virtual denial of the principles of pantheism, it is because the mind has consented to regard as real what it had previously pronounced illusory, and to personify what it had declared to be im. personal. Hinduism holds it to be a fundamental truth that the absolute Being can have no personal attributes, and yet it has not only to allow but to en. courage its adherents to invest that Being with these attributes, in order that by thus temporarily deluding themselves they may evoke in their hearts at least a feeble and transient glow of devotion. It has even been forced, by its inability to olicit and sustain a religious life by what is strictly pantheistic in its doctrine, to crave the help of polytheism, and to treat the foulest orgies and cruellest rites of idolatry as acts of reasonable worship paid indirectly to - ·62 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. the sole and supreme Being. It finds polytheism to be the indispensable supplement of its pantheism. It is the personal gods of Hindu polytheism, and not the impersonal principle of Hindu pantheism, that the Hindu people worhip. No people can worship what they believe to be entirely impersonal. Even in the so-called religions of nature the deified natural powers are always personified. It is only as persons that they are offered prayers and sacrt. hices."1 . The pernicious effects of pantheism on Indian polytheism are thus shown by Professor Flint :- “I have said that the ability of pantheism to ally itself with polytheism accounts for its prevalence in certain landa; but I must add that, although a power, this ability is not a merit. It is a power for evil---power which sus. tains superstition, corrupts the system which possesses it, deludes and degrades the human mind and heart, and arrests social progress. Educated Hindus are often found to represent it as an excellence of Brahıninism, that it not only tolerates but embraces and incorporates the lower phases of religion. They contend that it thereby elevates and purifies polytheism, and helps the mind of men to pass from the lowest stage of religious development gradually up to the highest. The opinion may seem plausible, but neither reason nor experience confirms it. Pantheism can give support to polytheism and receive support from it, but only at the cost of sacrificing all its claims to be a rational system, and of losing such moral virtue as it possesses. If it look upon the popular deities as mere fictions of the popular mind, its association with polytheism can only mean a conscious alliance with false. hood, the deliberate propagation of lies, a persistent career of hypocrisy . India alone is surely sufficient proof that the union of pantheism with polytheism does not correct but stimulate the extravagances of the latter. Pantheism, instead of elevating and purifying Hindu polytheist, has con. tributed to increase the nunber, the absurdity, and the foulness of its superstitions." 5. KRISHNA'S INCARNATIONS. When Krishna said to Arjuna that he had taught the doctrine of Yoga to Vivasvat, the sun, Arjuna objected that the birth of Krishna was later than that of Vivasvat. To this the “ To this the “Deity" replied: “I have passed through many births. . . As often as there is a decline of dharma and an exaltation of adharma, then I produce myself, I am born from age to age, for the preservation of the good, for the destruction of the wicked, and the re-establishment of dharma." (iv. 5-8.) His best known incarnation is that of Krishna, fully described in the Vishnu and Bhagavata Puránas. What was his character ? As a child, he is represented as mischievous and disobedient. When he grew up, he sported with the Gopis, and was guilty of adultery. He is usually associated with Rádhá, the wife of Ayanagosha. When the two were surprised by the husband, Krishna assumed the forn of Kalí, and Rádná seemed, as of worshipping her. He is said to have had 8 queens and 16,100 wives. The last act of his life was to go to Prabhasa with his queens, wives and 180,000 i Antitheistic Theories, pp. 888, 389. a Ibid., pp. 390, 391, ·EXAMINATION. 63 1 sons, accompanied by great number of prostitutes. His sons got drunk and began fighting with each other. Krishna' first tried to separate them; but as this failed, he was enraged, and took upa handful of rushes to destroy them. These rushes became a club of iron, with which he slew the surviving sons, so that not one was left. He is said to have held up the mountain Govarddhana, and to have slain many demons; but these are mere fictions. The Boar Incarnation is mentioned in the Vishnu Purana (i.4), and the Varaha Purana professes to have been narrated by Vishnu in this incarnation. Vishnu is said to have assumed the form of a boar, and to have raised on his tusks the earth from the bottom of the sea. That all this is a fable can easily be shown. The earth floats in the sky like the moon, and there is no ocean in which it could have sunk, and required to be raised : Krishna's claim to be a Divine incarnation falls self-refuted to the ground, for the signs of a true incarnation, as stated in the Bhagavad Gité, are diametrically opposed to the whole toneand tenor of his life. The Krishna of the Bhagavad Gitá should have appeared for the destruction of the Krishna of the Bhagavad Purana. Bishop Caldwell justly says: The stories related of Krishna's life do more than anything else to destroy the morals and corrupt the imaginations of Hindu youth.' The Maharajas, scattered over India, claim to be incarnations of Krishna and are supposed to be privileged to act as he did. Men and women prostrate themselves at their feet, offering them incense, fruits, and flowers, and holding lights before them. It is believed that the best way of propitiating Krishna in heaven is by ministering to the sensual appetites of the Maharajas. Body, soul, and property (tan, man, dhan) are to be wholly made over to them. Women are taught to believe that the highest bliss will be secured to themselves and their families by intercourse with the Maharajas. To secure this, large sums are paid. It is true that the Bhagavata Purána gives the warning that Krishna's conduct is not to be imitated. Hindus excuse the crimes attributed to their gods on the grounds that, like despots, they are above all law, and can act as they please. On the contrary, God is especially bound to obey His own laws and set a holy example. Krishna says to Arjuna : "The man of low degree followeth the example of him who is above him, and doeth that which he doeth." III. 21. If God sets men an example in sinning, how can He punish them for their wickedness? But the stories about the Hindu gods are false. They are the fictions of wicked men who invented gods like themselves. Our consciences tell us that any incarnation of God must have been distinguished by purity, truth, and love. See Vishnu Purdna, Book V. Chap. 37.

·64 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. 6. CREATION. 66 In different parts of the Gitá, Krishna claims to be the Creator: “ I am the producer and destroyer of the whole universe." (vii. 6.). "All this universe has been spread out by me by my unmanifested material nature (Prakriti)" (ix. 4.) "The seven great Rishis, the four Ancients, and the Manus, partaking of my nature, were born from my mind. From them are descended all the inhabitants of the earth." (x. 6.) "I am the creator of all things, and all things proceed from me." (x. 8.) Al the end of a kalpa, all things enter my material nature ; at the beginning of a kalpu, I send them forth again. Supported by my material nature, I send forth again and again all this collection of beings without their own will, by the power of Prakriti." (ix. 7, 8.) The remarks of Bishop Caldwell on Pantheism (see page 61) refute the above. According to Hinduism, there is no creation in the strict sense of the word. This is the result of that fixed dogma of a Hindu philosopher's belief-navastuno vastusiddhih, nothing can be produced out of nothing The Rev. Nehemiah Goreh thus states the case : * By the word, Creator, Christians as well as thoists mean one who gave being to things which had no being before, or according to the phrase used in Christian Theology, created things out of nothing. In this sense no sect of religion or school of philosophy among the Hindus believes God to have created anything. “And here I wish to say that such of our countrymen as have been educated in English schools and colleges, and are not familiar with the true tenets of Hinduism are apt to be misled by certain words, and phrases used in the religious books of our country. They are apt to think that those words and phrases were used by the authors of those books and are understood by Orthodox Hindus, in the same sense which they themselves attach to them, having acquired more enlightened notions of religious truths by coming in contact with Christianity, and then to think that those very notions are taught in those books. For instance it is stated in those books that God is Sarva-kartá, that is, waker of all. Yet it would be a great mistake to think that they teach that God is the Creator of all things. It is a fixed principle with the teachers of all the schools of philosophy in our country (and remember that with the Hindus philosophy is religion and religion is philosophy) that every Kárya, that is, effect, must have à Samaviyi or Upridána Kirana, that is, a causc out of which an effect is produced or formed, such as clay is to an earthen pot. It may be translat. ed by the English word 'material cause' in some cases, though not in all. Therefore the world could not be created out of nothing. According to the Hindus' belief the world has an Upádóna Kúrana, or a material cause and that material cause is uncreated, self-existing, and eternal like God Himself. According to the Nyaya school, the paramánus, or atoms of earth, water, fire, and air, which are infinite in number, are the inaterial cause of the visible and tangible parts of this universe, and are themselvos self-existent and eternal. Moreover, Akára, time, space, souls, not only of men, but also of gods, animals, and plants, and manas, the internal organs which together with souls are infinite in number, all uncreated, self-existont, and eternal. Very little indeed have ·EXAMINATION. 65 they left for God to do. He only frames, with these self-existent substances, the world. According to the Sánkhya system, prakriti is the material cause of the universe, and it is of course self-existent and eternal. “Even the false god of the Vedántists, the maker of the false world, is only a framer of it like the God of the Nyáya, and not a Creator, Máyá, being the Upádána Kirana, or material cause of it. From this Máyá, though false yet eternal, the whole universe is evolved, as according to the Sánkhya it is evolved from their eternal prakriti."* It has been stated that a fundamental error of Hinduism is to judge by our own standard. A carpenter cannot work without materials; in like manner it is supposed that God must have formed all things from eternally existing matter. The fallacy of this is thus shown by the late Rev. Dr. K. M. Banerjea: "That no man can work without materials is denied by none, simply because man is not omnipotent, and has not creative power, But when one looks at an exquisite production of art, he is so lost in admiration at the skill of the artist, that he almost forgets the minor question of the material. And yet so banefully has the theory of material causality worked among us that the mental energy of our philosophers has found most active exercise NOT in the exclamution, How wonderful is the arrangeient of the universe! BUT in the interrogation, Of what pre-existing substance is all this made? Nay they have been so lost in that question, as to forget that a Creator of infinite power and perfection needs not, like weak and imperfect man, to stop for materials, but can make materials by the mero fiat of His will. If the natural instincts of the human soul lead us to believe in the existence of an all-powerful and perfect Being, if the irresistible arguments of the Vedánta itself drive us to the conclu. sion that the universe was created by a God, infinite in wisdom and contri- Vance; then there can be no possible necessity for speculating on the material of the world: then the most philosophical course is to consider the object originally created by such a God us at once the matter and form of the world. To assume the eternity of some gross material, existing side by side with an intelligent and all-perfect God, is not only unnecessary and therefore unphilosophical,) inasmuch as it Assunies two principles, where one is amply sufficient to account for all we see; but it is inconsistent with the idea of perfection which we must attribute to the Deity. If He had some material to work upon, previously existing independent of Him, then there was nothing peculiar in His agency; then it was of the same species as that of a human architect; then He was our creator in no higher sense than that in which a potter is the maker of a jar. The Vedántist, on the other hand, places himself in a false position, by seeking in a spiritual essence, the substance of such a world, consisting of pure and impure, intelligent and unintelligent, rational and irrational, animated and inanimated creatures." “Ye do err, not knowing the power of God," applies to Hindus as well as those to whom the words were addressed by the Great Teacher. Whether is it more rational to suppose the eternal existence of one Being, infinite in power and wisdom, or to imagine that innumerable unintelligent atoms and spirits existed from all eternity? Besides the latter, an eternal, intelligent Arranger is also required. * Theism and Christianity, Part I. pp. 5-7.

·66 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. 7. THE THREE "GUNAS" PROCEED FROM KRISHNA. The three Gunas are Sattva, "goodness,' Rajas, passion, and Tamas, darkness.' In Lecture VII. Krishna says: “Know also that the natures which are of the quality of goodness, and those which are of the quality of passion and of darkness, are indeed all from me; I am not in them, but they are in me.” 12. In Lecture III. Arjuna asks, “By what is man constrained to commit offences ? He seenzeth, as if contrary to his wishes, to be impelled by some secret force." 36. Krishna replies: “It is desire, it is wrath, born from the quality of passion; it is insatiable, full of sin. This is our foe in this world." 37. Passion and darkness proceed from God as well as goodness. A man is, as it were, by force compelled to commit sin. Henceman is not a free agent. We blame the thief and murderer, and hold them responsible for their actions, but if the Bhagavad Gitá is true, we should blame no man, for he is compelled by Krishna to do this. Indeed, we ought to praise the greatest criminal, for he is only. fulfilling the will of God. What a blasphemous doctrine is this ! The Christian Scriptures, on the other hand, declare that “God is light; and in Him is no darkness at all." God is spotlessly pure, and no evil desire can arise in Him or from Him. 8. KRISHNA ALIKE TO ALL, WITH ITS CONTRADICTION, In Book IX. the Deity says: "I am alike to all beings; to me none is hateful, none dear." 29. On the other hand “demoniac" people are thus threatened:-- "These men hating (me), cruel, the vilest of mankind, impure, I cast down perpetually into the wombs of asuras." xvi. 19. "Having entered demoniac wombs, deluded in every birth, they go dowu to the vilest state without ever coming to me.' xvi. 20. Mr. Telang says in his Introduction : "These persons are scarcely characterised with accuracy as neither hateful nor dear to Krishna." p. 12. Other Contradictions of the Bhagavad Gita. --The following, in addition to the foregoing, are mentioned by Mr. Telang: " In Book xii. 12, Concentration (fixing the mind with effort on the object of contemplation) is esteemed higher than knowledge.' In Rook vii. 16-18, four classes of good men are mentioned. It is said, All these are noble. But the man possessed of knowledge is deemed by me to be my own self.' 4* Take still another instance. At Gítá, Chapter v. 15, it is said 'the Lord receives the sin or merit of none. Yet at Chapter v. 29, and again at Chapter ·EXAMINATION. 67 x. 24, Krishna calls himself the Lord and enjoyer of all sacrifices and penances. How, it may well be asked, can the Supreme Being enjoy' that which he does not even receive ?!" 1 The Hindu mind accepts the most contradictory statements. Max Müller says:-- "The early Hindu did not find any difficulty in reconciling the most different and sometimes contradictory opinions in their search after truth and a most extraordinary medley of oracular sayings might be collected from the Upanishads, even from those which are genuine and comparatively ancient, all tending to elucidate the darkest points of philosophy and religion, the creation of the world, the nature of God, the relation of man to God, and similar subjects. That one statement should be contradicted by another seems never to have been felt as any serious difficulty. Followers of the Dwaita, Adwaita, and Visishtadwaita all claim the Gítá in support of their respective systems. 9. THE SOUL. Before noticing what the Gítá says about the soul, some Hindu ideas about the body may be mentioned. The Katha Upanishad contains the following: 5. 16. There are a hundred and one arteries of the heart: one of them (Sushumna,) proceeds to the head. By this (at the time of death) rising upwards (by the door of A'ditya) a person gains immortality, or the other (arteries) are of various courses. A similar statement is made in the Chhándogya Upanishad : “ There are a hnndred and one arteries issuing from the heart; one of thern penetrates the crown of the head. The man who departs this life through that artery, secures immortality. The rest of the arteries lead to various transitions ---they lead to various transitions. " VIII, 6, 6. The Prasna Upanishad gives the following additional details : “For the (ether of the) heart is verily that soul. There (arise) the hundred and one (principal) arteries ; each of them is a hundred times divided ; 72,000 are the branches of every branch artery; within them moves the circulating air." III. 6. The whole number of arteries is therefore 727,200,000 ! The slightest examination of the heart shows that all this is purely imaginary. There are just two branches of a large artery from the heart; containing impure blood, leading to the lungs, and one great artery, which, afterwards, subdivided, conveys pure blood, to the whole body. In like manner, there are two great veins carrying impure blood to the heart from the whole body, and four veins, containing pure blood, leading from the lungs to the heart. Introduction to the Bhagavad Gitá, pp. 11, 12. ? Anciont Sanskrit Literaturo, pp. 320, 321.

·68 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. The Praisna Upanishad says that " within the arteries moves the circulating air." Arteries mean air-pipes. They were thought to contain only air, because after death they are empty. When a person is alive, blood flows through them. This is proved by the fact that if one of them is cut, blood gushes out. When a person dies, the heart loses its power to send out blood, and the arteries are found empty. The foregoing is an example of a radical defect of the Hindu *mind-to speculate instead of investigating. It is the same with other departments of science. The Hindu geographer does not travel; he simply sits in his house, and dreams of a vast central mountain and circular oceans of curds, ghi, wine, &c. Hindu astronomy is equally fanciful. In like manner the Hindus speculated about the soul. The leading ideas will now be noticed. (1). The Soul Eternal. The Gítá says that the Self or Soul is eternal : "It is not born nor does it ever dic; nor having existed before does it exist no more.' (II. 20.) “ It is everlasting, all-pervading, stable, immovable, and eternal.” (II. 24.) “An eternal portion of me having become an individual soul in the world of mortals, draws to itself the five senses, with the manas as the sixth, placed in Prakriti." (XV. 7.) According to Hinduism, souls may pass into gods, demons, beasts, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, into plants, and even into inanimate objects. Who can estimate the number of these eternal srayambhu essences! Is it not perfectly unphilosophical, because absolutely unnecessary and egregiously extravagant, to assume such an indefinite number of eternal essences, when one Supreme Essence is sufficient to account for all things, visible or invisible, material or spiritual ? If our souls are eternal and self-existent, we are a sort of miniature gods. Our relation to God is changed. It is only that of king and subjects. His right over us is only that of night. It is only because He is mightier than we and of His possessing power to benefit and to harm us, that we should be anxious to pay homage to Him. There is not the love which a child should cherish towards a father. True religion is thus destroyed. (2). The Soul All-pervading. Hindu speculations about the size of the soul differ widely. In the Upanishads it is generally said to be of the size of a thumb, and to dwell in the heart. Thus the Katha Upanishad says: " The soul, which, in the measure of a thumb, dwells in the iniddle of the body in the ether of the heart)." (IV. 12.)

·EXAMINATION. 69 It is elsewhere said to be both infinitely small and infinitely great. The Svetáswatara Upanishad says: “ The embodied soul is to be thought like the hundredth part of the point of a hair, divided into a hundred parts; he is considered to be infinite." (V. 9.) The Chhảndogya Upanishad says : “Is the soul within me; it is lighter than a corn, or a barley, or a mustard, or a canary seed, or the substance within it. Such a soul is within me, as is greater than this earth, and greater than the sky, and greater than the heaven, and greater than all these regions [put together]." III. 14, 8. The Gitá agrees with the Vaiseshaka school. Krishna says that the soul is ** all-pervading.” (II. 24.) The Rev. Nehemiah Goreh well remarks,“ Those who can believe that the soul of a musquito fills heaven and earth. ...can believe anything ! 9 27 ) (3). The Soul does not work, and is not stained. Krishna says: "He whose mind is deluded by ahankıira (self-consciousness) thinks himself the doer of actions which, in every way, are done by the qualities of Prakriti." (iii. 27.) “He who sees that works are wrought in every case by Prakriti, and that therefore the soul is not the docr, sees indeed." (xiii. 29.) “This eternal supreme Spirit, without beginning, without qualities, does not act and is not stained even when it is embodied. “As the all-pervading Akásha is not everywhere soiled through its subtlety, so the soul stationed in the body is not soiled.” (xiii. 31, 32). •Dr. Robson quotes another illustration often used : "I once asked a pundit to state logically his argument that man's spirit was sinless, which he did as follows: Man's spirit is sinless, Because it is distinct from the sin which man conimits; For all things are distinct from that which they contain, as the water of a muddy stream is distinct from the mud which it contains ; But so is the spirit of man distinct from the sin which it may be said to contain: Therefore it is sinless. “This was an attempt to put into a logical form the stock argument used by the Hindus-Spirit is free from sin as water is distinct from all the dirt which may be mingled with it."* The above is an example of another defect in Hindu reasoning --to accept illustration for argument. One illustration may appear to prove one thing, but another may be adduced leading to an opposite conclusion. It is sometimes said, “As there is only one sun in the sky, so there is only one God.' This is a great truth, * Hinduism, pp. 324, 925. > > ·70 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. but the reasoning is no better than the following, “ As there are innumerable stars in the sky, so the number of gods is countless." The foregoing illustrations about the soul being sinless, are equally inconclusive. Hindu speculations about the soul and prakriti are as baseless as those about the heart. It is assumed that the soul is a part of the Supreme Spirit, and, like him, is without qualities, does not act, and is not bound by actions. Of this there is no proof. It has been shown that it is far more probable that the soul was created by God. It is true that the soul is united with the body, but the soul is the ruler; it can control the body and is responsible for its actions. It is the soul that loves or hates, that entertains evil or good desires. It is, however, possible for a man who gives way to evil passions to become at last as it were their slave. 10. TRANSMIGRATION. Transmigration denotes the passing of the soul into another body. This universal belief among the Hindus is taught in the Gítá. Thus Krishna says to Arjuna : “As a man, having cast off his old garments taketh others that are new, so the embodied (soul) casting oft old bodies, entereth others that are new." ii. 22. “Both I and thou have passed through many births. Mina are known to me; but thou knowest not thine." iv. 5. "A man whose devotions have been broken off by death, having enjoyed for unnumbered years the rewards of his virtues in the regions above, at length is born again in some holy and respectable family. Or else he is born in the house of some learned yogí." vi. 41, 42. “These men, hating (me), cruel, the vilest of mankind, impure, I'cast down perpetually into the wombs of asuras. Having entered demoniac wombs, deluded in every birth, they go down to the vilest state without ever coming to me." xvi. 19, 20. The doctrine of transmigration seems, to the Hindu, to explain the unequal distribution of happiness and misery in this world. If an infant agonize, it is supposed to arise from a great sin committed in a former birth. On the other hand, if a wicked man prospers, it is thought to be plainly the reward of meritorious actions in a previous state of existence. The universe is, in Sanskrit, sometimes called sansára, denoting motion. It is supposed to consist of innumerable souls and innumerable bodies. The bodies are of all kinds, mineral, vegetable, animal, human, divine, demoniac. Souls are supposed to be constantly leaving their bodies, and seeking other bodies, some rising, some falling, others stationary according to their Karma. There is no doubt that the unequal distribution of happiness in this world is a problem which has exercised the minds of thinking men from the dawn of philosophy. On investigation, however, ·EXAMINATION. 71 it will be seen that the doctrine of transmigration is attended with insuperable difficulties. 1. It is contrary to our experience. By transmigration is meant that the same soul in the course of time takes up its residence in different bodies. Only the body is changed, the mind is the saine mind. The mind therefore being the same possesses the same faculties in its present and in its former births. A traveller who journeys through the earth from city to city carries with him the remembrance of his native place, the persons that he met, and other events that occurred. The soul ought to carry with it a complete remembrance of its past history; but no man has experienced anything of the kind. Any claims to its possession are just as false as those with regard to magical powers. It is objected that we cannot recall the events of our former births, because we are under the power of máyú, or illusion. How is it that máyá extends only to alleged former births and not to the present? The fact is that one false theory is attempted to be supported by another. We cannot recollect events in alleged former births, because they had no existence. We remember the present life, máyå notwithstanding, because we have really existed. 2 It is unjust.-Should a son be hanged because his father committed murder? According to transmigration, people suffer, not on account of their own deeds, but for those of their ancestors of which they know nothing. If a man is so changed at each birth as to forget all his previous history, he becomes virtually a new being. What he suffers now he suffers on account of sins committed by another; and these sufferings he has no choice but to endure. Even the very sins a man now commits are punishments of previous sins, and he cannot but commit them. Their punishment, again, he cannot bear in this life if he would; they must be borne by him in another birth, when the loss of all consciousness of the present has made him, in fact, another person. His present happiness is the reward of a previous person's good deeds, his present good deeds will be rewarded to some future person. In all this there is an absence of justice.' 3. It deniês Divine Mercy.-The Rev. Dr. Hooper has the following remarks on this point:- " The system of Transmigration leaves absolutely no room for divine mercy. Four of the six philosophical systems do, indeed, acknowledge an Iswara'; but what for?" His one work is to arrange that each soul shall enjoy or suffer precisely the fruit of his doings, shall enter the body which exactly suits his deserts. In other words, Iswara's one work is to carry out strict, unswerving justice. He has nothing whatever to do with mercy. There is no possible room for it in the system. The very slightest exercise of mercy would be, so far, a derogation from the completeness of the system of 1 Abridged from Robson's Hinduism and Christianity. 2nd Ed., pp. 191, 192.

·72 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. Transmigration, a blot on its fair name. What then? Do not Hindus believe in divine mercy? Indeed they do; and that in two ways, but both are entirely irrespective of, indeed they ignore, Transınigration. The statement, • Iswara dayalu hai' (God is merciful) is one which very few Hindus indeed would not subscribe to. So far have foreign influences permeated the modern Hindu mind, that very few indeed perceive, what however is obvious to any one who thinks, that the above statement is a flat contradiction, so far as it extends, of the Doctrine of Transmigration.". Dr. Hooper further shows that “Man's own natural tendency to mercy has been thwarted and stunted” by the doctrine of transmigration: “Let me give two familiar instances of this. Why are lepers, and those subject to similar diseases, so peculiarly shunned and loathed in India ? Why are they commonly regarded with an abhorrence which overcomes the pity, which such objects naturally stir up ? Physical causes no doubt cooperate, as they do elsewhere; but Hindus themselves explain it by the belief, that such sufferers are in an unusual degree sinners, i.e., are suffering the just consequences of extraordinarily heinous crimes. Is not this as much as to say, that a belief in Transinigration is answerable for all the unkindness shown to lepers in this country, which is over and above that displayed in other countries ? Again, take the case of young widows. Can there, in the whole of humanity, be conceived a case deserving of more profound com. passion and tender pity than that of a young woman commonly is, who has just lost her husband? And yet, in this country, are not the widow's sorrows vastly aggravated, as a rule, by the unkind treatment to which she is subject ? But why do Hindus thus quench their natural instincts of pity? Iet any Hindu answer the question himself. It is because he believes that the woman's sins, in some previous life, have caused that their son or brother has died. In other words, the belief in Transmigration is directly answerable for the miseries of the 20 millions of widows in India, which are over and above what widows suffer among others. I know well that, in many cases, natural instinct prevails, and widows are well treated; but this is not because, but in spite, of the Doctrine of Transmigration." Christianity, on the other hand, shows how Divine Justice and Mercy are reconciled through Jesus Christ. 4. Its effects are pernicious.- We bring most evils upon ourselves by our own misconduct. The chief sufferings of inen are caused by poverty and sickness. Poverty is often occasioned by laziness or want of thrift. One great reason why the people of India are poor is their extravagant expenditure on marriages. Most sickness is caused by bad water, filth, and unwholesome food. When people believe that their misfortunes arise from sins in a former birth, they rest contented and make no efforts to remove them. The constant excuse for almost everything that ought not to be is, " What can we do? It is all the fruit of former birthg." Even murderers comfort themselves with such an excuse. It has also been shown above that the cruel treatment of lepers and widows in India partly arises from the doctrine of transmigration. | Transmigration, 19 pp. 1 anna. Sold at Tract Dopots.

·EXAMINATION. 73 There are other objections to the doctrine of transmigration. 1. Inequalities of happiness are less than is supposed. There are many poor men far happier than the rich. There is a proverb.: “ The fruit of austerities, a kingdom; the fruit of a kingdom, hell." Great men are tempted to vices from which the poor are free. Wealth and power are, not unfrequently, a curse rather than a blessing. 2. It promotes worldliness.- This is thus shown by Dr. Hooper. According to transmigration, “ Virtue is rewarded by bodily health, by numerous and healthy children, by wealth, lands, and comfort, by pomp and magnificence, by rule and authority over others, and so on-all outward enjoyments; and that sin is similarly recompensed by external sufferings. Now, what can the tendency of this belief be, but worldly-mindedness ? If the reward of good conduct is believed to be pleasures which are purely external,--if Indra's station is at the same time believed to be the one of completest sensuous enjoyment, ar the reward of the highest virtue,---must not such enjoyment be considered superior to virtue, as the end is superior to the means ?" 3. We can look forward as well as backward.--This world is a state of preparation for the next. A child at school is placed under the discipline of a teacher to train him for the purposes of life. Notwithstanding all the pain and sorrow there is in the world, people are too much attached to it. Much more would this be the case if all went well with us. Sickness, as it were, says to us, "Arise, this is not your rest." A holy man of old said, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted. Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept Thy word.” Millions upon millions have had the same experience. Good inen who suffer aftliction rightly, come out of it purified, like gold which has been tried by fire. Many parents have been led by the sickness and death of their children to think of a world where there is no niore pain or death, and where they shall meet again their loved ones, never more to be separated. 11. MUKTI, THE GREAT AIM OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA. The great inquiry of the Hindu is not, What is truth? but how to cut short the 84 lakhs of births through which it is supposed every one must pass; how to set the soul free from Prakriti. The Gítá calls this world "the seat of pain and death; even the happiness of heaven is only transient." * These grcat-souled men, having attained to me, come not again to life, which is transient, and the seat of pain : they reach the highest perfection." VIII. 15. " Those who know the three Vedas, who drink the soma-juice, being purified from their offences, offer sacrifices, and petition for heaven. These obtain the holy world of Indra, in which they feast upon the divine food of the gods. When they have partaken of that spacious heaven for a while in 10 ·74 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. 19 une. proportion to their virtues, they sink again into this mortal world as soon as their stock of merit is exhausted.". IX. 20, 21. How to get rid of the curse of existence and not to be born again, is the grand object. The Gítá mentions the ways in which it is supposed this is to be attained : "He, 0 Arjuna, who truly knoweth my divine birth and work, doth not upon his quitting his mortal frame enter into another, for he entereth into IV. 9. "The Yogi, thus constantly devoting his self to abstraction, whose mind is restrained, attaineth to peace, the supreme nirvana that is in me. VI. 15. “ Supreme happiness attendeth the man whose heart is thus at peace; whose passions are thus subdued, who is one with Brahma, and free froin sin." VI. 27. “ He who hath closed all the gates (of the senses), confined bis heart (mancts) inwardly, placed the vital breath in the head, constant in devotion ; repeating the syllable Om, signifying the eternal Brahma, thinking upon me, he who thus departeth goeth when he quitteth the body, to the highest place." VIII. 12, 13. " When the seer perceiveth no agent except the gunas, and knoweth what is above the gunas, he entereth into my being. XIV. 19. “ Thus comprehending his identity with Brahma, calm in spirit, he grieveth not, wisheth not, being the samne to all beings, he attaineth to supreme devotion in me. By this devotion he knoweth me truly who I am, and how great I am. Then having known me truly, he entereth into my essence.' (XVIII. 54, 55.) Some other passages imply that absorption may also be attained by bhakti, exclusive devotion : " Having come into this transient, unhappy world, worship me. Fix thy heart (manas) on ine; become my devotee, my worshipper ; reverence me, and thus making me the supreme object, thou wilt come to ine." (ix. 34.) “ He cometh unto me whose works are done for we, who esteemeth me supreme, and who is my servant only; who is free from attachment, and who liveth amongst all men without hatred." (xi. 55.) In the first class of passages mukti is supposed to be attained mainly by the suppression of all desire, looking upon all alike, and realising one's identity with Brahma. In the second class the same object is supposed to be gained by bhakti, exclusive devotion to Krishna. The doctrine of mukti is largely based on the illustration, "Just as rivers falling into the sea lose their names and forms, so wise men, losing their names and forms, attain the Paratpara Purusha. As already mentioned, with Hindus illustration passes for argument. Rivers mixing with the sea is no proof that men may be absorbed into the Divine Being. Only substances of the same kind unite. But God is different from any other being; there is none like Him. How, then, can any other be absorbed in Him? Granting, however, that absorption does take place, what does it amount to ? Brahma is said to exist in a state of dreamless sleep, ·EXAMINATION. 75 without any more thought than a stone. Hindu absorption is practically the same as the Buddhist nirvana or annihilation. " Not to be,” says Professor Wilson, " is the melancholy result of the religion and philosophy of the Hindus." The Rev. Nehemiah Goreh thus contrasts his feelings as a Christian and a Hindu with regard to his duty to God :- "Since Christianity has taught me that God gave me my very being, I have begun to acknowledge that my obligation of worshipping, honouring and loving Him would not cease as long as I had my being. So our Scriptures also expressly teach us. The holy Psalmist says: • Praise the Lord, 0 my soul. While I live I will praise the Lord. I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. I, as a Christian, have been taught to believe that to love and glorify God is the very end of my existence. In this will consist my eternal joy and happiness. Not so was my faith when I was a Hindu. The state of salvation, according to my belief at that time, was to be free from transmigration, and to be separated, not only from the body, but even from the antahkarana, which is the organ of all our thoughts and consciousness, and to remain unconscious for ever. Indeed the teaching of the Vedánta, which represents the orthodox view, and which I followed, is, that souls, when saved, become Brahma itself, and of course lose their individual consciousness. So then, according to the teaching of the Vedanta as well as according to all other ancient schools of religion among the Hindus, worship of God is only possible until one obtains salvation." It is true that some Vaishnavas look for a future conscious existence with Vishnu, but this is contrary to the teaching of the Hindu Scriptures. Besides, there is no such being as Vishnu. Can any intelligent man believe that the god described in the Vishnu Purand really exists? 12. ENCOURAGEMENT OF YOGA EXERCISES. As already stated, the poem is partly an attempt to reconcile the Karma-Márga and the Juuna-Márga. The need of action is admitted, otherwise the human race would come to an end. On the whole, however, the teaching is that " action is far inferior to the devotion of the mind (Yoga). Chap. II. 49. Some explanation may first be given of the system. The Yoga, founded by Patanjali, is often styled the Theistic Sánkhyą. It agrees in its general principles with the Sankhya proper, but claims greater orthodoxy by directly acknowledging the existence of God. Indian philosophy makes salvation dependent upon right knowledge—that is the knowledge of the essential distinction between soul and non-soul. This right knowledge is generally supposed to be attainable only by the ascetic 'exercises prescribed in the Yoga Sastra. The word Yoga means union. The great end of the Yoga is 1 Supposed and Real Doctrines of Hinduism, pp. 29, 30. Price, Anna.

·76 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. 1. to obtain union with the Supreme Being. Patanjali defines Yoga as" the suppression of the functions of the thinking principle." The following are the exercises to be employed : Yama, restraint. 2. Niyama, religious observances. 3. Asana, postures. 4. Pránáyámå, regulation of the breath. 5. Pratyáhára, restraint of the senses. 6. Dharana, fixed attention. 7. Dhyána, contemplation. 8. Samadhi, profound meditation. All wandering thoughts are to be called in, and attention fixed on some one object. Any object will answer if it is thought of alone; other thoughts must be suppressed. At last there is profound meditation without any object. Great importance is attached to ásana, or postures. At an early period they were fixed as 84, but of this number ten are specially recommended. The following directions are given regarding sonie of them : The Lotus Posture. The right foot should be placed on the left thigh, and the left foot on the right thigh ; the hands should be crossed, and the two great toes should be firmly held thereby, the chin should be bent down to the chest; and in this posture the eyes should be directed to the tip of the nose. Gomukha or Cou'« Mouth Posture. ---Put the right ankle on the left side of the chest, and similarly the left ankle on the right side. Fowl Posture.--Having established the lotus posture, if the hand be passed between the thigh and the knees, and placed on the earth so as to lift the body aloft, it will produce the fowl seat. Bow Posture.-Hold the great toes with the hands and draw them to the ears as in drawing a bowstring. The regulation of the breath, pránáyáma, is likewise of great importance. “The usual mode is after assuming the posture prescribed, to place the ring finger of the right hand on the left nostril, pressing it so as to close it, and to expire with the right, then to press the right nostril with the thumb, and to inspire through the left nostril, and then to close the two nostrils with the ring finger and the thumb, and to stop all breathing. The order is reversed in the next operation, and in the third act the first form is required.'** Marvellous powers are attributed to the man fully initiated in the Yoga. The past and present are unveiled to his gaze. He sees things invisible to others. He hears the sounds that are in distant worlds. He becomes stronger than the elephant, bolder than the lion, swifter than the wind. He inounts at pleasure into the air or dives into the depths of the earth and the ocean. He acquires mastery over all things, whether animate or inanimate. The Gítá acknowledges the need of action, otherwise the *Quoted by Mr. R. C. Bose from the translation of the Yoga Shastra by Dr. Rajendralala Mitra. Hindlu Philorophy, pp. 177, 178, 180.

·EXAMINATION. 77 human race would come to an end. On the whole, however, the teaching is that " work is far inferior to the devotion of the mind." (ii. 49). In the following extracts, directions are given about Yoga, and its advantages are pointed out: “Some sacrifice the upward breath in the downward, and the downward breath in the upward, stopping up the channels of the upward and downward breath, intent on the restraint of breaths (prináyáma)." iv. 29. " The muni who excludeth (from his mind) external objects, (concentrating) the visual power between the brows and making the upward and downward lifebreaths even, sending both through the nostrils, who restraineth the senses, mind, and understanding, intent on final cinancipation, from whor desire, fear, and wrath have departed, is indeed for ever free from (birth and death.)" v. 26. "Let the Yogi constantly practise devotion, fixed in a secluded spot alone, with his mind and self subdued, without expectation and without belongings. Fixing his seat firmly in a clean spot, neither high nor low, covered with a cloth, a deerskin and kusa grass. There fixing his heart on one object, restraining his thoughts, senses, and actions, seated on that scat. he should practise Yoga for the purifying of his soul. Holding his body, head and neck even and unmoved, (remaining) steady, looking at the tip of his nose and not looking around, tranquil in soul, free from anxiety, and hering to the rules of the Brahmachárís, he should restrain his mind, and (concentrate) it on me, and sit down, engaged in devotion, meditating and intent on me. The Yogi, thus constantly devoting his self to abstraction, whose mind is restrained, attaineth peace, the supremo Nirvind that is in me." vi. 10-15. The whole belief is a delusion. The brain is the organ of the mind.. To enable it to act properly, it must have a good supply of pure blood. The blood is purified by fresh air entering into the lungs by breathing. From want of sufficient food and suppression of the breath, the blood of the Yogi is small in quantity and impure. The brain does not act properly. He may be in a dreamy hypnotic condition or almost unconscious. Barth, a French writer, a distinguished Sanskrit scholar, says of the Yoga exercises : “Conscientiously observed, they can only issue in folly and idiocy." The following remarks are from Bishop Caldwell. He asks .what are the visible results of the philosophy of the Gítá? What has it done for India, the land of its birth? "Has it promoted popular education, civilization, and good government ? Has it educated the people in generous emotions? Has it abolished caste or even mitigated its evils ? His it obtained for widows the liberty of remarriage ? Has it driven away dancing girls from the teniples? Has it abolished polygamy? Has it repressed vice and encouraged virtue? Was it this philosophy which abolished female infanticide, the meriah sacrifice and the burning of widows ? Is it this which is covering the country with a network of railways and telegraphs ? Is it this which has kindled amongst the Native inhabitants of India the spirit of improvement and enterprise which is now apparent ? Neod I ask the question ? All this time the philosophy of quietinni has been sound asleep, or with its eyes fixed on the point of its nose, according to the directions of the Gítá, it has been thinking itself out of its wits. This philosophy has substantially been the creed of the majority ·78 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. of the people for upwards of two thousand years, and if it had emanated from God, the proofs of its divine origin ought long ere this to have been apparent; but it has all this time been too much absorbed in contemplating self by means of self to have had any time or thought left for endeavouring to improve the world. What could be expected of the philosophy of apathy, but that it should leave things to take their course? There is much real work now being done in India in the way of teaching truth, putting down evil, and promoting the public welfare ; but that work is being done, not by Vedantists or quietists of any school, but by Christians from Europe, whose highest philosophy is to do good, and by those Natives of India who have been stimulated by the teaching and example of Europeans to choose a similar philosophy." “The remarks of Lord Macaulay in his Essay on Lord Bacon on the Stoical philosophy of the ancients as contrasted with the modern Baconian philosophy, which is developed from and leavened by the practical teaching of the Christian Scriptures, will illustrate the unprofitableness of the Vedántic philosophy better than can be done by any words of mine. I commend the study of that brilliant Essay to the youthful Hindu. If Sanskrit words be substituted for the Greek technical terms quoted by Macaulay, every word that he says respecting the philosophy of Zeno may be said with equal truth of the philosophy of the Gítá." A few extracts are given below from Macaulay's Essay: "The chief peculiarity of Bacon's philosophy seems to us to have been this, that it aimed at things altogether different from those which his prede. cessors had proposed to themselves, “What then was the end which Bacon proposed to himself ? It was, to use his own emphatic expression, 'fruit.' It was the multiplying of human enjoyments and the mitigating of human sufferings. It was the relief of man's estate. “Two words form the key of the Baconian doctrines, Utility and Progress. The ancient philosophy disdained to be useful, and was content to be stationary. It dealt largely in theories of moral perfection, which were so sublime that they never could be more than theories; in attempts to solve insoluble enigmas; in exhortations to the attainment of unattainable frames of mind. It could not condescend to the humble office of ministering to the comfort of human beings. “The ancient philosophy was a treadmill, not a path. It was made up of revolving questions, of controversies which were always beginning again. It was a contrivance for having much exertion and no progress. It might indeed sharpen and invigorate the brains of those who devoted themselves to it; but such disputes could add nothing to the stock of knogledge. There was no accumulation of truth, no heritage of truth acquired by the labour of one generation and bequeathed to another, to be again transmitted with large additions to a third. “The same sects were still battling with the same unsatisfactory, argu. ments, about the same interminable questions. There had been plenty of ploughing, harrowing, reaping, threshing. But the garners contained only smut and stubble. “ Words and mere words, and nothing but words, had been all 'the fruit of all the toil of all the most renowned sages of sixty generations. The ancient philosophers promised what was impracticable; they despised what was practicable; they filled the world with long words and long beards; and they left it as wioked and ignorant as they found it.' A ·EXAMINATION. 79 13. AOTIONS PERFORMED WITHOUT ATTACHMENT (SANGA) DO NOT DEFILE."* The author of the poem saw the necessity of action. Men are impelled to action even against their wills; without it everybody would starve. "No one ever resteth a moment inactive. Every man is involuntarily urged to act by those gunus which are inherent in his nature." üi. 5. “ Performa every appointed work, for action is preferable to inaction. Without action the support of thy body would not be possible." iii. 8. But according to Hinduism, actions must be followed by their appropriate effects, involving future births, and preventing the attainment of mukti. The professed great discovery of the Gítá is to show how actions may be performed without being attended by their results. The problem is thus solved : All work must be done without "attachment"; it must be done as a duty, without any feeling, and especially without any desire for reward (phala, fruit). Even religious acts in the hope of gaining heaven, bound the soul to successive births. Absorption might be gained by works, but such must be done apart from all selfish hope of gain. If done in this spirit, they were even praise. worthy, especially caste duties. Arjuna, as a Kshatriya, ought therefore to fight. Renunciation of works (sannyása) is reconciled with devotion by work (Karmayoga) by renouncing all the "fruit" of works. This kind of renunciation is called tyága (forsaking.) Krishna says: " Actions defile me not, I have no desire for the fruit of actions. He who knoweth me thus is not bound by actions." iv. 14. • Abandoning the desire of a reward of his actions; always contented and self-reliant, although he may be engaged in a work, he, as it were, doeth nothing." iv. 20. "Contented with whatever he may receive, unaffected by the pairs of opposites (pleasure and pain, &c.,) free from envy, the same in good and evil fortune, he, though he worketh, is not bound." iv. 22. "He who casting off attachment offereth his actions to Brahma, is not täinted by sin as the lotus leaf in water." At Akulkote, in the Bombay Presidency, there was a Sádhu 80 holy, that he could eat beef and drink brandy without prejudice to his sanctity. Swami Vivekananda has been charged with eating pork and drinking wine in America ; but he is not defiled thereby. One object of this teaching is to persuade Arjuna that he might kill all his relations without harm to himself. Krishna says: "He who hath no feeling of egoism (that he is the doer of the actions) and whose mind is not tainted (with the feeling that the fruit of the action must acarue to him), though he kills (all) these people, kills not, is not bound, (by the action).". xviii. 17. In connection with this doctrine, see Note, p. 90, on the Poona Murdors. v. 10.

·80 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. man. A small volume has been published, entitled The Imitation of Sree Krishna, compiled by S. C. Mukopadhaya, M.A. The Preface contains the following horrible doctrine :- * To our inind virtue and vice being relative terms can never be applied to one who is regarded as the Supreme Being. The being who is equal in virtue as well as in vice is to us a grander being than the extremely virtuous One whose moral equilibrium remains intact in every action which the huinan mind is capable of imagining is the grandest being in the universe. The great Kosmic Law can never affect that being who acts without sungum or attraction. To tcach this great lesson practically, Krishna came to the world, and to teach this great lesson practically, he treated Vice and Virtue alike. In every line of the Bhagavad Gitá is stamped this great lesson, and the whole of Krishna's muyáric life is an embodiment of this téach. ing. Action committed without attraction is neither virtuous nor vicious, and such action is termed Lila in Sanskrit. Such action is the corner stone of the highest Ráj-Yoga, as is stated in Sloka 18,* Chapter IV. of the Gítá. Of course such action is not possible for one who is the unwilling slave of his past Karma; but this is natural for one who is regarded as the very incarnation of the Supreme Being: Conceive a man who is trying his utmost to Hly from vice to its opposite pole, virtue, imagine also a being to whom heat and cold, virtue and vice, are the same; and you will find that the latter is infinitely superior to the fornier. The one is the infinite, the other is the finite; the one is the absolute, the other is the relativo." pp. ii, üü. A little consideration will show the fallacy of the above reasoning: It destroys the eternal distinction between right and wrong, virtue and vice. If a man murdered his wife would a judge set him free because he alleged that it was “done without attachment?" Of all false teaching that is the worst, which, as in the preceding extract, asserts that " virtue and vice are the same that the being who is equal in virtue as well as in vice is to us a grander being than the extremely virtuous man. Well may the prophet's exclamation apply to such teaching:“Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil ; that put darkness for light and light for darkness." The Folk Songs of Southern India (page 166) thus express the same doctrine: "To them that fully know the heavenly truth, There is no good or ill; nor anything To be desired, unclean, or purely clean. Where God is seen, there can be nought but God. His heart can have no place for fear or shame; For caste, uncleanness, hate, or wandering thought, Impure or pure, are all aliko to him." Mr. R. C. Bose thus shows the moral influence of the doctrine: “This system has proved a refuge of lies to many a hardened sinner. What a balm to the scared but not deadened conscience is a system which *“He is wise among men, he is possessed of devotion, and performs all actions, who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction." IV. 18.

·EXAMINATION. 81 assures them that all their fears arising from their recognition of moral distinctions are groundless, and that perfect beatitude will be their reward if they can only bring themselves to the conclusion that there is no difference between God and man, virtue and vice, cleanliness and filth, heaven and hell !" While Hinduisın denies, Christianity affirms, the reality of an eternal and necessary distinction between sin and righteousness. 14. CASTE ALLEGED TO BE A DIVINE INSTITUTION. Caste is the essence of Hinduism. So long as a man observes its rules, he possesses all the rights of a Hindu, whatever may be his belief or conduct in other respects. Guru Prasad Sen says: “ Hinduisın is not, and has never been a religious organization. It is a pure social system, insisting in those who are Hindus the observance of certain social forms, and not the profession of particular religious beliefs. A Hindu may be an atheist, a deist, à monotheist, or a polytheist, a believer in the Vedas or Shastras, or a sceptic as regards their authority, and his position as a Hindu cannot be questioned by anybody because of his beliefs or unbeliefs so long as he conforms to social rules." Krishna claims to be the author of Caste :- “The four castes were created by me according to the apportionment of qualities and works. Know that I, though actionless and inexhaustible, am the author of them." IV. 18. The duties of the four castes are as follows: "The duties of Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras, have been apportioned according to the qualities born of their own natures. “Tranquillity, self-restraint, austerity (tapas), purity, patience, rectitude, spiritual knowledge and faith, are the natural duties of a Brahman." .“ Valour, glory, courage, skill, keeping one's ground, liberality and lordly bearing, are the natural duties of a Kshatriya. "Agriculture, tending of cattle, and trade, form the natural duties of a Vaisya. * The natural duty of a Sudra consists in service." xviii. 41-44. The intermingling of castes is regarded as a dire calamity. Krishna says: ** If I should not work, these worlds would sink in ruin. I should be the cause of caste confusion, and should destroy these people." iii. 24. Arjuna is told that a person does not sin who acts according to his caste. His duty as a Kshatriya was to fight, and that thus he would obtain an entrance to heaven. "Better is one's own work though faulty, than another's well performed. He who doeth the work prescribed by nature incurreth no sin." xviii. 47. “Regarding, too, thy proper duty, thou oughtest not to falter, for there is nothing better for a Kshatriya than a lawful battle. Happy are the Kshatriyas who find such a battle offered freely to them as an open door to heaven." ii. 81, 82. 1 Introduction to the Study of Hinduism, pp. 4, 5. 11 ·82 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. | Bishop Caldwell has the following remarks on the duty of every one to follow the work of his caste :--- "A soldier of the Kshatriya caste has no duty superior to fighting. If fighting and slaying are lawful simply because they are caste employments, the immutability of moral obligations is ignored. What shall we say then of the Kallars, the thief caste of the South, the ancient (but now generally abandoned) employment of whose caste was to steal, and whose caste namo means simply thieves ?' Krishna's teaching on this head elevates the conven. tional duties of the institutions of a dark age above the essential distinctions between right and wrong." It is granted that caste has some advantages. It promotes a stationary semi-civilisation. It binds together men of the same class; it promotes cleanliness ; and it is a check in certain directions on moral conduct. But these are far more than counterbalanced by its pernicious effects. The opinions of competent witnesses will be given on this point. The following are the heads of a lecture by Pandit Sivanath Sastri on Caste: (1) It has produced disunion and discord. (2) It has made honest manual labour contemptible in this country. (3) It hås checked internal and external commerce. (4) It has brought on physical degeneracy by confining marriage within narrow circles. (6) It has been & source of conser. vatisin in every thing. (6) It has suppressed the development of individual. ity and independence of character. (7) It has helped in developing other injurious customs, such as early marriage, the charging of heavy matrimonial fees, &c. (8) It has successfully restrained the growth and development of national worth; whilst allowing opportunity of mental and spiritual.culture only to a limited number of privileged people, it has denied these opportunities to the majority of the lower classes; consequently it has made the country negatively a loser.. (9) It has inade the country fit for foreign slavery by pre. viously enslaving the people by the most abject spiritual tyranny. Sir H. S. Maine, in Ancient Law, characterises caste as "the most disastrous and blighting of human institutions. Principal Caird says: “The system of Caste involves the worst of all wrongs to humanity--that of hallowing evil by the authority and sanction of religion ... Instead of breaking down artificial barriers, waging war with false separations, softening divisions and undermining class hatreds and antipathies, religion becomes itself the very consecration of them. “Of all forgeries," says Dr. K. M. Banerjea," the most flagitious and profane is that which connects the name of the Almighty with an untruth." Yet this is what is done in the Gitá. 15. THE EFFICACY OF SHRADDHAS. Sir William Jones, in the Preface to his translation of Manu's Code, characterises it as a system of priestcraft.”. One of the most effectual inventions of the Brahmans for fleecing the Hindus ·EXAMINATION. 83 is that of Shraddhas. Their origin is attributed by Manu to the .: Self-Existent": "Since from hell, called Put, the son (putra) preserves (tri-yati), the father, therefore, putra was he called, even by the Self-existent himself." ix. 188. A childless man who has no son to make offerings for him is said to fall into the hell called Put. · The general idea of the Hindus is that the dead require to be nourished for three generations by their descendants, and to have works of merit performed for their benefit. This is taught in the Bhagavad Gita: “Their forefathers, being deprived of pindas and water, fall (from heaven)." i. 42. Manu says that at least three Brahmans should be invited to Shraddhas when the ceremony is performed. " The manes (pitris) indeed stand by those invited Brahmans, and follow (them) like wind ; likewise sit by them when seated." vi. 189. The Vishnu Purána teaches that what is given to the Brahmans benefits the pitris. Evils of Shraddhas.-Shraddhas are a curse to India, and a great obstacle to its improvement. In some cases the expense is nearly equal to that of a marriage. Numbers of idle vagabonds, some of them notoriously vicious, are maintained who should work for their living. The impression is given that a man's welfare in another world depends mainly, not upon his own conduct, but on the offerings made after his death. He may lead any sort of life, however immoral and wicked, provided he leave enough to feed the Brahmans, and especially to have his Shraddha performed at Gaya. Thus encouragement is given to sin, On the other hand, a childless man is said to fall into Put. The great Judge of all the earth will do that which is right. A man will be rewarded or punished for his own deeds, not for those of others over which he has no control. The whole system is clearly an invention of the Brahmans to deceive ignorant credulous Hindus and get their money. At a time when mourning the loss of relatives, they work upon their feelings, and extort from them all they can. The most frightful account is given of the sufferings of those whose shraddhas are not performed. It is our duty to cherish the memory of our forefathers, but their happiness in a future state depends upon their own conduct not upon our offerings. The best way of showing respect for them is by living noble lives. The system of Shraddhas, injurious in so many ways, is sup: ported by the Bhagavad Gitá.

·84 THE BHAGAVAD GITA, 16. THE VALUE OF BHAKTI. One great design of the poem is to exalt the doctrine of devotion to Krishna. Krishna says :- “Even if one of evil life worshippeth me and not any other, he must certainly be deemed to be good, for he hath judged rightly." ix. 80. The following assurance is given towards the end of the Poem : "The man, too, who may hear it in faith, without reviling, shall, when liberated, attain the happy world of the virtuous." xviii, 71. The value of faith depends upon its object. Faith in an imaginary being who has no existence, must be worthless, and can only destroy him by whom it is exercised. The Krishna of the Bhagavad Gítá as a mere fiction of the Vaishnava Brahman by whom it was written. Faith is Krishna, as described in the Puranas, with 16,100 wives, would be still worse. 17. KNOWLEDGE REDUCES SIN TO ASHES. In Section IV Krishna says :- Although thou wert the most sinful of all sinful men, thou wilt pass over all trespasses by the boat of knowledge." 36. " As the natural fire 0 Arjuna, reduceth the wood to ashes, so the fire of knowledge reduceth all actions to ashes." 37. What is the knowledge that has such effects ? The blasphemous assertion, Aham Brahma, I am God. Is this true or false? 18. DYING IN THE LIGHT AND DARK FORTNIGHTS. The promise is made that he who departs from this world remembering Krishna secures absorption. " At the end of time, he who, quitting the body, departeth thinking only of me, without doubt entereth into my being." viii. 5. There is, however, another requisite mentioned in the same Lecture, Krishna says : "I will now speak to thee of that time in which, should yogís die, they will not return, and of that time in which dying they shall return to life. 28." “Those holy men who know Brahına, departing this life in fire, light, the dey-time, in the bright season of the moon, within the six months of the sun's northern course, go unto him." 24. “But those who depart in smoke, night, the moon's dark season, and whilst the sun is yet within the southern part of his journey, ascend for a while to the regions of the moon, and again return to mortal birth." 25. Does any intelligent man believe that his future happiness depends upon his dying in the light or dark fortnight?

·THE BHAGAVAD GITA IS NOT A DIVINE REVELATION. 85 9 PROOFS THAT THE BHAGAVAD GITA IS NOT A DIVINE REVELATION. The Gítá claims to be the “Divine Song. With regard to one of its principal doctrines, Krishna says: “This eternal (doctrine of) yoga I formerly taught to Vivaswat, and Vivaswat taught it to Manu, and Manu made it known to Ikshwáku." iv. 1. Vivaswat is interpreted to mean Aditya, the sun, the source of the whole Kshatriya race. Manu told it to his son Ikshwáku, born, according to the Vishnu Purána, "from his nostril when he happened to sneeze !" In ancient times, the sun was represented as a göd. We now know that it is a globe of the fiercest fire. Every intelligent Hindu must regard the above statement as a myth. The following are a few of the reasons which show that the Gítá is not inspired. They have been explained at length in the foregoing pages, so that only a summary is given. 1. Its acknowledgment of Polytheism.-(See pp. 58-60). No intelligent man is now a polytheist. 2. Its pantheistic Teaching.-(pp. 60-62). Krishna claims to be everything that exists. The whole world has been made by himself, out of himself. 3. Its debasing ideas of God.- (page 66). It is asserted that rajas and tamas proceed from God as well as sattwa. 4. Its denial of the eternal Distinction between Right and Wrong.---(pp. 79-80). It is asserted that " actions performed without attachment do not defile." Arjuna might kill all his relations, yet if he acted without attachment, he would be free from the consequences. When a man realizes that he is one with the Supreme Spirit, then virtue and vice are alike to him. 5. Its claim of Caste as Divine Institution.--(pp.81-2). This alone condemns the whole book. An iniquitous lie is put in the mouth of the Deity. Krishna says, "The fourfold divisions of castes was created by me. The remark of Dr. K.M. Banerjea has been quoted: "Of all forgeries the most flagitious and profane is that which connects the name of the Almighty with an untruth." Yet this is what is done in the Gítá. 6. Its false teaching with regard to salvation.-Salvation only means deliverance from future births. It is alleged that knowledge reduces sin to ashes, (page 84). The idea is given that if a person thinks of Krishna in his last moments, he goes to him (page 84). Hence the popular story of a very wicked man being taken to heaven, because he repeated his name when asking his son Nárayana to give him some water. Dying in the light fortnight is also considered essential to salvation. (page 84).

·86 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. 8. 7. Its false Reasoning and Contradictions.-Bishop Caldwell shows that, according to Krishna's logic, murder is impossible, for the soul cannot be killed (page 57). A few of the contradictions acknowledged by Mr. Telang are quoted. (page 66). Its whole Doctrine of Yoga is a Delusion.--As already mentioned, the author makes Krishna say that he taught this "eternal doctrine to Vivaswat," the sun. This has been shown to be untrue. The doctrine itself is also false. God and the soul are not essentially one, so there cannot be a union between them in the Hindu sense. It has been explained that the air we breathe purifies the blood. If this is not done, we become insensible and die, as when a person is hanged or drowned. By suppressing the breath a person becomes so unconscious that he ceases to think. But this idiocy is no step to union with God: he has only rendered himself useless. Union with God is impossible. The Creator and the creature must remain eternally distinct. But our great Father in heaven offers to us an eternal conscious existence of unspeakable happiness in His presence. We become fit for this, not by mechanical means as posturing and suppressing the breath, but by feelings of sorrow for sin, love to God, and doing good to our fellowmen. This is more fully explained in the next chapter. The Gítá dwells upon the importance of Knowledge. The Epiphany shows how this doctrine was exploded in the West many centuries ago: "This difference between a religion of intellectual knowledge' or gnosis, and one of faith or pistis, was long ago known to the Christian Church. It is no new experience; in its infancy it had to contend with enormous theosophical systems, like that of the Gilá, and chiefly of Asiatic origin. 'The professors of these systems called themselves the Gnostics' or Knowers. and despised Christianity as a religion of mere faith. Each of them had its tre. mendous and elaborated account to give of the universe, couched in high. sounding verse or prose, which it considered to exhaust all the possibilities of knowledge. They also, like the Gitá, enjoined minute and arduous ascetic discipline as the right preparation for reaching the height of intuition. They flourished, attracted many disciples, and past away, while the religion of faith survived. Why? Because the object of their belief was an intellectual one, and mainly speculative. They were religions of the head rather than of the soul and heart; they could not feed the cravings of the latter, and so they were found wanting, and expired with the next turn of the wheel of philosophic thought. Just because they were religions founded on philosophies rather than philosophies founded on religion, they went out of fashion with the particular systems they built upon." Sept. 27, 1895. Some of the deficiencies of the Gitá are thus pointed out by Bishop Caldwell : “ It nowhere exhibits any sense of the evil of sin considered as a violation of law, as defiling the conscience, and as counteracting the ends for which man was created. It makes no provision for the re-establishment of the authority of the Divine Lawgiver by the expiation of sin in such a manner as to render forgiveness compatible with justice. It teaches nothing ·THE TRUE INCARNATION. 87 and knows nothing respecting the forgiveness of sin. It makes no provision for the healing of the wounds of the sin-sick soul by the communication of sanctifying grace and instruction in sanctifying truth. The salvation it teaches is not a salvation from sin by means of a new birth to righteousness, commencing in the present life and perfected hereafter, but merely & salvation from the necessity of being born again in repeated births, by means of the final emancipation of spirit from matter. The moral system of the Gitá fails therefore in the most essential points—the vindication of the justice of the moral Governor of the Universe, and the restoration of harmony between man's moral nature and the constitution of things under which he is placed." The duty of prayer is not urged. Man must raise himself by himself, and that chiefly by posturing and regulation of the breath. It is not by such means that holiness can be attained. Real Authorship.-The poem bears internal evidence that it was written by a Vaishnava Brahman, who had the ordinary Hindu polytheistic and pantheistic ideas, who sought to uphold caste and the privileges of his order, while he endeavoured to harmonise some doctrines of Hindu philosophy, and give prominence to Krishna bhakti. A blasphemous claim is made that "the Deity" spoke the words which he wrote, and the book was foisted into the Mahábhárata to get the support of its authority. The true conclusion with regard to the Bhagavad Gita is thus expressed by Bishop Caldwell :- “ The style of the composition is flowing and elegant, but the philosophy taught is unsound, and the doctrine immoral. It is poison administered in honey.' Dr. Murray Mitchell quotes the following opinion of it held by the celebrated French philosopher, M. Cousin :: “ Before this kind of theism, at once terrible and chinerical, and represented in extravagant and gigantic symbols, huinan nature must have trembled and denied itself. Art, in its powerless attempt to represent being in itself, necessarily rose without limit to colossal and irregular creations. God being all, and man nothing, a formidable theocracy pressed upon humanity, taking from it all liberty, all movement, all practical interest, and consequently all morality. Again, you will comprehend how man, despising himself, has not been able to take any thought for recalling the memory of his actions ; so that there is no history of man and no chronology in India." THE TRUE INCARNATION. It is admitted that the Hindu ideas with regard to incarnations, though defective in many respects, recognise, says Hardwick, the idea of God descending to the level of the fallen creature and becoming man to lighten the burden of pain and misery under which the universe is groaning. # Hinduism, Past and Present, pp. 80, 81.

·88 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. "No thoughtful student of the past records of man, says Trench, “can refuse to acknowledge that through all its history there has run the hope of a redemption from the evil which oppresses it; and as little can deny that this hope has continually attached itself to some single man. The help that is coming to the world, it has seen incorporated in a person. The generations of men, weak and helpless in themselves, have evermore been looking after ONE in whom they may find all they look for vainly in themselves and in those around them." Teaching by example is far more effective than mere precept. Humanity also yearns for one who can sympathise with it in its troubles. All these requirements are met in JESUS CHRIST, the Nishkalank, or spotless, Avatára. Space does not permit a full account to be given of the wondrous life and teaching of JESUS CHRIST. The reader is referred to the account of them given in the Gospels, the first part of the New Testament. Jesus Christ was born about 19 centuries ago at Bethlehem, a small town in Palestine, about midway between India and England. His first recorded discourse was at Nazareth, where He read the following passage from the prophet Esaias, or Isaiah, explaining His object in coming to the world : “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath senteme to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” To-day,” He said, "is this scripture fulfilled." He summed up our duty in the two great commands: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart : Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: He taught that sinful thoughts are forbidden as well as acts. “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." Men are defiled, not by what they eat, but by evil thoughts, covetousness, pride, thefts, adulteries, &c. It is said of Hiniself that He “ went about doing good.' He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. No guile was found in His mouth. He was full of grace and truth. He challenged His bitterest enemies to find in Him any stain of sin. Instead of spending His life in pleasure, He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs. His life was one of privation. It is said of Him that He had not where to lay His head. He sympathized with all our sorrows. He wept with Martha and Mary at of their brother. His griefs and sorrows were ours. He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our ·THE TRUE INCARNATION. 89 iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon,'and with His stripes we are healed. His teaching was, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” When dying on the cross, He prayed for His murderers, saying, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Truly this was the Son of God. J. S. Mill on Jesus Christ:- “Whatever else may be taken away from us by rational criticism, Christ is still left-a unique figure, not more unlike all His precursors than all His followers, even those who had the direct benefit of His personal teaching. It is of no use to say that Christ, as exhibited in the Gospels, is not historical, and that we know not how much of what is admirable has been superadded by the tradition of His followers. Who among his disciples, or among their proselytes, was capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus, or of imagining the life and character revealed in the Gospels ? Certainly not the fishermen of Galilee-still less the early Christian writers. About the life and sayings of Jesus there is a stamp of personal originality combined with profundity of thought which must place the Prophet of Nazareth, even in the estimation of thosc who have no belief in His inspiration, in the very first rank of the men of sublime genius of whom our species can boast. When this pre-eminent genius is combined with qualities of probably the greatest moral reformer and martyr to that mission who ever existed upon earth, religion cannot be said to have made a bad choice in pitching upon this man as the ideal representative and guide of humanity ; nor even now would it be easy, even for an unbeliever, to find a better translation of the rule of virtue from the abstract into the concrete, than to endeavour so to live that Christ would approve our life." (Essays on Nature, the Utility of Religion, and Theism; pp. 253-55.) · Lecky, in his History of European Morals, bears the following testimony to the EFFECTS of Christianity :- “It was reserved for Christianity to present to the world a character, which, through all the changes of eighteen centuries, has inspired the hearts of men with an impassioned love : has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, temperaments, and conditions ; has been not only the highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive to its practice; and has exercised so deep an influence, that the simple record of three years of active life has done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the discussions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists." Reasons for the Study of Christianity.-An intelligent man should have some acquaintance with all the great religions of the world, but Christianity has special claims to attention, There are so many allusions to Christianity scattered throughout English literature, that no one ignorant of it can be a thorough English scholar. It is Christianity which has mainly raised painted savages to the fore-front of civilization, Gladstone, one of the greatest statesmen of modern times, says, that for “the last fifteen hundred years Christianity has always marched in the van of all human improvement and civilization, and it has harnessed to its car 12 ·90 THE BHAGAVAD GITA. all that is great and glorious in the human race.” Christianity was the religion of men like Milton, Newton, Johnson, and Scott. Shakespeare, the greatest of writers, ends his will with these words: “I commend my soul into the hands of God my Creator; hoping and assuredly believing, through the only merits of Jesus Christ, my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting." Christianity alone has a Saviour. Every thoughtful man feels the burden of guilt which he carries about with him; in the battle with evil which every man should fight, he feels that he needs help. Christianity provides both. Alone we entered the world; alone we depart. Christianity does not leave us to pass tremblingly into an unknown eternity; it promises the Saviour's presence with us in that trying hour, and comforts us with the hope of a blessed immortality. Let the reader seriously ponder the foregoing remarks. For further information he is referred to Short Papers for Seekers after Truth, (1 An.), or to Dr. Murray Mitchell's Elements of Christian Truth, (14 As.) containing lectures to educated Hindus; but, above all, to the New Testament, obtainable in any of the Bible Depôts scattered over India. NOTE ON THE POONA MURDERS. See pp. 79-91. Chapekar was hanged for the murder of Mr. Rand at Poona. On his way to the scaffold, he had a copy of the Bhagavad Gitá. His crime was justified by the doctrine that, “ Actions performed without attachment do not defile." LIKE ---- - ...... ...... PRINTED AT THE M. E. PUBLISHING HOUSE, MOUNT ROAD, MADRAS, ·SELECTIONS FROM THE CATALOGUE OF THE Chriştian Literature Soqiety FOR INDIA. RELIGIOUS REFORM. THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST DESCRIBED AND EXAMINED. HINDU SERIES. This is now complete, and may be had in three volumes or separately. VOLUME I. VEDAS AND BRAHMANAS. An Account of the Vedas, with Illustrative Extracts from the Rig-Veda. 8vo. 166 pp. 41 As. 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·94 PUBLICATIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETY. Krishna as described in the Pinranas and Bhagavad Gita. 8vo. 72 pp. 2. As. Post-free, 3 As. A full account is given of the Krishna Avatára, chiefly taken from the Vishnu Purana, with some extracts from the Bhagavata Purána and the Mahábhárata. The circunstances which led to the great war between the landus and Kurus are described ; and some of the doctrines of the Bhagavad Gítá are examined in detail. Account of the Temple of Jagannath at Puri. 8vo. 48 pp. 1} As. The account is taken chietly from Dr. RAJENDRALALA MITRA's Antiquities of Orissa; Hunter's Gazetteer of India, Sterling's Orissa, &c. With views of the templo, procession, and images. Devil - Dancers, Witch - Finders, Rain-Makers, and Medicine Men. 4to. 60 pp. 21 As. Post-free, 3 As. A full account of these curious and degrading superstitions, prevalent among backward nations in different parts of the world; with 36 illustrations. BRAHMA SAMAJ. The Brahma Samaj, and other Modern Eclectic Religious Systems. 108 pp. 3 As. Post-free, 4 As. Modern Hindu Theism; Rammohun Roy; Debendranath Tagore; Keshub Chunder Sen; Sadharan Brahino Samaj; Mudras Brahmoism; Prarthanu Samajes. CHRISTIANITY. 21 As. Christianity Explained to a Hindu; or, The Doctrines of Christianity and Hinduism Compared. 60 pp. 2 As. Doctrines about God, Creation, the Soul, Karma, Transmigration, Sin, Incarnations, Salvation, Prospects at death, and Comparative Effects. India Hindu, and India Christian; or, What Hinduism has done for India, and what Christianity would do for it. 8vo. 72 pp. Post-free, 3 As. Address to thoughtful Hindus, showing how much their country would benefit from the religion which many of them now oppose. Letters to Indian Youth on the Evidences of Christianity. 12mo. 280 pp. 6 As. Post-free, 7 As. By the Rev. DR. MURRAY MITCHELL. External and Internal Evidences of Christianity; Examination of Popular Hinduism, Vedantism, and Muhammadanisin. Barrows Lectures. Christianity the World-Wide Religion. 8vo. 188 pp. 6 As. Post-free, 7} As. Soven Lectures, by the Rev. DR. BARROWS, of Chicago. 1. The World-Wide Aspects of Christianity. 2. The World-Wide Effocts of Christianity. 3. Christian Theism as the basis of a Universal Religion. 4. The Universal Book. 5. The Universal Man and Saviour. 6. The Historical Character of Christianity. 7. The World's First Parliament of Religions. Elements of Christian Truth. 12mo. 71 pp. 17 As. Lectures, by the Rev. Dr. MURRAY MITCHELL, delivored to Educated Hindus. Bushnell's Character of Jesus. 18mo. 92 pp. 13 As. With notes by the Rev. T. E. SLATER.

·PUBLICATIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETY. 95 . The History of Christianity in India; with its Prospects. 8vo. 150 pp. 5 As. 5 As. Post-free, 6 As. An account of the carly Christian Missions, and the progress of Christianity among the principal nations; with 35 illustrations, including portraits of some eminent Missionaries. Testimonies of Great Men to the Bible and Christianity, 8vo. 45 pp. 1} As. Post-free, 2 As. OŞinions expressed by great writers, philosophers, scientists, lawyers and statesmen, showing that the Bible and Christianity are firmly believed by the most eminent men of the time. How the People of Ancient Europe became Christians, and the Future Religion of India ? 8vo. 48 pp. 1} As. Post-free, 2 As. An account of the Eastern and Western Aryans; their common origin; 'resemblances in language and religion; how Christianity was first brought to Europe; the opposition it encountered, and its final success, with the evidence that it will follow a similar course in India. Civilization, Ancient and Modern, Compared ; Remarks on the study of Sanskrit. 8vo. 48 pp. 1: As. Post-free, 2 As. Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. 12.no. 180 pp. 3 As. Post-free, 4 As. This is an abridged edition of one of the most useful works on Christianity in the English language. AIDS TO STUDY THE NEW TESTAMENT. The Beginnings of Christianity. 12.no. 124 pp. 2 As. An Introduction to the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, with a Vocabulary and two Maps. Jesus Christ : His Life and Times. 8vo. 176 pp. 3 As. Post-frce, 4 As. The claims of Jesus Christ to attention ; the Preparation for lſis Coming; the Times in which He lived ; His early Life, l?ublic Ministry, and Death ; His character contrasted with the highest Hindu, Buddhist, and Muhammadan Idcals. Compiled from Stalker, Farrar, Geikie, etc. Addressed to Educated Hindus. The Founder of Christianity. 12mo. 250 pp. Stiff covers, 4 As. Full cloth, gilt. title, 8 As. An Introduction to the New Testament; with a Statement of Christian Truth, Prayers, Vocabulary, and two Maps. Includes most of the preceding, with additions. Notes on the Gospel of Luke. 8vo. 178 pp. 3 As. Post-free, 4 As. Explanations, selected from some of the best English works on the subject, are given, suited to Hindu students. Some of the principal lessons are also pointed out. PAPERS FOR THOUGHTFUL HINDUS. No. 1. The Relation between Christianity and Hinduism. 8vo. 32 pp. By the Rev. Dr. KRISHNA MOHUN BANERJEA, late Sanskrit Examiner to the Calcutta University. Anna. Tho remarkablo resemblances, in some respects, between ancient Hinduism and Christianity are pointed out.

·No. 3 By the 96 PUBLICATIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETY. No. 2. The Supposed and Real foctrine octrines of Hinduism, as held by Educated Hindus. 8vo. 32 pp. By the Rev. NEHEMIAH (NILAKANTH) GOREH. } Anna. It is shown that the belief of educated Hindus with regard to God, His Attributes, Creation, &c., are not found in the Vedas; but have been derived from Christianity. Moral Courage. 8vo. 32 pp. } Anna. A lecture by the Bishop of Bombay. · No. 4. The Importance of Religion. 8vo. 48 pp: Annz. An appeal to the young, by John FOSTER, author of Essays on Decision of Chtracter. No. 5. Christianity, or-What? 8vo. 16 pp. | Anna. REV. H. RICE. Christianity is shown to be the only religion which meets the wants of man. No. 6. The Sense of Sin in the Light of History. A lecture by the Rev. F. W. KELLETT, M.A., Madras Christiaü College. 8vo. 20 pp. 1 Anna. It is shown that the deeper the sense of sin, the more nature the religious life. No. 7. Bishop Caldwell on Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita. 8vo. 32 pp. Anna. A reprint of Remarks on the late Hon. Sudagopah Charloo's introduction to a Reprint of a Pamphlet entitled, " Theosophy oj the Hindus; ” with a preface by the Rev. J. L. Wyatt. No. 8. The Duties of Educated Young Men to their Country. 8vo. 16 pp. Anna. Address by the Rev. H. BALLANTYNF, at a Meeting of the Ahmednagar Debating Society. Translated from the Marathi. No. 9. Christ the Fulfilment of Hinduism. 8vo. 23 pp. 1 Anna. A lecture by the REV. F. W. KELLETT, M.A., Madras Christian College. No. 10. Vedantism. 8vo. 21 pp. } Anna. By the Rev. LAL BEHARI DAY, with numorous Sanskrit quotations. No. 11. The Defectiveness of Brahmoism. 8vo. 2. pp. 1 Anna. A lecture by the Rev. LAL BEHARI Day. Preliminary Dialogues on Important Questions in India. 8vo. 74 pp. 2 As. Post-free, 2 As. By a member of the Oxford Mission, alcutta. Hindu and Christian Conceptions of God, Theism versus Pantheism, Personality, Merit and Demerit, Sin, &c. No. 13. Helps to Truth-Seekers. 8vo. 32 pp. 1 Anna. By the Rev. H. RICE. Current objections to Christianity considered. Hindu Pantheism. 8vo. 18 pp. } Anna. From Anti-theistic Theories, by the Professor Flint, an able Writer. Hinduism and Christianity: a Comparison and a Contrast. 8vo. 64 pp. 17 As. Post-free, 2 As. By the Rev. DR. J. P. JONES of Madura. The points in which the two Religions resemble cach other are stated, as well as their differences. No. 16. The Gods of Ancient Europe. 8vo. 80 pp. 2 As. Postfree, 27 As. The Gods of ancient (treece, Romo, Germany, and Britain are described; their disappearance before Christianity, and the prospects of a similar change in India. Numerous illustrations. Complete in one Volume. Half Cloth, gilt title, 1 Re. Postage, 2 As. No. 12. No. 14. No. 15.

·PUBLICATIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETY. 97 SOCIAL REFORM. On Decision of Character and Moral Courage. 8vo. 56 pp. 14 As. Post-free, 2 As. A reprint of FOSTER'S celebrated Essa. :ith some remarks on its application to India. Sankary Reform in India. 55 pp. 2 As. Post-free, 21 As. How khs of Lives may be saved every year, and crores of cases of Sickness preven. ; Fiscautions against Fever, Cholera, 'Diabetes, &c. Is India becoming Poorer or Richer? With Remedies for the Existing Poverty. 8vo. 82 pp. 21 As. 21 As. Post-free, 3 As. Tho prevailing idea with regard to the increasing poverty of India shown to be incorrect, and the truo means of promoting its wealth explained. Debt and the Right Use of Money. 8vo. 32 pp. 1 Anna. Prevalence of Debt in India; its Causes; Evils; how to get out of it; with Franklin's Way to Wealth, &c. Purity Reform. 8vo. 32 pp. 1 Anna. The great need of this reform shown, and the means for its promotion. Temperance Reform in India. 8vo. 40 pp. 11 As. Post-free, 2 As. Intoxicating liquors in Ancient India; Intemperance in England ; Temperance Reform in the West; spread of Intemperance in India; Temperance Reform in India; how to promote Temperance Reforın; with Portraits of Livesey, Father Matthew, Sir Wilfred Lawson, Dean Farrar, Nessrs. Samuel Smith and Caine. Caste. 8vo. 66 pp. 2 As. Post-free, 2. As. Supposed and real origin of Caste; Laws of Casto according to Manu ; its Effects; Duty with regard to it. The Women of India and what can be Done for Them. 8vo. 158 pp. 4 As. Post-free, 51 As. Women in Tundu literature; Female Education ; Marriage Customs; Widow Marriage; means to be adopted to raise the position of Women. The above complete in one Volume, 1 Rupee Net. Postage, 24 As. Prize Essay on the Promotion of Indian Domestic Reform. 8vo. 14.1 pp. 4 As. 4 As. Post-free, 5 As. The prize was gained by Ganpat Lakshman, of Bombay, in 1841. His Essay was published with a Prufatory Note by the Rev. Dr. Jolin Wilson, in which it is highly commended as giving a graphic and correct picture of Hindu family life. PICE PAPERS ON INDIAN REFORM, Anna each. Some are original; others are abridged from the foregoing for popular use. Causes of Indian Poverty. 2. Indian Marriage Customs. 3. Supposed and Real Causes of Disease. 4. Patriotism: False and True. 5. Management of Infants. 6. Debt, and How to Get out of it. 7. The Purdah ; or the Seclusion of Indian Women.

·PUBLIC LIBRARA 98 PUBLICATIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETY. 8. Caste: its Origin and Efects. 9. Astrology, 10. What has the British Government done for India? Who wrote the Vedas pa, 12. Manava-Dharma Sanani. 13. The Bhagavad Gita! 14. The Science of the Hindu Sastras. 15 Fevers: their Causes, Treatment, and Preventiar. 16. Cholera and Bowel Complaints. Zoo chini 17. Animal Worship. 18. Early Marriage; its Evils and Suggested Reforms. 19. Duty to a Wife. 20. The Fruits of Hinduism. 21. Indian Widows, and what should be Done for them. 22. The Advantages of Female Education. 23 Hindu and Christian Worship Compared. 24. Hindu Pilgrimages. 25 Charity: False and True. 26. The Two Watchwords--Custom and Progress. 27. The Value of Pure Water. 28. Charms, Mantras, and other Superstitions. 29. Nautches. 30. Importance of Cleanliness. 31. How to have Healthy Children. 32. How to bring up Children. 33. How to take care of the Sick. 34. Eclipses. 35. Family Prayer. 36. Giving Abuse. Shraddhas, 38. Karma or Fate. 39. The Fatherhood of God. 40. The Brotherhood of Man. 41. Hindu and Christian Ideals of Piety. 42. Prayaschitta. Complete in a Volume, half bound, gilt title, 1 Re. Postage, 2 As. 43. An Appeal to Young India. PROGRESS. This is a monthly illustrated Periodical for the educated classes in India and Ceylon. The subscription is only 8 As. a year; with postage, 11 As. Three copies may be sent for anna postage. The Periodical is specially recommended to TEACHERS. It would give new ideas to their pupils, while the page for students would be very useful to those preparing for examinations. Orders to be addressed to MR. A. T. SCOTT, Tract Depôt, MADRAS. PRINTED AT THE M. E. PUBLISHING HOUSE, MOUNT'KOAD, MADRAS, 1900. Estd 1802. + AJU

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