` The Bhagavad Gita
_ Translated and Interpreted by Franklin Edgerton
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A Harvard Paperback
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ІНЕ BHAGAVAD GITA
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IHE BHAGAVAD GITA
EROR EARS
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TRANSLATED AND INTERPRETED BY FRANKLIN EDGERTON
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS AND LONDON, ENGLAND
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Copyright 1944 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College Copyright O 1972 by Eleanor Hill Edgerton All rights reserved
"Third printing 1975
This book was originally published as Volumes 38 and 39 of the Harvard Oriental Series. It is here reprinted in'one volume. The Sanskrit text and Sir Edwin Arnold's
translation have been omitted in this edition, and revisions have been made in the Preface and the Notes to the Translation.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-86384 ISBN 0-674-06927-7 (cloth) ISBN 0-674-06925-0 (paper)
Printed in the United States of America
ALD
To the memory of Maurice Bloomfield
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CONTENTS
PREFACE NOTES ом THE BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ЕхЕСЕѕ15 ОЕ THE GITA
PART I 'THE BHAGAVAD GITA NOTES TO THE TRANSLATION
PART II
INTERPRETATION OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA First Part: Preliminary Chapters
I. INTRODUCTORY II. THE ORIGINS or HINDU SPECULATION
III. THE UPANISADS, AND THE FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES OF Later Hinpu THOUGHT
IV. PREHISTORY or THE Сор or THE BHAGAVAD GITA
Second Part: The Teachings of The Bhagavad Gita
V. Sour AND Вору VI. Tue Nature or Gop VII. Action AND REBIRTH
VIII. THE Way or KNOWLEDGE AND THE Way OF DISCIPLINED ACTIVITY
IX. Тне Way or Devotion то Gop X. ATTITUDE TOWARDS HINDU ORTHODOXY AND OTHER ReLIcIous BELIEFS
XI. Practicat MORALITY
Third Part: Summary and Conclusion
XII. Summary XIII. CONCLUSION
Імрех оғ WORDS AND SUBJECTS INDEX or PASSAGES QUOTED
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92
105
120
132
139 146 157
164 172
179 183
189 193
195 199
PREFACE
"Tus book is the precipitate of many years of occupation with “India’s favorite Bible," as I called the Bhagavad Gita in my little "interpreta- tion" of 1925. It still seems a good name for it. For, to quote the same source, “it has permeated the collective religious consciousness of the people, from one end of India to the other," so that "not to know it means among them almost what it would mean for an English-speak- ing person not to know the Bible." It is a prime source of inspiration for many of the political and intellectual leaders of the Indian people, typified by Mahatma Gandhi, who was even more a cultural nationalist than a political one. Becoming known in Europe and America little more than a century ago, it quickly won the interest and admiration of such leaders of thought as Von Humboldt in Germany and Emerson in America. Some philosophical and religious groups in this country today regard the Gita almost as highly as the Hindus do.
There is a widening circle of intelligent westerners who are losing their occidental insularity and coming to realize that India, like some other eastern countries ( China, for instance), has created great works of civilization, of arts and letters and thought, in practically every field of human culture. Any educated man and woman must know at least that such things exist; that civilization does not stop at Suez; that there is a great Indian literature—art—philosophy— music, and so on. And some are learning that it is really not hard to get directly acquainted with some of the more accessible products of Indian literature and art; and that the experience is enjoyable and profitable.
I am firmly convinced that no one can know—in any worth-while sense—any of India's cultural products without learning some Sans- krit. But that is not so serious a hurdle as is often supposed. Even if one lacks the linguist's interest in language as such (and to the linguist Sanskrit is, for various reasons, one of the most interesting of lan- guages), anyone who has a reasonable knack for languages can learn in one year to read the simpler styles of Sanskrit literature with appre- ciation and enjoyment, though not without some help from a dic- tionary.
I trust that my book will help those who may want to use the Gità as an aid to fluency in the Sanskrit language and an introduction to Hindu religion at the same time. The first part contains the transla- tion. While the translation is fairly literal, I hope it is not un-English, nor yet wholly unfaithful to the style and spirit of the original. No attempt has been made to keep to verbal identity between this transla-
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tion and the English versions of stanzas or passages in my “interpre- tation” in the second part, which are freer, though the general sense is, of course, always the same. Occasional uncertainties or difficulties of interpretation are treated in the Notes to the 1 ranslation, which are placed at its end. In them I have recorded interpretative differ- ences of opinion, which seemed to me important, from some of my predecessors, particularly the two most celebrated Hindu commenta- tors, Samkara and Rāmānuja, and six of the leading modern transla- tors: the Hindu Telang, the Germans Garbe and Deussen, the French- man Senart, and the Britons Barnett and Hill (see my Notes on Bibliography and Exegesis, below).
The second part contains a careful revision of my "interpretation," mentioned above (The Bhagavad Gita or Song of the Blessed One, Chicago, Open Court, 1925). Some errors have been eliminated, and a somewhat different turn has been given to the treatment of some subjects, notably in the introductory chapters. In general, however, my views have not materially changed; my account of the main thread of the Gita’s thought and of its historic setting remains essentially the same.
There are many commentaries, translations, and interpretations of the Gita other than those listed. So many, indeed, that some may ask, why publish another? One partial justification may be found in the pedagogical aims of this book, mentioned above. But I shall not deny that I hope scholars and advanced students will also find it useful.
For, paradoxical as it may appear, despite the seeming simplicity of most of the Gita’s language, there are many details that have been differently interpreted. And less surprising, perhaps, is the fact that general estimates of its fundamental philosophy have varied widely, from the times of the ancient Hindu commentators to the present day. Like many another religious book, it is taken to prove almost any- thing. Perhaps there will be something subjective, inevitably, in any interpretation of such a work. Perhaps any one reads into it some- thing of himself. I can only say, on this point, that I have tried my best to be objective: to present what the author seems to have meant, whether I liked it or not.
Ido not know how many times I have read the entire Gita; thirty or forty times at least. More important is the fact that I have worked over mest of it minutely with students (any teacher knows what that шаш) аї least fifteen to twenty times, trying to extract the meaning of every particle. The result contains not a little that differs from any р EM ацоп, in small things and great. ] am not so pre-
p 5 to claim finality for any of it. But I feel that I have now
The Bhagavad Gita xi
reached the saturation point, as far as this text is concerned. [t is unlikely that “this person" can ever progress much farther towards the understanding of it. Let this stand, then, simply as a record of the best that one western Sanskritist could do with the Gita, after half a lifetime of the most earnest effort. If it is still very imperfect, that fact in itself will be significant. And even in that case, a few things here and there may commend themselves to posterity, and so con- tribute to the ultimate goal, the final interpretation which will doubt- less never be written.
NOTES ON THE BIBLIOGRAPHY AND EXEGESIS OF THE GITA
Tue bibliography of the Gita in modern times is almost endless. It has been translated into probably all important modern languages, and into some of them many times. I shall mention here only six translations — three Eng- lish, two German, and one French — which seem to me important from the scholarly standpoint, and which I have constantly consulted in my interpre- tation of the text. The translation of Arnold belongs in quite a different category; it has no value for scholars as such. The six translations are:
K. T. Telang, The Bhagavadgitad. Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 8. Oxford, 1882; 2d ed. 1908. References here are to the first edition.
Richard Garbe, Die Bhagavadgita. Leipzig, 1905; 2d ed. 1921. Refer- ences are to the first edition.
L. D. Barnett, The Bhagavadgità. London, 1905.
Paul Deussen, “іп Gemeinschaft mit Dr. Otto Strauss," Vier philoso- phische Texte des Mahàbharatam. Leipzig, 1906.
Émile Senart, La Bhagavadgita. Paris, 1922.
W. Douglas P. Hill, The Bhagavadgita. Oxford and London, 1928.
Rarely are other translations or interpretations referred to in this work. But I have used extensively, especially on doubtful or disputed interpreta- tions, the two best-known Hindu commentaries in Sanskrit: namely those by Samkara (abbreviated $) and Ramanuja (R). While they have the de- fects of all ancient Hindu commentators, they still have considerable value for the judicious student. For both I have used the excellent editions in the Ananda$rama Sanskrit Series.
Garbe’s book contains not only a careful and excellent scholarly transla- tion, but an introduction in which the translator undertakes an analysis and interpretation of the text which is profoundly different from mine, and which I criticized in the Appendix to my interpretation of 1925. According to Garbe, the text is a composite work. He believed that the original kernel was a ‘‘Samkhya” treatise (using the term Samkhya as denoting a dualistic philosophical system like that known in later India under this name), which was later worked over and expanded by an adherent of the (later) Vedanta philosophy. He thought he could detect and eliminate these later Vedanta accretions; and he printed them in a type of smaller size in his translation. His theory is now generally abandoned; I doubt if any one now holds to it,!
1 The late Professor Winternitz, who was the greatest authority on the history of Indian literature, was one of those who once accepted Garbe’s theory; but later, in the
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and I shall not burden this book with a repetition of the arguments against it. It should, however, be emphasized that Garbe’s theory of the composi- tion of the poem does not detract at all from the value of his penetrating philological interpretation of the individual stanzas. Y
My own interpretation tacitly assumes the unity of the Gita. There seems to me to be no definite reason for any other assumption. It is cer- tain, at any rate, that for many centuries the Gita has been handed down as a unit, in practically the form in which it now exists. The sanctity which it acquired in the eyes of the Hindus has protected it to an extraordinary degree from changes and from textual corruptions. Important variant read- ings in the very numerous manuscripts of the vulgate version are virtually non-existent,? and no far-reaching divergences occur in them.
In the Appendix to my former book (p. 99) I stated that “there is abso- lutely no documentary evidence that any other form of the Gita than that which we have was ever known in India.” This statement was true at the time, but must now undergo a slight modification. Since it was written, Professor F. Otto Schrader has discovered a Kashmirian version of the Gita, which can be traced for nearly a thousand years, and which shows a rather considerable number of minor divergences from the vulgate text, and a very few additions and omissions of entire stanzas. (See his monograph, The Kashmir Recension of the Bhagavadgita, Stuttgart, 1930.) In Professor Schrader's opinion, some of these differences are important; he thinks that in some cases they are older and more original than the readings of the vul- gate. In this I differ with him, for reasons which I have set forth in my review of his work, JAOS. 52.68-75. I believe that the variant readings of the Kashmirian text are without exception late and secondary, and have no bearing on the determination of the oldest form of the Gita. Even if I were wrong, however, the question would have little importance for the present work; for the differences are relatively very slight, and rarely affect the essential meaning of even single stanzas, never of the work as a whole.
I would not, however, be understood as asserting that there are no in- terpolations or secondary accretions in the Gita. Before it acquired its present odor of sanctity, which has kept it for so many centuries substanti- ally free from changes, it must have lived thru a human, undeified period,
English version of his History of Indian Literature (Vol. т, Calcutta, 1927, p. 436), he abandoned it, tho he still was more inclined to dissect the Gita than Iam. A pupil of Garbe's, the late Rudolf Otto, has more recently carried dissection of the Gita to a far greater extreme, T consider his work negligible; see my review in The Review of Religion (Шел F), 24 fi. (May, 1940).
elieve that this statement will remain essential true even after the a n of the first critical edition of Book Six of the Mahābhārata (which includes the ( Gita),
now being prepared by Professor S. K. Belvalkar for the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute of Poona.
The Bhagavad Gita xv
so to speak; and it is entirely possible that during that period some addi- tions may have been made to it, or other changes introduced. I suppose that every careful student of the Gita is likely to develop suspicions about occasional verses or passages. But the grounds for such suspicions must, in the nature of things, be subjective and tenuous. In no case can they be regarded as approximating scientific demonstration. And, in particular, the fact that a given verse or passage is logically inconsistent with other passages in the Gita constitutes, in my opinion, absolutely no reason for suspecting that it is unoriginal. If my book does not show that, it will have failed indeed.
THE BHAGAVAD GITA
TRANSLATION
ю
THE BHAGAVAD СЇТА
‘TRANSLATION
CHAPTER I Dhrtarastra said: . In the Field of Right, the Kuru-field, Assembled ready to fight,
My men and the sons of Pandu as well, What did they do, Samjaya?
Samjaya said: . Seeing however the host of the sons of Pandu Arrayed, Duryodhana then Approached the Teacher (Drona), And spoke a word, the prince:
. Behold of Pandu’s sons this Great host, O Teacher! Arrayed by Drupada’s son, Thy skillful pupil.
. Here are heroes, great archers, Like unto Bhima and Arjuna in battle, Yuyudhana, and Virata, And Drupada of the great car;
. Dhrstaketu, Cekitana, And the heroic king of Benares, Purujit, and Kuntibhoja, And the Sibi-king, bull of men;
. Yudhamanyu the valorous, And Uttamaujas the heroic,
The son of Subhadra, and the sons of Draupadi,
All, aye all, men of great cars.
. But of our men, who are the most distinguished
Learn from me, best of brahmans, — Who are the leaders of my host; To name them, I declare them to thee.
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. Thy good self, and Bhisma, and Karna,
And battle-winning Kypa, АѕЅуа ашап, and Vikarna, And the son of Somadatta too;
. And many other heroes,
Giving up life for my sake; With various weapons and arms, All skilled in conflict.
(Altho) insufficient (in number) this our Host is protected by (the wise) Bhisma;
On the other hand, (while) sufficient, this their Host is protected by (the unskilled) Bhima.
And (so) in all movements, Stationed in your several places, Guard Bhisma above all, Each and every one of you.
Producing joy in his heart,
The aged grandsire of the Kurus Roared a lion’s roar on high,
And blew his conch-shell, full of valor.
Then conch-shells and drums, Kettle-drums, cymbals, and trumpets, All at once were sounded; The sound was tremendous.
Then on the white-horse-yoked Mighty car standing,
Madhava (Kysna) and the son of Pandu (Arjuna) Blew their wondrous conch-shells:
HysikeSa (Kysna) blew Райса)апуа, Dhanamjaya (Arjuna) blew Devadatta, The great shell Paundra blew Wolf-belly (Bhima) of terrible deeds.
(The shell) Anantavijaya (blew) the king Yudhisthira, Kunti’s son;
Nakula and Sahadeva (Blew) Sughosa and Manipuspaka.
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. And the king of Benares, supreme archer,
And Sikhandin, of the great car, And Dhrstadyumna and Virata, And the unconquered Satyaki,
Drupada and the sons of Draupadi, All together, O king,
And the great-armed son of Subhadra, Blew their conch-shells severally.
That sound Dhrtarastra's men's Hearts did rend;
And both sky and earth It made to resound, swelling aloft.
Then seeing arrayed
Dhrtarastra’s sons, the ape-bannered (Arjuna),
When the clash of arms had already begun, Lifted up his bow, the son of Pandu,
And to Hrsikeóa then words
Like these spoke, O king. Between the two armies
Halt my chariot, O unshaken one,
Until I espy these That are drawn up eager to fight, (And see) with whom I must fight In this warlike enterprise.
I will see those who are going to fight, Who are here assembled,
For Dhrtarastra's ill-minded son Eager to do service in battle.
HrsikeSa, thus addressed
By GudakeSa, О son of Bharata, Between the two armies
Halted the excellent car,
In front of Bhisma and Drona And all the kings,
And said: Son of Prtha, behold these Assembled Kurus!
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There the son of Prtha saw stationed Fathers and grandsires,
Teachers, uncles, brothers, Sons, grandsons, and comrades too,
Fathers-in-law and friends as well, In both the two armies.
The son of Kunti, seeing them, All his kinsmen arrayed,
Filled with utmost compassion, Despondent, spoke these words:
Seeing my own kinsfolk here, Krsna, That have drawn near eager to fight,
My limbs sink down, And my mouth becomes parched, And there is trembling in my body, And my hair stands on end.
(The bow) Gandiva falls from my hand, And my skin, too, is burning,
And I cannot stand still, And my mind seems to wander.
And I see portents That are adverse, KeSava; And I foresee no welfare, Having slain my kinsfolk in battle.
I wish no victory, Krsna, Nor kingdom nor joys;
Of what use to us were kingdom, Govinda,
Of what use enjoyments or life?
For whose sake we desire Kingdom, enjoyments, and happiness, They are drawn up here in battle, Giving up life and wealth:
Teachers, fathers, sons, Grandsires as well,
Uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, Brothers-in-law, and (other) kinsfolk.
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Them I do not wish to slay,
Even tho they slay (me), O slayer of Madhu, Even for three-world-rulership’s
Sake; how much less for the sake of the earth!
Having slain Dhrtarastra's men, to us What joy would ensue, Janardana? Evil alone would light upon us, Did we slay these (our would-be) murderers.
Therefore we should not slay Dhrtarastra's men, our own kinsfolk.
For how, having slain our kinsfolk, Could we be happy, Madhava?
Even if they do not see,
Because their intelligence is destroyed by greed, The sin caused by destruction of family,
And the crime involved in injury to a friend,
How should we not know enough To turn back from this wickedness, The sin caused by destruction of family Perceiving, O Janàrdana?
Upon the destruction of the family, perish The immemorial holy laws of the family; When the laws have perished, the whole family Lawlessness overwhelms also.
Because of the prevalence of lawlessness, Krsna, The women of the family are corrupted;
When the women are corrupted, O Vrsni-clansman, Mixture of caste ensues.
Mixture (of caste) leads to naught but hell For the destroyers of the family and for the family; For their ancestors fall (to hell), Because the rites of (giving) food and water are interrupted.
By these sins of family-destroyers, (Sins) which produce caste-mixture, The caste laws are destroyed, And the eternal family laws.
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44. When the family laws are destroyed, Janardana, then for men Dwelling in hell certainly Ensues: so we have heard (from the Holy Word).
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45. Ah woe! ’Twas a great wickedness That we had resolved to commit, In that, thru greed for the joys of kingship, We undertook to slay our kinsfolk.
46. If me unresisting, Weaponless, with weapons in their hands Dhytarastra’s men should slay in battle, That would be a safer course for me.
47. Thus speaking Arjuna in the battle Sat down in the box of the car, Letting fall his bow and arrows, His heart smitten with grief.
Here ends the First Chapter, called Discipline of Arjuna’s Despondency.?
CHAPTER II Samjaya said:
. To him thus by compassion possessed,
His eyes tear-filled, blurred, Despondent, this word Spoke the Slayer of Madhu.
'The Blessed One said:
. Whence to thee this faintheartedness
In peril has come, Offensive to the noble, not leading to heaven, Inglorious, O Arjuna?
. Yield not to unmanliness, son of Prthà;
It is not meet for thee. Petty weakness of heart Rejecting, arise, scorcher of the foe!
Arjuna said:
. How shall I in battle against Bhisma,
And Drona, O Slayer of Madhu, Fight with arrows, Who are both worthy of reverence, Slayer of Enemies?
. For not slaying my revered elders of great dignity
"Twere better to eat alms-food, even, in this world; But having slain my elders who seek their ends, right in this world I should eat food smeared with blood.!
. And we know not which of the two were better for us,
Whether we should conquer, or they should conquer us; What very ones having slain we wish not to live, They are arrayed in front of us, Dhrtarastra's men.
- My very being afflicted with the taint of weak compassion,
I ask Thee, my mind bewildered as to the right: Which were better, that tell me definitely; Iam Thy pupil, teach me that have come to Thee (for instruction).
. For I see not what would dispel my
Grief, the witherer of the senses, If I attained on earth rivalless, prosperous Kingship, and even overlordship of the gods.
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Samjaya said:
. Thus speaking to HrsikeSa,
Gudake§a the Slayer of the Foe “ГЇЇ not fight!’ to Govinda
Said, and was silent. To him spoke HrsikeSa,
With a semblance of a smile, son of Bharata, Betwixt the two armies
As he was despondent, these words:
The Blessed One said:
Thou hast mourned those who should not be mourned,
And (yet) thou speakest words about wisdom! ? Dead and living men The (truly) learned do not mourn.
But not in any respect was I (ever) not, Nor thou, nor these kings;
And not at all shall we ever come not to be, All of us, henceforward.
As to the embodied (soul) in this body Come childhood, youth, old age,
So the coming to another body; The wise man is not confused herein.
But contacts with matter? son of Kunti, Cause cold and heat, pleasure and pain;
They come and go, and are impermanent; Put up with them, son of Bharata!
For whom these (contacts) do not cause to waver, The man, O bull of men,
To whom pain and pleasure are alike, the wise,‘ He is fit for immortality.
Of what is not, no coming to be occurs;
No coming not to be occurs of what is; But the dividing-line of both is seen,
Of these two, by those who see the truth.
But know that that is indestructible, By which this all is pervaded;
Destruction of this imperishable one No one can cause.
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These bodies come to an end, It is declared, of the eternal embodied (soul), Which is indestructible and unfathomable. Therefore fight, son of Bharata!
Who believes him a slayer, And who thinks him slain,
Both these understand not: He slays not, is not slain.
He is not born, nor does he ever die;
Nor, having come to be, will he ever more come not to be.*
Unborn, eternal, everlasting, this ancient one Is not slain when the body is slain.
Who knows as indestructible and eternal This unborn, imperishable one,
That man, son of Prthà, how Can he slay or cause to slay — whom?
As leaving aside worn-out garments A man takes other, new ones, So leaving aside worn-out bodies
To other, new ones goes the embodied (soul).
Swords cut him not, Fire burns him not,
Water wets him not, Wind dries him not.
Not to be cut is he, not to be burnt is he, Not to be wet nor yet dried;
Eternal, omnipresent, fixed, Immovable, everlasting is he.
Unmanifest he, unthinkable he, Unchangeable he is declared to be; Therefore knowing him thus Thou shouldst not mourn him.
Moreover, even if constantly born
Or constantly dying thou considerest him, Even so, great-armed one, thou
Shouldst not mourn him.
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. For to one that is born death is certain,
And birth is certain for one that has died; "Therefore, the thing being unavoidable, 'Thou shouldst not mourn.
'The beginnings of things are unmanifest, Manifest their middles, son of Bharata, Unmanifest again their ends: Why mourn about this?
By a rare chance one may see him, And by a rare chance likewise may another declare him, And by a rare chance may another hear (of) him; (But) even having heard (of) him, no one whatsoever knows him.
This embodied (soul) is eternally unslayable In the body of every one, son of Bharata; Therefore all beings Thou shouldst not mourn.
Likewise having regard for thine own (caste) duty Thou shouldst not tremble;
For another, better thing than a fight required of duty Exists not for a warrior.
Presented by mere luck, An open door of heaven — Happy the warriors, son of Prtha, That get such a fight!
Now, if thou this duty-required Conflict wilt not perform,
Then thine own duty and glory Abandoning, thou shalt get thee evil.
Disgrace, too, will creatures Speak of thee, without end;
And for one that has been esteemed, disgrace Is worse than death.
That thou hast abstained from battle thru fear The (warriors) of great chariots will think of thee: And of whom thou wast highly regarded Thou shalt come to be held lightly.
1.36] Bhagavad Gità 36. And many sayings that should not be said
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Thy ill-wishers will say of thee, Speaking ill of thy capacity: What, pray, is more grievous than that?
Either slain thou shalt gain heaven,
Or conquering thou shalt enjoy the earth. "Therefore arise, son of Kunti,
Unto battle, making a firm resolve.
Holding pleasure and pain alike, Gain and loss, victory and defeat, Then gird thyself for battle: Thus thou shalt not get evil.
This has been declared to thee (that is found) іп Reason-method,* This mental attitude: but hear this in Discipline-method, Disciplined with which mental attitude, son of Prtha, Thou shalt get rid of the bondage of action.
In it there is no loss of a start once made, Nor does any reverse occur;
Even a little of this duty Saves from great danger.
The mental attitude whose nature is resolution Is but one in this world, son of Kuru;
For many-branched and endless Are the mental attitudes of the irresolute.
This flowery speech which Undiscerning men utter,
Who take delight in the words of the Veda,’ son of Prtha, Saying that there is nothing else,
Whose nature is desire, who are intent on heaven,
(The speech) which yields rebirth as the fruit of actions, Which is replete with various (ritual) acts
Aiming at the goal of enjoyment and power, —
. Of men devoted to enjoyment and power,
Who are robbed of insight by that (speech), A mental attitude resolute in nature Is not established in concentration.
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The Vedas have the three Strands (of matter) as their scope; Be thou free from the three Strands, Arjuna,
Free from the pairs (of opposites), eternally fixed in goodness,’ Free from acquisition and possession, self-possessed.
As much profit as there is in a water-tank When on all sides there is a flood of water, No more is there in all the Vedas For a brahman who (truly) understands.
On action alone be thy interest, Never on its fruits;
Let not the fruits of action be thy motive, Nor be thy attachment to inaction.
Abiding in discipline perform actions, Abandoning attachment, Dhanamjaya,
Being indifferent to success or failure; Discipline is defined as indifference.
For action is far inferior To discipline of mental attitude, Dhanamjaya.
In the mental attitude seek thy (religious) refuge; Wretched are those whose motive is the fruit (of action).
The disciplined in mental attitude leaves behind in this world Both good and evil deeds.
Therefore discipline thyself unto discipline; Discipline in actions is weal.
For the disciplined in mental attitude, action-produced Fruit abandoning, the intelligent ones,
Freed from the bondage of rebirth, Go to the place that is free from illness.
When the jungle of delusion Thy mentality shall get across, Then thou shalt come to aversion
Towards what is to be heard and has been heard (in the Veda).
Averse to traditional lore (‘heard’ in the Veda) When shall stand motionless
Thy mentality, immovable in concentrati Then thou shalt attain discipline. Б
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Bhagavad Gità 19 Arjuna said: What is the description of the man of stabilized mentality, That is fixed in concentration, Кебауа?
How might the man of stabilized mentality speak, How might he sit, how walk?
'The Blessed One said: When he abandons desires, All that are in the mind, son of Prtha, Finding contentment by himself in the self alone, Then he is called of stabilized mentality.
When his mind is not perturbed in sorrows, And he has lost desire for joys,
His longing, fear, and wrath departed, He is called a stable-minded holy man.
Who has no desire towards any thing, And getting this or that good or evil
Neither delights in it nor loathes it, His mentality is stabilized.
And when he withdraws, As a tortoise his limbs from all sides, His senses from the objects of sense, His mentality is stabilized.
The objects of sense turn away
From the embodied one that abstains from food Except flavor; ® flavor also from him
Turns away when he has seen the highest.
›
For even of one who strives, son of Kunti, Of the man of discernment,
"Тһе impetuous senses Carry away the mind by violence.
Them all restraining,
Let him sit disciplined, intent on Me; For whose senses are under control,
His mentality is stabilized.
When a man meditates on the objects of sense, Attachment to them is produced.
From attachment springs desire, From desire wrath arises;
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From wrath comes infatuation, From infatuation loss of memory;
From loss of memory, loss of mind; From loss of mind he perishes.
But with desire-and-loathing-severed Senses acting on the objects of sense, : With (senses) self-controlled, he, governing his self, Goes unto tranquillity.
In tranquillity, of all griefs Riddance is engendered for him;
For of the tranquil-minded quickly The mentality becomes stable.
The undisciplined has no (right) mentality,
And the undisciplined has no efficient-force; 11 Who has no efficient-force has no peace;
For him that has no peace how can there be bliss?
For the senses are roving,
And when the thought-organ is directed after them, It carries away his mentality,
As wind a ship on the water.
Therefore whosoever, great-armed one, Has withdrawn on all sides
' ‘The senses from the objects of sense,
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His mentality is stabilized.
What is night for all beings,
"Therein the man of restraint is awake; Wherein (other) beings are awake,
"That is night for the sage of vision.
It is ever being filled, and (yet) its foundation ? remains unmoved — "The sea: just as waters enter it,
Whom all desires enter in that same way He attains peace; not the man who lusts after desires.
Abandoning all desires, what Man moves free from longing,
Without self-interest and egotism He goes to peace. |
1.72] Bhagavad Gità 17
72. This is the fixation that is Brahmanic,? son of Prtha; Having attained it he is not (again) confused. Abiding in it even at the time of death, He goes to Brahman-nirvana.'
Here ends the Second Chapter, called Discipline of Reason-method.
CHAPTER III Arjuna said: - If more important than action The mental attitude is held of Thee, Janardana,
Then why to violent action Dost Thou enjoin me, KeSava?
. With words that seem ! confused Thou apparently bewilderest my intellect. So tell me one thing definitely, Whereby I may attain welfare.
The Blessed One said: . In this world a two-fold basis (of religion) Has been declared by Me of old, blameless one: By the discipline of knowledge of the followers of reason-method,? And by the discipline of action of the followers of discipline-method
. Not by not starting actions Does a man attain actionlessness, And not by renunciation alone Does he go to perfection.
. For no one even for a moment Remains at all without performing actions; For he is made to perform action willy-nilly, Every one is, by the Strands that spring from material nature.
. Restraining the action-senses Who sits pondering with his thought-organ On the objects of sense, with deluded soul, He is called a hypocrite.
. But whoso the senses with the thought-organ Controlling, O Arjuna, undertakes Discipline of action with the action-senses,
Unattached (to the fruits of action), he is superior.
. Perform thou action that is (religiously) required; For action is better than inaction,
And even the maintenance of the body for thee Can not succeed without action.
ш.9] . Except action for the purpose of worship,
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This world is bound by actions; Action for that purpose, son of Kunti, Perform thou, free from attachment (to its fruits).
After creating creatures along with (rites of) worship, Prajapati (the Creator) said of old:
By this ye shall procreate yourselves — Let this be your Cow-of-Wishes.
With this prosper ye the gods,
And let the gods prosper you; (Thus) prospering one the other,
Ye shall attain the highest welfare.
For desired enjoyments to you the gods Will give, prospered by worship;
Without giving to them, their gifts Whoso enjoys, is nothing but a thief.
Good men who eat the remnants of (food offered in) worship Are freed from all sins;
But those wicked men eat evil Who cook for their own selfish sakes.
Beings originate from food; From the rain-god food arises; From worship comes the rain(-god) ; Worship originates in action.
Action arises from Brahman,’ know;
And Brahman springs from the Imperishable; Therefore the universal Brahman
Is eternally based on worship.
The wheel thus set in motion
Who does not keep turning in this world, Malignant, delighting in the senses,
He lives in vain, son of Prtha.
But who takes delight in the self alone, The man who finds contentment in the self, And satisfaction only in the self, For him there is found (in effect) no action to perform.
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He has no interest whatever in action done, Nor any in action not done in this world, Nor has he in reference to all beings Any dependence of interest.
Therefore unattached ever Perform action that must be done;
For performing action without attachment Man attains the highest.
For only thru action, perfection Attained Janaka and others.
Also for the mere control of the world Having regard, thou shouldst act.
Whatsoever the noblest does,
Just that in every case other folk (do); What he makes his standard,
That the world follows.
For Me, son of Prthà, there is nothing to be done In the three worlds whatsoever,
Nothing unattained to be attained; And yet I still continue in action.
For if I did not continue
At all in action, unwearied, My path (would) follow
Men altogether, son of Prtha.
These folk would perish If I did not perform action,
And I should be an agent of confusion; І should destroy these creatures.
Fools, attached to action, As they act, son of Bharata,
So the wise man should act (but) unattached, Seeking to effect the control of the world.
Let him not cause confusion of mind
Іп ignorant folk who are attached to action; He should let them enjoy all actions,
The wise man, (himself) acting disciplined.
[ 11.18
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Performed by material nature's Strands are actions, altogether;
He whose soul is deluded by the I-faculty Imagines ‘I am the agent.’
But he who knows the truth, great-armed one,
About the separation (of the soul) from both the Strands and action, ‘The Strands act upon the Strands’ —
Knowing this, is not attached (to actions).
Deluded by the Strands of material nature,
Men are attached to the actions of the Strands. These dull folk of imperfect knowledge
The man of perfect knowledge should not disturb.
On Me all actions Casting, with mind on the over-soul, Being free from longing and from selfishness, Fight, casting off thy fever.
Who this My doctrine constantly Follow, such men, Full of faith and not murmuring, They too are freed from (the effect of) actions.
But those who, murmuring against it, Do not follow My doctrine,
Them, deluded in all knowledge, Know to be lost, the fools.
One acts in conformity with his own Material nature, — even the wise man; Beings follow (their own) nature; What will restraint accomplish?
Of (every) sense, upon the objects of (that) sense Longing and loathing are fixed;
One must not come under control of those two, For they are his two enemies.
Better one’s own duty, (tho) imperfect, Than another’s duty well performed;
Better death in (doing) one’s own duty; Another’s duty brings danger.
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Arjuna said: Then by what impelled does this Man commit sin, Even against his will, Vrsni-clansman, As if driven by force?
The Blessed One said: It is desire, it is wrath, ў Arising from the Strand of passion, All-consuming, very sinful; Know that this is the enemy here.
As fire is obscured by smoke, And as a mirror by dirt,
As the embryo is covered by its membrane-enveiope, So this (universe?) is obscured thereby.
By this is obscured the knowledge Of the knowing one, by this his eternal foe, That has the form of desire, son of Kunti, And is an insatiable fire.
The senses, the thought-organ, the consciousness, Are declared to be its basis;
With these it confuses The embodied (soul), obscuring his knowledge.
Thou therefore, the senses first Controlling, O bull of Bharatas, Smite down this evil one, That destroys theoretical and practical knowledge.’
The senses, they say, are high; Higher than the senses is the thought-organ;
But higher than the thought-organ is the consciousness: While higher than the consciousness is He (the soul)
Thus being conscious of that which is higher than consciousness, Steadying the self by the self,
Smite the enemy, great-armed one, That has the form of desire, and is hard to get at.
Here ends the Third Chapter, called Discipline of Action.
CHAPTER IV 'The Blessed One said:
. This discipline to Vivasvant
I proclaimed; "tis eternal; Vivasvant told it to Manu, Manu spake it to Iksvaku.
. Thus received in line of succession,
The royal seers knew it. In a long course of time in this world this Discipline became lost, scorcher of the foe.
. This very same by Me to thee today,
This ancient discipline, is proclaimed. Thou art My devotee and friend, that is why; For this is a supreme secret.
Arjuna said:
. Later Thy birth,
Earlier the birth of Vivasvant: How may I understand this,
That Thou didst proclaim it in the beginning, as Thou sayest?
The Blessed One said:
. For Me have passed many
Births, and for thee, Arjuna; These I know all; Thou knowest not, scorcher of the foe.
. Tho unborn, tho My self is eternal,
Tho Lord of Beings, Resorting to My own material nature I come into being by My own mysterious power.
. For whenever of the right
A languishing appears, son of Bharata, A rising up of unright, Then I send Myself forth.
. For protection of the good,
And for destruction of evil-doers, To make a firm footing for the right, I come into being in age after age.
— À — P
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. My wondrous birth and actions
Whoso knows thus as they truly are, On leaving the body, to rebirth | He goes not; to Me he goes, Arjuna!
Rid of passion, fear, and wrath, Made of Me, taking refuge in Me,
Many by the austerity of knowledge Purified, have come to My estate.
In whatsoever way any come to Me,
In that same way I grant them favor. My path follow
Men altogether, son of Prtha.
Desiring the success of (ritual) acts,
They worship the (Vedic) deities in this world; For quickly in the world of men
Comes the success that springs from (ritual) acts.
The four-caste-system was created by Me
With distinction of Strands and actions (appropriate to each); Altho I am the doer of this,
Know Me as one that eternally does no act.
Actions do not stain Me,
(Because) I have no yearning for the fruit of actions. Who comprehends Me thus
Is not bound by actions.
Knowing this, action was done
Also by the ancient seekers of salvation. "Therefore do thou simply do actions,
As was done of old by the ancients.
What is action, what inaction? About this even sages are bewildered. So I shall explain action to thee, Knowing which, thou shalt be freed from evil.
For one must understand the nature of action, on the one hand And must understand the nature of mis-action | And must understand the nature of inaction: i Hard to penetrate is the course of action.
ту.18] Bhagavad Gita 25
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Who sees inaction in action, And action in inaction,
He is enlightened among men; He does all actions, disciplined.
All whose undertakings Are free from desire and purpose,
His actions burnt up in the fire of knowledge, Him the wise call the man of learning.
Abandoning attachment to the fruits of action, Constantly content, independent,
Even when he sets out upon action, He yet does (in effect) nothing whatsoever.
Free from wishes, with mind and soul restrained, Abandoning all possessions,
Action with the body alone Performing, he attains no guilt.
Content with getting what comes by chance,
Passed beyond the pairs (of opposites), free from jealousy, Indifferent to success and failure,
Even acting, he is not bound.
Rid of attachment, freed, His mind fixed in knowledge,
Doing acts for worship (only), his action АП melts away.
The (sacrificial) presentation is Brahman; Brahman is the oblation; In the (sacrificial) fire of Brahman it is poured by Brahman; Just to Brahman must he go, Being concentrated upon the (sacrificial) action that is Brahman.
To naught but sacrifice to the deities some 2 Disciplined men devote themselves.
In the (sacrificial) fire of Brahman, others? the sacrifice Offer up by the sacrifice itself.
The senses, hearing and the rest, others 5 Offer up in the fires of restraint;
'The objects of sense, sound and the rest, others * Offer up in the fires of the senses.
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All actions of the senses And actions of breath, others ° In the fire of the discipline of control of self Offer up, when it has been kindled by knowledge.
Sacrificers with substance, sacrificers with austerities, Sacrificers with discipline likewise are others,
And sacrificers with study of the Sacred Word and with knowledge,
Religious men, with strict vows.
In the nether life-breath the upper life-breath offer up Others, likewise the nether in the upper life-breath,
Checking the courses of the upper and nether life-breaths, Intent upon restraint of breath.
Others? restrict their food and (so)
Offer up the life-breaths in the life-breaths. All these know what sacrifice is,
And their sins are destroyed by sacrifice.
. Those who eat the nectar of the leavings of the sacrifice
Go to the eternal Brahman. Not (even) this world is for him who does not sacrifice; How then the next, O best of Kurus?
Thus many kinds of sacrifice Are spread out? in the face? of Brahman. Know that they all spring from action! Knowing this thou shalt be freed.
Better than sacrifice that consists of substance
Is the sacrifice of knowledge, scorcher of the foe. All action without remainder, son of Prtha,
Is completely ended in knowledge.
Learn to know this by obeisance (to those who can teach it), By questioning (them), by serving (them);
They will teach thee knowledge, Those who have knowledge, who see the truth.
Knowing which, not again to bewilderment Jn this manner shalt thou go, son of Pandu:
Whereby all beings without exception — | 1 Thou shalt see in thyself, and also in Me.
1У-36 1 Bhagavad Gita
36. Even if thou art of sinners The worst sinner of all, Merely by the boat of knowledge all (The ‘sea’ of) evil shalt thou cross over.
37. As firewood a kindled fire Reduces to ashes, Arjuna, The fire of knowledge all actions Reduces to ashes even so.
38. For not like unto knowledge Is any purifier found in this world. This the man perfected in discipline himself In time finds in himself.
39. The man of faith gets knowledge, Intent solely upon it, restraining his senses. Having got knowledge, to supreme peace In no long time he goes.
40. The man unknowing and without faith, His soul full of doubt, perishes. Not is this world, nor the next, Nor bliss, for him whose soul is full of doubt.
41. Him that has renounced actions in discipline, That has cut off his doubt with knowledge, The self-possessed, no actions Bind, O Dhanamjaya.
42. Therefore this that springs from ignorance, That lies in the heart, with the sword of knowledge thine own Doubt cutting off, to discipline Resort: arise, son of Bharata!
Here ends the Fourth Chapter, called Discipline of Knowledge.
27
ыы... дада д ы OS е СС
СНАРТЕК У Arjuna said: 1. Renunciation of actions, Krsna, And again discipline Thou approvest; Which one is the better of these two, That tell me definitely.
The Blessed One said: 2. Renunciation and discipline of action Both lead to supreme weal. But of these two, rather than renunciation of action, Discipline of action is superior.
3. He is to be recognized as (in effect) forever renouncing (action), Who neither loathes nor craves; For he that is free from the pairs (of opposites), great-armed one, Is easily freed from bondage (otherwise caused by actions).
4. Of reason-method ! and discipline as separate, fools Speak, not the wise; Resorting to even one of them, completely Man wins the fruit of both.
5. What place is gained by the followers of reason-method, That is reached also by the followers of discipline(-method). That reason-method and discipline are one Who sees, he (truly) sees.
6. But renunciation, great-armed one, Is hard to attain without discipline;
Disciplined in discipline, to Brahman the sage Goes in no long time.
7. Disciplined in discipline, with purified self, Self-subdued, with senses overcome, His self become (one with) the self of all beings, Even acting, he is not stained. i 8. “1 д s effect) doing nothing at all!’ — so e disciplined man should think, knowi When he sees, hears, touches, smells, Dcum, Eats, walks, sleeps, breathes,
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. Talks, evacuates, grasps,
Opens and shuts his eyes; "The senses (only) on the objects of sense Are operating’ — holding fast to this thought.
. Casting (all) actions upon Brahman,?
Whoso acts abandoning attachment, Evil does not cleave to him, As water (does not cleave) to a lotus-leaf?
With the body, the thought-organ, the intelligence, And also with the senses alone,
Disciplined men perform action, Abandoning attachment, unto self-purification.
. The disciplined man, abandoning the fruit of actions,
Attains abiding peace; The undisciplined, by action due to desire, Attached to the fruit (of action), is bound.
All actions with the thought-organ Renouncing, he sits happily, in control,
The embodied (soul), in the citadel of nine gates, Not in the least acting nor causing to act.
Neither agency nor actions
Of the (people of the) world does the Lord (soul) instigate, Nor the conjunction of actions with their fruits;
But inherent nature operates (in all this).
He does not receive (the effect of) any one’s sin, Nor yet (of) good deeds, the Lord (soul); Knowledge is obscured by ignorance; By that creatures are deluded.
But if by knowledge that ignorance Of men's souls is destroyed,
Their knowledge like the sun Illumines that Highest.
"Their consciousness and soul fixed on that (Highest), With that as their final goal, supremely devoted to that,
They go to (the state whence there is) no more return, Their sins destroyed by knowledge.
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Bhagavad Gita [v.18
18. In a knowledge-and-cultivation-perfected Brahman, a cow, an elephant, And in a mere dog, and an outcaste, The wise see the same thing.
19. Right in this world they have overcome birth, Whose mind is fixed in indifference; For Brahman is flawless and indifferent; Therefore they are fixed in Brahman.
20. He will not rejoice on attaining the pleasant, Nor repine on attaining the unpleasant; With stabilized mentality, unbewildered, Knowing Brahman, he is fixed in Brahman.
21. With self unattached to outside contacts, When he finds happiness in the self, He, his self disciplined in Brahman-discipline, Attains imperishable bliss.
22. For the enjoyments that spring from (outside) contacts Are nothing but sources of misery; They have beginning and end, son of Kunti; The wise man takes no delight in them.
23. Who can control right in this life, Before being freed from the body, The excitement that springs from desire and wrath, He is disciplined, he the happy man.
24. Who finds his happiness within, his joy within, And likewise his light only within, That disciplined man to Brahman-nirvana Goes, having become Brahman. 1
25. Brahman-nirvàna is won By the seers whose sins are destroyed, Whose doubts are cleft, whose souls are controlled Who delight in the welfare of all beings.
26. To those who have put off desire and wrath Religious men whose minds are controlled, Close at hand Brahman-nirvana é Comes, to knowers of the self,
v.27] Bhagavad Gita 31
27. Putting out outside contacts, And fixing the sight between the eye-brows, Making even the upper and nether breaths, As they pass * thru the nose;
28. Controlling the senses, thought-organ, and intelligence, 'The sage bent on final release, Whose desire, fear, and wrath are departed — Who is ever thus, is already released.
29. The Recipient of worship and austerities, 'The Great Lord of the whole world, The Friend of all beings — Me knowing, he goes to peace.
Here ends the Fifth Chapter, called Discipline of Renunciation of Actions.
oan
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CHAPTER VI 'The Blessed One said:
. Not interested in the fruit of action,
Who does action that is required (by religion), He is the possessor of both renunciation and discipline (of action); Not he who builds no sacred fires and does no (ritual) acts.
What they call renunciation,
Know that that is discipline (of action), son of Pandu. For not without renouncing purpose
Does any one become possessed of discipline.
. For the sage that desires to mount to discipline
Action is called the means; For the same man when he has mounted to discipline Quiescence is called the means.
. For when not to the objects of sense
Nor to actions is he attached, Renouncing all purpose, Then he is said to have mounted to discipline.
. One should lift up the self by the self,
And should not let the self down; For the self is the self's only friend, And the self is the self's only enemy.
. The self is a friend to that self
By which self the very self is subdued; But to him that does not possess the self, in enmity Will abide his very self, like an enemy.
. Of the self-subdued, pacified man,
"The supreme self remains concentrated (in absorpti tio In cold and heat, pleasure and pain, B Likewise in honor and disgrace.
. His self satiated with theoretical and practical knowledge!
Immovable, with subdued senses,
The possessor of discipline is called (truly) discipli di To whom clods, stones, and gold S Ei
v1.9 ] Bhagavad Gita 33
g. To friend, ally, foe, remote neutral, Holder of middle ground, object of enmity, and kinsman, To good and evil men alike, Who has the same mental attitude, is superior.
то. Let the disciplined man ever discipline Himself, abiding in a secret place, Solitary, restraining his thoughts and soul, Free from aspirations and without possessions.
тт. In a clean place establishing A steady seat for himself, That is neither too high nor too low, Covered with a cloth, a skin, and kuáa-grass,
12. There fixing the thought-organ on a single object, Restraining the activity of his mind and senses, Sitting on the seat, let him practise Discipline unto self-purification.
13. Even? body, head, and neck Holding motionless, (keeping himself) steady, Gazing at the tip of his own nose, And not looking in any direction,
14. With tranquil soul, rid of fear, Abiding in the vow of chastity, Controlling the mind, his thoughts on Me, Let him sit disciplined, absorbed in Me.
15. Thus ever disciplining himself, The man of discipline, with controlled mind, 'To peace that culminates in nirvana, And rests in Me, attains.
16. But he who eats too much has no discipline, Nor he who eats not at all; Neither he who is over-given to sleep, Nor yet he who is (ever) wakeful, Arjuna.
17. Who is disciplined (moderate) in food and recreation, And has disciplined activity in works, And is disciplined in both sleep and wakefulness, To him belongs discipline that bans misery.
34 Bhagavad Gita
18. When the thought, controlled, Settles on the self alone, The man free from longing for all desires Is then called disciplined.
19. As a lamp stationed in a windless place Flickers not, this image is recorded Of the disciplined man controlled in thought, Practising discipline of the self.
20. When the thought comes to rest, Checked by the practice of discipline, And when, the self by the self Contemplating, he finds satisfaction in the self;
21. That supernal bliss which
Ts to be grasped by the consciousness and is beyond the senses,
When he knows this, and not in the least Swerves from the truth, abiding fixed (in it);
22. And which having gained, other gain He counts none higher than it; In which established, by no misery, However grievous, is he moved;
23. This (state), let him know, — from conjunction with misery The disjunction, — is known as discipline; With determination must be practised this Discipline, with heart undismayed.
24. ‘The desires that spring from purposes Abandoning, all without remainder,
With the thought-organ alone the throng of senses Restraining altogether,
25. Little by little let him come to rest Thru the consciousness, held with firmness; Keeping the thought-organ fixed in the self, He should think on nothing at all.
26. Because of whatsoever thing 4 strays The thought-organ, fickle and unstable, From every such thing holding it back, He shall bring it into control in the self alone.
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For to him when his thought-organ is tranquil, 'To the disciplined one, supreme bliss Approaches, his passion stilled, Become (one with) Brahman, stainless.
Thus ever disciplining himself,
The disciplined man, free from stain, Easily to contact with Brahman,
To endless bliss, attains.
Himself ® as in all beings, And all beings in himself,
Sees he whose self is disciplined in discipline, Who sees the same in all things.
Who sees Me in all, And sees all in Me, For him І am not lost, And he is not lost for Me.
Me as abiding in all beings whoso Reveres, adopting (the belief in) one-ness, Tho abiding in any possible condition, That disciplined man abides in Me.
. By comparison with himself, in all (beings)
Whoso sees the same, Arjuna, Whether it be pleasure or pain,’ He is deemed the supreme disciplined man.
Arjuna said: This discipline which by Thee has been explained As indifference,® Slayer of Madhu, Thereof I do not see Any permanent establishment, because of (man’s) fickleness.
For fickle is the thought-organ, Krsna, Impetuous, mighty, and hard;
The restraining of it, I conceive, Is very difficult, as of the wind.
The Blessed One said: Without doubt, great-armed one, The thought-organ is hard to control, and fickle; But by practice, son of Kunti, And by ascetic aversion, it may be controlled.
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For one not self-controlled, discipline Is hard to reach, I believe; But by the self-controlled man who strives It may be attained thru the proper method.
[ v1.36
Arjuna said: An unsuccessful striver who is endowed with faith, Whose mind falls away from discipline Without attaining perfection of discipline, 'To what goal does he go, Krsna?
Fallen from both, does he not Perish like a cloven cloud,
Having no (religious) foundation, great-armed one, Gone astray on Brahman's path?
This matter? my doubt, О Krsna,
Be pleased to cleave without remainder; Other than Thee, of this doubt
No cleaver, surely, can be found.
The Blessed One said: Son of Prtha, neither in this world nor in the next Does any destruction of him occur. For no doer of the right Comes to a bad end, my friend.
. Attaining the heavenly worlds of the doers of right,
Dwelling there for endless years, In the house of pure and illustrious folk One that has fallen from discipline is born.
Or else of possessors of discipline, rather,
Enlightened folk, in their family he comes into existence; For this is yet harder to attain,
Such a birth as that in the world.
wee that association of mentality
€ obtains, which was his in his former body:
And he strives from that point onward i Unto perfection, son of Kuru.
- For by that same former practice
He is carried on even without his wish. Even one who (merely) wishes to know discipline | "Transcends the word-Brahman (the Vedic religion) |
VI.45] Bhagavad Gità
45. But striving zealously, With sins cleansed, the disciplined man, Perfected thru many rebirths, Then (finally) goes to the highest goal.
46. 'The man of discipline is higher than men of austerities, Also than men of knowledge he is held to be higher; And the man of discipline is higher than men of ritual action; Therefore be a man of discipline, Arjuna.
47. Of all men of discipline, moreover, With inner soul gone to Me Whoso reveres Me with faith, Him I hold the most disciplined.
Here ends the Sixth Chapter, called Discipline of Meditation.
37
CHAPTER VII The Blessed One said: . With mind attached to Me, son of Prtha, Practising discipline with reliance on Me, Without doubt Me entirely How thou shalt know, that hear!
- Theoretical knowledge to thee along with practical ! I shall now expound completely;
Having known which, in this world no other further "Thing to be known is left.
. Among thousands of men Perchance one strives for perfection; Even of those that strive and are perfected, Perchance one knows Me in very truth.
- Earth, water, fire, wind, Ether, thought-organ, and consciousness, And I-faculty: thus My Nature is divided eight-fold.
. This is My lower (nature). But other than this, My higher nature know: It is the Life (soul), great-armed one, By which this world is maintained.
. Beings spring from it? All of them, be assured. Of the whole world I am The origin and the dissolution too.
‚ Than Me no other higher thing Whatsoever exists, Dhanamjaya;
On Me all this (universe) is strung, Like heaps of pearls on a string.
. lam taste in water, son of Kunti, Iam light in the moon and sun,
The sacred syllable (om) in all the Vedas, Sound in ether, manliness in men.
vir.9] Bhagavad Gita 39 g. Both the goodly odor in earth, And brilliance in fire am I, Life in all beings, And austerity in ascetics am I.
1o. The seed of all beings am I, The eternal, be assured, son of Prtha; I am intelligence of the intelligent, Majesty of the majestic am I.
тт. Might of the mighty am I, too, (Such as is) free from desire and passion; (So far as it is) not inconsistent with right, in creatures I am desire, O best of Bharatas.
12. Both whatsoever states are of (the Strand) goodness, And those of (the Strands) passion and darkness too, Know that they are from Me alone; But I am not in them; they are in Me.
13. By the three states (of being), composed of the Strands, These (just named), all this world, Deluded, does not recognize Me that am higher than they and eternal.
14. For this is My divine strand-composed Trick-of-illusion, hard to get past; Those who resort to Me alone Penetrate beyond this trick-of-illusion.
15. Not to Me do deluded evil-doers Resort, base men, Whom this illusion robs of knowledge, Who cleave to demoniac estate.
16. Fourfold are those that worship Me, (All) virtuous folk, Arjuna: The afflicted, the knowledge-seeker, he who seeks personal ends,* And the possessor of knowledge, bull of Bharatas.
17. Of these the possessor of knowledge, constantly disciplined, Of single devotion, is the best; For extremely dear to the possessor of knowledge Am I, and he is dear to Me.
40
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All these are noble;
But the man of knowledge is My very self, so I hold. For he with disciplined soul has resorted
To Me alone as the highest goal.
At the end of many births The man of knowledge resorts to Me; Who thinks ‘Vasudeva (Krsna) is all,’ That noble soul is hard to find.
Deprived of knowledge by this or that desire, Men resort to other deities,
Taking to this or that (religious) rule, Constrained by their own nature.
Whatsoever (divine) form any devotee With faith seeks to worship,
For every such (devotee), faith unswerving I ordain that same to be.
He, disciplined with that faith, Seeks to propitiate that (divine being), And obtains therefrom his desires, Because I myself ordain them.
But finite fruition for them
That becomes, (since) they are of scant intelligence; The worshipers of the gods go to the gods,
My devotees go to Me also.
Unmanifest, as having come into manifestation Fools conceive Me,
Not knowing the higher essence Of Me, which is imperishable, supreme.
I am not revealed to every one,
Being veiled by My magic trick-of-illusion; "Tis deluded and does not recognize
Me the unborn, imperishable, — this world.
I know those that are past, And that are present, Arjuna,
And beings that are yet to be, But no one knows Me.
[ vir.18
уп.27] Bhagavad Gita 41
27. It arises from desire and loathing, The delusion of the pairs (of opposites), son of Bha.ata; Because of it all beings to confusion Are subject at their birth, scorcher of the foe.
28. But those whose sin is ended, Men of virtuous deeds, Freed from the delusion of the pairs, Revere Me with firm resolve.
29. Unto freedom from old age and death Those who strive, relying on Me, They know that Brahman entire, And the over-soul, and action altogether.®
30. Me together with the over-being and the over-divinity, And with the over-worship, whoso know, And (who know) Me even at the hour of death, They (truly) know (Me), with disciplined hearts.
Here ends the Seventh Chapter, called Discipline of Theoretical and Practical Knowledge.
CHAPTER VIII Arjuna said: . What is that Brahman, what the over-soul, What is action, O best of men, And what is called the over-being, What is said to be the over-divinity?
. How and what is the over-worship here In this body, Slayer of Madhu? And how at the hour of death Art Thou to be known by men of self-control?
The Blessed One said: . Brahman is the supreme imperishable; The over-soul is called innate nature; ! That which causes the origin of states of beings, The creative force, is known as action.?
. The over-being is the perishable condition (of being), And the spirit * is the over-divinity; The over-worship am I myself, here In the body, O best of embodied ones.
. And at the hour of death, on Me alone Meditating, leaving the body Whoso dies, to My estate he Goes; there is no doubt of that.
- Whatsoever state (of being) meditating upon He leaves the body at death, To just that he goes, son of Kunti, Always, being made to be in the condition of that.
. Therefore at all times Think on Me, and fight; With thought-organ and consciousness fixed on Me Thou shalt go just to Me without a doubt.
. If disciplined in the discipline of practice Be one’s mind, straying to no other object, To the supreme divine Spirit He goes, son of Prthā, meditating thereon.
уш.9] Bhagavad Gita
9.
10.
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13.
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'The ancient seer, the governor, Finer than an atom — who meditates on Him, The establisher of all, of unthinkable form, Sun-colored, beyond darkness,
At the time of death with unswerving thought, Disciplined with devotion and the power of discipline, Making the breath to enter altogether between the eye-brows, He goes to that supreme divine Spirit.
. Which Veda-knowers call the imperishable,
Which ascetics free from passion enter, Seeking which men live the life of chastity, That place I shall declare to thee in brief.
Restraining all the gates (of the body),
And confining the thought-organ in the heart, Fixing his own breath in his head,
Resorting to fixation of discipline,
The single-syllable Brahman (which is) от Pronouncing, and meditating on Me, Who departs, leaving the body, He goes to the highest goal.
With thoughts ever straying to no other object, Who thinks on Me constantly,
For him I am easy to gain, son of Prtha, For the ever-disciplined possessor of discipline.
Having come to Me, rebirth,
Which is the home of misery and impermanent, Do not attain the great-souled men
That have gone to supreme perfection.
As far as the world of (the personal god) Brahman, the worlds Are subject to recurring existences, Arjuna;
But having come to Me, son of Kunti, No rebirth is found.
As compassing a thousand world-ages When they know the day of Brahman,
And the night (of Brahman) as compassing a thousand ages, Those folk know what day and night are.
43
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From the unmanifest all manifestations
Come forth at the coming of (Brahman’s) day, And dissolve at the coming of night,
In that same one, known as the unmanifest.
[v.g
This very same host of beings, Coming into existence over and over, is dissolved At the approach of night, willy-nilly, son of Prtha, And comes forth at the approach of day.
But higher than thát is another state of being, Unmanifest, (higher) than (that) unmanifest, eternal, Which when all beings Perish, perishes not.
(This) unmanifest is called the indestructible; It they call the highest goal,
Attaining which they return not; That is My highest station.®
This is the supreme Spirit, son of Prthà,
To be won, however, by unswerving devotion; Within which (all) beings are fixed,
By which this universe is pervaded.
But at what times to non-return,
And (when) to return, disciplined men Dying depart, those times
I shall declare, bull of Bharatas.”
Fire, light, day, the bright (lunar fortnight),
The six months that are the northward course of the sun, Dying in these, go
To Brahman Brahman-knowing folk.
Smoke, night, also the dark (lunar fortnight),
The six months that are the southward course of the sun, In these (when he dies) to the moon’s light
Attaining, the disciplined man returns.
For these two paths, light and dark Are held to be eternal for the world;
By one, man goes to non-return, By the other he returns again.
үші.27 | Bhagavad Gité 45
27. Knowing these two paths, son of Prtha, not Is any disciplined man confused. Therefore at all times Be disciplined in discipline, Arjuna.
28. In the Vedas, in acts of worship, and in austerities, In alms-gifts, what fruit of merit is ordained, All that surpasses he who knows this, The man of discipline, and goes to the highest primal place.
Here ends the Eighth Chapter, called Discipline of the Imperishable Brahman.
CHAPTER IX The Blessed One said:
. But this most secret thing to thee
л
о
I shall declare, since thou cavillest not, 'T'his theoretical knowledge joined with practical," Knowing which thou shalt be freed from evil.
. A royal science, a royal mystery,
A supreme purifier is this, Immediately comprehensible, righteous, Easy to carry out, imperishable.
. Men who put no faith
In this religious truth, scorcher of the foe, Do not attain Me, and return On the path of the endless round of deaths.
. By Me is pervaded all this
Universe, by Me in the form of the unmanifest. All beings rest in Me, And I do not rest in them.
. And (yet) beings do not rest in Me:
Behold My divine mystery (or magic)! Supporter of beings, and not resting in beings, Is My Self, that causes beings to be.
. As constantly abides in the ether
The great wind, that penetrates everywhere, So all beings
Abide in Me; make sure of that.
. All beings, son of Kunti,
Pass into My material nature At the end of a world-eon; them again
I send forth at the beginning of a (new) world-eon. "Taking as base My own material-nature
I send forth again and again This whole host of beings,
Which is powerless, by the power of (My) material nature.
1х.9] 9.
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And Me these actions do not Bind, Dhanamjaya, —
Sitting in as one sitting out (participating as one indifferent), Unattached to these actions.
With Me as overseer, material nature
Brings forth (the world of) moving and unmoving (beings); By this motive-force, son of Kunti,
The world goes around.
Fools despise Me That have assumed human form, Not knowing the higher state Of Me, which is the great lord of beings.
They are of vain aspirations, of vain actions, Of vain knowledge, bereft of insight;
In ogrish and demoniac Nature, which is delusive, they abide.
But ’tis Me, son of Prthà, that great-souled men, Abiding in god-like nature, Revere with unswerving thoughts,
Knowing (Me as) the beginning of beings, the imperishable. . Ever glorifying Me,
And striving with firm resolve, And paying homage to Me with devotion, Constantly disciplined, they wait upon Me.
With knowledge-worship also others Worshiping wait upon Me, In My unique and manifold forms, (Me as) variously (manifested), facing in all directions.
I am the ritual act, I am the act of worship, Iam the offering to the dead, I am the medicinal herb, Iam the sacred formula, I alone am the sacrificial butter, Iam the fire of offering, I am the poured oblation.
I am the father of this world, The mother, the establisher, the grandsire,
The object of knowledge, the purifier, the sacred syllable om, The verse of praise, the chant, and the sacrificial formula;
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The goal, supporter, lord, witness, The dwelling-place, refuge, friend,
The origin, dissolution, and maintenance, The treasure-house, the imperishable seed.
[ 1х.18
1 give heat; the rain I Hold back and send forth; Both immortality and death, Both the existent and the non-existent am I, Arjuna.
The three-Veda-men, soma-drinkers, purified of sin, Me With ritual worship worshiping, seek to go to heaven;
They, attaining the meritorious world of the lord of the gods (Indra), Taste in the sky the divine enjoyments of the gods.
They, after enjoying the expansive world of heaven,
When their merit is exhausted, enter the world of mortals; Thus conforming to the religion of the three (Vedas),
Men who lust after desires get that which comes and goes.
Thinking on Me, with no other thought, What folk wait upon Me, To them, when they are constant in perseverance, T bring acquisition and peaceful possession (of their aim).
Even those who are devotees of other gods, And worship them permeated with faith,
It is only Me, son of Kunti, that even they Worship, (tho) not in the enjoined fashion.
For I of all acts of worship Am both the recipient and the lord; But they do not recognize Me
In the true way; therefore they fall (from the ‘heaven’ they win).
Votaries of the gods go to the gods,
Votaries of the (departed) fathers go to the fathers, Worshipers of goblins go to the goblins, Worshipers of Me also go to Me.
A leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water,
Who presents to Me with devotion, That offering of devotion I
Accept from the devout-souled (giver) 2
1x.27 | Bhagavad Gita 49
27. Whatever thou doest, whatever thou eatest, Whatever thou offerest in oblation or givest, Whatever austerity thou performest, son of Kunti, That do as an offering to Me.
28. Thus from what have good and evil fruits Thou shalt be freed, (namely) from the bonds of action; Thy soul disciplined in the discipline of renunciation? Freed, thou shalt go to Me.
29. I am the same to all beings, No one is hateful or dear to Me; But those who revere Me with devotion, They are in Me and I too am in them.
30. Even if a very evil doer Reveres Me with single devotion, He must be regarded as righteous in spite of all; For he has the right resolution.
31. Quickly his soul becomes righteous, And he goes to eternal peace. Son of Kunti, make sure of this: No devotee of Mine is lost.
32. For if they take refuge in Me, son of Prthà, Even those who may be of base origin, Women, men of the artisan caste, and serfs too, Even they go to the highest goal.
33. How much more virtuous brahmans, And devout royal seers, too! A fleeting and joyless world This; having attained it, devote thyself to Me.
34. Be Me-minded, devoted to Me; Worshiping Me, pay homage to Me; Just to Me shalt thou go, having thus disciplined Thyself, fully intent on Me. Here ends the Ninth Chapter, called Discipline of Royal Knowledge and Royal Mystery.
-
CHAPTER X The Blessed One said:
. Vet further, great-armed one,
Hear My highest message, Which to thee, that delightest in it, I Shall declare, in that I wish thee well.
. The throngs of gods know not My
Origin, nor yet the great seers. For I am the starting-point of the gods, And of the great seers, altogether.
. Whoso Me the unborn and beginningless
Knows, the great lord of the world, Undeluded, he among mortals Is freed from all evils.
. Enlightenment, knowledge, non-delusion,
Patience, truth, control, peace, Pleasure, pain, arising, passing away, Fear, and fearlessness too,
. Harmlessness, indifference, content,
Austerity, generosity, fame and ill repute — (All) conditions of beings arise From Me alone, however various their nature.
. The seven great seers of old,
The four Manus? likewise, Originate from Me; as My mental offspring, From whom spring these creatures in the world.
. This supernal-manifestation * and mystic power
Of Mine, whoso knows in very truth — He with unswerving discipline Is disciplined; there is no doubt of that.
Таш the origin of all;
From Me all comes forth. Knowing this they revere Me,
Enlightened men, pervaded with (the proper) state (of mind).!
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. With thoughts on Me, with life concentrated on Me,
Enlightening one another, And telling constantly of Me, They find contentment and joy.
'To them, constantly disciplined, Revering Me with love,
I give that discipline of mind, Whereby they go unto Me.
'To show compassion to those same ones, Their ignorance-born darkness I
Dispel, (while) remaining in My own true state, With the shining light of knowledge.
Arjuna said: 4 The supreme Brahman, the supreme station, The supreme purifier art Thou! The eternal divine spirit, The primal deity, the unborn lord,®
Call Thee all the seers, And the divine seer Narada, Asita Devala,’ and Vyasa, And Thou Thyself declarest it to me.
All this I hold to be true, Which Thou sayest to me, Кебауа;
For Thy manifestation, Blessed One, neither The gods nor the demons know.
Thine own self by Thy self alone Knowest Thou, highest of spirits,
Cause of being of beings, lord of beings, God of gods, lord of the world.
Declare then fully, I pray Thee, —
For marvelous are the supernal-manifestations of Thy self, With which manifestations the worlds
Here pervading Thou abidest ever.
How may I know Thee, Thou of mystic power, Ever meditating on Thee?
And in what several states of being Art Thou to be thought of by me, Blessed One?
52 18.
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In full detail, Thine own mystic power
And supernal-manifestation, Janardana, Expound further; for satiety
Comes not to me as I listen to Thy nectar!
Thy Blessed One said: Come then, I shall tell thee — Since My supernal-manifestations are marvelous’ — Regarding the chief ones, best of Kurus; There is no end to My extent.
I ап the soul, GudakeSa,
That abides in the heart of all beings; I am the beginning and the middle
Of beings, and the very end too.
Of the Adityas I am Visnu, Of lights the radiant sun,
Of Maruts I am (their chief) Marici, Of stars I am the moon.
Of Vedas I am the Sama Veda, Of gods I am Vasava (Indra),
Of sense-organs I am the thought-organ, Of beings I am the intellect.
And of Rudras I am Samkara (Siva),
Of sprites and ogres I am the Lord of Wealth (Kubera), Of (the eight) Vasus I am the Fire(-god), Of mountain-peaks I am Meru.
Of house-priests the chief am I,
Brhaspati (the priest-god), know thou, son of Prthà; Of army-lords I am Skanda (god of war),
Of bodies of water I am the ocean.
Of great sages I am Bhrgu,
Of utterances I am the one syllable (om), Of acts of worship I am the muttered worship
Of mountain-ranges Himalaya. : The holy fig-tree of all trees,
Of divine sages Narada,
Of gandharvas (heavenly musicians), Ci ir chi , Citrarath Of Perfected beings, the seer RUN кл
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Uccaiháravas (Indra's steed) of horses,
53
Sprung from the nectar (churned out of ocean), know Me to be;
Of princely elephants, Airavata (Indra’s elephant), And of men, the king.
Of weapons I am (Indra’s) vajra, Of cows I am the Cow-of-Wishes,
I am the generating Kandarpa (god of love), Of serpents I am (the serpent-king) Vasuki.
And I am Ananta of the Nagas (fabulous serpents), I am Varuna (god of water) of water-creatures,
Of (departed) fathers I am (their chief god) Aryaman, I am Yama (god of death) of subduers.?
Of demons I am (their prince) Prahlada, Iam Time of impellent-forces,!° Of beasts I am the king of beasts,” I am the son of Vinata (Garuda, Visnu’s bird) of birds.
I am the wind of purifiers, Rama of warriors,
I am the dolphin of water-monsters, Of rivers I am the Ganges.
Of creations the beginning and the end, And the middle too am I, Arjuna;
Of knowledges the knowledge of the over-soul, I am speech of them that speak.”
Of syllables (letters) I am the letter A, And the dvandva of compounds, None but I am immortal Time,
Iam the Ordainer (Creator) with faces in all directions.
I am death that carries off all, And the origin of things that are to be;
Of feminine entities I am Fame, Fortune, Speech, Memory, Wisdom, Steadfastness, Patience.”
Likewise of chants the Great Chant, The Gayatri am I of meters,
Of months, (the first month) Márgaéirsa am I, Of seasons the flower-bearer (spring).
54 Bhagavad Gità [х.36
36. І am gambling of rogues, Iam majesty of the majestic, I am conquest, I am the spirit-of-adventure, I am courage of the courageous.
37. Of the Vrsni-clansmen 1 am Vasudeva, Of the sons of Pandu, Dhanamjaya (Arjuna), Of hermits also I am Vyasa, Of sages the sage USanas.
38. I am the rod (punitive force) of stern controllers, Т am statecraft of them that seek political success; Taciturnity too am I of secret things, Iam knowledge of the knowing.
39. Moreover whatsoever of all beings Is the seed, that am I, Arjuna; There is none such as could be without Me, no being moving or unmoving.
40. There is no end to My marvelous Supernal-manifestations, scorcher of the foe; But I have now declared by way of examples The extent of my supernal-manifestation.
41. Whatever being shows supernal-manifestations,'* Or majesty or vigor, Be thou assured that that in every case Is sprung from a fraction of My glory.
42. After all, this extensive Instruction — what boots it thee, Arjuna? I support this entire World with a single fraction (of Myself), and remain so.
Here ends the Tenth Chapter, called Discipline of Supernal-Mani- festations.
CHAPTER XI Arjuna said: . As a favor to me the supreme Mystery, called the over-soul, The words which Thou hast spoken, thereby This delusion of mine is dispelled.
. For the origin and dissolution of beings Have been heard by me in full detail From Thee, Lotus-petal-eyed One, And also (Thine) exalted nature unending.
. Thus it is, as Thou declarest Thyself, O Supreme Lord. I desire to see Thy form As God, O Supreme Spirit!
. If Thou thinkest that it can
. Ве seen by ше, O Lord,
Prince of mystic power, then do Thou to me Reveal Thine immortal Self.
The Blessed One said: . Behold My forms, son of Prthà, By hundreds and by thousands, Of various sorts, marvelous, Of various colors and shapes.
. Behold the Adityas, Vasus, Rudras, The A$vin-pair and the Maruts too; Many before-unseen Marvels behold, son of Bharata.
. Here the whole world united
Behold today, with moving and unmoving things, In My body, GudakeSa,
And whatsoever else thou wishest to see.
. But thou canst not see Me With this same eye of thine own; 1 give thee a supernatural eye: Behold My mystic power as God!
d ia ie Semis
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. Thus speaking then, O king,
Hari (Visnu), the great Lord of Mystic Power, Showed unto the son of Prtha His supernal form as God:
Of many mouths and eyes, Of many wondrous aspects, Of many marvelous ornaments, Of marvelous and many uplifted weapons;
Wearing marvelous garlands and garments, With marvelous perfumes and ointments, Made up of all wonders, the god, Infinite, with faces in all directions.
Of a thousand suns in the sky
If suddenly should burst forth The light, it would be like
Unto the light of that exalted one.
The whole world there united, And divided many-fold,
Beheld in the God of Gods’ Body the son of Pandu then.
Then filled with amazement,
His hair standing upright, Dhanamjaya Bowed with his head to the God,
And said with a gesture of reverence:
Arjuna said:
I see the gods in Thy body, O God,
All of them, and the hosts of various kinds of beings too, Lord Brahma sitting on the lotus-seat,
And the seers all, and the divine serpents. With many arms, bellies, mouths, and eyes, S 8 Thee, infinite in form on all sides;
o end nor middle nor yet beginning of Thee
Do I see, O All-God, All-formed! 5 With diadem, club, and disc,
A mass of radiance, glowin i g on all sides. I see Thee, hard to look at, on every side |
With the glory of flaming fire and sun, immeasurable.
[xig
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Thou art the Imperishable, the supreme Object of Knowledge; Thou art the ultimate resting-place! of this universe; j Thou art the immortal guardian of the eternal right Thou art the everlasting Spirit, I hold. ‘
. Without beginning, middle, or end, of infinite power,
Of infinite arms, whose eyes are the moon and sun, I see Thee, whose face? is flaming fire, Burning this whole universe with Thy radiance.
For this region between heaven and earth
Is pervaded by Thee alone, and all the directions; Seeing this Thy wondrous, terrible form,
The triple world trembles, O exalted one!
For into Thee are entering ? yonder throngs of gods; Some, affrighted, praise Thee with reverent gestures;
Crying ‘Hail!’ the throngs of the great seers and perfected ones Praise Thee with abundant laudations.
The Rudras, the Adityas, the Vasus, and the Sádhyas, All-gods, Agvins, Maruts, and the Steam-drinkers (‘fathers’), The hosts of heavenly musicians, sprites, demons, and perfected ones, Gaze upon Thee, and all are quite amazed.
Thy great form, of many mouths and eyes,
O great-armed one, of many arms, thighs, and feet, Of many bellies, terrible with many tusks, —
Seeing it the worlds tremble, and I too.
Touching the sky, aflame, of many colors, With yawning mouths and flaming enormous eyes, Verily seeing Thee (so), my inmost soul is shaken, And I find no steadiness nor peace, O Visnu!
And Thy mouths, terrible with great tusks, No sooner do I see them, like the fire of dissolution (of the world), Than I know not the directions of the sky, and I find no refuge; Have mercy, Lord of Gods, Thou in whom the world dwells!
And Thee 4 yonder sons of Dhrtarastra, All of them, together with the hosts of kings,
Bhisma, Drona, and yonder son of the charioteer (Karna) too, Together with our chief warriors likewise,
=>
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27. Hastening enter Thy mouths, Frightful with tusks, and terrifying; Some, stuck between the teeth, Are seen with their heads crushed.
28. As the many water-torrents of the rivers Rush headlong towards the single sea, So yonder heroes of the world of men into Thy Flaming mouths do enter.
29. As moths into a burning flame Do enter unto their destruction with utmost impetuosity, Just so unto their destruction enter the worlds 5 Into Thy mouths also, with utmost impetuosity.
30. Devouring them Thou lickest up voraciously on all sides All the worlds with Thy flaming jaws; Filling with radiance the whole universe, Thy terrible splendors burn, O Visnu!
31. Tell me, who art Thou, of awful form? Homage be to Thee: Best of Gods, be merciful! I desire to understand Thee, the primal one; For I do not comprehend what Thou hast set out to do.
The Blessed One said: 32. I am Time (Death), cause of destruction of the worlds, matured And set out to gather in the worlds here. Even without thee (thy action), all shall cease to exist, The warriors that are drawn up in the opposing ranks.
33. Therefore arise thou, win glory, Conquer thine enemies and enjoy prospered kingship; By Me Myself they have already been slain long ago; Be thou the mere instrument, left-handed archer! 34. Drona and Bhisma and Jayadratha, Karna too, and the other warrior-heroes as well,
Do thou slay, (since) they are already slain by Me; do not hesitate!
Fight! Thou shalt conquer thy rivals in battle. Samjaya said: 35. Hearing these words of Keéava,
eines reverent gesture, trembling, the Diademed (Arjuna) ade obeisance and spoke yet again to Krsna, Stammering, greatly affrighted, bowing down:
[ xi.27
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. . 5 ? Arjuna said: It is in place, Hrsike$a, that at Thy praise The world rejoices and is exceeding glad; Ogres fly in terror in all directions, And all the hosts of perfected ones pay homage.
And why should they not pay homage to Thee, Exalted One? Thou art greater even than Brahman 5; Thou art the First Creator; O infinite Lord of Gods, in whom the world dwells, қ Thou the imperishable, existent, non-existent, and beyond both!
Thou art the Primal God, the Ancient Spirit, Thou art the supreme resting-place 7 of this universe;
Thou art the knower, the object of knowledge, and the highest station By Thee the universe is pervaded, Thou of infinite form! $
Vāyu, Yama, Agni, Varuņa, the moon,
Prajāpati art Thou, and the Greatgrandsire; Homage, homage be to Thee a thousand fold,
And again be yet further homage, homage to Thee!
Homage be to Thee from in front and from behind, Homage be to Thee from all sides, Thou All!
O Thou of infinite might,’ Thy prowess is unmeasured; Thou attainest all; therefore Thou art All!
Whatever I said rashly, thinking Thee my boon-companion, Calling Thee ‘Krsna, Yadava, Companion!,’
Not knowing this (truth, namely) Thy greatness, Thru careless negligence, or even thru affection,
And if I treated Thee disrespectfully, to make sport of Thee, In the course of amusement, resting, sitting, or eating,
Either alone, O unshaken one, or in the presence of those (others), For that I beg forgiveness of Thee, the immeasurable one.
Thou art the father of the world of things that move and move not, And Thou art its revered, most venerable Guru;
There is no other like Thee — how then a greater? — Even in the three worlds, O Thou of matchless greatness!
. Therefore, bowing and prostrating my body,
I beg grace of Thee, the Lord to be revered: As a father to his son, as a friend to his friend, As a lover to his beloved, be pleased to show mercy, O God!
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Having seen what was never seen before, I am thrilled, And (at the same time) my heart is shaken with fear;
Show me, O God, that same form of Thine (as before) ! Be merciful, Lord of Gods, Abode of the World!
[xi.4c
Wearing the diadem, carrying the club, with disc in hand, Just (as before) I desire to see Thee;
In that same four-armed shape Present Thyself, O Thousand-armed One, of universal form!
The Blessed One said: By Me showing grace towards thee, Arjuna, this Supreme form has been manifested by My own mysterious power; (This form) made up of splendor, universal, infinite, primal, Of Mine, which has never been seen before by any other than thee.
Not by the Vedas, by acts of worship, or study, or gifts, Nor yet by rites, nor by grim austerities,
In the world of men can I in such a form Be seen by any other than thee, hero of the Kurus.
Have no perturbation, nor any state of bewilderment, Seeing this so awful form of Mine;
Dispel thy fear; let thy heart be of good cheer; again do thou Behold that same (former) form of Mine: here!
Samjaya said: Having thus spoken to Arjuna, Vasudeva Again revealed his own (natural) form, And comforted him in his fright
By once more assuming his gracious aspect, the Exalted One. Arjuna said: Seeing this human form
Of Thine, gracious, O Janardana, Now I have become
Possessed of my senses, and restored to normal state.
The Blessed One said: This form that is right hard to see, Which thou hast seen of Mine Of this form even the gods | Constantly long for the sight.
х1.53] Bhagavad Gita бї
53. Not by the Vedas nor by austerity, Nor by gifts or acts of worship, Can I be seen in such a guise, As thou hast seen Me.
54. But by unswerving devotion can I in such a guise, Arjuna, Be known and seen in very truth, And entered into, scorcher of the foe.
55. Doing My work, intent on Me, Devoted to Me, free from attachment, Free from enmity to all beings, Who is so, goes to Me, son of Pandu. Here ends the Eleventh Chapter, called Discipline of the Vision of the Universal Form.
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Arjuna said:
. Those who are thus constantly disciplined,
And revere Thee with devotion, 4 - And those also who (revere) the imperishable unmanifest — Of these which are the best knowers of discipline?
The Blessed One said:
. Fixing the thought-organ on Me, those who Me
Revere with constant discipline, Pervaded with supreme faith, Them I hold to be the most disciplined.
. But those who the imperishable, undefinable,
Unmanifest, revere, The omnipresent and unthinkable, The immovable,! unchanging, fixed,
. Restraining the throng of the senses,
With mental attitude alike to all,? They (also) reach none but Me, Delighting in the welfare of all beings.
. Greater is the toil of them
That have their hearts fixed on the unmanifest; For with difficulty is the unmanifest goal Attained by embodied (souls).
. But those who, all actions
Casting on Me, intent on Me, With utterly unswerving discipline Meditating on Me, revere Me,
. For them I the Savior
From the sea of the round of deaths Become right soon, son of Prtha,
When they have made their thoughts enter into Me.
Fix thy thought-organ on Me alone; Make thy consciousness enter into Me:
And thou shalt come to dwell even in Me Hereafter; there is no doubt of this.
хи.91
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Bhagavad Gita But if to fix thy thought Steadfastly on Me thou art not able, With the discipline of practice then Seek to win Me, Dhanamjaya.
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If thou hast no ability even for practice, Be wholly devoted to work for Me; For My sake also actions Performing, thou shalt win perfection.
But if even this thou art unable To do, resorting to My discipline, Abandonment of the fruit of all actions Do thou then effect, controlling thyself.
For knowledge is better than practice, And meditation is superior to knowledge,
And abandonment of the fruit of actions is better than meditation; From abandonment (comes) peace immediately.
No hater of all beings, Friendly and compassionate,
Free from selfishness and I-faculty, Indifferent to pain and pleasure, patient,
The disciplined man who is always content, Whose self is controlled, of firm resolve,
Whose thought and consciousness are fixed on Me, Who is devoted to Me, he is dear to Me.
. He before whom people do not tremble,
And who does not tremble before people, From joy, impatience, fear, and agitation Who is free, he too is dear to Me.
Unconcerned, pure, capable, Disinterested, free from perturbation, Abandoning all undertakings, Who is devoted to Me, is dear to Me.
Who neither delights nor loathes, Neither grieves nor craves, Renouncing good and evil (objects), Who is full of devotion, he is dear to Me.
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18. Alike to foe and friend, Also to honor and disgrace, To cold and heat, joy and sorrow Alike, freed from attachment,
19. To whom blame and praise are equal, restrained in speech, Content with anything that comes, Having no home, of steadfast mind, Full of devotion, that man is dear to Me.
20. But those who this nectar ? of duty Revere as it has (now) been declared, Having faith (in it), intent on Me, Those devotees are beyond measure dear to Me.
Here ends the Twelfth Chapter, Called Discipline of Devotion.
[ XI1.18
CHAPTER XIII The Blessed One said: . 'This body, son of Kunti, Is called the Field. Who knows this, he is called Field-knower by those who know him.
. Know also that I am the Field-knower Tn all Fields, son of Bharata. Knowledge of the Field and Field-knower, This I hold to be (true) knowledge.
. This Field, what it is and of what nature, What its modifications, and whence which one (is derived), And who He (the Field-knower) is, and what His powers are, That hear from Me in brief.
. This has been sung in many ways by the seers In various (Vedic!) hymns severally, And also in words of aphorisms about Brahman (in the Upanisads’), Well-reasoned and definite.
. The gross elements, the I-faculty, The consciousness, and the unmanifest, The senses ten and one, And the five objects on which the senses (of perception) play,
. Desire, loathing, pleasure, pain, Association, intellect, steadfastness, This in brief as the Field Is described, with its modifications.
. Absence of pride and deceit, Harmlessness, patience, uprightness, Service of a teacher, purity, Firmness, self-control,
. Aversion to the objects of sense, And absence of I-faculty;
As regards birth, death, old age, disease, And sorrow, a perception of their evils;
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. Absence of attachment and of great affection
For sons, wife, house, and the like, And constant indifference of mind, Whether desired or undesired things occur;
With single-minded discipline, towards Me Devotion unswerving;
Cultivation of solitary places, Dislike for a crowd of people;
Constancy in the knowledge of the over-soul,
Perception of the object * of knowledge of the truth: — This (all) is called knowledge;
Ignorance is what is other than that.
What is the object of knowledge, that I shall declare, Knowing which one attains freedom from death:
(It is) the beginningless Brahman, ruled by Me’; Neither existent nor non-existent it is called.
It has hands and feet on all sides,
Eyes, heads, and faces ® on all sides, Hearing” on all sides in the world,
And it remains constantly enveloping all;
Having the semblance ? of the qualities of all the senses, (Yet) freed from all the senses, Unattached, and yet all-maintaining; Free from the Strands, yet experiencing the Strands (of matter);
Outside of beings, and within them, Unmoving, and yet moving;
Because of its subtleness it cannot be comprehended: Both far away and near it is.
Both undivided in beings, And seemingly divided it remains;
Both as the supporter of beings it is to be known And as (their) consumer and Originator. à
Of lights also it is the light? Beyond darkness, so "tis declared;
Knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the goal of knowledge; ? (It is) settled in the heart of all.
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18. Thus the Field, and also knowledge, And the object of knowledge have been declared in brief: My devotee, understanding this, баешы Attains unto ? My estate.
19. Both material nature and the spirit, Know thou, are equally beginningless; Both the modifications and the Strands, Know thou, spring from material nature.
20. In anything that concerns effect, instrument, or agent," Material nature is declared the cause; The spirit, in pleasure-and-pain’s Experiencing is declared the cause.
21. For the spirit, abiding in material nature, Experiences the Strands born of material nature; Attachment to the Strands is the cause of his Births in good and evil wombs.
22. The onlooker and consenter, The supporter, experiencer, great Lord, The supreme soul also is declared to be The highest spirit, in this body.
23. Whoso thus knows the spirit And material nature along with its Strands, Tho he exist in any condition at all," He is not reborn again.
24. By meditation, in the self see Some the self by the self; Others by discipline of reason,” And others by discipline of action.
25. But others, not having this knowledge, Hearing it from others, revere it; Even they also, nevertheless, cross over Death, devoted to the holy revelation 15 which they hear.
26. In so far as is produced any Creature, stationary or moving, From union of Field and Field-knower Know that (is sprung), best of Bharatas.
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Here ends the Thirteenth Cha Field and Field-knower.
Bhagavad Gita
Alike in all beings Abiding, the supreme Lord, Not perishing when they perish, Who sees him, he (truly) sees.
For seeing in all the same Lord established,
He harms not himself (in others)" by himself; Then he goes to the highest goal.
Both that by material-nature alone actions Are performed altogether,
Who sees, and likewise that (his) self Is not the doer, he (truly) sees.
When the various states of beings He perceives as abiding in One, And from that alone their expansion,
Then he attains Brahman.
. Because he is beginningless and free from the Strands,
This supreme self, imperishable, Even abiding in the body, son of Kunti, Acts not, nor is he stained (by actions).
. As because of its subtleness the omnipresent
Ether is not stained (by contact with other elements), Abiding in every body The self is not stained likewise.
As alone illumines This whole world the sun,
So the Field-owner the whole Field Illumines, son of Bharata.
Thus between Field and Field-knower The difference, with the eye of knowledge,
And release from the material nature of beings, Those who know (these), they go to the highest.
[ Xia»
pter, called Discipline of Distinction of
CHAPTER XIV The Blessed One said: . Further I shall declare the highest Knowledge, the best of all knowledges, Knowing which all saints Have gone from this world to supreme perfection.
. Having resorted to this knowledge, Come to a state of likeness with Me,
Even at a world-creation they do not come to birth, Nor at a dissolution are they disturbed.
. For Me great Brahman is a womb; Therein I plant the germ;
The origin of all beings Comes from that, son of Bharata.
. In all wombs, son of Kunti, Whatsoever forms originate,
Of them great Brahman is the womb, I am the father that furnishes the seed. |
. Goodness, passion, and darkness, The Strands that spring from material nature, Bind, O great-armed one, In the body the immortal embodied (soul).
. Among these goodness, because it is stainless, Is illuminating and free from disease; It binds by attachment to bliss, And by attachment to knowledge, blameless one.
. Know that passion is of the nature of desire, Springing from thirst and attachment;
Tt, son of Kunti, binds а Тһе embodied (soul) by attachment to actions.
. But know that darkness is born of ignorance, The deluder of all embodied (souls); By heedlessness, sloth, and sleep Tt binds, son of Bharata.
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. Goodness causes attachment to bliss, |
Passion to action, son of Bharata, But darkness, obscuring knowledge, ian Causes attachment to heedlessness likewise.
Prevailing over passion and darkness, | Goodness comes to be, son of Вһагаїа;
Passion, (prevailing over) goodness and darkness likewise, And so darkness, (prevailing over) goodness and passion.
In all the gates (orifices) in this body An illumination appears,
Which is knowledge; when that happens, then one shall know Also that goodness is dominant,
Greed, activity, the undertaking Of actions, unrest, longing,
These are produced when passion Is dominant, bull of Bharatas.
Unillumination, and inactivity, Heedlessness, and mere delusion,
"These are produced when darkness Is dominant, son of Kuru.
But when under dominance of goodness The body-bearing (soul) goes to dissolution, |
Then to the worlds of them that know the highest, | "The spotless (worlds), һе attains.
Going to dissolution in (dominance of) passion, He is born among those attached to actions; And so when dissolved in (dominance of) darkness, He is born in deluded wombs.
Of action well done, they say
The fruit is spotless and of the nature of goodness; | But the fruit of passion is pain;
"The fruit of darkness is ignorance.
From goodness is born knowledge, | From passion greed rather, | Heedlessness and delusion from darkness | Arise, and ignorance,
xiv.18] Bhagavad Gita 18. Those that abide in goodness go on high;
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The men of passion remain in the middle (states); Abiding in the scope of the base Strand, j The men of darkness go below.
No other agent than the Strands When the Beholder (soul) perceives, And knows the higher-than-the-Strands, He goes unto My estate.
Transcending these three Strands,
That spring from the body,! the embodied (soul), From birth, death, old age, and sorrow
Freed, attains deathlessness.
Arjuna said: By what marks, when these three Strands He has transcended, is he characterized, O Lord? What is his conduct, and how these Three Strands does he get beyond?
The Blessed One said: Both illumination and activity And delusion? son of Pandu, He does not loathe when they have arisen, Nor crave when they have ceased.
Sitting as one sitting apart (indifferent), Who is not perturbed by the Strands,
Thinking ‘The Strands operate’ only, Who remains firm and is unshaken,
To whom pain and pleasure are alike, abiding in the self,
To whom clods, stones, and gold are all one, To whom loved and unloved are equal, wise,” To whom blame and praise of himself are equal,
Alike to honor and disgrace, Alike to parties of friend and foe, Abandoning all undertakings,
He is called the man that has transcended the Strands.
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26. And whoso Me with unswerving Discipline of devotion serves,
He, transcending these Strands,
Is fit for becoming Brahman.
[ xiv.26
27. For I am the foundation of Brahman, The immortal and imperishable, And of the eternal right, And of absolute bliss.
Here ends the Fourteenth Chapter, called Discipline of Distinction of th Three Strands. £
|
CHAPTER XV 'The Blessed One said:
. With roots aloft and branches below, The eternal peepal-tree,! they say —
Whose leaves are the (Vedic) hymns, Who knows it, he knows the Veda.
. Below and upward extend its branches,
Nourished by the Strands, with the objects of sense as sprouts;
Below also are stretched forth its roots, Resulting in actions, in the world of men.
. Its form is not thus comprehended here in the world, Nor its end nor beginning nor basis.
This peepal-tree, with its firmly grown roots, Cutting with the stout axe of detachment,
. Then that place must be sought To which having gone men no more return, (Thinking:) ‘I take refuge in that same primal spirit, Whence issued forth of old the (whole cosmic) activity.’
. Without pride or delusion, victors over the sin of attachment, Constant in the over-soul, their desires departed,
Freed from the pairs known as pleasure and pain, Undeluded men go to that eternal place.
. The sun does not illumine that, Nor the moon, nor fire;
Having gone to which they return not: That is My highest station.?
. A part just of Me in the world of the living Becomes the individual-soul, the eternal; The (five) senses, with the thought-organ as sixth, Which rest in material nature, it draws along.
- When he acquires a body,
And also when he departs (from it), the Lord? Moves taking them. along,
As the wind odors from their home.
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9. Hearing, sight, and touch, Taste, and smell, Making use of * these, and the thought-organ, he Devotes himself to the objects of sense.
1o. As he departs (from the body) or remains (in it), Or experiences (sense-objects), while attended by the Strands, Deluded men do not perceive him; Those whose eye is knowledge perceive him.
1i. Him also men of discipline, earnestly striving, Perceive located in their self; (But) even tho they strive, those whose self is unperfected Perceive him not, the fools.
12. The splendor that belongs to the sun, Which illumines the whole world, And that which is in the moon and in fire, Know that to be My splendor.
13. And entering into the earth, (all) beings I maintain by (My) power; And J nourish all plants, Becoming the juicy soma (sacred plant and moon, identified).
14. I, becoming the (digestive) fire of all men, Dwelling in the body of (all) living beings, In union with the upper and nether breaths Cook (digest) their food of all four sorts.
15. I am entered into the heart of every one; From Me come memory, knowledge, and disputation; I alone am that which is to be known by all the Vedas;
And I am the author of the Upanisads and the Vedas’ knower.
16. Here in the world are two spirits, The perishable, and the imperishable; The perishable is all beings;
The imperishable is called the immovable.
17. But there is a highest spirit, other (than thi Called the Supreme Soul; | 2 Which, entering into the three worlds, Supports them, the undying Lord.
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18. Since I transcend the perishable, And am higher than the imperishable too, Therefore in the world and the Veda I am Proclaimed as the highest spirit.
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19. The man who, undeluded, thus Me Knows as the supreme spirit, He knows all, and devotes himself to Me With his whole being, son of Bharata.
20. Thus the most secret science Has now been declared by Me, blameless one; Being enlightened as to this, a man would have true enlightenment, And would have done all there is to do, son of Bharata.
Here ends the Fifteenth Chapter, called Discipline of the Highest Spirit.
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CHAPTER XVI The Blessed One said:
. Fearlessness, purification of essence,
Steadfastness in the discipline of knowledge, Generosity, control, and religious worship, n Study of the Holy Word, austerities, uprightness,
. Harmlessness, truth, no anger,
Abandonment, serenity, no backbiting, Compassion towards creatures, no greedy desire, Gentleness, modesty, no fickleness,
. Majesty, patience, fortitude, purity,
No injuriousness, no excessive pride, Are (the qualities) of him that to the divine lot Is born, son of Bharata.
. Hypocrisy, arrogance, overweening pride,
Wrath, and harshness (of speech) too, And ignorance, are (the qualities) of him that is born To the demoniac lot, son of Prtha.
- The divine lot leads to release,
The demoniac lot is considered to lead to bondage. Be not grieved: to the divine lot Thou art born, son of Pàndu.
- There are two creations of beings in this world,
"The divine and the demoniac. The divine has been explained at length; Hear from Me of the demoniac, son of Prtha.
- Both activity and its cessation?
Demoniac folk know not;
Neither purity nor yet good conduct Nor truth is found in them.
- Without truth, without religious basis, they
Say is the world, without a God,
Not originating in regular mutual causation; Іп short, motivated by desire alone.
xvi.9] Bhagavad Gita
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Holding fast to this view,
Men of lost souls, of scant intelligence, Spring up, committing cruel deeds,
Unto the ruin of the world, noxious folk.
Clinging to insatiable desire,
Filled with hypocrisy, arrogance, and pride,
Thru delusion taking up false notions, They proceed with unclean undertakings.
. To limitless care,
That lasts until death, they are devoted;
They make the enjoyment of desires their highest aim,
Convinced that that is all;
Bound by hundreds of bonds of longing, Devoted to desire and wrath,
In order to enjoy desires, they seek Hoardings of wealth by wrong means.
‘This have I gained today, This desire I shall get,
Mine is this, and mine also this Wealth again is going to be;
. ‘Yonder enemy has been slain by me,
And I shall slay others too; Iam lord, I control enjoyments, I am successful, mighty, happy;
“Т am rich, of noble birth; Who else is like unto me?
I shall sacrifice and give gifts, and rejoice!’ Thus they say, deluded by ignorance.
Led astray by many fancies, Enveloped by the snares of delusion,
Intent on the enjoyment of desires, They fall to a foul hell.
Self-conceited, haughty, Full of pride and arrogance of wealth,
They do acts of religious worship in name alone, еу Hypocritically, not according to the (Vedic) injunctions.
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78 Bhagavad Gita Cmm 18. Egotism, force, pride, Desire, and wrath they have taken to, Me in their own and others' bodies Hating, these envious men.
19. These cruel and hateful | Base men, in the ceaseless round of existences,* These wicked ones, I constantly hurl Into demoniac wombs alone.
20. Having come into a demoniac womb, Deluded in birth after birth, Not by any means attaining Me, son of Kunti, Then they go to the lowest goal.
21. This is of hell the threefold Gate, and ruins the soul: Desire, wrath, and greed; Hence one should.abandon these three.
22. Freed, son of Kunti, from these "Three gates of darkness, a man Does what is good for his soul; "Then he goes to the highest goal.
23. Whoso neglects the law’s injunction, And lives according to his own wilful desires, He does not attain perfection, Nor bliss, nor the highest goal.
24. Therefore let the law be thy authority In determining what should and should not be done. Knowing (action) laid down in the law’s injunctions, Thou shouldst do (such) action in this world.
Here ends the Sixteenth Chapter, called Discipline of Distinction be: tween Divine and Demoniac Lots,
CHAPTER XVII Arjuna said:
. Those who, neglecting the law's injunction, Perform acts of worship filled with faith, — What, however, is their basis, Krsna? Goodness, or passion, or darkness?
The Blessed One said: . Of three kinds is the faith
Of embodied (souls); it springs from their original nature;
It is characterized by goodness, or passion, Or darkness. Hear how it is!
. In accord with the essential nature of every man Is his faith, son of Bharata. Man here is made up of faith; As a man's faith is, just so is he.
. Men of goodness worship the gods, Men of passion sprites and ogres, To ghosts and the hordes of goblins others, The folk of darkness, pay worship.
. Not enjoined in the law, cruel . Austerities — folk who practise them, Wedded to hypocrisy and egotism, Filled with desire, passion, and violence;
. Starving within the body The conglomerate of elements, the fools,
And (starving) Me Myself, who am within the body, Know that they have demoniac resolve.
- But the food also, of every man Beloved, is of three kinds;
Likewise their worship, austerities, and gifts; Hear now the distinction between them.
- Life, courage, strength, good health, Happiness, and satisfaction increasing,
Tasty, rich, substantial, and heart-gladdening, Such foods are beloved of the man of goodness.
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. Pungent, sour, salty, very hot,
Sharp, astringent, heating, К Such foods are desired of the man of passion; They cause pain, misery, and sickness.
Spoiled, its taste lost, Putrid, and stale, Leavings, and also filth, Such food is beloved of the man of darkness.
By men who are not desirous of fruits, worship Which is offered as contemplated by injunctions,
With the thought that it is simply one's duty to offer it, the mind Concentrating, that is of goodness.
But with a view to the fruit,
And also if for mere hypocritical ostentation Tt is offered, O best of Bharatas,
"That worship know to be of passion.
In which no injunction is observed nor food given out, No holy texts recited nor sacrificial fee paid,
Devoid of faith, such worship They say is of darkness.
To gods, brahmans, reverend elders, and wise men Respectful homage; purity, uprightness, Chastity, and harmlessness; This is called austerity of the body.
Words that cause no disturbance, "That are true, and pleasingly beneficial;
Also practice of recitation in study (of sacred texts); This is called austerity of speech.
Serenity of mind, kindliness, Silence, self-control,
And purification of being, this Is called austerity of mind.
With the highest faith performed, This threefold austerity, by men
Not seeking fruits and disciplined "They call (austerity) of goodness.
xvu.18 ] Bhagavad Gita
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
With a view to respect, honor, and reverence, And with sheer hypocrisy, what austerity Is performed, that is called in this world
(Austerity) of passion; it is insecure and impermanent.
Tf with deluded notions, or with self- Torture, austerity is performed, Or in order to destroy another, That is declared to be of darkness.
The gift which with the mere thought ‘One must give! Is given to one that does no (return) favor,
At the proper place and time, to a worthy person, That gift is said to be of goodness.
But what in order to get a return favor, Or with a view to the fruit as well, Or when it hurts to give, is given, That gift is said to be of passion.
What gift at the wrong place and time And to unworthy persons is given,
Without (suitable) marks of respect and with contempt, That is declared to be of darkness,
Om, Tat, Sat: thus the designation
Of Brahman; threefold, is recorded. Thereby brahmans, and Vedas,
And acts of worship were fashioned of old.
Therefore after pronouncing Om Acts of worship, gift, and austerity
Are undertaken as prescribed in (Vedic) injunctions Always on the part of students of Brahman.
With Tat (‘That’), and without aiming
At fruit, acts of worship and austerity And acts of giving of various sorts
Are performed by men that seek release.
Tn the meaning of ‘real’ and in the meaning of ‘good’ The word Sat is employed;
Likewise of a laudable action The word Sat is used, son of Prtha.
81
ee —— S 00
T 82 Bhagavad Gita
27. Also in the matter of worship, austerity, and giving, Steadfastness is called Sat; And action for such purposes as those Is likewise called Sat (‘good’).
Uxvine,
28. Oblation offered or gift given without faith, Or austerity or action thus performed, Is called Asat (not Sat, not good), son of Prtha; It is naught hereafter and naught in this world.
Here ends the Seventeenth Chapter, called Discipline of Distinction Three Kinds of Faith. 3
دی
CHAPTER XVIII Arjuna said:
. Of renunciation, great-armed one,
І desire to know the truth, And of abandonment, Hrsikeéa, Severally, Slayer of Kesin.
The Blessed One said:
. The renouncing of acts of desire
Sages call renunciation. The abandonment of all action-fruits The wise call abandonment.
. That it must be abandoned as sinful, some
Wise men say of action; That actions of worship, gift, and austerity Must not be abandoned, say others.
. Hear my decision in this matter
Of abandonment, best of Bharatas; For abandonment, O man-tiger, Is reputed to be threefold.
. Actions of worship, gift, and austerity
Must not be abandoned, but rather performed; Worship, gift, and austerity Are purifiers of the wise.
. However, these actions
With abandonment of attachment and fruits Must be performed: this, son of Prthā, is My Definite and highest judgment.
. But abandonment of a (religiously) required
Action is not seemly; Abandonment thereof owing to delusion Is reputed to be of the nature of darkness.
- Just because it is troublesome, what action
One abandons thru fear of bodily affliction, Such a man performs an abandonment that 1s 0
f the nature of passion; By no means shall he get any fruit of (this) abandonment.
84 Bhagavad Gila
9. Simply because it ought to be done, when action That is (religiously) required is performed, Arjuna, Abandoning attachment and fruit, That abandonment is held to be of goodness.
(Хуш
10. He loathes not disagreeable action, Nor does he cling to agreeable (action), The man of abandonment who is filled with goodness, Wise, whose doubts are destroyed.
тт. For a body-bearing (soul) can not Abandon actions without remainder; But he who abandons the fruit of action Ts called the man of (true) abandonment.
12. Undesired, desired, and mixed — Threefold is the fruit of action That ensues after death for those who are not men of abandonment, But never for men of renunciation.
13. O great-armed one, these five Factors learn from Me, Which are declared in the reason-method ! doctrine For the effective performance of all actions.
14. The (material) basis, the agent too, And the instruments of various sorts, And the various motions of several kinds, And just Fate as the fifth of them.
15. With body, speech, or mind, whatever Action a man undertakes, Whether it be lawful or the reverse, "These are its five factors.
16. This being so, as agent herein Whoso however the self alone Regards, because his intelligence is imperfect, He does not see (truly), the fool.
17. Whose state (of mind) is not egoized, Whose intelligence is not stained, He, even tho he slays these folk,
Does not slay, and is not bound (by his actions).
хуш.18] Bhagavad Gità 8s
18. Knowledge, the object of knowledge, the knower | Form the threefold impellent cause of action: - i Instrument, action, and the agent, ; Form the threefold summary of action?
19. Knowledge, and action, and the agent Are of just three kinds, according to difference of Strands: So it is declared in the theory of the Strands; > Hear of them also, how they are.
20. Whereby in all beings one Unchanging condition men perceive, Unmanifold in the manifold, Know that that knowledge is of goodness. |
21. But what knowledge in various fashion Different conditions of various sorts |)
Sees in all beings, it Know that that knowledge is of passion. |
22. But what knowledge to one — as if it were all — Thing to be done is attached, unconcerned with causes,’ Not dealing with the true nature of things, and insignificant, | That is declared to be of darkness. | |
23. Obligatory, free from attachment, Done without desire or loathing, | By опе who seeks no fruit from it, action | Such as this is called of goodness. !
24. But action which by one seeking desires, | Or again by one who is selfish, Is done, with much weary labor, That is declared to be of passion.
| | 25." Consequences, loss, injury (to others), | And (one's own) human power disregarding, | Owing to delusion, when action is undertaken, |
It is declared to be of darkness. |
26. Free from attachment, not talking of himself, Full of steadfastness and energy, Unchanged in success or failure, | Such an agent is called one of goodness.
86 27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
Bhagavad Gita
Passionate, seeking the fruits of action, Greedy, injurious, impure,
Full of joy and grief, such an agent Ts celebrated as one of passion.
Undisciplined, vulgar, arrogant, Tricky, dishonest, lazy, Despondent, and procrastinating, Such an agent is said to be of darkness.
The distinction of intelligence and of firmness, also, Threefold according to the Strands, hear
Fully expounded In their several forms, Dhanamjaya.
Activity and cessation from it,
[xvin
Things to be done and not to be done, danger and security,
Bondage and release, that which knows these Is the intelligence that is of goodness, son of Prtha.
Whereby right and unright, ji And things to be done and not to be done,
Are understood incorrectly, That intelligence, son of Prthā, is of passion.
Right as unright what Conceives, obscured by darkness, And all things contrary (to the truth), That intelligence, son of Prthā, is of darkness.
The firmness with which one holds fast
The activities of the mind, life-breaths, and senses, And which is unswerving in discipline,
That firmness is of goodness, son of Prthā.
But when to religion, love, and wealth With firmness he holds fast, Arjuna,
With attachment, desirous ofthe fruits, That firmness is of passion, son of Prthā.
Whereby sleep, fear, sorrow, Despondency, and pride, The foolish man does not let go, "That firmness is of darkness, son of Prtha.
хуш.36 J Bhagavad Gita 36. But now the threefold happiness Hear from Me, bull of Bharatas.
That in which he comes to delight thru long practi And comes to the end of suffering, E ice (Ошу)
g7. Which in the beginning is like poison, But in maturity like nectar, That is called the happiness of goodness, Sprung from serenity of soul and of intellect.
38. (Springing) from union of the senses and their objects, That which in the beginning is like nectar, In maturity like poison, That happiness is recorded as of passion.
39. Which both in the beginning and in its consequence Is a happiness that deludes the self, Arising from sleep, sloth, and heedlessness, That is declared to be of darkness.
40. There is no thing, whether on earth, Or yet in heaven, among the gods, No being which free from the material-nature-born Strands, these three, might be.
41. Of brahmans, warriors, and artisans, And of serís, scorcher of the foe, The actions are distinguished
According to the Strands that spring from their innate nature.
42. Calm, (self-)control, austerities, purity, Patience, and uprightness, Theoretical and practical knowledge, and religious faith, Are the natural-born actions of brahmans.
43. Heroism, majesty, firmness, skill, And not fleeing in battle also, Generosity, and lordly nature, Are the natural-born actions of warriors.
44. Agriculture, cattle-tending, and commerce Are the natural-born actions of artisans; Action that consists of service Ts likewise natural-born to a serf.
87
юын лл CC
88
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
Bhagavad Gità
Taking delight in his own special kind of action, A man attains perfection; ў
Delighting in one's own special action, success How one reaches, that hear!
Whence comes the activity? of beings, By whom this all is pervaded, — 5
Him worshiping by (doing) one's own appropriate action, A man attains perfection.
Better one’s own duty, (even) imperfect, Than another’s duty well performed.
Action pertaining to his own estate Performing, he incurs no guilt.
Natural-born action, son of Kunti,
Even tho it be faulty, one should not abandon. For all undertakings by faults
Are dimmed, as fire by smoke.
His mentality unattached to any object, Self-conquered, free from longings,
To the supreme perfection of actionlessness He comes thru renunciation.
Having attained perfection, how to Brahman He also attains, hear from Me, In only brief compass, son of Kunti; Which is the highest culmination of knowledge.
With purified mentality disciplined, And restraining himself with firmness,
Abandoning the objects of sense, sounds and the rest, And putting away desire and loathing,
Cultivating solitude, eating lightly, Restraining speech, body, and mind, Devoted to the discipline of meditation constantly, Taking refuge in dispassion, From egotism, force, pride, Desire, wrath, and Possession Freed, unselfish, calmed, He is fit for becoming Brahman,
[хуш
xvur.54] Bhagavad Gita 89 | 54. Having become Brahman, serene-souled, !
He neither grieves nor longs; | Alike to all beings, He attains supreme devotion to Me.
. Thru devotion he comes to know Me, What My measure is, and who I am, in very truth; Then, knowing Me in very truth, i He enters into (Me) straightway.
wn өл
56. Even tho all actions ever He performs, relying on Me, By My grace he reaches The eternal, undying station. |
57. With thy thoughts all actions Casting upon Ме, devoted to Me, Turning to discipline of mentality, | Keep thy mind ever fixed on Me. |
58. If thy mind is on Ме, all difficulties | Shalt thou cross over by My grace; |
But if thru egotism thou | Wilt not heed, thou shalt perish. |
59. If clinging to egotism Thou thinkest ‘I will not fight!,’ | Vain is this thy resolve; (Thine own) material nature will coerce thee. |
6o. Son of Kunti, by thine own natural Action held fast, What thru delusion thou seekest not to do, That thou shalt do even against thy will.
61. Of all beings, the Lord In the heart abides, Arjuna, Causing all beings to turn around (As if) fixed in a machine,’ by his magic power.
62. To Him alone go for refuge With thy whole being, son of Bharata; |
By His grace, supreme peace 4 And the eternal station shalt thou attain.
90
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
Bhagavad Gita
Thus to thee has been expounded the knowledge That is more secret than the secret, by Me; After pondering on it fully, Act as thou thinkest best.
Further, the highest secret of all, My supreme message, hear. Because thou art greatly loved of Me, Therefore I shall tell thee what is good for thee.
Be Me-minded, devoted to Me; Worshiping Me, revere Me; And to Me alone shalt thou go; truly to thee I promise it — (because) thou art dear to Me.
Abandoning all (other) duties, Go to Me as thy sole refuge; From all evils I thee Shall rescue: be not grieved!
This on thy part to no one not endowed with austerity, Nor ever to one not devoted, ы, Nor to one not obedient, must be told, Nor to one who murmurs against Me.
Whoso this supreme secret
Shall make known to My devotees, Showing utmost devotion to Me,
Shall go just to Me, without a doubt.
And not than he among men
Is there any who does things more pleasing to Me; Nor shall there be than he to Me
Any other dearer on earth.
And whoso shall study this Colloquy on duty between us two,
By him with knowledge-worship I Would be worshiped: so I hold.
With faith, and not murmurin, t man even hears it, He too shall be released, and the fair worlds Of men of virtuous deeds shall he attain.
g against it,
[хуш
хуш.72 ] Bhagavad Gita
72-
73:
74.
75°
76.
TT-
78.
Here ends the Eighteenth Chapter, called Discipline of Renunciation
Has this been heard, son of Prtha,
By thee with concentrated thought? Has the confusion of ignorance
In thee been destroyed, Dhanamjaya?
Arjuna said:
Destroyed the confusion; attention (to the truth) is won By Thy grace, on my part, O Changeless One; ; I stand firm, with doubts dispersed; I shall do Thy word.
Samjaya said: Thus I of Vasudeva And the exalted son of Prtha This colloquy have heard, Marvelous and thrilling.
By the grace of Vyasa have I heard This supreme secret,
This discipline, from Krsna the Lord of Discipline, Speaking it Himself in very person.
O king, as I recall again and again This marvelous colloquy,
And holy, of Keśava and Arjuna, I thrill with joy at every moment.
And as I recall again and again that
Most wondrous form of Hari, Great is my amazement, O king,
And I thrill with joy again and again. Where is Krsna the Lord of Discipline,
And where is the Bowman, the son of Prtha,
There fortune, victory, prosperity, And statecraft are firmly fixed, I ween.
unto Salvation.
THE END OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA.
92
NOTES TO THE TRANSLATION
$ denotes the Sanskrit commentary of Samkara; R, that of Катапија,
Notes on Chapter I (pp. 3-8)
1. (Verse 10) Bhisma was the commander of the Kuru army. Bhima, the third of the sons of Pandu, was not the actual leader of their army; he is here Opposed to Bhisma for the sake of the word-play on the two names.
2: (Colophon) The titles given to each of the eighteen chapters in the final colophons are late additions, not parts of the original text. Many of them vary in the MSS. and printed texts, but it is hardly worth while to record these variations,
Notes on Chapter II (pp. 9-17)
1. (Vs 5) Le., without waiting for such a punshiment in a future life. Inter- ference with a guru's desires is a heinous sin. This verse has caused much un- necessary discussion; see JA OS. 52. 71 f.
2. (Vs 11) The meaning is that Arjuna shows ignorant presumption in daring to discuss learned topics while showing himself so uninformed as to mourn the dead. So essentially R. See 7405. 52. 70 f.; and cf. prajiavadikah, “talking as (pretending to be) wise," Mbh. ii. 2288 (Critical edition ii. 61. 38).
3. (Vs 14) So Garbe and Deussen; cf. Brhad Aranyaka Upanisad 4. 3. 10. 5, ‘senses,’ or (alternatively) ‘objects of sense’; R the latter ; both supported only by
fantastic etymologies. Hill follows the second, Telang and Barnett the first, of S's guesses.
may 15) So $, Telang, Garbe, Deussen, Barnett; or, ‘steadfast’ (R, Senart. ill).
5. (Vs 20) So, essentially, R, Telang, Barnett. The text reads: nà' yam bhütvá bhavita và na bhiiyah. The second na is to be taken closely with bhavita (together, ‘will come not to be’) which compound expression is negated by the first za, as in ys 12 па... пахат. Otherwise, but implausibly, (who understands abhavitd), and other moderns. The objection commonly raised to R’s interpretation is that the soul should not be spoken of as having ‘come to be,’ since it has existed from everlasting. But this is a slight and superficial inconsistency, really only verbal in character; much more serious ones are very common in the (ха.
6. (Vs 39) Samkhya: see pp. 165 ff.
7. (Vs 42) Or, ‘in talk about the Vedas’?
8. (Vs 43) So $, Telang,
G : ible alternative would be ‘ean arbe, Deussen, Barnett, Senart, Hill. A possi
and the fruit of actions.’
Notes to the Translation 93
9. (Vs 45) бапта: both 5 and К, followed by Barnett, take it to mean the ‘Strand’ (guna) of that name. This may be right, though seemingly inconsistent with the context. But sattva may also mean ‘truth, reality’ (so Deussen. Hill (ty? or ‘courage’ (so Telang, Garb HU) purity, Or E ang, Garbe).
10. (Vs 59) Fisayà vinivartante / пігаһағаѕуа dehinah / rasavarjam raso ’p asya / param drstvà nivartate: the fasting man, until he ‘sees the highest,’ Er. help feeling longing for food, i.e., for ‘flavor,’ the object of the sense of (cH though he feels no longing for the objects of the other senses. After a sufficiently long fast (interpreted as a sign that he ‘sees the highest’), a man ceases even to feel hungry Hindu commentators and modern interpreters have a different AE, abandoning the simple and familiar meaning of the word rasa (which can hardly mean anything but ‘flavor’ in the above sense, coming immediately after visayah and clearly meant as one of the ‘objects of sense’), for a more forced one. n
11. (Vs 66) Bhavana: here, ‘effective religious impulse’; the word bhavana means ‘bringing to be, tendency to produce something (here, religious effort). It is a technical word of the Mimāmsā system. See Edgerton, The Mimdnsa Муауа Prakasa, Glossarial Index s.v., and p. 5 ff.
12. (Vs 70) Or, ‘stability.’
13. (Vs 72) Le. fixation in or of Brahman, or resulting in the attainment of Brahman. 5, brahmani bhava; R, brahmaprapika.
14. (Vs 72) Le., nirvana in, or that is, Brahman; R, nirvdnamayam brahma.
Notes on Chapter ПІ (pp. 18-22)
1. (Vs 2) Vyamisrene та. R reads vyamisrenai ‘va, ‘that are quite con-
fused.’ Cf. JA OS. 52. 73. 2. (Vs 3) Samkhya: see ii. 39 and note.
3. (Vs 15) In xiv. 3, 4 Brahman clearly equals Prakrti (cf. p. 154) ; and here also, in the first two occurrences at least, it is probably felt vaguely in some such way (cf. the notes of Garbe and Hill). But the whole progression of terms in vss 14: 15 cannot be forced into a really logical sequence; however the words be interpreted, the conclusion does not follow from the premises. ‘Worship’ is not the starting-point of the series but an intermediate term.
4. (Vs 16) Aghàyur: taken by §, R, and some moderns as a compound of agha and ayus, ‘of evil life.’ It seems to occur only here in classical Sanskrit; but it 15 probably to be understood as the Vedic aghaya. not a compound but from a denom- inative verb stem based on agha.
5. (Vs 30) Samnyasya: see note on v. IO, below.
6. (Vs 38) So R, Barnett, Deussen, Senart, Hill (also Schlegel and Boeht- lingk) ; according to §. Telang, Garbe, ‘this [knowledge].
SCIT oe
94. Notes to the Translation
7. (Vs 41) Jiidna and vijñāna: see Edgerton in Festschrift M. Winter (Leipzig, 1933), pp. 217-220. х
Notes on Chapter IV (pp. 23-27) 1. (Vs 25) Ritualists.
2. (Vs 25) Philosophical mystics; the following is a cryptically figurative Way of saying that they abandon ritual action and devote their thoughts to the Brah- man alone.
3. (Vs 26) Ascetics who seek to annihilate all the senses.
4. (Vs 26) Men of ‘discipline’ or disinterested activity, who allow the senses to act on the objects of sense but without attachment to the latter.
5. (Vs 27) Followers of the 'Samk&hya' way of knowledge with complete re- nunciation of action.
6. (Vs 29) "Those who pursue the method of breath-exercises, as in the (later) Yoga.
7- (Vs 30) Those who (like many Jains) seek salvation by suicide, through slow starvation.
8. (Vs 32) Or, ‘performed, carried out.’
9. (Vs 32) Or, ‘mouth’; so Garbe and Senart, who understand ‘are offered to Brahman’; it may, however, mean only ‘are performed before Brahman.’ This, to be sure, perhaps comes to the same thing, but is less definite, and perhaps pur- posely so. Some moderns follow б in understanding the Veda as meant, which to me is most implausible. Another possibility is that brahmano mukhe means ‘in the fire (of sacrifice), as that by which the gods eat the offerings.
Notes on Chapter V (pp. 28-31) I. (Vs 4) For sámkhya (reason-method) see ii. 39 and note.
2. (Vs 10) Brahmany adhàya karmani: ādhāya here must mean the same 45 samnyasya iii. 30, xii. 6, and xviii. 57. $ and some moderns understand ‘doing all as acts of devotion to Brahman’ (or ‘to Me, iii. 30 and xviii. 57). Others, essen- tially with R, ‘realizing that it is Brahman (or God) that does all acts and that the individual is not the doer.’ If the latter is right, as I think likely though not certain, it is not necessary to take Brahman here as equal to Prakrti, with R and mn oust this is in itself quite possible, cf. note on iii. 15). Since Brahman or ee all E must really be done by Him; and this despite the fact that else- Cf. p. DN Eten and clearly enough that all actions are done by Prakrti-
3. (Vs 10) The same fi
ED (ed: Rahdes and gure in Buddhistic Sanskrit, Dasabhümika Sütra V,
Susa, 1931). Itisa very effective image to one whe
Notes to the Translation 95
has seen lotus-covered Indian ponds. Drops of water stand away from the leaves as if from an oiled surface. a
4. (Vs 27) Nasábhyantaracárinau: i.e, as the breath collectively passe Though ?ráma properly means the breath above the diaphragm and ET dic breath below it, they are frequently used together to denote the vital breath Е a whole; and even more commonly фғйпа alone is so used. The common render ings ‘expiration’ and ‘inspiration,’ for фгйпй and apána, or vice versa, are ground- less; significantly, those who hold to them have never been able to agree as to which was which. See С. W. Brown, 740$. 39. 104-112.
Notes on Chapter VI (pp. 32-37)
т. (Vs 8) Jidnavijiidna: see note on iii. 41.
2. (Vs 8) The precise interpretation of kütastha is not entirely clear, and the commentators had no consistent and reliable tradition (cf. note on xii. а) ® glosses the word by aprakampya (‘unshaking, unwavering’). In Pali we find the same word as kittattha, and certainly it means something like ‘not subject to change’; perhaps literally ‘abiding on a mountaintop,’ as if ‘above the battle,’ not subject to external influences. So apparently Barnett (‘set on high’).
3. (Vs 13) That is, ‘straight, stiff.’
4. (Vs 26) So S, R; most moderns, ‘to whatever object,’ despite the ablative form (yato-yato, which might perhaps be due to attraction to the correlative, tatas tato). Yet the grammatically stricter interpretation of 5, К seems possible, at least.
5. (Vs 28) This is generally taken as an epithet of ‘bliss’: ‘to endless bliss which involves contact with Brahman.’ This is possible, but not necessary.
6. (Vs 29) Atmanam: Himself. So Garbe and Deussen with both 5 and R, svütman or svam àtmánam. Surely not ‘Self’ abstractly (Barnett, Hill) or “аптап” (Senart).
7. (Vs 32) Le., who sees that pleasure and pain to others are the same as to himself.
8. (Vs 33) Samya: ‘sameness,’ ‘non-difference,’ and also ‘indifference,’ ‘treat- ing as alike.’
ш € о 9. (Vs 39) Etan те samsayam krsna: reading etan; R, etam, this my doubt.
Notes on Chapter VII (pb. 38-41) 1. (Vs 2) /йапат te "ham savijhanam: see note on ili. 41.
2. (Vs 6) Both $ and R, followed by Telang, Garbe, Deussen. Barnett, and Hill, take this to refer to both the ‘natures’ of vss 4 and s. This is verbally pos-
96 Notes to the Translation
sible, and certainly better than Senart's interpretation, which refers it to the ‘lower’ nature alone. If to either, the pronoun must refer rather to the last men- tioned (‘higher’) nature; so I understand it. This may be philosophically less rea- sonable; but the Gita is not a metaphysical treatise. As the following verses show the author is thinking primarily of God’s supreme essence. 2
3. (Vs 16) Or, ‘wealth,’ with §, Telang, Garbe, Deussen, Barnett, Senart, Hill. But R aisvarya. With this verse cf. Mbh. 12. 342. 33 ff., which also men- tions four classes of devotees (bhakta), the highest of which consists of those who are exclusive worshipers (ekdntinah . . . ananyadevatah). The other three are unfortunately not named, but are all stigmatized as phalakdma.,
4. (Vs 22) Construe with R and Garbe (sec the latter's note).
5. (Vs 24) ‘Fools’ take the external manifestation of Krsna to be all there is to Krsna. Whether they think him a man or a ‘god,’ they are equally in error; the author does not distinguish between these two possible errors.
6. (Vs 29) On the terms used in this and the next verse see vss 3 and 4 in the next chapter, with notes. Notes on Chapter VIII (pp. 42-45)
1. (Vs 3) Here the individual soul as distinguished from the universal soul and from matter.
2. (Vs 3) ‘Karma,’ man’s own action, which causes him to be reborn in this or that condition in future births.
3. (Vs 4) Virtually prakrti, ‘material nature.’
4. (Vs 4) All the terms used here are somewhat loose and vague ; the language is grandiloquent.
215; (Vs 4) Visnu is identified with уајла, ‘sacrifice, worship,’ in a standard way in the Brahmanas. See Garbe’s note.
6. (Vs 21) Or, ‘light’; R mentions this as an alternative.
7. (Vs 23) On this and the following verses, in which an Upanisad notion (BrhU. 6. 2. 15 f., ChU. s. 10. 1 ff.) is misinterpreted or reinterpreted by the
Gita, see Edgerton, ‘The Hour of Death,’ Annals Bhandarkar Institute, 8. 219- 249, especially 245 ff.
Notes on Chapter 1X (pp. 46-40)
1. (Vs 1) Jiidnam vijiianasahitam :
2. (Vs 26) Or perhaps, ‘from him that has given himself.’
3. (Vs 28) Samnyasayoga: cept. This is quite possible,
See note on iii, 41.
$ and R take the compound word as a unitary con- and in my opinion probable, in spite of v. 1 ff., which
Notes to the Translation 97
distinguish samnydsa and yoga (for which reason most moderns understand he ‘iq renunciation and [or] discipline [of action]’). ‘Renunciation’ is also a yo Ж ‘discipline,’ in а more general sense; cf. iii. 3. The yoga of v. 1 is short for fe specific karmayoga of iii. 3 etc., which is used in the following verse v. 2.
Notes on Chapter X (pp. 50-54)
1. (Vs 6) With Garbe I take this to imply that the human race is founded by a Manu at the beginning of each of the four world-ages (yuga). The theory of 7, Or 14, Manus is rather late and cannot be proved to have existed as early as the Gita; but even if it did, the thought of the four world-ages easily suggests four Manus also. Rigid consistency is not to be expected here.
2. (Vs 6) So rightly Senart; bhava, ‘coming to be, origination,’ as in ii. 16.
BENS 7) Vibhüti: R, vibhittir aifvaryam 2... madáyattopattisthitipravrt- tirüpam vibhütim. 5, vistaram; Anandagiri on 5 here, vividha bhütir bhavanam vaibhavam sarvatmakatvam. Both meanings, ‘lordship, power’ (cf. Kathasarit- sigara 17. 138, prabhiinam hi vibhütyandhà . . . matih, ‘the mind of the lords, blinded by power’ or ‘greatness’), and ‘varied manifestation’, are contained in the word. I have tried to suggest both by the term ‘supernal manifestation.’ Deussen, Machtentfaltung, which is very apt. The word occurs repeatedly in this chapter (vss 7, 16, 18, 19, 40, 41) and is chosen as the title of the chapter in the colo- phon.
4. (Vs 8) So R. 5. (Vs 12) Or, ‘light’; so §, R.
6. (Vs 12) Or, 'unborn and supernally-manifested’ (vibhu, related to vibhitti, see note on vs 7); so б and most moderns; К ignores the word. The commonest meaning of vibhu, however, is simply ‘lord’; for this reason I have so rendered it.
7. (Vs 13) Probably Asita Devala is one person, rather than two; the epic knows such a personage.
8. (Vs 19) Or, 'divine, supernatural. For this line R reads vibhiitir átmanah fubháh, ‘my fair supernal-manifestations.’
9. (Vs 29) Samyamatàm, with etymological word-play on Yama (whose name
is originally not connected with this root, but came to be felt as connected ).
10. (Vs 30) § ‘reckoners.’ The root kal- is used with intent to play an Kala, ‘time.’ The correct interpretation is given by P. E. Dumont in his nels x svara- gità 7. 16 (see his edition of that work, Baltimore, 1933), where this line is те Peated.
11. (Vs 30) 5 ‘lion or tiger’; R ignores the word; Vehkatanatha, a subcom-
mentator on R, says ‘lion.’
98 Notes to the Translation
12. (Vs 32) Of them that speak: pravadatam can only be Personal, and j therefore not partitive genitive but possessive. R and (alternatively) $, followed by many moderns, would make it refer to various kinds of argument (as apartitive genitive), which seems to me a grammatical impossibility.
13. (Vs 34) All these words are grammatically feminine in Sanskrit.
14. (Vs 36) Sattvam sattvavatàm aham: sattva has many meanings, among them ‘courage.’ But sattvavan! is regularly used only in the sense of ‘courageeous,’ "This interpretation accords with the rest of the verse, which clearly deals with warlike and royal matters, which to the Hindus are identical (the warrior caste, ksatriya, is the same as the royal caste, rajanya). Even gambling belongs specif-
ically to this social group. I think that R meant ‘courage’ by his gloss, mahg- -
manastvam; and $ may well have had the same idea (all he says is sattvavatüm sáttvikanám). The subcommentaries of Venkatanatha and Anandagiri, wrongly as I think, understand ‘goodness of the good’; and so most moderns.
15. (Vs 41) Or, 'lordliness, power’ ; see note on vs 7.
Notes on Chapter XI (pp. 55-61) 1. (Vs 18) So 5, R, and most moderns. Less likely, “treasure-store.’ 2. (Vs 19) Or, ‘mouth.’
3. (Vs 21) So, literally, $, Telang. Deussen, Senart; R, followed by Garbe, Barnett, Hill, ‘draw near unto Thee.’
4. (Vs 26) The word ‘enter’ is in the author’s mind; when, in the next verse, he comes to use it, he makes the goal more specific: ‘thy mouths.’
5. (Vs 29) Or, ‘people’; so most commentators and interpreters, here and in vss 30, 32.
6. (Vs 37) So taken by most moderns; § and R, followed by Barnett, translate this phrase as ‘first creator even of Brahman (masculine).
7. (Vs 38) Less likely, ‘treasure-store.’
8. (Vs 40) Anantaviryamitavikramas таң: anatavirya seems to me better
taken with R as à separate vocative; most interpreters follow б in taking it as a part of the following compound.
Notes on Chapter XII (pp. 62-64)
ge (Vs 3) Immovable (kittastha) : see note on vi. 8. Here $ (departing from his previous explanation) understands abiding in trick illusion of which God is the ‘overseer.’ the absurdity and inconsistency
ery,’ i.e., in тауа, the world- This is worth quoting as an instance of of which even the greatest commentators are
Notes to the Translation
99 sometimes guilty. He adds, to be sure, an alternative interpretation, which is substantially that adopted here. *
2. (Vs 4) Either ‘to all experiences,’ indifferent to the results, as in ii. 48 etc. (so $, Deussen, Senart), or ‘to all beings,’ as in vi. 9 etc. (so, essentially, R and Garbe) ; or—very likely—both may be more or less implied.
3. (Vs 20) Cf. x. 18. According to 5. followed by Telang, Garbe, Barnett Hill, ‘(means of attaining) immortality.’ ,
Notes on Chapter XIII (pp. 65-68)
1. (Vs 4) So §, R. It is implausible to suppose with Garbe that the Upani- sads would be called chandas.
<
2. (Vs 4) So S, who quotes from BrhU. 1. 4. 7 as an example. R refers the word to Badarayana’s Vendanta Sütras, and is followed by Garbe, Barnett, and others. I consider it very improbable that this work existed in the time of the Gita. And if chandas means the Vedic hymns, the Upanisads would not other- wise be mentioned in this verse. See JA O8. 52. 74.
3. (Vs 6) I.e., of senses with sense-objects? See Hill's note, which I endorse. The usual rendering is something like ‘aggregation (of corporeal elements),’ which is out of place here in a list of qualities, not physical elements. R has a dif- ferent but very forced interpretation.
4. (Vs 11) Viz. salvation (8).
5. (Vs 12) 4nádi matparam brahma: so R (апай! matparam) ; $ divides anadimat param, ‘the beginningless supreme Brahman,’ and modern translators generally follow him. The introduction of ‘Me’ as the basis of the impersonal Brahman naturally offends those who seek systematic consistency in the Gita; but xiv. 27 proves that matparam is quite possible. Yet the rival interpretation is also possible.
6. (Vs 13) Or, ‘mouths.’
7. (Ws 13) Or perhaps, ‘ears’; so Telang, Garbe, Senart; but 5, К, Deussen, Barnett, Hill, ‘faculty of hearing,’ which is more in accord with general usage.
8. (Vs 14) So < Barnett, Hill; otherwise R, Telang, Garbe, Deussen, Senart.
9. (Vs 17) Jyotisam api taj jyotis. According to $, R, and most moderns this means that it is the illuminating power of all lights (sun, etc). This is possible, but jyotism may also, and in my opinion more probably, be partitive; cf. Chapter X, passim.) ‘Among lights it is that light which is beyond darkness.
10. (Vs 17) So Ś, Telang, Garbe, Deussen, Barnett. ‘The goal of [и (salvation) is distinguished from the 'object of knowledge! (here, the thing known).
I00 Notes to the Translation
11. (Vs 17) Dhistitam: the v. 1. visthitam, ‘fixed variously,’ is read. fo, dhisthitam by both б and R; nevertheless it is probably a lectio facilior (as such it is a common substitute for dhisthita- in the epic).
12. (Vs 18) So $; R, ‘is fitted for."
13. (Vs 20) Karyakaranakartrtve: $, R explain 44ғуа as ‘elemental body.’ which is an ‘effect’ in the later Samkhya sense, and karana (R kdrana) as the senses with manas (and ahamkára and buddhi, 5), which are ‘causes’ or ‘factors! (productive elements) in that same sense. These both are construed as depending on kartrtve, ‘in the production of effects and causes,’ i.e., of gross body and senses, Approximately so most moderns (Telang, Garbe, Senart, Hill, and apparently Barnett). I find this very forced and artificial. The only natural interpretation is to take karya-karanakartr as a three-member dvandva, made into an abstract by adding the suffix -/va. The three nouns derived from the root £r, ‘act,’ are meant to include all phases of action (cf. xviii. 18 for a very close parallel, where karman replaces karya): karya, ‘thing to be done’; karana, ‘means of doing it’; kartr, ‘doer, agent’ ; the addition of -tva makes the whole compound mean approximately ‘effectuation, instrumentality, and agency.’ Prakrti alone is at the bottom of all that concerns all of these, that is, all phases of action. So in xviii. 18 karana, karman, and kartr constitute the threefold “complete summary’ of action. Deus- sen comes very close to this, but wrongly takes -tva only with £artr.
I4. (Vs 23) Telang and Garbe understand this to mean ‘whatever his moral conduct may be’; which introduces an idea not suggested in the Sanskrit. Rather, with R, whatever stage of transmigration he may be in.
15. (Vs 24) ‘Samkhya: see ii. 39. note.
16. (Vs 25) Devoted to the holy revelation (Srutipardyandh) : so Deussen. Sruti usually suggests this; possibly, however, it may mean only ‘to what they hear’; so most interpreters.
17. (Vs 28) Since the same Lord (= soul, cf. v. 15) is in all beings, the self of others is one’s own self, and if he injures others, he injures himself. That this is the meaning seems obvious to me; but for some reason, it has escaped all commen-
tators and modern interpreters examined by me except Deussen (and possibly Barnett, whose rendering is obscure to me).
Notes on Chapter XIV (pp. 69-72)
L (Vs 20) "That spring from the body (dehasamudbhavan) : so Hill; and R dehakaraparinataprakrtisamudbhavan. §, followed by Telang, Garbe, Deussen, Barnett. Senart, ‘from which the body arises.’ |
2. (Vs 22) As both $ and R the three ‘Strands’ of nature,
3- (Vs 24) So $ R, and fast’ (so Deussen, Senart).
5 Point out, these are the essential characteristics of goodness, passion, and darkness’ respectively. Most moderns; but it may equally well mean ‘stead-
Notes to the Translation IOI
Notes on Chapter XV (pp. 73-75)
1. (Vs 1) Not (as has often been wrongly suggested) the banyan, which drops runners from its branches to form new roots. As Hill points out this is not ee of the peepal. Hill ingeniously tries to show that the metaphor nevertheless fits the peepal. I think it is unnecessary to do this; the author may well have meant his statement as a deliberate paradox, not intending to suggest that the actual tree has 'roots aloft and branches below.' "The choice of the peepal, rather than any other tree, to symbolize material existence, was then dictated not by its specific nature, but by the fact that it is a well known and venerated tree. That the author himself erroneously confused the banyan and the peepal trees, as sug- gested by Deussen, seems absurd ; both trees are too familiar in Indian life. The figure is taken from Katha Up. 6. 1, where in the next verse it is described as ‘a great terror, an uplifted thunderbolt’ (appropriate terms for the samsára). That it means also the ‘soul’ (v. Schroeder, Festschrift E. Kuhn, 59 ff.) seems gro- tesquely impossible.
2. (Vs 6) Or, ‘light’ (so R).
3. (Vs 8) Isvara: here ‘individual soul.’ Not ‘lord of the senses’ (R), nor ‘lord of the body and other material elements’ (S).
4. (Vs 9) Or, ‘resorting to,’ cf. iv. 6; more literally, ‘presiding over’ or ‘taking his stand upon."
5. (Vs 16) Kittastha: see note on vi. 8. хі. 3.
Notes on Chapter XVI (pp .76-78)
1. (Vs 2) Or, ‘liberality.’ $, ‘renunciation, because generosity has been men- tioned (in vs 1)’; most interpreters follow him. But his reason is not conclusive; г A S d y? such lists often contain duplications. And R says ‘liberality.
2. (Vs 7) Le., what should or should not be done; cf. xviii. 30. So Telang, Deussen. The expressions are very general; $, R, and most moderns are too specific.
3. (Vs 17) So $; R, ‘of the arrogance of wealth and pride,’ which is implausi- ble (cf. vs 10).
- "AUT no p Q e
+. (Vs 19) Samsäreşu narüdhamàan / жату: Garbe апа PAS iu
samsáresu closely with narádhaman : *the lowest men in the round of existences. This misses the point; samsdresu clearly goes with £sipani.
102 Notes to the Translation
Notes on Chapter XVII (pp. 79-82)
1. (Vs 5) So Garbe, Deussen, Senart (and Telang, but with ‘stubbornness’ m ‘violence’) ; $, Barnett, Hill, ‘with the power of desire and passion’; R does not explain the word.
2. (Vs 23) R says brahman here means the Veda. In a sense he is right; but this hardly tells the whole story. The Veda is conceived as the mystic verbal expression of the Absolute, the one universal power. Hill's summary, p. 93, is excellent. Verse 24 refers to ritualists, 25 to followers of the ‘way of knowledge,’ 26 and 27 to followers of ‘practical’ methods. От is the ritualistic sacred sylla- ble; tat suggests the mystic, magic monism of the Upanisads (tat tvam asi, etc.) ; sat is sufficiently explained in vs 26.
Notes on Chapter XVIII (pp. 83-91) I. (Vs 13) Samkhya: see ii. 39 and note.
2. (Vs 14) Much needless trouble has been caused by this verse, owing to attempts to make it too philosophical, and particularly to make it fit the theories of the later so-called Sàmkhya system. It is a quite simple and naive attempt to suggest the factors which are involved in carrying out any action whatever; it is fundamentally wrong to try to identify each ‘factor’ with bodily parts or ‘Sām- khya’ tattvas. Each of the five words is to be taken in the simplest possible sense, and no comment is really needed—except that all existing comments are worth- less and misleading.
3. (Vs 18) Cf. xiii. 20, where the three elements are £árya, karana, and Кагіт. Here karya is (rather poorly) replaced by karman.
4. (Vs 19) Not ‘the Samkhya system’ (S, Telang, Garbe). 5. (Vs 22) Or, ‘with true reason.’
6. (Vs 37) So Deussen; or, ‘of one’s own intelligence’ (so 5, first rendering,
and Barnett, Hill). R, and alternatively $, followed by Telang, Garbe, Senart. ‘from clarity of knowledge of the self.’
7. (Vs 46) Or, ‘origin.’ 8. (Vs 57) See note on v. 10.
9. (Vs 61) As puppets in a puppet-play, according to §’s plausible suggestion.
INTERPRETATION OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA
FIRST PART
PRELIMINARY CHAPTERS
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY
To most good Vishnuites, and indeed to most Hindus, the Bhagavad Gita is what the New Testament is to good Christians. It is their chief devotional book. In it many millions of Indians have for centuries found their principal source of religious inspiration.
In form, it consists mainly of a long dialog, which is almost a monolog. The principal speaker is Krsna, who in his human aspect is merely one of the secondary heroes of the Mahabharata, the great Hindu epic. But, ac- cording to the Gita itself, he is in truth a manifestation of the Supreme Deity in human form. Hence the name — the Song (gi/a) of the Blessed One or the Lord (Bhagavad). The other speaker in the dialog is Arjuna, one of the five sons of Pandu who are the principal heroes of the Mahabharata. The conversation between Arjuna and Krsna is supposed to take place just be- fore the battle which is the main theme of the great epic. Krsna is acting as Arjuna’s charioteer. Arjuna sees in the ranks of the opposing army a large number of his own kinsmen and intimate friends. He is horror-stricken at the thought of fighting against them, and forthwith lays down his weapons, saying he would rather be killed than kill them. Kysna replies, justifying the fight on various grounds, the chief of which is that man’s real self or soul is immortal and independent of the body; it “neither kills nor is killed”; it has no part in either the actions or the sufferings of the body. In response to further questions by Arjuna, he gradually develops views of life and destiny as a whole, which it is the purpose of this book to explain. In the course of the exposition he declares himself to be the Supreme Godhead, and reveals to Arjuna, as a special act of grace, a vision of his mystic supernal form. All this apparently goes on while the two armies stand drawn up in battle array, waiting to attack each other. This dramatic absurdity need not concern us seriously. It is likely that the Bhagavad Gita was not a part of the original epic narrative. Possibly it was composed, or inserted in its present position, by a later interpolator. To be sure, he must have had in
1 More fully and exactly, the title of the work is “the mystic doctrines (upanisad) sung (or proclaimed) by the Blessed One.”
2 Such interpolations are numerous in the Mahābhārata; so numerous that we may fairly regard them as a regular habit. The great epic early attained such prestige among the Hindus that later authors were eager to win immortality for their works by d them in so distinguished a setting. If the author of the Bhagavad биа used an older mor to frame his own, he merely followed a custom which was not only common, but seeme
106 The Bhagavad Gita
mind the dramatic situation in which he has placed the Gita, for he т peatedly makes reference to it. But these references are purely forma] © external; they do not concern the essentials of the work. We must think of the Gità primarily as a unit, complete in itself, without reference to its surroundings. Its autbor, or whoever placed it in its present position, Was interested chiefly in the religious doctrines to be set forth, not in externa] dramatic forms.
This is not to say that the author was lacking in artistic power. He was on the contrary, a poet of no mean capacity. Indeed, we must think of Iiis work as a poem: a religious, devotional poem. Its appeal is to the emotions rather than to the intellect. It follows that in order to understand the Gita one must have a certain capacity for understanding its poetic, emotional point of view. One must be able and willing to adopt the poet's attitude: to feel with him. I say, to feel with him: not necessarily to think with him. Tt is possible to understand and enjoy sympathetically a poetic expression of an emotional attitude without sharing the poet's intellectual opinions. Phil- osophically speaking, the attitude of the Gita is mystical. A mystic would probably prefer to say that it appeals to the mystic intuition, rather than to the emotions, as I put it. That is a question of terms, or perhaps better of philosophic outlook. My mystic critic would at any rate agree that it does not appeal to the reasoning faculty of mankind. The “opinions” which it presupposes or sets forth are not so much “opinions” in the intellectual sense as emotional — or, let us say if you like, intuitional — points of view. They are not supported by logic; they are simply proclaimed, as immediately perceived by the soul, or revealed by the grace of God. It is not my purpose to discuss their validity. That would indeed be futile. To the mystic they are above reason, to the rationalist below it; to both they are disconnected with it. Either you accept them immediately, without argument, or you do not. Argument will not move you in either case. But even a convinced rationalist, if he, has some power of poetic appreciation, can follow much of the Gita’s presentation with sympathy, the sort of sympathy which would be inspired in him by any exalted poetry.
The poetic inspiration found in many of the Gità's lines? can hardly be fully appreciated unless they are presented in a poetic form. We are fortunate in having a beautiful English rendering by Sir Edwin Arnold, from which those who cannot read Sanskrit may get, on the whole, a 500 idea of the living spirit of the poem. It takes a poet to reproduce poetry. Arnold was a poet, and a very gifted one. I am very glad to be able to 1€
to the Hindu mind entirely natural and innocent. The Hindus of ancient times had little
notion of what we consider the righ i ir mi i s 10) ghts of authorship. Т literary com position belonged to the world, not to its author. EU mese
3 2B Not all of them; it must be confessed that the Gita is sometimes commonplace.
Introductory 107
produce his rendering in this volume. My own function is that of an analy- tic commentator; a more humble function, but one which has its ed particularly in the case of a work that was produced in a place and at a tis so remote from us.
This remoteness in time and scene makes exception: i of the critic's duties: that of making clear the historical mp een As every author, even the most inspired of poets and prophets, is a. product of his environment, so we cannot understand the Bhagavad Gita without knowing something of doctrines which flourished in its native land, during and before its time. It was composed in India, in Sanskrit, therancend sacred and literary language of Brahmanic civilization. We do not know its author’s name (indeed, almost all the early literature of India is anonymous). Nor can we date it with any accuracy; all that we can say is that it was probably composed before the beginning of our era, but not more than a few centuries before it. We do know this: it was preceded by a long literary and intellectual activity, covering perhaps a thousand years or even more, and reaching back to the hymns of the Rig Veda itself, the oldest monu- ment of Hindu literature. And the Gita’s sayings are rooted in those of this older literature. It was born out of the same intellectual environment. It quotes from older works several stanzas and parts of stanzas. There are few important expressions found in the Gita which cannot be paralleled from more ancient works. Its originality consists mainly in a difference of emphasis, in a fuller development of some inherited themes, and in some significant omissions of themes which were found in its predecessors.
It is equally true, tho less important for our purposes, that the Bhagavad Gita itself has had an enormous influence on later Hindu religious literature. It has even had some influence on European and American literature of the last century, during which it became known to the western world. To men- tion one instance: a verse found in the Gita was imitated by Emerson in the first verse of his poem on “Brahma”:
If the red slayer think he slays,
- Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways I keep, and pass, and turn again.
Compare Bhagavad Gita ii. 19:
Who believes him a slayer, ! And who thinks him slain, Both these understand not: He slays not, is not slain.
Ma, менан ran m
108 The Bhagavad Gita
To be sure, this stanza is not original with the Gita; it is quoted from th Katha Upanisad. It is more likely, however, that Emerson got it from d Gita than from the less well-known Upanisad text. But the later influen с of the Gita lies outside the scope of this volume. I shall content myself vint setting forth the doctrines of the Gita and their origins. Especially close is the connection between the Bhagavad Gita ang the class of works called Upanisads. These are the earliest extensive treatises dealing with philosophical subjects in India. About a dozen of them, at least, are older than the Gita, whose author knew and quoted several. The Gita itself is indeed regarded as an Upanisad (its manuscripts regularly call it so in their colophons), and has quite as good a right to the title as man later works that are so called.* All the works properly called Upanisads һауе this in common, that they contain mainly speculations on some or all of the following topics: the nature of the universe, its origin, purpose, and guiding principle; the nature of man, his physical and his “hyper-physical” con- stitution, his duty, his destiny, and his relation to the rest of the universe, particularly to the guiding principle thereof, whether treated personally or impersonally. Now, these are precisely the questions) with which the Bhagavad Gita is concerned. The answers attempted vary greatly, not only in different Upanisads, but often in adjoining parts of the same Upanisad. This also is true of the Gita, and is eminently characteristic of the literature to which it and the Upanisads belong. We sometimes hear of a “system” of the Upanisads. In my opinion there is no such thing. Nor is there a “system” of thought in the Bhagavad Gita, in the sense of a unitary, logically coherent, and exclusive structure of metaphysics. He who looks for such a thing in any work of this period will be disappointed. Or, worse yet, he may be tempted to apply Procrustean methods, and by excisions or strained interpretations to force into a unified mold the sayings of a writer who never dreamed of the necessity or desirability of such unity. The Upanisads and the Bhagavad Gita contain starts toward various sys- tems; but none of them contains a single system, except possibly in the sense that one trend may be more prominent than its rivals in an individual work or part of a work. Still less can we speak of a single system as taught by the Upanisads as a whole.
. The very notion of a philosophic “system” did not exist in India in the time of the early Upanisads and the Gita. In later times the Hindus pt0- ee various systems of philosophy, which are fairly comparable with 5 a NE are accustomed to understand by that term, despite a clearly pro-
essed practical purpose which we moderns do not usually associate with
* The word upanisad may be tra "OW à A y be translated “ 1 na. tle that is often claimed by all sorts of works, some of w secret, mystic doctrine”; it is a 0
in any sense. hich hardly deserve to be called philosophical
Ше
Introductory
«philoso phy.” These systems all grew, at least in large measur 109 older speculations of the Upanisads. Fach later thinker cia ae пу richness of Upanisadic thought such elements as pleased him. RET ut structed his logically coherent system on that basis. "Thus, the U dn broadly speaking, are the prime source of all the rival NOUS of B India. But they themselves are more modest. They do not claim to put succeeded in bringing under one rubric the absolute and complete truth about man and the universe. If they seem at times to make such claims
these statements are to be understood as tentative, not final; and often they are contradicted by an adjoining passage in which a very different view- point finds expression. This may seem to us naive. But I think it would be truer, as well as more charitable, to regard it as a sign of intellectual modesty
combined with an honest and burning eagerness for truth, conceived as leading to man's mastery over his environment.
Thus there grew up in Upanisadic circles not one but a group of attempts to solve the “riddles of the universe." The Bhagavad Gita, we have seen, belongs to these circles intellectually, and many of its favorite themes are derived from the older Upanisads. More important than this is the fact that it shares with them the trait of intellectual fluidity or tentativeness to which I have just referred. Unlike many later Hindu philosophic works, which also derive from the Upanisads but which select and systematize their materials, the Gita is content to present various rival formulas, admitting at least a provisional validity to them all. To be sure, it has its favorites. But we can usually find in its own text expressions which, in strict logic, con- tradict its most cardinal doctrines. From the non-logical, mystical view- point of the Gita this is no particular disadvantage. Rationalistic logic simply does not apply to its problems. (
In one other respect there is ап important difference of fundamental attitude between the Bhagavad Gità and most western philosophic thought. All Hindu philosophy has a. practical aim. It seeks the truth, but not the truth for its own sake. It is truth as a means of human salvation that is its object. In other words, all Hindu philosophy is religious in basis. To the Hindu mind, “the truth shall make you free.” Otherwise there is no virtue init. This is quite as true of the later systems as of the early and less syste- matic speculations. To all of them knowledge is a means to an end. This attitude has its roots in a still more primitive belief, which appears clearly in the beginnings of Vedic philosophy and is still very much alive in the early Upanisads: the belief in the magic power of knowledge. To the early Hindus, as to mankind in early stages of development the world over, "knowledge is power” in a very direct sense. Whatever you know youn trol, directly, and by virtue of your knowledge. The primitive E gets his neighbors, animal, human, or supernatural, into his power, by ac-
IIO The Bhagavad Gita
quiring knowledge of them. So the early Vedic thinkers sought to contro] th
most fundamental and universal powers by knowing them. This belief m Hindus of classical times never quite outgrew. The Sanskrit word vidya “knowledge,” means also “magic.” Let westerners not be scornful of this, Down to quite modern times the same idea prevailed in Europe. In Shake. speare’s Tempest, Prospero the scholar proves his learning by feats of Magic: and in Robert Greene’s play, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, Roger Bacon, the greatest of medieval English scholars, is represented as a mighty i gician, and a contest of scholarship between him and a rival German scholar resolves itself into a mere test of their powers in necromancy. In short
knowledge meant primarily magic power, to the popular mind of that day. Even tho Greene doubtless intended his play as a farce, and did not take this notion seriously, still he would not have parodied the belief if it had not flourished in his time. Asin Europe, so in India, the more advanced thinkers early began to keep tbeir speculations free from magic, in its cruder forms, Еуеп such a comparatively early work as the Bhagavad Gita has no traces of the magical use of knowledge for the attainment of trivial, worldly ends, tho many such traces are still found in the Upanisads, its immediate prede- cessors. To this extent it marks an advance over them, and stands on es- sentially the same footing with the best of the later systematic philosophies. But the Bhagavad Gità and the later systems agree with the early Upani- sadic thinkers in their practical attitude towards speculation. They all seek the truth, not because of its abstract interest, but because in some sense or other they think that a realization of the truth about man's place in the universe and his destiny will solve all man's problems; free him from all the troubles of life; in short, bring him to the summum bonum, whatever they
conceive that to be. Just as different thinkers differ as to what that truth
is, so they also differ in their definitions of salvation or of the summum bonum,
and of the best practical means of attaining it. Indeed, as we have seen, the
early thinkers, including the author of the Gita, frequently differ with
themselves on such points. But they all agree in this fundamental attitude
towards the objects of speculation. They are primarily religious rather than
philosophical. And the historic origin of their attitude, in primitive notions
about the magic power of knowledge, has left a trace which I think was never
fully effaced, altho it was undoubtedly transcended and transfigured.
CHAPTER II Tue ORIGINS or HINDU SPECULATION
Tye records of Hindu religious thought, as of Hindu literature in general,
begin with the Rig Veda. This is a collection consisting mostly of hymns of praise and prayer to a group of deities who are primarily personified powers of nature — sun, fire, wind, sky, and the like — with the addition of some gods whose original nature is obscure. The religion represented by the Rig Veda, however, is by no means a simple or primitive nature-worship. Before the dawn of history it had developed into a ritualistic cult, a complicated system of sacrifices, the performance of which was the class privilege of a guild of priests. In the hands of this priestly class the sacrificial cult be- came more and more elaborate, and occupied more and more the center of the stage. At first merely a means of gratification and propitiation of the gods, the sacrifice gradually became an end in itself, and finally, in the period succeeding the hymns of the Rig Veda, the gods became super- numeraries. The now all-important sacrifices no longer persuaded, but compelled them to do what the sacrificer desired; or else, at times, the sacrifice produced the desired result immediately, without any participation whatsoever on the part of the gods. The gods are even spoken of themselves as offering sacrifices; and it is said that they owe their divine position, or their very existence, to the sacrifice. This extreme glorification of the ritual performance appears in the period of the Brahmanas, theological text- books whose purpose is to expound the mystic meaning of the various rites. They are later in date than the Rig-Vedic hymns; and their religion, a pure magical ritualism, is the apotheosis, or the reductio ad absurdum, of the ritualistic nature-worship of the hymns.
Even in Rig-Vedic times the priestly ritual was so elaborate, and 50 ex- pensive, that in the nature of things only rich men, mainly princes, could engage in it. It was therefore not only a hieratic but an aristocratic cult. The real religion of the great mass of the people was different. We find it portrayed best in the Atharva Veda. Thisisa collection of hymns, or rather magic charms, intended to accompany a mass of simpler rites and ceremonies which were not connected with the hieratic cult of the Rig Veda. Almost every conceivable human need and aspiration is represented by these popu- lar Performances. Their religious basis may be described as primitive animism, and their method of operation as simple magic. That 15, my regard all creatures, things, powers, and even abstract principles, as ee tional potencies or “spirits,” or as animated by “spirits,” which they see
112 The Bhagavad Gita
to control by incantations and magic rites. They know also the higher gods of the Rig-Vedic pantheon, and likewise other gods which perhaps be. longed at the start to aboriginal, non-"Aryan " tribes (“Атуап” is the name which the Vedic Hindus apply to themselves). But they invoke these gods after the manner of magic-mongers, much as medieval European incanta. tions invoke the persons of the Trinity and Christian saints in connection with magic practices to heal a broken bone or to bring rain for the crops,
Later Hindu thought developed primarily out of the hieratic, Rig- Vedic religion; but it contains also quite a dash of lower, more popular beliefs. "The separation of the two elements is by no means always easy, The truth seems to be that the speculations out of which the later forms of thought developed were carried on mainly by priests, adherents of the hieratic ritualreligion. Almost all the intellectual leaders of the community belonged to the priestly class. But they were naturally — almost inevitably — influenced by the popular religion which surrounded them. Indeed, there was no opposition between the two types of religion, nor such a cleavage as our description may suggest. The followers of the hieratic cult also en- gaged in the practices that belonged to the more popular religion. This accounts for the constant’ infiltration from the “lower” sphere into the “higher, which we see going on at all periods. At times it is hard to de- cide whether a given new development is due to the intrusion of popular beliefs, or to internal evolution within the sphere of the priestly religion itself.
For we can clearly see the growth of certain new views within the Rig Veda itself. Out of the older ritualistic nature-worship, with its indefinite plurality of gods, arises in many Rig-Vedic hymns a new attitude, a sort of mitigated polytheism, to which has been given the name of henotheism. By this is meant a religious point of view which, when dealing for the moment with any particular god, seems to feel it as an insult to his dignity to admit the competition of other deities. And so, either the particular god of the moment is made to absorb all the others, who are declared to be manifesta- tions of him; or else, he is given attributes which in strict logic could only be given to a sole monotheistic deity. Thus various Vedic gods are each at different times declared to be the creator, preserver, and animator of the universe, the sole ruler of all creatures, human and divine, and so on. Such hymns, considered separately, seem clearly to imply monotheism; but all that they really imply is a ritualistic henotheism. As each god comes Пр mr NN APRI. lectively is said es part їн ше СОШ g be said of all the 5065 «dic
em in tum, individually. We see that Ve
henotheism is rooted in the hieratic ri i ich i s woul Шал ЫН ratic ritual, without which it perhap
Origins of Hindu Speculation
But it was not long PUT some advanced thinkers saw
the creation of the world and the rulership over it could ES only of one Personality. The question then arose, educ define that One? We might have expected that some one of the old gods would be erected into a truly monotheistic deity. But, perhaps because im of them seemed sufficiently superior to his fellows, perhaps for some other reason, this was not done. Instead, in a few late hymns of the Rig Veda we find various tentative efforts to establish a new deity in this supreme posi- tion. Different names are given to him: “the Lord of Creatures” (Prajapati) “the All-maker” (Vi$vakarman), and the like. As these names show the new figure is rather abstract, and no longer ritualistic. Yet it is still per- sonal. It is a God who creates, supports, and rules the world; a kind of Yahweh or Allah; not an impersonal First Cause. It is an attempt at mono- theism, not yet monism.
These starts toward monotheism remained abortive, in the sense that they did not, at least directly, result in the establishment of a monotheistic religion comparable to that of the Hebrew people. Some centuries were to pass before such religions gained any strong foothold in India; and the con- nection between them and these early suggestions is remote and tenuous. The later religions owe their strength largely to other elements of more popular origin. Yet sporadic and more or less tentative suggestions of the sort continued to be made.
More striking, and more significant for the later development of Hindu philosophy, is a movement towards monism which appears, along with the monotheistic movement, even in the Rig Veda itself, tho only tentatively and very rarely. One or two Rig-Vedic hymns attempt to formulate the One in strictly impersonal, non-theistic terms. Among these I must mention the one hundred and twenty-ninth hymn of the tenth book of the Rig Veda, which to my mind is a very remarkable production, considering its time and place. This “hymn” (for so we can hardly help calling it, since it is found in the “hymn-book” of the Rig Veda) also seeks to explain the universe as evolving out of One; but its One is no longer a god. It knows no Yahweh or Allah, any more than the ritualistic Indra or Varuna. Tt definitely brushes aside all gods, not indeed denying their existence, but declaring that they are all of late and secondary origin; they know nothing of the beginnings of things. The First Principle of this hymn is “That One” (tad ekam) à It is of neuter gender, as it were lest some theologian should get hold of it and insist on falling down and worshiping it. It is not only impersonal and non- theistic, but absolutely uncharacterizable and indescribable, without quali- ties or attributes, even negative ones. It was “neither existent nor non- existent.” To seek to know it is hopeless; in the last two verses of the hymn
(there are only seven in all) the author relapses into a negative style of ex-
113 that such things
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114 The Bhagavad Gita
pression which remains characteristic of Hindu higher thought in certain moods. While the later Upanisads often try to describe the One all-incly- sively, by saying that it is everything, that it contains all possible and con- ceivable characteristics; still in some of Шет deepest moments they too prefer the negative statement neli, neti E кч ‘No, no. To apply to it any description is to limit and bound that which is limitless and boundless. It cannot be described; it cannot be known. )
But the ancient Hindu thinkers could never resign themselves to this negation. Even if they sometimes recognized that they could not, in the nature of things, know the Unknowable, still their restless speculation kept returning to the struggle again and again, from ever varied points of attack. In the Rig Veda itself, in one of its latest hymns (10.90), appéars the first trace of a strain of monistic thought which is of the greatest importance for later Hindu philosophy: the universe is treated as parallel in nature to the human personality. The First Principle in this hymn is called Purusa, that is, “Man” or “Person.” From the several parts of this cosmic Person are derived, by a still rather crude process of evolution, all existing things. The significance of this lies in its anticipation of the Upanisadic view of the identity of the human soul (later called àtman, literally "self," as a rule) with the universal principle.
Other, later Vedic texts, especially the Atharva Veda, also contain speculative materials. They are extremely varied in character; they testify to the restlessness and tentativeness which we have seen as a characteristic of all early Hindu thought. At times they seem monotheistic in tendency. The “Lord of Creatures,” Prajapati, of the Rig Veda, appears again and again, as a kind of demiurge; and other names are invented for the same or a similar figure, such as the "Establisher," Dhatar, or the “Arranger,” Vidhatar, or “He that is in the Highest,” Paramesthin. But never does such a figure attain anything like the definite dignity which we associate with a genuine monotheistic deity. And more often the interest centers around
Jess personal, more abstract entities, either physical or metaphysical,