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means effort, enterprise; and the character here denoted is the man who rejects all enterprise, because it is opposed to that absolute repose which is the Hindu ideal of excellence. Mr. Thomson has mistaken the meaning of the passage. He translates the word by "free from any interest in his undertakings." It is the undertakings themselves that he renounces. Sridhara's gloss is "to renounce active labour" (udyama). Telang's translation is "who doth renounce all acts for fruit;" but there is no limit in the text.

(g) Dharmyāmṛitam. Amrita, the immortal, corresponds to the ambrosia of the Greeks. In the later Hindu mythology it denoted chiefly the water of immortality which the gods gained by the churning of the ocean; but it was used to express things offered in sacrifice, chiefly the soma. Here it is used to denote the blessedness of a mental union with Brahma, by which at length nirvāņa is gained.

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READING THE THIRTEENTH.1

THE HOLY ONE spoke.

These (a) bodies, O son of Kunti! are called kshetra (matter) (b). That which knows it is called by the wise kshetrajna (matter-knowing Soul).

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Know that I am the soul (kshetrajna) in all forms of matter, O son of Bharata! This knowledge of soul and matter I deem to be knowledge (indeed).

What this matter is, what its qualities, what are its changes and whence it comes, and what that is (soul) and what its greatness (c), hear now briefly from Me.

All this has been sung separately,2 in many ways by Rishis, in various songs (d), and in well-thought-out verses of Brahma-sutras (e), that treat of the causes (of things). The gross elements, egoism, intellect, and also the unmanifested (Prakriti or Nature), the ten senses, the one (organ, the manas), and the five objects (or domains) of sense; Desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, collective form (organised body), thought, resolve, these are briefly described as matter in its modified forms.

1 Here the third part of the poem begins, treating, in part, of the physical theory of the Sankhya system. This part of Kapila's teaching has largely affected the whole course of Hindu thought or speculation on physical matters, even in schools widely differing from his on other subjects.

The Hindu commentators explain this word (pritak) as "variously," referring it to Brahma in his various forms as Vishņu, &c.

3 Because they belong to the buddhi and manas of man's compound nature, and these are only subtle forms of matter.

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Modesty, sincerity, innocence, patience, uprightness, service done to a preceptor, purity, constancy, self-control; Absence of desire for things of sense and of vanity, perception of the evil of birth, death, old age, sickness, and pain;

Freedom from attachment, absence of affection for son, wife, home, and the rest, and constant equanimity in desired and undesired events;

With constant worship of Me in exclusive devotion, frequenting of lonely places and distaste for the society of men;

Perseverance in (seeking to gain) the knowledge of the Supreme Spirit (Adhyātman),1 and perception of the gain that comes from knowledge of the truth: this is called knowledge: all that is contrary to this is ignorance.

I will declare that which must be known, by the knowledge of which immortality is gained; the Supreme Brahma, without beginning, who is called neither sat nor asat; 2

Whose hands and feet are everywhere, every where his eyes and heads and faces; hearing everywhere, he dwells in the world encompassing all things.

Resplendent in the faculties of all the senses, yet devoid

1 See c. viii. I, supra.

2 Neither sat, thing, reality, but here formal being, in opposition to asat, unformed, primal matter. Śankara, quoted by Telang, gives another explanation. He says that these words indicate a class, a quality, an action, or a relation, but as none of these is possible in the case of Brahma, neither word can be applied to him. Śrīdhara explains sat by vishaya, object of sense, asat being

that which is not perceived by the senses. The earlier philosophic meanings of sat and asat were lost in course of time, but the true sense was manifest to some who were comparatively modern commentators. Raghavendra says that sat means the Vyakta (Manifested) produced as an effect, and asat is the Avyakta (Unmanifested), which is the cause of it, i.e., Prakriti (Telang).

of all the senses;1 unattached (ƒ) and yet sustaining all things; without the modes (of Nature) (g), yet the possessor (enjoyer) of the modes.2

15 He is without and within all beings; motionless and yet moving; not discerned because of his subtlety; near and yet remote;

Not distributed in beings, yet constantly distributed in them; he is to be known as the sustainer of all; he devours 3 and he creates.

The light of all things luminous, he is declared to be above (all) darkness. He is knowledge, its object, and its end (h), seated in the hearts of all.

Thus matter, knowledge, and that which must be known, have been briefly set forth. He who worships Me and discerns this (Supreme Spirit) is fitted to become one with Me (i).

Know that Nature and Spirit are both without beginning. Know, too, that variations (of material forms) and the modes (j) spring from Nature.

20 In the activity of the organs of action (k) Nature is called the cause: in the sensation of pleasure and pain spirit is called the cause.

For spirit seated in Nature possesses (makes use of) the modes that spring from Nature and the connection of this with modes is the cause of birth in good or evil wombs.5

1 Possessing all that the senses can give, as seeing, &c., but without any bodily conditions.

2 From the dual nature of Brahma, who, as involving Prakriti in his lower nature, possesses the modes or constituent elements of the latter, but in his higher spiritual nature, which is truly himself, he has no connection with any form of matter.

At the end of a kalpa or day of Brahma (see c. viii. 16), all existent things are absorbed in Prakriti, and are sent forth again into actual formal life at the beginning of another kalpa, by the command of Brahmă. 4 Prakriti or primordial matter.

The action of the modes causes a new birth and is never absolutely good. The summum bonum or ab

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Surveyor, director, supporter, possessor (), the mighty Lord, thus is the Supreme Spirit called; the supreme purusha (male creative power) in this body.1

He who knows this creative power (purusha) and Nature with its modes, in whatever state he may be, is never born again.

Some by meditation perceive the soul in themselves by themselves, others by devotion (yoga) in the Sankhya 2 (system), and others by devotion in works;

But others, who know it not, hear of it from others and worship, and these, too, devoted to the sacred doctrine, pass over death.

When any existence whatever, animate or inanimate, is produced, know, O son of Bharata! that it exists by this union of matter and spirit.

He who sees the Supreme Lord dwelling alike in all beings, the Imperishable in things that perish, sees indeed;

For seeing the Lord as the same, everywhere present, he destroys not himself by himself, and thus he goes to the supreme seat.

But he who sees that works are wrought in every case by Nature (Prakriti), and that therefore the soul is not an agent, sees indeed.

When he sees that the separate natures of things are seated in One and issue from it alone, then he attains to Brahma.

sorption into Brahma can only be gained by an absolute freedom from the influence of the modes by the practice of devout meditation.

1 In the person of Krishna, who is identified with Brahma.

2 The term yoga, devotion or wor

ship, cannot properly be applied to the system of Kapila, for by it knowledge, i.e., the knowledge of philosophy, was set far above the ritual of the Vedas, and above all religious practices.

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