5

In whatever wombs mortals are born, O son of Kunti! Brahma is their mighty womb, and I the seed-giving Sire.

"Goodness," "Passion," and "Darkness;" thus are named the modes 1 (gunas) which spring from Nature (Prakriti), and bind down the eternal, embodied (soul) in the body,2 O large-armed one!

Of these, "goodness," being lustrous and pure from its unsullied nature, binds (the soul), O sinless one! by the attachment (bond) of happiness and of knowledge.

Know that "passion," having the nature of desire, and being the source of attachment and craving, binds the embodied (soul), O son of Kunti! by the attachment of work.

But know that "darkness," born of ignorance, which bewilders all embodied (souls), binds them, O son of Bharata! by stupidity, idleness, and sleep.

which is vitalised by the spiritual take. The following quotations are Brahma, the animating principle against this explanation :—" -"Before jīvātman). (Cf. c. xv. 12-17.) In the mundane egg existed the holy the Vishnu Purāņa the Brahma is Brahmā, Hiranyagarbha, the bodily spoken of as the material cause of form (murttirūpa) of Brahmă, who all things, and is addressed by the is the seat of the holy Vishnu goddess Earth as Vishnu [i.e., Krish- (Vishnu Purāṇa, iv. 1, 4). "This na]. In the Institutes of Manu it knowledge of soul... was declared is stated that the Supreme Omni- by Brahma, Hiranyagarbha, or by present Intelligence is the sovereign the Supreme Lord (parameswara) Lord of all the gods; that some ad- through his agency" (Śankara's Commire him as transcendently present mentary on the Chhand. Up. viii. in elementary fire, others as the 15, 1; Sans. T. iii. 285). most High Eternal Spirit. It is he who, pervading all things, causes them, by the gradations of birth, growth, and dissolution, to revolve in this world like the wheels of a car" (xii. 122-124). Śrīdhara says that Brahma is Prakriti (Nature), "the womb of Me, the supreme Lord;" but this, I think, is a unis

1 See Introd., p. 10, and Sankhya Kārikā, p. 36.

2

They bind it to bodily conditions in a new birth, preventing it from attaining nirvana. They do not "influence" the soul, as Mr. Thomson translates the word. They bind or imprison it in a bodily form.

K

ΙΟ

15

"Goodness" binds (the soul to matter) by pleasure; "passion," O son of Bharata! by works; but "darkness," having veiled knowledge, binds by stupid folly.

When

When one has subdued "passion" and "darkness," then "goodness" (alone) exists, O son of Bharata! "passion" and "goodness," then "darkness" exists; and "passion" when "darkness" and "goodness" (are subdued).

When in this body, at all its gates, the bright light of knowledge is produced, then one may know that "goodness" is there matured.

Avarice, activity, the undertaking of works, unrest, and desire, these are produced, O chief of Bharatas! when "passion" is matured.

Darkness, inertness, and also stupidity and bewilderment, these are produced, O son of Kuru! when “darkness" is matured.

If, moreover, a mortal goes to dissolution, when "goodness" is matured (in him), then he goes to the spotless regions1 of those who are supremely wise (b).

If he go to dissolution when "passion" prevails, he is born among those who are attached to works; if he depart when "darkness" prevails, he is born in the wombs of the stupid.2

The fruit of a good action is said (to have the property of) "goodness," and to be unsullied; but the fruit of "passion" is pain, and the fruit of "darkness" is ignorance.

Knowledge is produced from "goodness," avarice from 'passion;" stupidity, delusion, and ignorance also, from "darkness."

1 The heaven of Indra or Brahmā, not to the Supreme Brahmă.

2 As a beast, a reptile, or even as inorganic matter.

20

They who are established in "goodness" go on high; they whose nature is of "passion" dwell in the middle place; but the "dark," who abide in a state of vile qualities, go below.

When the observer recognises no other agent than the modes (of Nature),1 and knows That which is above the modes, he comes to my being.

When the embodied (soul) has passed beyond the three modes,2 from which all bodies (c) have sprung, then, freed from birth, death, old age, and pain, it eats immortal food (amrita).

ARJUNA spoke.

What marks are those, O Lord! of the man who has passed beyond the three modes? What is his manner of life, and how does he pass beyond these three modes?

THE HOLY ONE spoke.

He who has no aversion, O son of Pandu! for brightness, activity, and even delusion,3 when they are present, nor desires them when they are absent;

Who, seated as a stranger, is not moved by the modes, who stands apart and wavers not, saying, "The modes are now in action;"

To whom pleasure and pain are the same, who is selfpossessed; to whom a clod, a stone, and gold are the same; who holds as equal things loved and unloved; who is steadfast; to whom praise and blame are equal;

1 See c. iii. 28.

Becoming separated, when the soul attains to knowledge, from all the modes or elemental forms of Nature (Prakriti).

modes, which are described by their effects.

That is, the soul, which is not formed from the modes of Nature, and is superior to them, is a stranger 3 These are the names of the three in the world of action.

20 And equal, too, honour and dishonour; who regards friend and foe alike; who renounces all enterprise,—he is called "6 a surmounter of the modes."

And he who worships Me by an exclusive devotion in yoga, he having passed beyond the modes, is conformed to the nature of Brahma.

For I am the seat (d) of Brahma, of the imperishable ambrosia, of eternal law, and of happiness complete.

Thus the Bhagavad Gītā, Reading the Fourteenth, whose title is,

(a) Na vyathanti. "Non percelluntur" (Lassen); "La dissolution des choses ne les atteint pas " (Burnouf). Telang's version is, "They do not suffer pain," i.e., the pain of a repetition of births. Vyath means to stagger, to reel, to be moved or disturbed. The doctrine of our author is, that they remain unchanged when the world is dissolved, being absorbed in Brahma.

(b) Uttamavidām. "Qui summum norunt" (Lassen); "who obtain the highest place" (Thomson); "les clairvoyants" (Burnouf). Sankara explains the word as denoting those who have a knowledge of the subtler forms of matter, as buddhi (intellect). I have translated the word by "supremely wise," because the wise, if under the influence of the mode (element of Nature) called "goodness," may attain to a high heavenly seat; but they who know Brahma as devotees receive nirvāņa, or absorption in him. Sridhara says they go to the

worlds of Hiranyagarbha (Brahma the Creator), and other gods.

(c) Dehasamudbhavān. "E corpore genitis" (Lassen). Thomson, more correctly, I think, translates it by "who co-originate with the body," or rather "with body;" both bodily forms. and the modes or elements of Nature being from Prakriti (Nature or primal matter). Sridhara's gloss is "producing bodies which are modifications of them."

(d) Pratishtha. "Instar numinis" (Lassen); "representative" (Thomson). I prefer Burnouf's version, "La demeure de Dieu." Brahma dwelt in Krishna, was incarnated in him. In the Petersburg Dictionary it is interpreted as "standort," "grund," "ort des Anhalts." Ananda's gloss is, "The highest in the outer form which adjoins his proper spiritual form."