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READING THE FIFTEENTH.

THE HOLY ONE spoke.'

Men say that the sacred fig-tree (aśwattha), that has its roots above and its branches downward, is eternal: its leaves are metrical hymns: he who knows it knows the Vedas.1

Down and on high its branches are extended, enlarged by the modes (of Nature): its buddings (a) are the objects of the senses; and downward its roots are drawn-the bonds of action 2 in the world of men.

Here below its form cannot be known, nor its end, nor its beginning, nor its whole nature or constitution (b). When one has cut down this large-rooted Aśwattha by the solid weapon of indifference,

Then that seat may be sought for,3 from which they who have reached it never return: to that primeval Sire I refer, from whom the ancient emanation (c) (of the universe) flowed.

The men who are free from pride and delusion, in whom the evil of attachment is conquered, who are devoted to the Supreme Spirit, who have abandoned desire,—these,

1 In this obscure episode there is certainly an attack on the authority of the Vedas. A passive state of indifference to all worldly interests is superior to the observance of the Vedic rites. The fig-tree (Aswattha)

is the Ficus religiosa, here used as a type of the Vedic system.

2 Binding men to subsequer.t births, as roots bind a tree to the soil.

The Supreme Brahma.

ΙΟ

freed from the pairs of opposites known as pleasure and pain, go, undeluded, to the eternal seat.

That (seat) no sun enlightens, nor moon, nor fire; they who reach it return no more: that is my supreme abode.

An eternal portion of Me having become a separate existence (d), (an individual soul) in the world of life. draws to itself the five senses and the manas,1 which are seated in Nature (Prakriti).

When the sovereign (spirit) obtains a body, and when he quits it, these he seizes and accompanies, as the wind (takes) odours (of flowers) from their bed.

Presiding over the ear, the eye, over touch, taste, and smelling, and also over the manas, he connects himself with the objects of sense.

They whose minds are confused see him not when he departs or when he abides, nor when, connected with the modes, he enjoys; but they see who have the eyes of knowledge.

Devout men (yogins) who are intent (thereon) see this (spirit) seated in themselves; but the senseless, whose minds are unformed, see it not, even though intent (on seeing it).

Know that the splendour which is seated in the sun. and illumines the whole universe, that which is in the moon and in fire, is from Me.2

Entering into the earth, I sustain all things by my vital force, and becoming a savoury juice, I nourish all herbs.

1 The soul which is bound to matter in the linga (subtle body), and mediately to the gross body. The linga goes with the soul in its migrations. (Sank. Kār. p. 76.)

2 From Prakriti, the Nature form of Brahma, here represented by Krishna. See c. ix. 7, 8.

3 Soma, translated by Telang, who follows the Hindu commentators,

I become fire (heat), and enter into the bodies of all that breathe, and (then) being united with the inward and outward breath, I digest (cook) the four kinds of food.1

15 [And I am seated in the hearts of all: from Me come memory, knowledge, and the power of reason. I am also that which is to be known in all the Vedas. I form the Vedānta,2 and I am one who knows the Vedas.]

In this world there are two existences, the Perishable and the Imperishable: the Perishable consists of all living things, the Imperishable is called "The Lord on high" (e).

But there is another, the highest existence, called the Supreme Spirit, who, as the eternal Lord (Iswara), pervades the three worlds and sustains them.

Wherefore, since I surpass the Perishable, and am higher than even the Imperishable, I am celebrated among men (in the world) and in the Vedas as the Supreme Existence (Purushottama).

He who is not deluded and knows me as this Supreme

"the watery moon;" but this gives an unintelligible application to the passage. It is not the moon which is here referred to, but the sap which is the life of all plants. Soma is the sacred juice of the Asclepias acida.

1 The four kinds are said by Hindu commentators to be: (1) what is broken by the teeth; (2) what is drunk; (3) what is licked by the tongue; and (4) what is sucked by the lips, or eaten without being chewed.

2 The passage enclosed in brackets is certainly an interpolation. The Vedanta, or system of Vedic interpretation, commonly limited to the

Uttara Mimānsa, is of later date than the Bhagavad Gitā.

3 The first is Nature in her manifold forms, the second is the vivifying Brahma, the third is the Supreme Spirit, the one Eternal God. (Cf. Manu i. 6-9.) "Then the selfexisting Power, himself unmanifested,... willed to produce various beings from his own divine substance, first with a thought created the waters, and placed in them a productive seed, which became an egg bright as gold, and in that egg he was born as Brahmā."

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Existence, he, knowing all, O son of Bharata! worships Me with his whole nature.1

Thus this most mysterious doctrine has been declared by me, O sinless one! By knowing this a man may become wise, and one, O son of Bharata! who has completed every work (ƒ).

1 Śridhara's gloss is, "in every way or mode" (prakāra). Ananda's is, "by putting forth the whole soul."

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

"DEVOTION IN ATTAINING TO THE HIGHEst Being."

PHILOLOGICAL NOTES.

(a) Prabālās. "Tendrils" (Thomson); "bourgeons" (Burnouf), more correctly.

(b) Sampratishtha. "Constitutio" (Lassen). Sridhara explains it by sthiti, place, or order. The reference seems to be to the complex ritual of the Vedic worship, which few, if any, knew completely.

(c) Pravṛitti purāņi. "Vortex ille antiquus" (Lassen); "from whom the eternal stream of life emanates" (Thomson). Pravritti is the Hindu scholastic term for the flowing forth of all existent things at the command of Brahma, as nivritti is for the return or absorption of all things in him. But it is not an eternal stream. This idea is not in accordance with any Hindu theory of creation. It is the ancient emanation, referring to a definite past time.

(d) Jīvabhūta. “Vitalis " (Lassen); "having assumed life" (Thomson). The soul, however, never assumes life: it always

existed in Brahma. It becomes a separate existence, an individualised soul, when invested with bodily forms, and thus made a part of the existent world.

(e) Kuṭastho. See p. 83. In the Petersburg Dictionary this word is explained by "an der Spitze stehend," "die höchste Stelle einnehmend," and also by "ewig," "unverändderlich." Sridhara interprets it as "standing unchangeable or immovable like a mountain."

(f) Kritakrityas. Mr. Thomson translates this compound by "he will do his duty," and K. T. Telang by " to his duty true." Lassen is nearer the real meaning: " omni negotio defunctus." The meaning is, that the devotee, having obtained fully spiritual knowledge, has risen beyond the need or the practice of any religious duty. Cf. Mahābhārata (Vana-parvan, 12,485): kritakṛityāḥ punar varṇā yadi vṛittam na vidyate; "The castes would then have completed their work, if no function or definite office exists." The commentator says that in this event all the three upper castes would become as Sudras, who cannot take part in any rites of purification; or, in other words, their proper work or function would cease (Sans. T. i. 138).