25

fold designation of Brahma. By him Brahmans, the Vedas, and sacrifices were ordained of old.

Wherefore OM is always uttered by those who know Brahma, when the acts of sacrifice, alms, and penance begin that are ordained by rule.

Tat is said when the various kinds of sacrifice, penance, and alms are done, without regard to gain, by those who desire (final) deliverance.

Sat is the word employed to denote truth and goodness. The word is also used, O son of Pritha! in (the doing of) a laudable act.1

Continuance (ƒ) in sacrifice, penance, and alms is also called sat, and an act, too, done in behalf of these things is called sat.

Whatever sacrifice, penance, or alms is performed, and whatever act is done, without faith, that is called asat,2 O son of Pritha! and is of no account in this life or after death.] 3

word, implying that he is the only Being; "that which is," to the exclusion of any other Being. The philosophic meaning of sut is, the sum of existent things, represented as effects. (See Sankhya Kārika, p. 135.)

1 That is, "marriage (vivāha) and such like," say the Hindu commentators.

2 Asat, meaning here (1) unreal and (2) bad.

3 The distichs from distich 23 to the end seem to be doubtful.

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

"DEVOTION BY THE THREEFOLD KINDS OF FAITH."

PHILOLOGICAL NOTES.

(a) Arogya-sukha-priti. "Sanitatem, voluptatem, hilaritatem augentes" (Lassen); "la santé, le bien-être et la joie" (Burnouf); "health, happiness, and relish" (Telang). Srīdhara interprets sukha as meaning peace of mind, and prīti as joy. A-rogya means freedom from disease; sukha is well represented by the French bien-être; prīti (love, joy) denotes the pleasant sensations of a body well nourished and in perfect health.

(b) Yātayāman, that has remained over the watches of a night. The night is divided into three watches of four hours each. In India, food so kept is often unwholesome.

(c) Satkaramānapūjārtham. "Honorem, dignitatem et reverentiam sibi comparandi gratia" (Lassen). Satkāra means a gracious and hospitable reception. It is used in the Nala to denote hospitality. Mānas implies respect or esteem, and pūja outward deference or homage. Burnouf translates by "l'honneur, le respect et les hommages;" but the first word is not represented with sufficient accuracy.

(Lassen);

(d) Mudhagrahena. "Ex inepto commento "from an erroneous view (of the nature of mortification)" (Thomson); "née d'une imagination egarée" (Burnouf). Sridhara's explanation is "done without discrimination." Graha is interpreted in the Petersburg Dictionary by unternehmen with reference to this passage.

(e) Pātrē. Pātra means a vessel or receptacle; here a proper receptacle or receiver. Sridhara says that the locative. case is here put for the dative, but unnecessarily, for a gift is placed in the hands of a recipient. He says also that a good gift is one given to a Brahman well practised in austerities and in the sacred books. Lassen has a different version: "Equidem dixerim, pātrē h.l. non de persona esse intelligen

dum, sed interpretandum esse, data justa occasione;" but this seems to be included in the former part of the passage, and putra (the Gr. Forng) cannot well be translated by " occasio."

(f) Sthiti. "Certa consuetudo" (Lassen); " la perseverance" (Burnouf). Mr. Thomson translates the word by "a quiescent state of sacrifice," &c., and explains the passage as meaning the doing of such acts in the mind alone, offering up sacrifice mentally performed. This would be in accordance with our author's views; but the word denotes "continuance," "constancy." S'rīdhara's interpretation is "abiding (therein) by means of application or devotedness." S'ankara refers the word sat to things done on behalf of the Iswara or Lord (Brahma).

5

READING THE EIGHTEENTH,1

ARJUNA spoke.

I desire to know, O large-armed one! the true nature of abstention (sannyāsa), O Hṛishikeśa! and of renunciation (tyāga), O slayer of Keśin!

THE HOLY ONE spoke.

The wise understand by "Abstention" the abandonment of all works connected with desire,2 and the discerning call the forsaking of the fruit of works "Renunciation."

Some wise men affirm that (all) work should be abandoned as an evil,3 others that works of sacrifice, almsgiving, and penance are not to be given up.

Hear now my decree about renunciation, O best of Bharatas! for it is set forth as of three kinds, O valiant one!

Works of sacrifice, alms, and penance must not be given

1 In this chapter the author asserts again some of the leading doctrines of the Yoga school.

2 See chap. iv. 19, 20.

The first opinion is referred by Mr. Thomson to Kapila and his disciples, and the second to the followers of the Mimānsā (Vedāntist) school; but Kapila has not left any record of such an opinion: he only maintains

that a state of complete isolation of the soul from matter is its perfect state. Śrīdhara decides that work binds the soul (to matter) by injuriousness, violence, and evil connected with it. The Mimānsā school made no such limitations to work as the second doctrine teaches. The dispute probably lay between different sections of the Yoga school.

ΙΟ

up; these must indeed be done. Sacrifice, alms, and penance are the purifications of the wise.

But even these works must be done in renouncing attachment and the fruit (of works): this, O son of Pṛithā! is my supreme and fixed decree.

Abstention from a work of obligation is not fitting; the abandonment of this (kind of work) is from delusion, and is declared to be "dark."1

He who abandons a work (a) through fear of bodily distress, saying, "It is painful," practises a renunciation that has the nature of "passion," and will receive no gain thereby.

The renunciation of him who does a work of obligation, saying, "This must be done," Arjuna! renouncing attachment and fruit, is deemed to be "good."

He who has no aversion for an unprosperous work (b) and for a prosperous work has no attachment,2 who is thoughtful and whose doubts are destroyed, is a "renouncer" endowed with "goodness."

For it is not possible for an embodied person to abstain from work absolutely, but he who abandons the fruit of work is regarded as a "renouncer."

The fruit of work after death for those who do not renounce is of a threefold kind-desired, undesired, and mixed; but there is none whatever for those who abandon it (the fruit of work).

Learn from me, O large-armed one! these five condi

1 Referring to the three modes (gunas), which form all material things, including the heart (manas) and the intellect (buddhi).

2 If free from attachment to the objects of sense and the desire of

"fruit" or reward, for this cannot procure nirvāṇa, but only one of the heavens of the gods. Those who seek no reward in action desire to be absorbed for ever in Brahma.