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Know also that He (That) which spread out1 this All can never perish. No one is able to cause the destruction of this Eternal.2

These (bodies) are called the mortal bodies(ƒ) of the eternal, imperishable, infinite, embodied (soul): wherefore fight, O son of Bharata!

He who deems this to be a slayer, and he who thinks that it can be slain, are both undiscerning: it slays not, and it is not slain.

It is never born, and it never dies: it has never been brought into being, nor shall it ever be brought hereafter. Unborn, undying, eternal, primeval (g), this is not slain when the body is slain.

How can that man, O son of Pritha! who knows it to be indestructible, eternal, unborn, and undying, cause any one to be slain, and how can he slay?

As a man, having cast off his old garments, takes others that are new, so the embodied (soul), having cast off the old bodies, enters into others that are

new.

as nothing in comparison with the soul. Compare the language of Bossuet (Serm. sur la Mort): "Tout être qui se mesure n'est rien, parceque ce qui se mesure a son terme, et lorsqu'on est venu à ce terme un dernier point detruit tout, comme si jamais il n'avait été."

matter is only an inferior part of the objectivity of matter, but it is the dual nature of the Godhead (see c. vii. 5). In the existent forms of things it is only temporary, and will be absorbed again in the Divine nature from which it issued. In the popular Vedāntist doctrine it has no real existence. The Supreme Spirit includes in itself all being. There is no duality. Matter is only the illusive form (māyā) in which he has veiled his real nature for a time, but it will disappear at last. It is only as the reflection of the moon in water. Our author, however, does not expressly deny

1 Cf. Ps. civ. 2: "Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain."

2 The Supreme Brahma. The gods are not eternal. They issued from Brahma. "The Supreme Lord of life caused to issue the creation of gods" (Manu i. 22).

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Weapons cleave it not, nor does the fire burn it; the waters wet it not, nor do the winds dry it up.

This is impenetrable, incombustible, incapable of being moistened or dried up: it is undying, all-pervading, constant, immovable, and eternal.

This is declared to be invisible, incomprehensible, immutable: wherefore knowing it to be such, thou oughtest not to grieve for it.

And if thou thinkest it to be ever born and ever dying (with the body), even then it is not meet for thee to grieve for it, O mighty-armed!

For the death of what is born is certain, and certain (too) the birth of what has died; therefore it is not meet for thee to mourn over that which none can prevent.

In the primal state all things are unseen; in the middle state they are seen, O son of Bharata! they become unseen again in the state of death. What cause of grief is there in this?

One man looks on it (the soul) as a marvel; another speaks of it as a marvel, and another hears of it as a marvel, but there is not one who, by hearing of it, understands it.

This embodied (soul) in the body of every one, O son of Bharata! is ever indestructible, wherefore thou oughtest not to mourn for any living thing.

Regarding, too, thy proper duty, thou oughtest not to falter, for to a Kshatriya (warrior) nothing is better than a lawful fight.

Happy are the Kshatriyas, O son of Pritha! who obtain such a fight as this, offered freely to them as an open door to heaven.

But if thou wilt not undertake this lawful fight, then,

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by abandoning thy proper duty and thy honour, thou wilt be guilty of a crime.

Then men will proclaim thy eternal disgrace, and to a well-born man (h) disgrace is worse than death.

The car-borne men (the chiefs) will think that thou hast withdrawn from the battle through fear, and thou, who wast highly thought of by them, will be lightly esteemed.

Thy enemies will utter many disgraceful words (lit. that ought not to be said), deriding thy capacity (as a warrior): what can be more grievous than this?

If slain, thou wilt attain to heaven, or thou wilt possess the earth if a conqueror: wherefore arise, O son of Kunti! resolved upon the fight.

Accounting pain and pleasure, gain and loss, victory and defeat as equal, gird thyself for the battle: thus thou wilt not bring sin upon thee.

This doctrine has been declared to thee according to the Sankhya (system); hear now the Yoga (teaching). When thou, by means of this teaching, hast become devout (yukta), thou wilt cast off the bonds of works.1

1 This expression, "bonds of action" (or "bonds of works"), often recurs in the poem, and must be well understood in order to gain a correct knowledge of the nature and aims of this system of philosophy. Every action that is wrought for some purpose connected with self, though it be the hope of gaining heaven, is followed by the necessary result of a good or evil state in another body. This result is called the bond of action, or that to which the work necessarily binds the doer. All works are exposed to the danger

of such gain or loss: the aim of the true Yogin is to rise above all such vicissitudes and to gain by a mystic union (yoga) with the supreme Brahmă in devout meditation a final absorption (nirvāṇa) into his essence. The Yogin is then born no more, and is for ever emancipated from any contact with matter, which is the source of all evil and of all pain. Hence arises the opposition in the spiritualist Yogin to all outward forms, even such as are expressed or enjoined in the Vedas. He becomes superior to them all in

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In this (system) there is no waste of effort, in it no loss1 is found. Even a little of this pious exercise delivers from great fear.

This doctrine (), which is of a constant nature, is one, O son of Kuru! but many-branched and endless are the doctrines of the inconstant.

A flowery kind of language is spoken by the unwise, who delight in Veda-words,2 O son of Pritha! saying, "There is nothing but this!"

Whose souls are full of lust, who regard heaven as the highest good, offering birth as the fruit of works, and practising many varied rites for the attaining of pleasures and power.

The doctrine of these men who are devoted to pleasures and power, and whose minds are carried away by these (words), having effort as its essence, is not formed for meditation.

The Vedas have the three gunas3 as their object. Be thou free from the three gunas, Arjuna! be free from the

his mature state; they are then completely useless to him, though they may be of some use to those who are in a lower condition (vi. 3, 12; ii. 46). Like the Quietists in the Church of Rome, he is above the hope of reward, though it should be that of the highest heaven. This reward, too, would be only temporary, for all the seven heavens, and the gods who inhabit and rule over them, will pass away at the end of a kalpa, to be produced again when another kalpa begins (viii. 37).

1 In worldly pursuits there may be failure in attempting to gain what we desire, and if gained it may be lost, but there is neither failure nor loss in devotion.

"An attack on the prevailing Vedantist ritual, which the Vedas underlay. This offered one of the heavens of the gods as a reward; the reward of pure devotion (yogu) is absorption into the supreme Brahma.

3 The three Modes, or Qualities, as they are usually called, are the constituent elements of Prakriti or primal matter. From them all the labours, the pleasures and pains of our present life are produced (see Introd. p. 12). The meaning of the passage is, that Arjuna should be free from all the influences of matter, whether good or evil, for the best results that come from it are comparatively evil.

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pairs of opposites,' ever fixed on truth, without anxious care (j) and self-possessed.

As many as are the uses of a reservoir, whose waters flow in on every side, so many are there in all the Vedas for a discerning Brāhman.2

Let the work itself be thy charge, but never the fruit (of works); let not the fruit of works be thy motive, yet be not inclined to inaction.

Do thy works, steadfast in devotion, renouncing attachment (k), O subduer of wealth! be still the same in success and failure. Evenness of mind is called devotion (yoga).

For work is far inferior to mental devotion, O subduer of wealth! Seek for refuge in the mind. Miserable are they whose motive is the fruit (of works).

He who has become mentally devout abandons both good and evil deeds: therefore apply thyself to devotion (yoga). Yoga is success in works (the work in which there is always success).

For the wise, devout in mind, renouncing the fruit that is born of works, freed from the bondage of birth, go to the seat where disease is not.

When thy mind shall pass over the tangled path of

1 Lit. "not affected by pairs" (dwandwās), i.e., by opposites, such as pleasure and pain, health and sickness, &c. Cf. Vishnu Purāṇa 1, 6, 18: "As sin increased, these creatures (mankind) were afflicted with suffering arising out of the pairs (of susceptibilities to pleasure and pain)." (S. T. i. 62.)

2 A reservation, probably from the spirit of compromise which is evident throughout the poem. It

would shock too much the feelings of his fellow-Brahmans if the poet were to deny that there was any use in the Vedas and other sacred books, but their use was far inferior to that of yoga (mental devotion).

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"The seat where there is no disease" is the Supreme Brahmă. The expression seems to indicate that the Hindus were then comparatively a feeble race, subject to many kinds of disease.

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