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ceeds from the Indivisible One. Wherefore Brahma, the all-pervading, is ever present in sacrifice.

He who causes not this appointed cycle to revolve here below, he, living in sin and gratifying the senses, lives in vain, O son of Pritha!

But the man who can be happy in himself, pleased with himself, and contented with himself alone, for him nothing remains to be done.1

For this man has no interest whatever in what is done or left undone here below, nor for him is there any occasion whatever of seeking for succour (d) from any living thing.

Wherefore apply thyself to work that ought to be done, but always without attachment (e), for the man who applies himself to work without attachment attains to the Supreme (f).

For Janaka and others have attained to perfection

which the Supreme had placed him for a (divine) year, and then dividing it, "he formed the heavens and the earth” (Manu i. 11, 13). Śankara and other Hindū scholiasts explain Brahma to mean the Vedas, and the Vedas are present, says Sankara, because "the rites of sacrifice are their main object." This is as unsatisfactory as other explanations of obscure passages by Hindu commentators. It is never thus used by the author of the Bhagavad Gītā, who had not as much reverence for the Vedas as Sankara and other scholiasts.

1 Mr. Thomson translates the latter clause, “Has no selfish interest in action," asserting that he who "is all in all to himself performs actions as a duty.” On the contrary,

such a man is exalted above all action and all duty. Lassen, more correctly, "Omni negotio vacat." Literally it is, "Necessary work (what is to be done) of this man exists not." Telang translates it, “Has naught to do." Cf. c. v. 24. Ananda says that he attains to this state by his complete knowledge. Sridhara, in commenting on the next distich, says it is by his having surmounted all regard for self (ahankāra).

2 Janaka, a king of Mithila or Videha, was reckoned among the great Rishis on account of his piety and wisdom. He is often mentioned in the Mahābhārata. It is there stated that he was constantly engaged in thinking on matters connected with a future life, and that

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even by work. Thou oughtest to work, also, from regard to the masses of mankind (g).

Whatever is done by one who is high in position, that other men do, whatever it may be. Whatever example he offers, the people follow it.

Nothing whatever, O son of Pritha! must needs be done by me in the three worlds, nor is anything to be attained that is unattained, yet I am occupied in work.1

For if I should not be ever at work, unwearied (and men follow my path, O son of Pritha! from every part),

These worlds would sink in ruin. If I should not work, I should be the author of confusion,2 and I should destroy this race of men.

As ignorant men do works with attachment, O son of Bharata! so the wise man should work without attachment, desiring to promote the general good.

he had a hundred religious teachers (Sans. T. i. 429). His other name was Siradhwaja (he whose sign or banner is a plough), from which we may infer that he was famed for having introduced improvements in agriculture.

1 Krishna, in his divine nature, had no earthly object to gain. The work to which he alludes is not, as Mr. Thomson supposes, the work of a Kshatriya (the warrior caste), but his labour in maintaining and directing all things. Cf. the Mahābhārata (Sabhā - parvan, 1390-95). "It is Krishna who is the origin and the destruction of the worlds: all this universe, movable and immovable, has come into being through Krishņa.

He is the undeveloped Prakriti (primal matter), and the Eternal Maker. Intellect (buddhi), mind (manas), and the Great One (mahat = buddhi in the system of Kapila, here perhaps the soul), air, fire, water, sky, earth, whatever fourfold being exists is established (pratishthitam) in Krishna" (Sans. T. iv. 209. I have slightly altered the translation).

The whole passage shows a reaction in the mind of our author against the excesses of the Yoga system.

2 Confusion of the castes, according to the Hindū scholiasts, but probably more was implied than this, though confusion of castes is, to a Brahman, the direst of evils. See Manu iii. 17, 18, 19.

Let him not cause distraction of mind in ignorant men who are attached to works: let the wise and devout man promote (h) every kind of work, co-working therein.

Works are done entirely by the modes of Nature (Prakriti).

He whose soul is bewildered by vanity (i) thinks,

"I am the doer;"

But he who knows the truth of the separate parts of modes and works,2 O mighty-armed! thinking thus, "Modes are occupied with (or in) modes," (j) is not bound.

They who are confused by the modes of Nature (Prakriti) are bound by the works of the modes. Let not him. who knows the whole (truth) cause dull men, who know not the whole, to falter (in action).

30 Renouncing all works in Me,3 fixed in thought on the

1 The soul, which is the true self, never acts. Its proper state is one of absolute isolation and repose. All action is due to the modes of nature (Prakriti). These, as they are variously compounded, produce actions which are relatively good or bad, but all action is inferior to repose.

Man is represented as having a dual nature, consisting of the soul, which is passive, and its material envelopments, in which the modes are continually acting. The wise, knowing this, allow the action of the modes to go on, but are not concerned by it. The ignorant, who think that the soul acts, look for reward (as of heaven, for instance), not for absolute freedom from all contacts with matter in nirvāṇa. "I have not the nature of the Modes; works are not mine" (Śridhara, referring to the soul as the real self).

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Supreme Spirit (k), free from hope and selfishness, put away thy sorrow and fight!

The men who ever follow this my doctrine,1 full of faith and unreviling, are set free even by works:2

But know that they who follow not my doctrine, reviling it, these, senseless and confused in every (kind of) knowledge, are wholly lost.

Even the wise man tends to that which is conformed to his own nature; all beings follow (their) nature; what then will opposition effect?

Love and hatred are seated in the objects3 of the senses. Let none come under the power of these two (affections), for they are his foes.

Better is one's own duty, though faulty (in the work)(1), than another's though well done. Better is death in one's

1 Krishna calls the doctrine his, because he was considered to be the lord of devotion, and is sometimes so called (c. xviii.) Those who reviled the doctrine were the Vedäntists, and especially the Saivyas, who identified their own especial deity, Śiva, with the Supreme God, Brahmă.

2 This is not completely in accordance with either the Sankhya or the Yoga system. The first admitted only knowledge as the means of final emancipation; the second, only mystic devotion. Our author admits the necessity, and even the advantage, of action, if done without "attachment."

3 Mr. Thomson's version is, "Love or hatred exists towards the objects of each sense." Lassen's is more correct: "Rebus sensui cuilibet subjectis propensio et aversatio necessario inhærent." So also Burnouf: "Il faut bien que les objets des sens

fassent naître le desir et l'aversion." The soul is passive. All emotion, of whatever kind, springs from the mode of Nature, called rajas (passion; sometimes translated "foulness," for the two ideas are closely connected in the Hindu mind), and must be subdued. Sankara says that Nature can only work by means of these affections, and if one withstands their force, he is then at liberty to follow the Sastras (sacred books).

This is in answer to the question, How can the Sastras be followed if Nature be so powerful? (Telang). But the perfect Yogin, in the judgment of our author, was above all Śāstras.

4 By duty (dharma) is here meant the fulfilling of the caste-obligations, as that of a Kshatriya to fight; the influence of the writer's position as a Brahman modifying the pure Yoga system.

own duty: another's duty is full of danger (lit. fraught with fear).

ARJUNA spoke.

But by what is a man impelled, O Varshneya! when he commits sin even against his will, as if compelled by force?

THE HOLY ONE spoke.

It is lust: it is wrath, born from the "passion "-mode: know that this, all-devouring, all-defiling, is here our foe.

As a flame is covered by smoke and a mirror by rust; as a fœtus is enveloped by the womb, so the world is enveloped by this.

Knowledge is enveloped by this, which is the eternal foe of the wise man; which takes forms at will, O son of Kunti! and is an insatiable flame.

40 Its seat is declared to be in the senses, heart, and mind; by these it bewilders the embodied (soul),1 casting a veil over knowledge.

Wherefore restrain from the beginning the senses, O chief of Bharatas! and then cast off this sinful thing that destroys both divine and human knowledge (m).

Men say that the senses are great; the heart (manas) is greater than the senses; the mind (buddhi) is greater than the heart, but this is greater than the mind.

Knowing, then, that this is greater than the mind, strengthen thyself by thyself, O large-armed one! and slay this foe, which takes forms at will and is hard to meet (n).

1 The manas may give distorted passion. Hence the soul, which is sensations, and may be excited by a spectator only, may be bewildered.

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

"DEVOTION BY WORK."