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PHILOLOGICAL NOTES.

(a) Prakriti, from pra (forth) and kri (to make), the primordial matter out of which all things have sprung.

(b) Tapas, from tap (to burn), means (1) heat, (2) pain, and (3) religious austerity of any kind. It is not always penance, but is often undertaken for the purpose of obtaining great merit or supernatural power.

The comp. jnāna-tapas (knowledge-tapas) is sometimes explained by Hindu Vedāntist scholiasts as a dwandwa com pound, meaning knowledge and austerity; but in this case, as Lassen has shown, the word would have a dual ending. It is an ordinary or tat-purusha compound, answering to our English form sea-shore = shore of the sea. The attainment of knowledge is viewed by a Yogin as a religious act.

(c) Kavayas, wise men; lit. poets; a record of a time when all knowledge was commonly expressed in song.

(d) Sa yuktas kritsnakarmakrit. "Is devotus cunctis operibus peragendis aptus est" (Lassen); "He is devout, and performs all his duty" (Thomson); "Il est en état d'union, quelqu'œuvre qu'il fasse" (Burnouf). The idea appears to

be, however, that he who can act without any mental disturbance, or who perceives that pious meditation (yoga) is the highest form of action, is a devotee who has completed. his task; his work is done, and he needs to act no more. Ananda seems to refer to the future state of the devotee. He becomes free from birth, occupation, or reward of works, and is (finally) set free (mukta).

(e) Nirāśrayas, self-reliant; lit. not requiring, or not seeking, refuge or shelter. Such a worker is independent of others, but he is constrained by a kind of fatalism, arising

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from the action of the modes. The soul, which is the real self, does not act.

(f) Muktasya, lit. of one who is free. Mr. Thomson would read yuktasya (of one who is devout). But all the MSS. (including two in my possession) read muktasya. The argument that mukta means a man who has final deliverance only, is not sound. It is often used in the Nala and elsewhere with a lower meaning. Here it seems to be = nirāśrayas in v. 20, and to mean one who is free from the bondage of earthly desires or earthly conditions. Cf. muktaka, which, in the Peters. Dict., is translated "für sich bestehend," "selbständig." Sridhara's gloss is "freed from passion (rāga) and the rest."

(g) Yajnaya acharatas, lit. one who has gone to a sacrifice. "Who acts for the sake of sacrifice, i.e., instigated only by the spirit of devotion" (Thomson); "sacrificii gratiâ sese accingentis" (Lassen); "that sacrifice may be done" (Sankara), i.e., not looking for reward after it. The sacrifice may be really offered, but being offered without "attachment," it may not prevent, it may even conduce to, nirvāņa. It is no longer a work to which only heaven belongs as a reward. Sridhara's gloss is that he goes to sacrifice for the knowledge of the Supreme Lord.

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(h) Prāṇān. In the plural the word means the five vital airs, and is life. The devotee, by excessive abstinence, may offer life itself as a sacrifice. Sánkara, however, refers it to the restraint of breath.

(i) Vitatā Brahmano mukhe. "Propagata sunt e numinis ore" (Lassen); so also Burnouf: "Institués de la bouche de Brahma." Vitata means spread out, and is usually connected with the sacrificial offerings. Mukhe being in the locative case, cannot have the sense of "out of," and commonly means "in the presence of;" lit. "in the face of." Mr. Thomson seems

to have offered the true version, "Are performed in the presence of the Supreme Spirit." The Hindu commentators, whom K. T. Telang follows, explain the passage as meaning that these sacrifices come from the Vedas, or are ordained by them. But this version is from a purely Vedantist view, and is not in accordance with the opinions of the author of the Bhagavad Gita.

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READING THE FIFTH.

ARJUNA spoke.

Thou praisest the renunciation of works, O Krishna! and on the other hand devotion. Of these two which is the better one? Tell me that certainly.

THE HOLY ONE spoke.

Renunciation (of works) and devotion by works both procure supreme blessedness (a); but of these devotion by works is more esteemed than renunciation.

He must be regarded as a steadfast renouncer who neither hates nor desires; for he whom opposites2 affect not, O largearmed one is freed from the bonds (of action) with ease.

Young men speak of the Sānkhya and Yoga (doctrines) as being diverse, but not the learned. He who devotes himself to one only obtains the fruit of both.

That seat which the Sankhyans obtain is entered into by Yogins also.3 He who sees that the Sankhya and the Yoga are one sees indeed.

1 Having spoken of the nature and effects of spiritual knowledge, the writer goes on to reconcile the Sankhya and the Yoga systems, by explaining that the Yoga system, in prescribing that all actions be done without "attachment," enforces a real renunciation, and is based on true knowledge.

2 Such as pleasure and pain, heat and cold, &c.

3 It is assumed that the Sankhyans may gain the seat here mentioned, i.e., the divine nature of Brahmă; but Kapila did not teach this doctrine. The soul, as he taught, when finally emancipated from matter, remains in a state of unconscious repose, but in its own individuality.

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But renunciation (of works) is hard to gain, O largearmed one! without devotion. The recluse (muni) who is fixed in devotion goes to Brahma without delay.

He who is fixed in devotion, pure in soul, who is master of himself and subdues the senses, who identifies himself with everything that exists, is not defiled even though he work.

"I do not work at all;" thus the devotee who knows the truth may think,2 in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, walking, sleeping, and breathing;

In talking, in letting go, or holding, in opening or closing his eyes, affirming thus: "The senses are occupied with the objects of sense."

He who works, having given up attachment, fulfilling (all) works in Brahma, is not defiled by sin, like a lotusleaf in water.3

By the body, by the heart (manas), by the mind (buddhi), even by the senses (b) alone, Yogins, giving up attachment, do their work for the purifying of themselves.

The devout man, when he has renounced the fruit of works, obtains eternal peace. The undevout, attached to the fruit (of works) by the impulse of desire, is bound. The embodied (soul), renouncing all works by the heart

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1 Mr. Thomson explains this to mean, who considers all beings to be the same as himself, and feels towards them accordingly; " but the perfect Yogin attains to an absolute indifference to all persons and things (c. vi. 4). The meaning seems to be, that such a person, even before attaining to nirvāṇa, loses all sense of individuality, and is merged in the universal life of the world, as an emanation of Brahmā. It is what

the Buddhists call kilesanibbānaṁ, or extinction of human passion, as distinct from khandhanibbānam, or extinction of being, but leading to it. (Childers, Pali Dict., s. v. nibbānam.)

2 See c. iii.

3 The lotus-leaf is said to be uninjured by a long immersion in water; so he that acts without "attachment" is not soiled by acts of any kind.

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