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40

Devotion, as I judge, is hard to be obtained by the man who is not self-controlled, but he who is master of himself may obtain it, if he strive thereat.

ARJUNA spoke.

In what way does he go, O Krishna! who is endowed with faith but is not self-restrained, whose heart wavers in devotion, and who attains not to perfection therein?

Does he not perish like a riven cloud, repulsed from both, being unsteadfast, and confused in the way of Brahma,2 O mighty-armed?

It is meet for thee, O Krishna! to destroy completely this doubt of mine, for no destroyer of this doubt exists except thyself.

THE HOLY ONE spoke.

He does not perish, O son of Pritha! in this world or in the next, for no one who acts uprightly, O friend! goes the evil way.3

He who wavered in devotion, after he has attained to the regions of the just and has dwelt there for unnumbered years, is born again in a house of the good and great.5 Or he is born in a family of wise devotees (yogins); but a birth like this is hard to be obtained in this world.

1 That is, Does not the man who forsakes ceremonial observances for the higher service of mental devotion, and fails in the latter, lose both heaven, the reward of the first, and absorption into the divine nature, the consequence of the latter? Dr. Lorinser thinks that failure in this world and the next is meant and refers to v. 40 infra.

2 Failing in his attempts to fix his thought on Brahma.

3 The descending path leads to births in an inferior condition, or even to Naraka (hell).

4 One of the five heavens of the higher kind, chiefly that of Indra (c. ix. 21).

5 Srimat (prosperous, happy), here glossed by Sankara as vibhutimat (eminent, powerful).

45

There he receives the entire mental form (k) which he had in a former body, and thus he strives again for perfection, O son of Kuru !

For by that former habit he is led on, even without his will. He who only desires to know yoga goes beyond the Brahman doctrine () (lit. word);

But the Yogin who strives with energy, who is purified from sin, and perfected by many births, goes at length on the highest way.

The Yogin is superior to the ascetics; he is deemed to be superior even to the men of knowledge; 2 he is also superior to the doers of works. Be thou then a Yogin, Arjuna!

But of all Yogins even, he who worships Me3 with faith, his inmost soul being stayed in Me, him I judge to be the most devout.

1 Compare the language of Plato in the "Phædo:" "And thus they [the souls of bad men] wander, until by the longing which they feel for the corporeal element which thus cleaves to them, they are again enclosed in a body. And they are enclosed in a body, as may be supposed, corresponding in its habits with the habits which they had in their former lives" (sec. 70).

2 This is in accordance with the school of Patanjali. Kapila gave

the highest place to the man who had a knowledge of philosophy. So, in part, Plato taught: "None can attain to the rank of gods but those who pursue philosophy and depart from the body pure; none but lovers of true knowledge" (Phædo, sec. 71).

3 There is here probably an emphasis on the pronoun, as referring to Vishnu or Krishna, assumed to be the true representative of Brahmă, in opposition to the sect which made Śiva his highest representative.

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

"DEVOTION BY SELF-RESTRAINT."

F

PHILOLOGICAL NOTES.

(a) Asannyastasankalpa. Lassen's version is, "Abdicato sui studio;" Burnouf's, "Le renoncement de soi-même." Thomson gives, "And has not renounced all (earthly) plans of interest." "Unless he renounces all fancies” (Telang). Sankara explains the word sankalpa as meaning "objects of sense causing desire;" Sridhara as denoting all "projects of gain (or reward)." We may interpret the passage thus: "One who has not renounced all worldly schemes." The word is compounded of sam, denoting union or completeness, and kulpa, form. It means both plan and resolve. "The determination of the will which gives to the thoughts for the present a determinate aim" (Peters. Dict.); also as "verlangen," "vorsatz."

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(b) Uddhared ātmanātmānam. "Extricet semet sui ipsius ope" (Lassen); "Let him raise his soul by his own means (Thomson). Burnouf has merely "qu'il se lève," but this leaves out the word on which the emphasis lies. I would translate the passage, “Let a man raise his soul (above sensuous things) by the soul itself." Compare Byron's similar expression, "And strengthen man by his own mind." Dr. Lorinser's translation, "Er ziehe sich selbst aus sich heraus" is certainly wrong.

(c) Paramātmā samāhitaḥ. Lassen's translation is, "Spiritus summum locum obtinens in se recolligitur;" Burnouf's, "L'Ame Suprême demeure recueillée;" Thomson's, "is intent on the Supreme Being." Sridhara interprets samāhitaḥ by ātmanishṭa (fixed in itself), and this appears to be the meaning of the word in this passage. Gatti's Italian translation has caught, I think, the true meaning :

"L'anima, poi che il primo posto ha preso,
in sè tutta è raccolta."

(d) Kūṭastha, a compound of kūța, an apex, a summit, and stha, to stand. Lassen translates the word literally, "In fastigio stans;" Thomson's version is, "Who stands above all." Sridhara explains the word by nirvikāra, one who changes not. The epithet seems to denote one who stands apart from men and human interests in a lofty isolation through yoga. Sankara's gloss is, "He is free from agitation."

(e) Visishyate, "is distinguished." Mr. Thomson mentions another reading, vimuchyate, "is delivered (from matter)." Lassen says that Madhusudana mentions the latter reading, but he adds, "præstat vulgata." Three MSS. in my possession have viśishyate.

(f) Parigraha, a man's surroundings, such as family, retinue, possessions. "Sine comitatu" (Lassen); "without possessions" (Thomson); Telang, "without belongings." Sridhara's gloss is sunya, "void," "desert."

(g) Yogasevaya. "Devotionis cultu" (Lassen); "by worship in devotion" (Thomson); Telang, more correctly, "by the practice of devotion."

(h) Nirvinnachetasā. One of the MSS. in my possession has the reading nirvinnachetasah, and if this be the correct reading, the translation of the passage will be, "This devotion must be practised with the constancy of a mind in which thought has ceased." The common reading is, however, the instrumental case of the noun. Lassen's translation is, "Quo mens (rerum inde alienarum) immemor fiat," and that of Thomson, who generally follows Lassen, "By which thought becomes indifferent to every worldly object." Burnouf has, "Au point que la pensée s'abîme." Sridhara's interpretation is that "being free from self-disparagement or despondency" is meant, and Telang follows it by translating the compound by "undespairing heart." The authors of the Peters. Dict. explain nirvinna by überdrussig. It means, primarily, being

weary of a subject, not wishing to know more of it. The meaning seems to be that devotion (yoga) must be practised by a constancy that subdues thought, or by which the practice of thought is worn out.

(i) Buddhya dhṛitigrihītayā. "Mente perseverantiam amplexâ" (Lassen); "by his mind's acquiring firmness" (Thomson). Telang, as usual, translates buddhi (intellect) by "resolve;" "with a firm resolve coupled with courage." Dhriti seems here to be used adverbially, and I would translate the passage thus: "Step by step repose may be gained by the intellect being firmly held (in quietude)." Sridhara interprets the passage as meaning that the mind must be made subject by being held with firmness or constancy. Sankara says, "by being constantly united to Brahima."

(j) Samyena. "Par l'identité" (Burnouf), i.e., by identity with Brahma in meditation; Lassen, more correctly, has equabilitate." Sankara glosses the word by samatwa, equality (of soul).

(k) Buddhisamyogam. "Mental application" (Thomson and Lassen); "le pieux exercice" (Burnouf). Telang interprets it as "contaet with that knowledge" (of Brahma) which he had in a former life. Gatti's translation is, "The same disposition of mind," and this is, I think, a correct version. He regains his former mental state, with opportunities of rising to complete devotion. Sridhara refers the words to the man's former nature (bhāva).

(1) Śabdabrahma ativartate. "He only surmounts the verbal deity" (Thomson), explaining this to mean that he only acquires a mental knowledge of Brahma by teachers or philosophy, but does not approach him spiritually. This is substantially the same as Lassen's "theologiam meris verbis circumscriptam prævertit." Burnouf explains sabdabrahma as "la doctrine Brahmanique." Sankara and Srīdhara would

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