limit the acquirement to rising above the desire of the fruit of actions prescribed by the Vedas. Telang translates sabdabrahma by "the word divine." There is no doubt that here the Vedas are meant. The Yogin by devotion rises above

all the Vedic rites and doctrines.

The same expression (sabdabrahman) occurs in the Bhagavata Purāņa (iv. 29), where the reference is certainly to the Vedas-"Wandering in the vast field of the Brahmanic word (sabdabrahmani), which it is difficult to traverse, men do not recognise the Supreme, worshipping him as he is separately divided by the attributes (linga, mark or sign) in the hymns. When the Divine Being regards any man with favour, he, having become spiritualised (ātmabhāvita), abandons all thought which is set on the world and on the Veda." This may, however, be contrasted with the opposite opinion of Manu:"The priest who may retain in his memory the whole of the Rig-Veda would incur no guilt if he should slay the three worlds and take food from any quarter whatever. By repeating thrice the mantras (hymns) and brāhmaṇas (commentaries) of the Rig-, Sama-, and Yajur-Veda, with the Upanishads (pious treatises), he is freed from all sin" (xi. 262, 263).

READING THE SEVENTH.1

THE HOLY ONE spoke.

Hear now, O son of Pritha! how, if thy heart be fixed in Me, if thou continuest in devotion and findest refuge in Me, thou shalt, without doubt, know Me fully.

I will declare to thee completely the knowledge, divine and human, which, when thou hast known, nothing else here remains to be known.

Among the thousands of mankind, only one perchance strives for perfection, and even of those who strive for and obtain it, only some one knows Me in truth.

Earth,2 water, fire, air, ether, the heart (manas), and also the mind (buddhi), and egoism (ahankara), these (form) the eightfold division of my material nature (Prakriti). 5 This is the lower (nature), but know now my other higher nature, the living principle, O large-armed one! by which the universe is sustained.

Understand that these are the womb of all existing

1 Here a separate division of the Bhagavad Gitā begins. The first six chapters are devoted mainly to the Yoga system of Patanjali. The six following treat of the Supreme Brahmă, who is the source both of gods and men, the only self-existent and eternal being.

In the system of Patanjali this is regarded as only an inferior part of Brahmā; there is a higher spiritual essence, which is the animating principle of all things. Sankara says that its designation is kshetrajna, matterknowing, and that it maintains life. 4 I think the Hindu commen

2 See Hindu Philosophy, San- tators are right in referring etad khya Kārikā, p. 20.

3 In the Sankhya system, Prakriti (primal matter) is alone recognised.

(this) to the composite nature of the Supreme, and not, as Mr. Thomson, to the "latter nature."

ΙΟ

things. I am the source of all the universe and its dissolution also.

There is nothing whatever that is superior to Me, O subduer of wealth! this All is strung together in Me, as a row of pearls upon a string.1

I am savour2 in the waters, O son of Kuntī! I am the light in the moon and the sun; the word of praise (OM) (a) in all the Vedas; sound 3 in ether and virile force in men:

I am the pure odour in the earth and the brightness in the fire; the vital principle in all beings and the austerity (tapas) of ascetics.

Know, O son of Pritha! that I am the eternal seed of all things that exist. I am the intellect of the intelligent and the splendour (b) of the splendid.

I am also the strength of the strong, free from desire and passion (emotion). I am desire in living things, not forbidden by holy laws, O prince of Bhāratas!

Know also that the natures formed by (the mode called) goodness," and those also which are "passion-born" and "dark" are from Me; but they are in Me, not I in them. Bewildered by these natures formed by the three modes 5

(gunas) (c), the whole world knows not Me, who am above these (modes) and eternal;

For this divine illusion of mine formed by the modes is hard to surmount: they pass over this illusion who worship Me alone.

15 The evil-doers and the foolish do not worship Me, nor the base, whose knowledge is taken away by illusion, who have entered into (d) (partake of) the nature of Asuras.1

Four classes of righteous men worship Me, Arjuna! the distressed, he who desires knowledge, he who seeks for gain, and the wise man, O chief of Bharatas!

Of these, the wise man,2 ever devout, who worships the One, is the most excellent; for I am dear above all things (e) to the wise man, and he is dear to Me.

All these are good, but the wise man I deem to be even myself (f); for he, devout in soul, is stayed on Me, the supreme way (or goal).

At the end of many births the wise man comes (g) to Me. The high-souled man, who says, "Vasudeva is the All," is hard to find.

3

of individuals. The Supreme Spirit animates all the material world (Nature): it is therefore in Nature, but Nature is not in it. Men generally see only the lower part of the Divine dual nature, which veils the higher spiritual part. The material world is called māyā (illusion), not perhaps in the Vedāntist sense, as mere illusion, but because it deludes men into supposing that there is nothing else.

1 Asuras, the name of a class of demons, inferior, and sometimes hostile, to the Aryan gods. (See Sans. T. iv. 151, 154.) Probably

they were the gods of the aborigines, and the wars related in the Matsya Purāņa, in which sometimes the Asuras were victorious but were eventually conquered, express a legendary tradition of a war of races and religions.

2 That is, who knows Brahma and the soul. It is spiritual wisdom that is here assumed, as in Prov. ix. 10: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

3 Vasudeva, a name of Krishna. It is often found in the Mahabharata. "Kesava (Krishņa) is immeasurable. He is to be known as Vāsu

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They whose knowledge has been carried away by lusts of any kind go to other gods, using divers rites, constrained by their own nature.

Whosoever desires to worship any one form () (of these) in faith, it is I who impart the steadfast faith of this man (i).

He, being devoted (yukta), seeks by that faith the favour of the god (j), and thus obtains the blessings which he covets, yet these are apportioned by Me alone.

But the gain of these men of narrow minds comes to an end.1 They who sacrifice to gods go to the gods; they who worship Me come to Me.

The foolish think that I, the Unmanifested, am endowed with a manifest form,2 not knowing my higher nature, which is imperishable and supreme.

Veiled by my mystic illusion (k), I am not manifest to all. This deluded world knows not Me, the Unborn and Eternal.

I know all beings, past and present, Arjuna! and

deva from his dwelling (vasanāt) in all beings" (Udyoga-parvan, v. 2561; Sans. T. iv. 218). In the Vishnu Purāņa he is identified with the Supreme Brahma. "Worshipping thee, the Supreme Brahma, men desirous of final liberation have attained their object. Who shall obtain liberation without worshipping Vasudeva?" (Sans. T. iv. 38). The Bhaktas (men who practise bhakti, faith with adoration), a branch of the Vaishnavas, worship Vishnu as Vasudeva and wear no marks.

1 Because the gods are only created beings, and they, with the worlds

over which they preside, will be destroyed at the end of a kalpa.

2 Mr. Thomson explains this to mean that they "believe some one of the gods, as Brahma, Vishņu, or Śiva, to be the Supreme Spirit ;" and adds, "Our philosopher would seem to be cutting his own throat on this ground." This seems to be a mistake. Brahma had many representatives, and these are sometimes said to be one with him, and to have been incarnated in divers forms; but they were, as incarnations, a lower form of Brahma. In his

proper nature, swarūpa, as Śankara describes it, he is spirit only.