the teaching of chap. v. 15, or with the common Hindu idea of Brahma.

(e) Mano hridi nirudhya. Manas is the sentient faculty, hrid is the bodily organ; or, as Mr. Thomson expresses it, "Manas is the heart that desires and hrid that which beats." The meaning is, Keep the affections in their own seat, i.e., the breast.

(f) Avartino. "Remeabiles" (Lassen). Avarta means a winding round; avartin, winding round or revolving. The meaning is not that they may return, or, as Mr. Thomson renders it, "subject to return," but that they revolve from being to not-being, i.e., from visible being to absorption into Brahma, and vice versa, at stated periods. The reference is not to the soul, "which is liable to return, after a certain sojourn, from any of the eight worlds," as Mr. Thomson asserts, but to these worlds themselves, which come and go in a certain revolving order. Sankara says, from their being defined by time. See chap. ix. 7.

(g) Avaśaḥ, not by will of their own, i.e., at the command of Brahma. Mr. Thomson translates it by "spontaneously," adding in a note, “Avāśa cannot have its more usual signification of 'against their will,' since matter, being irrational, could have no will of its own, but rather without any will of their own,' i.e., in agreement with the laws of necessity." But if so, it cannot emanate spontaneously. The constraining power is not a law of necessity, but a command from Brahma. Lassen has "ultro," probably by mistake; Telang, "devoid of power." Ananda explains the word by aswatantra, not independently, by their own act. Tantra means a thread, the art of weaving, and hence formation, cause. Sridhara's gloss is paratantra, dependent on another.

(h) Śuklakrishņe gati, “these two ways of black and white.” Šukla means also the increasing half of the moon's course, and

krishna the waning half. Light and darkness are common symbols of happiness and the reverse. The grotesque imagination of the Hindu has made the symbol to be a controlling cause; but it is strange that the soul, which is immaterial, and is often described or symbolised as "pure light," should depend on a material element for its guidance. Sridhara says that the devotee is not bewildered, because he does not desire heaven and the rest as a means of happiness, but has his abode in the Supreme Lord. But this does not explain how, if he dies when the moon is waning, he must return to earth again. I cannot believe that the enlightened author of the Bhagavad Gita wrote these

verses.

READING THE NINTH.

THE HOLY ONE spoke.

Now will I declare to thee, who dost not cavil, that most mysterious knowledge, divine and human, which when thou knowest, thou wilt be free from evil.

Royal knowledge!1 royal mystery! the supreme purification this, comprehensible at sight, holy, easy to practise, and eternal.

The men who receive not by faith this holy doctrine attain not to Me, O destroyer of foes! but return to the ways of this world of death.

All this universe has been spread out by Me, by my unmanifested material nature (Prakriti). All things dwell in Me; I do not dwell in them;

5 And yet these things dwell not in Me. See my royal mystery!(a). My spirit, which is the source of all, supports all things but dwells not in them.

As the mighty wind moves everywhere, but is ever contained within the ether,5 know that thus all beings are contained in Me.

1 Rājaridyā. Rāja, prince or king, or active energy of Brahmā, and is here means chief, supreme.

2 Dharmyam, according to law or right. Dharma often expresses a religious duty, but has here its most ancient meaning.

3 Prakriti, or primordial matter, is here affirmed to be a part of Brahma. In the Purāṇas, Prakṛiti is the śaktī,

sometimes represented as his wife.
• Referring to the twofold nature
of Brahma. They do not dwell in
his higher spiritual nature.

5 Akāśā, the ether, sometimes rendered “space." It is the subtle fluid which pervades all space. Sometimes it seems to denote the

ΙΟ

At the end of a kalpa, all things, O son of Kunti! go into my material nature; at the beginning of a kalpa, I send them forth again.

Resting on my material nature (b) (Prakriti), I send forth again and again all this mass of beings, without their will, by the power of Prakṛiti.

And these works, O destroyer of foes! bind not Me,2 who sit apart as a stranger and in these works am unattached. Nature (Prakriti), under my surveillance, gives birth to everything, moving or fixed (animate or inanimate), and by this means, O son of Kunti! the world revolves.

Fools disregard Me when invested with a human body, not knowing my higher nature, the Supreme Lord of all. Vain in hope, vain in action, vain in knowledge, and devoid of sense, these partake of the deluding (c) nature of Rakshasas and Asuras.3

But the great-souled men, O son of Pritha! who partake

absolute idea of space, but not in the Bhagavad Gitā.

1 Cf. chap. viii. p. 97.

2 All works, except works of devotion, bind the doer, i.e., they connect him with bodily conditions, as their result, in a future life. The works of Brahmã are not followed by any consequences, because they are done without "attachment." So a perfect Yogin may act, and then attain to nirvāņa (cf. chap. iii. 19).

3 Asuras, giants or demons, enemies of the gods; their residence is in Patala, below the earth. The dark mode or constituent of Prakriti (tamo-guna) prevails in them. In the third book of the Mahabharata they are placed between gods and men: "From Manu all creation, gods, Asuras, men, must be produced" (Ind. Wisd., p. 395). In

the Institutes of Manu (iii. 25) they are connected with Pisachas, a low order of demons. In the oldest parts of the Rig-Veda, however, Asura is the name of the Supreme Spirit, the Ahura of the system of Zoroaster. In the Purāņas, the Asuras are represented as warring against the gods and sometimes overcoming them. The name was probably given to the gods of the aboriginal tribes (see Sans. T. iv. 154, 155). The Rakshasas are fierce demons, who guard the treasures of Kuvera, the god of wealth. Their name is derived from raksh, to guard. There is a dreadful account of one in the Rāmāyaṇa (iii. 2, 4), who was "like a mountain-peak, a man-eater, loudvoiced, hollow-eyed, huge, horrible,

...

.. bearing three lions, four tigers, two wolves, ten deer, and the head

15

of the divine nature,1 worship Me with hearts resting on no other (God), knowing Me as the eternal source of all things.

Evermore glorifying Me, earnestly striving (after Me),2 steadfast in vows and doing Me reverence, they worship Me with a constant devotion (d).

Others also, sacrificing with the sacrifice of knowledge,3 worship Me, everywhere present in many forms by my oneness and my divisible nature.

4

I am the offering; I am the sacrifice; I am the offering to forefathers; 5 I am the sacred herb; I am the holy hymn and the sacrificial butter; I am the fire; I am the burnt-offering.9

of an elephant on the point of an iron pike." The Yakshas were demons of a similar kind, but placed by Manu (xii. 47) above the Rākshasas. He calls them "the servants and companions of Kuvera."

1 In the gods the element (guna) of Nature, called "goodness," prevails. Śankara connects it with calmness, restraint, compassion, and faith. 2 Striving to gain a true knowledge of Brahma (Madhasūdana), For restraint (of the senses), for calmness, self-control, &c. (Śankara).

3 Mr. Thomson explains the sacrifice of knowledge to mean the recognising of Brahma in every act of worship, but the true Yogin rose above all pious acts except that of devout meditation. Śrīdhara says that by the knowledge which they gain of Vasudeva being the All they offer an acceptable sacrifice. Sankara says it is by those," who know that I am the Lord (Īśwara).”

4 Kratu and Yajna. Sankara and other Hindū scholiasts say that

kratu is a sacrifice enjoined by the Vedas (śruti), and yajna one required by tradition (smṛiti). But this distinction is not supported by the common use of the words. Kratu seems to denote sacrifice strictly; yajna, worship in general, of which sacrifice was a chief part. In the Sakuntalā, Indra is called Satakratu, he of the hundred sacrifices (p. 268, Williams's ed.)

5 Swadha, the offering of food to the manes of deceased ancestors.

6 Aushadha, vegetable food or medicine (Śrīdhara); food produced by herbs (Sankara); a medicinal herb, in the Hitopadesa and in Nala.