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He who truly knows my birth and this divine work of mine, comes nevermore to birth again when he quits the body: he comes to Me, Arjuna!

Freed from passion, fear, and wrath, thinking on Me and finding refuge in Me, many, purified by the ascetic rite (1) of knowledge,1 enter into my being.

As men devote themselves to Me, even so do I honour them. Men follow my path, O son of Pritha! from every side.

They who desire success in works offer sacrifice here to the gods,2 for soon in this world of mortals success is gained by works.

The four castes were created by me, according to the apportionment of qualities (or modes) and works. Know that I, the uncreating and unchanging, am the creator of them.* Works defile me not; in me there is no desire for the fruit of works. He who comprehends me thus is not bound by works.5

1 Knowledge is called tapas (religious austerity) from its purifying influence. So in Manu (xii. 101) it is said that “knowledge of the Veda burns out the sin of the soul, born of work, as fire burns even moist wood."

2 This is an accommodation of the Yoga system to the popular faith and practice. The gods are recognised, and offerings made to them may have some efficacy, but they cannot procure the final bliss of nirvāņa.

3 The four castes are the Brahman, the Kshatriya, the Vaishya, and the Śūdra. Cf. the account given by Manu i 31: "That the human race might be multiplied, the Supreme caused the Brahman, the

Kshatriya, the Vaishya, and the Śūdra to issue from his mouth, his arms, his thighs, and his feet.” This is, however, a late invention. The castes were not definitely fixed in the Vedic age, and the institution seems to have been developed gradually. (See Prof. Roth on the Lit. and Hist. of the Vedas.)

This apparent contradiction is usually explained by the dogma that he who works without "attachment” does not really work (cf. v. 20 infra). We may, however, interpret the passage thus: "As Vishņu (or Brahmā) I am the author of the castes, but not in my supreme form as Brahmă."

5 His actions are not attended by such results as the gaining of heaven

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Knowing this, works were wrought by men of old, who sought for (final) deliverance.1 Wherefore do thou engage in work as it was done aforetime by the men of old.2

Even the wise (c) are troubled if one should ask, "What is action and what is inaction?" I will teach thee the kind of action by the knowledge of which thou wilt be free from evil.

For action must be well understood, and forbidden action, and also inaction: tangled is the path of works.3

He who can see inaction in action, and also action in inaction, he among men is wise; he is devout, and has fulfilled every work (d).

He whose every effort is free from the impulse of desire, whose work has been burnt up by the fire of knowledge, is called by the wise a learned man (pandita).

Renouncing all attachment to the fruit of works, ever contented, self-reliant (e), this man, though engaged in work, yet works not at all.

Void of hope, self-restrained in thought, and rejecting all surroundings, performing merely bodily work, he contracts no guilt.

or birth in another body; he is absorbed into the divine nature. Śankara says that for him there are no works requiring effort in another body.

Telang translates gati (way, path)
by "essence."
." The Hindu commen-
tators explain it as "truth" (tattwa),
but it means rather the discussion of
action, the laying down of its limits,

1 An absolute union with the than its essence. divine essence in nirvāņa.

2 Fight as thy forefathers, who were of the Kshatriya (warrior) caste. 3 The question of works is difficult and obscure, like a path in a tangled forest. Ananda says that gahana (hard to penetrate) means "understood or discerned with difficulty."

4 Since action arises from the modes of Nature, not from the soul, it follows that the soul has no necessary connection with it. Action is due to the conditions of our physical state, as some of our Western scientists teach.

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Contented with whatever he may receive, unaffected by pairs of opposites (pleasure and pain, &c.), free from envy, the same in good and evil fortune, he, though he works, is not bound.

The work of one in whom attachment is dead, who is freed (from things of sense) (ƒ), whose mind is stayed on knowledge, wholly dissolves away, though he engage in sacrifice (g).

1

Brahma is the oblation; Brahma is the sacrificial butter; Brahma is in the fire; the burnt-offering is by Brahma. Into Brahma will he enter who meditates on Brahma in his work.

Some devotees attend sacrifices offered to the gods; others offer sacrifice by sacrificing only in the fire of Brahma: 2

Others sacrifice hearing and the other senses in the fire of self-restraint; others sacrifice the objects of the senses, sound and the rest, in the fire of the senses.

Others, too, sacrifice all the functions of the senses and of life in the mystic fire of self-restraint, kindled by knowledge.

Others also, subdued in mind and bound by vows austere, offer the sacrifice of wealth or penance or de

1 Havis, clarified butter, which is poured on the sacrificial fire; also other offerings cast into the fire, as grain, &c.

2 The fire is the flame of devotion, created by Brahma himself. Compare a similar statement in Manu: "Others continually perform sacrifice by knowledge only." Other forms of devotion noted in this passage are mentioned by himn: "Some who know the ordinances for these

oblations perform not always externally the great oblations, but sacrifice continually in their senseorgans; some constantly sacrifice their breath in speech and their speech in breath, perceiving in their speech and breath an ever-accomplished sacrifice" (iv. 24, 23, 22). Sankara says that the knowledge of the Supreme Spirit is the austere rite or penance (tapas) by which men are purified.

votion (yoga), or the sacrifice of silent reading and knowledge.1

So also others sacrifice the inward breath in the outward, and the outward breath in the inward, obstructing the channels of inspiration and expiration, intent on the restraint of breath.2

30 Others, who practise abstinence, sacrifice their life in life (h). All these are skilled in sacrifice, and by sacrifice their sins are destroyed.

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They who feed on the ambrosial remains of sacrifices 3 go to the Eternal Brahma. This world is not for him who offers no sacrifice; how then the other, O best of Kurus?

Thus many kinds of sacrifice are offered in the presence of Brahma (). Know that all these proceed from action: knowing this, thou wilt be free.

The sacrifice of knowledge is better than the sacrifice of wealth, O slayer of foes! Every work, in its completeness, is contained in knowledge.

Learn this (knowledge) by doing reverence,5 by questions, and by service. The wise, who see the truth, will teach thee knowledge.

When thou hast known it, thou wilt not come again to this trouble (of mind), O son of Pandu! for thou wilt see

1 The Hindu commentators show their Vedantist bias by asserting that this means knowledge of the Sastras or sacred books generally (Sankara), or of the Vedas (Śrīd hara). The knowledge of the Supreme Brahma is, however, here

meant.

2 Restraint of breath (prāṇāyama) is breathing through one nostril only, by closing the other.

who is able continually feed on the residue of a sacrifice to the gods, which is amrita” (immortal food).

4 Here the influence of the Sankyha system is evident. Cf. Plato (Phædo, sec. 71): “None can attain to the rank of the gods but those who pursue philosophy and depart from the body pure; none but the lovers of true knowledge."

5 By becoming the disciples and 3 Cf. Manu iii. 285: “Let him ministers of religious teachers.

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all things, without exception, in thyself and then in Me.1

Even if thou art the most sinful of all sinful men, thou wilt pass over all transgression by the bark of knowledge.2 As the kindled fire reduces all fuel to ashes, Arjuna! so the fire of knowledge reduces all works to ashes.

For no purifier is found on earth equal to knowledge. One who is perfect in devotion finds it in course of time in himself.

This knowledge is obtained by the believer, who is devoted to it and has subdued the senses: when he has obtained it, he reaches without delay the supreme repose (nirvāna).

The ignorant man and the unbeliever, and he whose soul is full of doubt, are lost. He whose soul is full of doubt has neither this world, nor the next, nor (final) blessedness.*

Works do not bind the man who is master of himself, who has abandoned work in devotion (yoga), and in whom doubt is destroyed by knowledge, O subduer of wealth!

Wherefore slay this doubt, which is born of ignorance, and is seated in the heart, by the sword of knowledge; give thyself to devotion, and arise, O son of Bharata!

1 Because all things have emanated from the One Supreme Being. 2 He will gain remission of all past sins: they will bring on him no evil consequences, because sacred knowledge destroys sin.

(faith) as a proof of Christian influence. The argument is not without force, but is not perfectly conclusive, for all religions require faith.

4 Neither the blessing of a higher birth, or that of heaven, or of final

3 Dr. Lorinser refers to śraddhā nirvāņa.

Thus the Bhagavad Gitā, Reading the Fourth, whose

title is

"THE DEVOTION OF KNOWLEDGE."

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