Immunity from action. Yet in working Proceeds from the Supreme. I am the pattern To gain by action, yet I work for ever Would perish if I did not work my work (III. 19). The third division of the poem, comprising the six last chapters, aims particularly at interweaving Sankhya doctrines with the Vedanta, though this is done more or less throughout the whole work. It accepts the doctrine of a supreme presiding Spirit (called Param Brahma or Adhyātmam, XIII. 12, VIII. 1), as the first source of the universe, but asserts the eternal existence of Prakriti and Purusha —that is, of an original eternal element and soul-both emanating from the supreme Being (then regarded as Parā Prakriti, supreme Prakriti'). It maintains the individuality and personality of souls, and affirms that the body (kshetra) and all the world of sense is evolved out of Prakriti by the regular Sankhyan process, through Buddhi, Ahan-kāra, the five subtile elements, the five grosser elements, and the eleven organs, including mind. Thus, in XIII. 19 and in VII. 4-6, we read: Learn that Prakriti and Purusha also are both of them without beginning. And know that the Vikāras, or 'productions,' and the Gunas (see p. 95) are sprung from Prakriti. Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, and egoism, into these eight is my Prakriti divided. This Prakriti is the inferior one, but learn my superior Prakriti to be other than this. Understand that all things are produced from this other Prakriti. Again, in VII. 12-14, Krishna, speaking of the three Guņas, says: Know that all the three Gunas, whether Sattva, Rajas, or Tamas (cf. p. 94), proceed only from me. I am not in them, but they in me. All this universe, deluded by these three conditions consisting of the Gunas, does not recognize me, the imperishable Being, superior to them all. For this divine illusion (Māyā, i. e. 'illusory creation'), consisting of the three Gunas, caused by me, is difficult to be passed over. Those only are delivered from it who have recourse to me. The eclecticism of the Bhagavad-gītā will be sufficiently apparent from these examples. I close my brief survey of this celebrated poem by three or four passages (taken from chapter III. 27, chapter XIII. 29, 31), which form a fit conclusion to the subject, as they contain the gist of the whole argument, viz. that it is Arjuna's duty as a soldier to act like a soldier and to do the work of his caste, regardless of consequences; and that this may be done consistently with adhesion to the Vedantic dogma of the soul's real inactivity and state of passionless repose: All actions are incessantly performed By operation of the qualities. Of Prakriti; deluded by the thought Vainly believes itself to be the doer. He who perceives that actions are performed Is not an actor, sees the truth aright. Krishna's last advice may be thus summed up: Act then and do thine own appointed task, In every action my assistance ask, Do all with heart and soul absorbed in me, So shalt thou gain thine end and be from trouble free. Has all illusion from my soul dispelled; I will thy bidding do and fight without a fear. To any one who has followed me in tracing the outline of this remarkable philosophical dialogue, and has noted the numerous parallels it offers to passages in our sacred Scriptures, it may seem strange that I hesitate to concur in any theory which explains these coincidences by supposing that the author had access to the New Testament or that he derived some of his ideas from the first propagators of Christianity. Surely it will be conceded that the probability of contact and interaction between Gentile systems and the Christian religion in the first two centuries of our era must have been greater in Italy than in India. Yet, if we take the writings and recorded sayings of three great Roman philosophers, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, we shall find them full of resemblances to passages in our Scriptures, while there appears to be no ground whatever for supposing that these eminent Pagan writers and thinkers derived any of their ideas from either Jewish or Christian sources. In fact, the Rev. F. W. Farrar, in his interesting and valuable work, 'Seekers after God,' has clearly shown that 'to say that Pagan morality kindled its faded taper at the Gospel light whether furtively or unconsciously, that it dissembled the obligation and made a boast of the splendour, as if it were originally her own, is to make an assertion wholly untenable.' He points out that the attempts of the Christian Fathers to make out Pythagoras a debtor to Hebraic wisdom, Plato an 'Atticizing Moses,' Aristotle a picker up of ethics from a Jew, Seneca a correspondent of St. Paul, were due in some cases to ignorance, and in some to a want of perfect honesty in controversial dealing.' His arguments would be even more conclusive if applied to the Bhagavad-gītā, the author of which was probably contemporaneous with Seneca. It must, indeed, be admitted that the flashes of true light which emerge from the mists of pantheism in the writings of Indian philosophers, must spring from the same source of light as the Gospel itself; but it may reasonably be questioned whether there could have been any actual contact of the Hindu systems with Christianity without a more satisfactory result in the modification of pantheistic and anti-Christian ideas. In order that the resemblances to Scripture in the writings of Roman philosophers may be compared with those just noted, I subjoin a few instances from 'Seekers after God,' and Dr. Ramage's Beautiful Thoughts:' I 1. Seneca. 'God comes to men: nay, what is nearer, comes into men.' 'A sacred spirit dwells within us, the observer and guardian of all our evil and our good.' Cf. 1 Cor. iii. 16. 'Let him who hath conferred a favour hold his tongue.' 'In conferring a favour nothing should be more avoided than pride.' Cf. Matt. vi. 3. 'If you wish to be loved, love.' Expect from another what you do to another.' 'We are all wicked; therefore whatever we blame in another we shall find in our own bosom.' 'A good man is God's disciple and imitator and His true offspring, whom that magnificent Father doth, after the manner of severe parents, educate hardly.' 'God is nigh to thee, He is with thee, He is in thee.' 'Temples are not to be built for God with stones piled on high; He is to be consecrated in the breast of each.' 'What a foolish thing it is to promise ourselves a long life, who are not masters of even to-morrow!' 'Live with men as if God saw you.' 'Other men's sins are before our eyes; our own behind our back.' 'The greater part of mankind are angry with the sinner and not with the sin.' 'The severest punishment a man can receive who has injured another, is to have committed the injury.' 2. Epictetus. If you always remember that in all you do in soul or body God stands by as a witness, in all your prayers and your actions you will not err; and you shall have God dwelling with you.' 'How should a man grieve his enemy? By preparing himself to act in the noblest manner.' Cf. Rom. xii. 20. 3. Marcus Aurelius. The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong-doer.' 'Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them or bear with them.' Cf. 2 Thess. iv. 15, Col. iii. 13. 'In the morning when thou risest unwillingly let these thoughts be present, "I am rising to the work of a human being. Why, then, am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?" Dost thou exist, then, to take thy pleasure, and not for action or exertion? Dost thou not see the little birds, the ants, the spiders, the bees working together to put in order their several parts of the universe?' Cf. Prov. vi. 6. H" LECTURE VIII. Smriti-The Vedāngas. ITHERTO we have been engaged in describing briefly and illustrating by selected examples the three divisions of the Veda, viz. Mantra, Brāhmaṇa, and Upanishad, and the six Darśanas or systems of philosophy developed out of the third of these divisions. All three portions of the Veda come under the head of Śruti, ‘audition,' or Śruta,—that which is directly heard or revealed the eternal voice of divine knowledge heard by certain holy men called Rishis, and by them orally transmitted; or if committed to writing, then written down exactly as heard, without any intervention of human authorship. We now pass from Śruti and the six Darśanas to the second great head of Sanskrit literature, called Smriti, 'recollection' or that which is remembered and handed down by tradition (as distinguished from audition'). This is believed to be founded on Śruti, direct revelation,' as its primary basis, and only possesses authority in so far as it is in harmony with such revealed truth. The very essence of Smriti, however, is considered to be that it was delivered memoriter by human authors and put into the form of human composition. In its widest acceptation, Smriti may be said to include six principal subjects or departments, viz. I. six Vedāngas, limbs for supporting the Veda,' or, in other 6 1 The expression generally used is that the Rishis saw the hymns, rishi being fancifully connected with drishi, as if from root dris; but the terms Śruti and Śruta, taken in connection with the theory of the eternity of sound, indicate that the ear was the channel of communication. 2 If Veda-vahya, it is declared to be nishphala. Manu XII. 95. |