These we will take from the _Bhagavad Gita_, that glorious episode in the mighty civil war which shattered India, and left her defenceless against the successive invaders who were to complete her fall. This great epic poem introduces to us Arjuna, a noble prince, about to take part in the strife. The two armies, arrayed for battle, are on the point of engaging, arrows have already begun to pierce the air. In the opposing ranks Arjuna sees cherished relatives, dear friends, and revered teachers, whom destiny has placed in hostile array, thus giving to the battle all the horrors of parricide and fratricide. Overwhelmed with grief and pity, his heart moved to its inmost depths, Arjuna drops his bow on the ground and thus addresses his Teacher, the divine Krishna: "Seeing these my kinsmen arrayed, O Krishna, eager to fight, "My limbs fail and my mouth is parched, my body quivers and my hair stands on end. "Gandiva (Arjuna's bow) slips from my hand, and my skin burns all over; I am not able to stand, and my mind is whirling. "And I see adverse omens, O Keshava (hairy one). Nor do I foresee advantage by slaying kinsmen in battle. "For I desire not victory, O Krishna, nor kingship nor pleasures; what is kingship to us, O Govinda (Thou who knowest all that is done by our senses and organs), what enjoyment or even life? "Those for whose sake we desire kingship, enjoyments, and pleasures, they stand here in battle, abandoning life and riches. "Teachers, fathers, sons, as well as grandfathers, mothers' brothers, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law, and other relatives. "These I do not wish to kill, though (myself) slain, O Madhusudana (slayer of Madhu, a demon), even for the sake of the kingship of the three worlds (the habitations of men, gods, and semi-divine beings); how then for earth? ... "I will not do battle." The divine Krishna then smiled upon his well-beloved disciple, and said to him: "Thou grievest for those that should not be grieved for, and speakest words of wisdom (words that sound wise but miss the deeper sense of wisdom). The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead. "Nor at any time verily was I not, nor thou, nor these princes of men, nor verily shall we ever cease to be hereafter. "As the Dweller in the body seeketh in the body childhood, youth, and old age, so passeth he on to another body; the well-balanced grieve not thereat.... "These bodies of the Embodied One, who is eternal, indestructible, and boundless, are known as finite. Therefore fight, O Bharata. "He who regardeth This (the Dweller in the body) as a slayer, and he who thinketh it is slain, both of them are ignorant. It slayeth not, nor is it slain.... "Who knoweth It indestructible, perpetual, unborn, undiminishing; how can that man slay, O Partha, or cause to be slain? "As a man casting off worn-out garments, taketh new ones, so the Dweller in the body, casting off worn-out bodies, entereth into others that are new.