The Religions of India: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris JastrowHopkins, Edward Washburn
Religion
The Religions of India: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris Jastrow
Hopkins, Edward Washburn
India -- Religion
The Divine Song, as it is revealed in the epic by Vishnu (-Krishna) to
his favorite knight, Arjuna, begins thus: "Know that the 'That' in
which is comprised the 'This' is indestructible. These bodies of the
indestructible Eternal One have an end: but whoso knows Him as slayer,
and whoso thinks Him to be slain, these two have not true wisdom. He
slays not and is not slain. He is not born, he does not die at any
time; nor will He, having been born, cease to be. Unborn, everlasting,
eternal, He, the Ancient One, is not slain when the body is slain. As
one puts away an old garment and puts on another that is new, so He,
the embodied (Spirit), puts away the old body and assumes one that is
new. Everlasting, omnipresent, firm, unchanging is He, the Eternal;
indiscernible is He called, inconceivable, unchangeable."[4]
The Song now turns into a plea that the warrior who is hearing it
should, as one born to be a soldier, be brave and fight, lest his
sorrow for the slain be taken for fear; since "nothing is better for a
warrior than a just fight," and "loss of fame is worse than death."
Then follows (with the usual inconsequential 'heaven') "If thou art
slain thou wilt obtain heaven, and if thou art victorious thou shalt
enjoy earth; therefore, careless of pleasure and pain, get ready for
the fight, and so thou wilt not incur sin. This is the knowledge
declared in the S[=a]nkhya; hear now that of the Yoga," and the Divine
Lord proceeds:
"Some are pleased with Vedic words and think that there is nothing
else; their souls are full of desires; and they think that going to
heaven is the chief thing. Yet have the Vedas reference only to the
three qualities (of which all things partake). Be free from the three
qualities (do not care for rewards). In action, not in fruit, is the
chief thing. Do thy work, abiding by serene devotion (Yoga), rejecting
every tie; be indifferent to success and failure. Serene devotion is
called indifference (to such things). Action is lower than devotion of
mind. Devotion is happiness. Do thou, wise in devotion, abandon the
fruit that is sprung from action, and, freed from the bonds of birth,
attain a perfect state."
S[=a]nkhya here means the philosophy of religion; Yoga is the
philosophical state of mind, serene indifference, religious
_sang-froid_ the practical result of a belief in the S[=a]nkhya
doctrine of the indestructibility of the spirit. In the following
there is Vedantic teaching, as well as Sankhyan in the stricter sense.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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