The Bhagavad-Gãłtã¡; Or a Discourse Between Ká¹łiá¹
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THE BHAGAVAD-GTTA; OR A DISCOURSE BETWEEN KRISHNA AND ARJUNA ON DIVINE MATTERS. A SANSKRIT PHILOSOPHICAL POEM: TRANSLATED, WITH COPIOUS NOTES, AN INTRODUUPION ON SANSKEIT PHILOSOPHY, AND OTHER MATPBR2 BY 1 COCKBURN THOMSON, lll-Ill!! Ol* THE ASIATIC SOCIETY Ol !RANCll; AND OI THB ANTIQUAIIAN SOCIETY Ol' KOBHANDY HERTFORD: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY STEPHEN AUSTIN, FORE STREET, noolcsnnnn 'ro 'mn nAs'r INDIA COLLEGE. ll DCCCI ' BI BLIOTHECA REGIA NS TS, _ __ gI1O'§fC-K`-f'_ /_" _ T0 HORACE HAYMAN WILSON, M.A., F.R.S., BOD]-IN PROFESSOR OF BANSKIXYI' IN THE UNIVERSITY 0? OXFDKD, Pill-LSlDEN'|' UI* THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, ETC., ETC., T0 WHOM EUROPE 0\'I~1§ S0 )Il'Cl-I OF HBR KNOWLEDGE OF INDIA, INDIA S0 MUCH OF THE ESTEEM OF EUROPE; AND V]-'IOSE INDI-IFATIGABLE LABOUBS AND RARE ABILITIES HAVE THROWVN A BRIGHT LIGHT OVER THE MYSTERIES OI-` THE EAST; 'rms m1MnI.1<: ATTEMPT T0 FOLLOW IN urs I-'ooTs1'1aPs IS INSCRIBED, AS A MARK OF FOR HIS TALBNTS AND GRATITUIIE FOR HIS ADMIRATION FRIENDSHIP , BY HIS PUPII., THE TRANSLATOR. D g Uzed by CONTENTES. ~ IAGP V PREFACE .............. INTRODUCTION :- PART I.-On thc Origin of Philosophical Ideas in Indio _...... __ xvii II.-On the Schools of Indian ..._,.....,._... .. xxxv ,, Philosophy .......................... liv ,, III.-The Sankhya System IV.-The of ....................... ,_ lxxxii ,, Yoga, Patanjali V.-The of the ........ xc ,, Philosophy Bhagavad-Gita Remarks on the Bhagavad-Gith........._.......,.,......... ._ cxiii TRANSLATION :- CHAPTER I.-The Dcspondency of Arjuna ........... 1 to the Doctrine ._ 9 ,, II.-Application Sankhya Action ......................... 21 ,, III.--Devotion through IV.-Devotion ......,............ .. 29 , through Spiritual Knowledge means of the Rcnuntiation of Actions ......... , V.-Devotion by 37 means of .................... VI.-Devotion by Self-Restraint . 43 VII.-Devotion Discernment ..................,.. 50 ,, through Spiritual VIII,-Devotion to the Indivisible ............. 56 ,, Supreme Spirit IX.-Devotion by means of Kingly Knowledge and Kingly Mystery ......................................................... 62 to ........ .. , X.-Devotion thc Divine Virtucs 68 of the Universal .............. , XI.-The Vision Form ........... 74 XII.-Devotion through Worship....................................... S2 XIII.-Devotion in connection with thc Kshctra and thc Kshetrajna...................................................... 85 XIV.-Devotion in connection with the Three Qualities ............ 92 XV.-Devotion the Attainment to the Person......... ,, by Highest 97 XVI,--Dcvotion in to the Lot of ,, regard thc Devas and of thc Asuras ......................................................... 103 as of .......... .. ,, XVII.--Dcvotion regards the Three Kinds Faith 107 XVI as and ...... ,, [I.--Devotion Regards Emancipation Renuntiation 113 INDEX OF PROPER NAMES ...................,...._........,........... .. 124 PREFACE. THERE are many portions of Sacred Writ which, while it would be presumptuous to refuse their literal acceptation, forcibly prompt an allegorical construction, serving at once as a lesson and a prophecy. Such is the narrative of the building of the Tower of Babel. When the world, recovered from all but entire destruction, rose fresh in all its worldliness, Godless and inde- pendent, exulting in the discovery of the strength of its physical, and the unbounded vastness of its mental powers, man Hrst learnt the truth that union is the secret of all strength, and that by it, though a mere unit in creation, he might attain a super-human position. Nor was ever confusion more complete or more wonderful than the miracle which crushed his efforts and lowered his proud schemes to the dust. Yet since that moment man has ever been building another and a greater tower which, none the less, has Heaven for its object. Science and enlightenment are ever rising brick by brick, layer by layer, story by story, towards the level of super-human knowledge; and the great obstacle which put a stop to the erection of the material Babel-the confusion of tongues-still exists to impede that of the Tower of Knowledge, and still con- stitutes the chief hindrance to man's united action and united strength. But if the obstacle exist, the means of surmounting it have been granted us. We have never been debarred from acquiring another language than our own; and if the scientiic man of each country be considered the maker of the bricks, the linguist may, 1 vi numsvsn-eiri. at least, claim to be that no less useful Workman who visits the kiln of knowledge in every land and brings together the materials for the great work. The study of tongues, then, is not to be slighted. Through a nation's language alone, can its character, as well as its labours after truth, be really known ; and the study of nations is the study of mankind in its most liberal form. We cannot deny that the present age has felt this to be the case more than any that has gone before it, when we see in every country throughout Europe that the Classics of foreign languages constitute the first food administered to the young mind. But what has been granted to Greek and Latin has been refused to Sanskrit literature, which, if it offer more difficulties and impediments in its approach than others, indisputably possesses as rich, as varied, and as valuable a treasure as any that can be ranked among the dead. Yet it has found many zealous opponents among the learned of the west, and many delusive arguments have been brought against it. It has been called useless, as well for practical as scientific purposes. Let us first consider the former accusation,-its uselessness to those whom we send from our little island to be the governors and dispensers of justice over a hundred and sixty millions of inhabi- tants, and a continent almost as vast as that of Europe itself And here it is argued, that because Sanskrit is the parent of the many dialects spoken in India, it is not on that account the more useful to those who must employ them. It would be no more absurd, it is urged, to oblige every Englishman holding an appointment in Malta or the Ionian Islands to pass an examination in Homer or Virgil, because Greek and Latin are the sources of the vernaculars there spoken. But the case is very different with the Indian Peninsula. The modern Greek and Italian races differ far more runner. vii from the Greek and the Roman of old than even their altered languages ;-their character, their religion, their-institutions, their modes of expression even, are completely changed, and the heroes of Thucydides and Livy would come among them as utter strangers. Not so the Hindu. His religion, his institutions, his character, aye, even his mode of thought, is the same now as in the time of Kélidésa, the dramatist; or, still more, in that of the poets, Vyésa and Vélmikif* If there be any change at all, it is only that of day to night. Gross superstition and awful fatalism now reign Where thought and the search for truth have existed before,-the pedantic Pandit has replaced the learned Brahman, who was poet and philosopher, astronomer and theologian alike; and an age of rumi- nating lethargy has succeeded to one of action and invention. But the faults of the one have proceeded in a natural course from the uncorrected errors of the other ; and these errors should be studied if wefwould understand and learn to deal with the character of which they are the origin. The European who has not studied the £(ryan'|' will never comprehend the Hindu. Again, in a scientific point of view, Sanskrit, as a language, must take a very high place, and claim a very considerable amount of usefulness. The etymologist, the philologian, the ethnologist, and even the historian, cannot perfect their investigations without it,-parent, as it is, of almost every European, and of many Asiatic languages. Among the literatures, also, of bygone ages, we must, at least, accord to that of India a third place in extent and value. If Greece and Rome can boast of lyric and dramatic poets, * Kalidésa flourished at the Court of Vikramaditya, 56 years before Christ. Vvasa, the author of the Mahabharata, etc.; and Valmiki, that of the Ramaynna, lived severasupposedeentluies earlier, though the exact dates cannot be fixed with any certainty. 1' The name generally given to the people who used the Sanskrit language in cou- tradistinction to the modern inhabitants of India. I say used, since there is reason to believe that from a very remote period the people of the Peninsula have spoken one or more impure dialects. viii amsavm-siri. whom we may still use as models of style, or of Philosophers whose theories have not yet ceased to exert some influence, surely ancient India will be able to do as much, when rightly and generally understood; and I shall not have succeeded in the least of my objects, if the pages of the following introduction do not prove my position to the reader. But I will not now enter into details. I will content myself with one assertion, which future ages and future Indianists will triumph in proving. Of all the accusations brought against Sanskrit literature, none appears so incontrovertible as that it possesses no history. This I deny. The late M. Burnouf- whom all Oriental scholars must honour as one of the fathers of the study of the East in- Europe-was wont to say, that when rightly understood and duly compared, every work in Sanskrit would supply some historical material to fill up the gap which undoubtedly seems to exist; and that a history of the Kryan nation might eventually be traced with as much accuracy as that of any race which has not deigned to chronicle its own existence. Whence, then, these mistaken notions of Sanskrit literature? Whence these impediments in the way of its study; these mists of doubt and delusion which surround it? We answer that the study of Sanskrit is still in its cradle; and we are forced, at the same time, to confess that it has been but indifferently nursed even by its most zealous students.