Indian Antiquary Vol 47

SR No.: 032539
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 386
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 377

GARBE'S INTRODUCTION TO THE BHAGAVADGITA
27
places itself in opposition (v. 15) to the Jñanayoga; (in the case) of the Karmayoga, greed-likewise innate in human nature-which is a veritable enemy of mankind (III. 37, 43); [p. 52) want of faith and scepticism also are likewise fatal (IV. 40). As & serviceable means of sucessfully opposing these obstructions, there are recommended several of the yoga-practices (V. 27, 28, VI. 10 and ff., VIII. 10, 12 and ff.). In the case of one who does not succeed in submerging these obstructions, his yoga-practices are not thereby rendered useless; since such a man is born again in the best of onvironments, and finally does reach the highest goal (II. 40, VI. 41 and ff.).
The most important of those claims which the Citd makes on the man seeking emancipation, I shall now finally refer to. As is known, the Bhag. is the song par excellence of Bhakti, the faithful and devout love to God. Devotion to God, (proceeding) as much from the path of knowledge, as from selfless performance of duty, leads with unconditioned certitude to the goal. The whole poem is permeated by this sentiment-to preach this doctrine was the whole poem composed. From devotion to God, springs knowledge of God (XVIII. 55), and this knowledge so works that the faithful offers up all deeds to God and leaves the fruit thereof to his care. Without distinction of hirth or former behaviour, Bhakti guarantees to every one the certainty of emancipation-oven to the wioked, to women, to the Vaisyas and to the Sadras (IX. 30-32). The main point, however, is not simply a mere transitory emotion of love: on the other hand, the whole being of a man must be permeated by an unfaltering (ananya, avyabhichárin) 4 devotion to God. If this be the case, the thoughts of a man on the point of death are (naturally) fixed on God. Particular emphasis is laid on this point in the Bhag. (VIII. 5, 9, 10, 13), since a man enters in that state of existence (bhava) which he contemplates at the time of death.46
In what light are we now to regard the condition of a man freed from worldly existence and made one with God? (p. 58) Is it unconsciousness as is taught in the Sankhya-yoga! When the soul returns to its place of origin, is its individuality, which it once bore separately from and as a part of, the divine soul, obliterated ? Most of the expressions which the Citâ uses to denote the existence of the emancipated (soul) are colourless, and are of no help in giving an answer to this question : siddhi (XII. 10, XVI. 23), para siddhi (XIV. 1), pard or parama gati (VI. 45, VIII. 13, IX. 32, XVI. 22, 23), pada andmaya (II. 51) and Sasvata pada avyaya (XVIII. 56). Along with this, the Bhag. also designates the state of the emancipated soul diversely as quietude (ádnti) or as the highest repose (para or naishthiki Santi (IV. 39, V. 12, XVIII, 62), and by this is meant not the obliteration of consciousness for all eternity, but a state of blissful freedom of the soul, existing on individually, in the presence of God. The Bhag. offers no explanation of how indeed a soul can have a conscious existence without any reference to matter as is postulated by the Samkhyayoga. Evidently this is a view originating in the oldest period of the Bhagavata religion, and has ever since represented a dogma of the Bhagavata faith; and for this reason also it came about that when this religion was furnished with Samkhya-yoga elements, this dogma was not supplanted by the mutually contradictory doctrine of the two systems. Out of the logical difficulties that follow from this, the faith of the believers helped them out.
That the author of the Bhag. as a matter of fact saw in the going of the emancipated goul to God, a continuance of conscious individuality, oan be proved from the following
** See the passages in Jacob's Concordance. 45 For the results of this thory, compare Barth, Rerigions de l'in: 133 = English Trans., p. 228).