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74
BILAGAVADGITA.
and egoism', thus is my nature divided eightfold. But this is a lower (form of my) nature. Know (that there is another (form of my) nature, and higher than this, which is animate, O you of mighty arms! and by which this universe is upheld. Know that all things have these (for their) source. I am the producer and the destroyer of the whole universe.
There is nothing else, O Dhanangaya! higher than myself; all this is woven upon me, like numbers of pearls upon a thread? I am the taste in water, O son of Kuntt! I am the light of the sun and moon. I am 'Om' in all the Vedas, sound in space, and manliness in human beings; I am the fragrant smell in the earth, refulgence in the fire; I am life in all beings, and penance in those who perform penance. Know me, O son of Pritha ! to be the eternal seed of all beings; I am the discernment of the discerning ones, and I the glory of the glorious ? I am also the strength, unaccompanied by fondness or desire, of the strong. And, O chief of the descendants of Bharata! I am love unopposed to piety' among all
" This accords with the Sankhya philosophy. See chapter 1, sutra 61 of the current aphorisms. * Cf. infra, p. 105.
s Cf. Mundakopanishad, p. 298. • Infra, p. 79. Cf. Goldstücker's Remains, I, 14, 122 ; Yogasútras I, 27.
* I. e. the occult essence which underlies all these and the other qualities of the various things mentioned.
• I. e. power to bear the pairs of opposites. ? Glory here seems to mean dignity, greatness.
"Desire is the wish to obtain new things; fondness is the anxiety 10 retain what has been obtained. The strength here spoken of, therefore, is that which is applied to the performance of one's own dutics only.
l.e. indulged within the bounds allowed by the rules of the Säsıras, namely, for the procreation of sons &c. only.
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