CHAPTER LIII.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
Admonition of Arjuna.
Argument.—Abandonment of Egoism, knowledge of the Adorable one and its different stages.
THE Lord said:—Arjuna, you are not the killer (of any soul), it is a false conceit of yours which you must shun; the soul is ever lasting and free from death and decay.
2. He who has no egoism in him, and whose mind is not moved (by joy or grief), is neither the killer of nor killed by any body, though he may kill every one in the world. (This is an attribute of the supreme soul).
3. Whatever is known in our consciousness, the same is felt within us; shun therefore your inward consciousness of egoism and meity, as this is I and these are mine, and these are others and theirs.
4. The thought that you are connected with such and such persons and things, and that of your being deprived of them, and the joy and grief to which you are subjected thereby, must affect your soul in a great measure.
5. He who does his works with the parts or members of his body, and connects the least attention of his soul there with; becomes infatuated by his egoism and believes himself as the doer of his action. (here is a lesson of perfect indifference enjoined to any act or thought that a man does by or entertains in himself).
6. Let the eyes see, the ears hear, and your touch feel their objects, let your tongue also taste the relish of a thing, but why take them to your soul and where is your egoism situated in these?
7. The minds of even the great, are verily employed in the works that they have undertaken to perform, but where is your egoism or soul in these, that you should be sorry for its pains. (The soul is aloof from pain).
8. Your assumption to yourself to any action, which has been done by the combination of many, amounts only to a conceit of your vanity, and exposes you not only to ridicule, but to frustrate the merit of your act. (So is the assuming of a joint action of all the organs and members of the mind, and the achievement of a whole army to one's self. So also many masters arrogate to themselves the merit of the deeds of their servants).
9. The yogis and hermits do their ritual and ordinary actions with attention of their minds and senses, and often times with the application of the members and organs of their bodies only, in order to acquire and preserve the purity of their souls.
10. Those who have not subdued their bodies with the morphia of indifference, are employed in the repetition of their actions, without ever being healed of their disease (of anxiety).
11. No person is graceful whose mind is tinged with his selfishness, as no man however learned and wise is held in honour, whose conduct is blemished with unpoliteness and misbehaviours.
12. He who is devoid of his selfishness and egotism, and is alike patient both in prosperity and adversity, is neither affected nor dejected, whether he does his business or not.
13. Know this, O son of Pandu as the best field for your martial action; which is worthy of your great good, glory and ultimate happiness. (War in a just cause is attended with glory).
14. Though you reckon it as heinous on the one hand and unrighteous on the other; yet you must acknowledge the super excellence and imperiousness of the duties required of your martial race, so do your duty and immortalize yourself.
15. Seeing even the ignorant stick fast to the proper duties of their race, no intelligent person can neglect or set them at naught; and the mind that is devoid of vanity, cannot be ashamed or dejected, even if one fails or falls in the discharge of his duty.
16. Do you duty, O Arjuna, with your yoga or fixed attention to it, and avoid all company (in order to keep company with the object of your pursuit only). If you do your works as they come to you by yourself alone, you will never fail nor be foiled in any. i.e. thy object thou canst never gain, unless from all others you refrain.
17. Be as quiet as the person of Brahma, and do your works as quietly as Brahma does leave his result (whether good or bad) to Brahma (because you can have no command over the consequence), and by doing so, assimilate thyself into the nature of Brahma (who is all in all).
18. Commit yourself and all your actions and objects to God, remain as unaltered as God himself, and know him as the soul of all, and be thus the decoration of the world. (The gloss says, it is no blasphemy to think one's self as God, when there is no other personality besides that of Deity).
19. If you can lay down all your desires, and become as even and cool mind as a muni—monk; if you can join your soul to the yoga of sannyasa or contemplative coldness, you can do all your actions with a mind unattached to any.
20. Arjuna said:—Please lord, explain to me fully, what is meant by the renunciation of all connections, commitment of our actions to Brahma; dedication of ourselves to God and abdication of all concerns.
21. Tell me also about the acquisition of true knowledge and divisions of Yoga meditation, all which I require to know in their proper order, for the removal of my gross ignorance on those subjects.
22. The Lord replied:—The learned know that as the true form of Brahma, of which we can form no idea or conception, but which may be known after the restraining of our imagination, and the pacification of our desires.
23. Promptitude after these things constitutes our wisdom or knowledge, and perseverance in these practices is what is called Yoga. Self dedication to Brahma rests on the belief that, Brahma is all this world and myself also.
24. As a stone statue is all hollow both in its inside and outside, so is Brahma as empty, tranquil and transparent as the sky, which is neither to be seen by us nor is it beyond our sight.
25. It then bulges out a little from itself, and appears as something, other than what it is. It is this reflexion of the universe, but all as empty as this inane vacuity.
26. What is again this idea of your egoism, when every thing is evolved out of the Supreme Intellect, of what account is the personality of any body, which is but an infinitesimal part of the universal soul.
27. The Egoism of the individual soul, is not apart from the universal spirit, although it seems to be separate from the same; because there is no possibility of exclusion or separation of anything from the Omnipresent and all comprehensive soul of God, and therefore a distinct egoism is a nullity.
28. As it is the case with our egoism, so is it with the individuality of a pot and of a monkey also. (i.e. of all insensible and brute creatures too), none of which is separate from the universal whole. All existences being as drops of water in the sea, it is absurd to presume an egoism to any body.
29. Things appearing as different to the conscious soul, are to be considered as the various imageries represented in the self-same soul (like the sundry scenes shown in the soul in a dream).
30. So also is the knowledge of the particulars and species, lost in the idea of the general and the summum genus. Now by sannyása or renunciation of the world is meant, the resignation of the fruition of the fruits of our actions. (The main teaching of Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavadgítá, tends to the renunciation of the fruits of our actions).
31. Unattachment signifies the renunciation of all our worldly desires, and the intense application of the mind to the one sole God of the multifarious creation, and the variety of his imaginary representations.
32. The want of all dualism in the belief of his self-existence as distinct from that of God, constitutes his dedication of himself to God; it is ignorance that creates the distinction, by applying various names and attributes to the one intellectual soul.
33. The meaning of the word intelligent soul, is undoubtedly that it is one with the universe; and that the Ego is the same with all space, and its contents of the worlds and their motions.
34. The Ego is the unity of Eternity, and the Ego is duality and plurality in the world, and the variety of its multifarious productions. Therefore be devoted to the sole Ego, and drown your own egoism in the universal Ego. (Here the purport is given instead of the literal version of the too verbose tetrastich verse).
35. Arjuna said:—There being two forms of the Deity, the one transcendent or spiritual and the other transpicuous or material; tell me to which of these I shall resort for my ultimate perfection.
36. The lord replied:—There are verily two forms of the all pervading Vishnu, the exoteric and the other esoteric; that having a body and hands holding the conch-shell, the discus, and the mace and lotus, is the common form for public worship.
37. The other is the esoteric or spiritual form, which is undefined and without its beginning and end; and is usually expressed by the term Brahma—great.
38. As long as you are unacquainted with the nature of the supreme soul, and are not awakened to the light of the spirit; so long should you continue to adore the form of the God with its four arms. (or the form of the four armed God).