The Song celestial Part 10

Now am I fixed! my doubt is fled away!

According to Thy word, so will I do!

Sanjaya.

Thus gathered I the gracious speech of Krishna, O my King!

Thus have I told, with heart a-thrill, this wise and wondrous thing By great Vyasa's learning writ, how Krishna's self made known The Yoga, being Yoga's Lord. So is the high truth shown!

And aye, when I remember, O Lord my King, again Arjuna and the G.o.d in talk, and all this holy strain, Great is my gladness: when I muse that splendour, pa.s.sing speech, Of Hari, visible and plain, there is no tongue to reach My marvel and my love and bliss. O Archer-Prince! all hail!

O Krishna, Lord of Yoga! surely there shall not fail Blessing, and victory, and power, for Thy most mighty sake, Where this song comes of Arjun, and how with G.o.d he spake.

HERE ENDS, WITH CHAPTER XVIII., Ent.i.tled "Mokshasanyasayog,"

Or "The Book of Religion by Deliverance and Renunciation,"

THE BHAGAVAD-GITA.

[FN#1] Some repet.i.tionary lines are here omitted.

[FN#2] Technical phrases of Vedic religion.

[FN#3] The whole of this pa.s.sage is highly involved and difficult to render.

[FN#4] I feel convinced sankhyanan and yoginan must be transposed here in sense.

[FN#5] I am doubtful of accuracy here.

[FN#6] A name of the sun.

[FN#7] Without desire of fruit.

[FN#8] That is,"joy and sorrow, success and failure, heat and cold,"&c.

[FN#9] i.e., the body.

[FN#10] The Sanskrit has this play on the double meaning of Atman.

[FN#11] So in original.

[FN#12] Beings of low and devilish nature.

[FN#13] Krishna.

[FN#14] I read here janma, "birth;" not jara,"age"

[FN#15] I have discarded ten lines of Sanskrit text here as an undoubted interpolation by some Vedantist [FN#16] The Sanskrit poem here rises to an elevation of style and manner which I have endeavoured to mark by change of metre.

[FN#17] Ahinsa.

[FN#18] The nectar of immortality.

[FN#19] Called "The j.a.p."

[FN#20] The compound form of Sanskrit words.

[FN#21] "Kamalapatraksha"

[FN#22] These are all divine or deified orders of the Hindoo Pantheon.

[FN#23] "Hail to Thee, G.o.d of G.o.ds! Be favourable!"

[FN#24] The wind.

[FN#25] "Not peering about,"anapeksha.

[FN#26] The Calcutta edition of the Mahabharata has these three opening lines.

[FN#27] This is the nearest possible version of Kshetrakshetrajnayojnanan yat tajnan matan mama.

[FN#28] I omit two lines of the Sanskrit here, evidently interpolated by some Vedantist.

[FN#29] Wombs.

[FN#30] I do not consider the Sanskrit verses here-which are somewhat freely rendered--"an attack on the authority of the Vedas," with Mr Davies, but a beautiful lyrical episode, a new "Parable of the fig-tree."

[FN#31] I omit a verse here, evidently interpolated.

[FN#32] "Of the Asuras,"lit.

[FN#33] I omit the ten concluding shlokas, with Mr Davis.

[FN#34] Rakshasas and Yakshas are unembodied but capricious beings of great power, gifts, and beauty, same times also of benignity.

[FN#35] These are spirits of evil wandering ghosts.

[FN#36] Yatayaman, food which has remained after the watches of the night. In India this would probably "go bad."

[FN#37] I omit the concluding shlokas, as of very doubtful authenticity.