Chapter II
- Sanjaya. Him, filled with such compassion and such grief,
- With eyes tear-dimmed, despondent, in stern words
- The Driver, Madhusudan, thus addressed:
- Krishna. How hath this weakness taken thee?
- Whence springs
- The inglorious trouble, shameful to the brave,
- Barring the path of virtue? Nay, Arjun!
- Forbid thyself to feebleness! it mars
- Thy warrior-name! cast off the coward-fit!
- Wake! Be thyself! Arise, Scourge of thy Foes!
- Arjuna. How can I, in the battle, shoot with shafts
- On Bhishma, or on Drona- O thou Chief!-
- Both worshipful, both honourable men?
- Better to live on beggar's bread
- With those we love alive,
- Than taste their blood in rich feasts spread,
- And guiltily survive!
- Ah! were it worse- who knows?- to be
- Victor or vanquished here,
- When those confront us angrily
- Whose death leaves living drear?
- In pity lost, by doubtings tossed,
- My thoughts- distracted- turn
- To Thee, the Guide I reverence most,
- That I may counsel learn:
- I know not what would heal the grief
- Burned into soul and sense,
- If I were earth's unchallenged chief-
- A god- and these gone thence!
- Sanjaya. So spake Arjuna to the Lord of Hearts,
- And sighing, "I will not fight!" held silence then.
- To whom, with tender smile, (O Bharata!)
- While the Prince wept despairing 'twixt those hosts,
- Krishna made answer in divinest verse:
- Krishna. Thou grievest where no grief should be! thou speak'st
- Words lacking wisdom! for the wise in heart
- Mourn not for those that live, nor those that die.
- Nor I, nor thou, nor any one of these,
- Ever was not, nor ever will not be,
- For ever and for ever afterwards.
- All, that doth live, lives always! To man's frame
- As there come infancy and youth and age,
- So come there raisings-up and layings-down
- Of other and of other life-abodes,
- Which the wise know, and fear not. This that irks-
- Thy sense-life, thrilling to the elements-
- Bringing thee heat and cold, sorrows and joys,
- 'Tis brief and mutable! Bear with it, Prince!
- As the wise bear. The soul which is not moved,
- The soul that with a strong and constant calm
- Takes sorrow and takes joy indifferently,
- Lives in the life undying! That which is
- Can never cease to be; that which is not
- Will not exist. To see this truth of both
- Is theirs who part essence from accident,
- Substance from shadow. Indestructible,
- Learn thou! the Life is, spreading life through all;
- It cannot anywhere, by any means,
- Be anywise diminished, stayed, or changed.
- But for these fleeting frames which it informs
- With spirit deathless, endless, infinite,
- They perish. Let them perish, Prince! and fight!
- He who shall say, "Lo! I have slain a man!"
- He who shall think, "Lo! I am slain!" those both
- Know naught! Life cannot slay. Life is not slain!
- Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never;
- Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams!
- Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit for ever;
- Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of it seems!
- Who knoweth it exhaustless, self-sustained,
- Immortal, indestructible,- shall such
- Say, "I have killed a man, or caused to kill?"
- Nay, but as when one layeth
- His worn-out robes away,
- And, taking new ones, sayeth,
- "These will I wear to-day!"
- So putteth by the spirit
- Lightly its garb of flesh,
- And passeth to inherit
- A residence afresh.
- I say to thee weapons reach not the Life;
- Flame burns it not, waters cannot o'erwhelm,
- Nor dry winds wither it. Impenetrable,
- Unentered, unassailed, unharmed, untouched,
- Immortal, all-arriving, stable, sure,
- Invisible, ineffable, by word
- And thought uncompassed, ever all itself,
- Thus is the Soul declared! How wilt thou, then,-
- Knowing it so,- grieve when thou shouldst not grieve?
- How, if thou hearest that the man new-dead
- Is, like the man new-born, still living man-
- One same, existent Spirit- wilt thou weep?
- The end of birth is death; the end of death
- Is birth: this is ordained! and mournest thou,
- Chief of the stalwart arm! for what befalls
- Which could not otherwise befall? The birth
- Of living things comes unperceived; the death
- Comes unperceived; between them, beings perceive:
- What is there sorrowful herein, dear Prince?
- Wonderful, wistful, to contemplate!
- Difficult, doubtful, to speak upon!
- Strange and great for tongue to relate,
- Mystical hearing for every one!
- Nor wotteth man this, what a marvel it is,
- When seeing, and saying, and hearing are done!
- This Life within all living things, my Prince!
- Hides beyond harm; scorn thou to suffer, then,
- For that which cannot suffer. Do thy part!
- Be mindful of thy name, and tremble not!
- Nought better can betide a martial soul
- Than lawful war; happy the warrior
- To whom comes joy of battle- comes, as now,
- Glorious and fair, unsought; opening for him
- A gateway unto Heav'n. But, if thou shunn'st
- This honourable field- a Kshattriya-
- If, knowing thy duty and thy task, thou bidd'st
- Duty and task go by- that shall be sin!
- And those to come shall speak thee infamy
- From age to age; but infamy is worse
- For men of noble blood to bear than death!
- The chiefs upon their battle-chariots
- Will deem 'twas fear that drove thee from the fray.
- Of those who held thee mighty-souled the scorn
- Thou must abide, while all thine enemies
- Will scatter bitter speech of thee, to mock
- The valour which thou hadst; what fate could fall
- More grievously than this? Either- being killed-
- Thou wilt win Swarga's safety, or- alive
- And victor- thou wilt reign an earthly king.
- Therefore, arise, thou Son of Kunti! brace
- Thine arm for conflict, nerve thy heart to meet-
- As things alike to thee- pleasure or pain,
- Profit or ruin, victory or defeat:
- So minded, gird thee to the fight, for so
- Thou shalt not sin!
- Thus far I speak to thee
- As from the "Sankhya"- unspiritually-
- Hear now the deeper teaching of the Yog,
- Which holding, understanding, thou shalt burst
- Thy Karmabandh, the bondage of wrought deeds.
- Here shall no end be hindered, no hope marred,
- No loss be feared: faith- yea, a little faith-
- Shall save thee from the anguish of thy dread.
- Here, Glory of the Kurus! shines one rule-
- One steadfast rule- while shifting souls have laws
- Many and hard. Specious, but wrongful deem
- The speech of those ill-taught ones who extol
- The letter of their Vedas, saying, "This
- Is all we have, or need;" being weak at heart
- With wants, seekers of Heaven: which comes- they say-
- As "fruit of good deeds done;" promising men
- Much profit in new births for works of faith;
- In various rites abounding; following whereon
- Large merit shall accrue towards wealth and power;
- Albeit, who wealth and power do most desire
- Least fixity of soul have such, least hold
- On heavenly meditation. Much these teach,
- From Veds, concerning the "three qualities;"
- But thou, be free of the "three qualities,"
- Free of the "pairs of opposites," and free
- From that sad righteousness which calculates;
- Self-ruled, Arjuna! simple, satisfied.
- Look! like as when a tank pours water forth
- To suit all needs, so do these Brahmans draw
- Text for all wants from tank of Holy Writ.
- But thou, want not! ask not! Find full reward
- Of doing right in right! Let right deeds be
- Thy motive, not the fruit which comes from them.
- And live in action! Labour! Make thine acts
- Thy piety, casting all self aside,
- Contemning gain and merit; equable
- In good or evil: equability
- Is Yog, is piety!
- Yet, the right act
- Is less, far less, than the right-thinking mind.
- Seek refuge in thy soul; have there thy heaven!
- Scorn them that follow virtue for her gifts!
- The mind of pure devotion- even here-
- Casts equally aside good deeds and bad,
- Passing above them. Unto pure devotion
- Devote thyself: with perfect meditation
- Comes perfect act, and the righthearted rise-
- More certainly because they seek no gain-
- Forth from the bands of body, step by step,
- To highest seats of bliss. When thy firm soul
- Hath shaken off those tangled oracles
- Which ignorantly guide, then shall it soar
- To high neglect of what's denied or said,
- This way or that way, in doctrinal writ.
- Troubled no longer by the priestly lore,
- Safe shall it live, and sure; steadfastly bent
- On meditation. This is Yog- and Peace!
- Arjuna. What is his mark who hath that steadfast heart,
- Confirmed in holy meditation? How
- Know we his speech, Kesava? Sits he, moves he
- Like other men?
- Krishna. When one, O Pritha's Son!-
- Abandoning desires which shake the mind-
- Finds in his soul full comfort for his soul,
- He hath attained the Yog- that man is such!
- In sorrows not dejected, and in joys
- Not overjoyed; dwelling outside the stress
- Of passion, fear, and anger; fixed in calms
- Of lofty contemplation;- such an one
- Is Muni, is the Sage, the true Recluse!
- He who to none and nowhere overbound
- By ties of flesh, takes evil things and good
- Neither desponding nor exulting, such
- Bears wisdom's plainest mark He who shall draw
- As the wise tortoise draws its four feet safe
- Under its shield, his five frail senses back
- Under the spirit's buckler from the world
- Which else assails them, such an one, my Prince!
- Hath wisdom's mark! Things that solicit sense
- Hold off from the self-governed; nay, it comes,
- The appetites of him who lives beyond
- Depart,- aroused no more. Yet may it chance,
- O Son of Kunti that a governed mind
- Shall some time feel the sense-storms sweep, and wrest
- Strong self-control by the roots. Let him regain
- His kingdom! let him conquer this, and sit
- On Me intent. That man alone is wise
- Who keeps the mastery of himself! If one
- Ponders on objects of the sense, there springs
- Attraction; from attraction grows desire,
- Desire flames to fierce passion, passion breeds
- Recklessness; then the memory- all betrayed-
- Lets noble purpose go, and saps the mind,
- Till purpose, mind, and man are all undone.
- But, if one deals with objects of the sense
- Not loving and not hating, making them
- Serve his free soul, which rests serenely lord,
- Lo! such a man comes to tranquillity;
- And out of that tranquillity shall rise
- The end and healing of his earthly pains,
- Since the will governed sets the soul at peace.
- The soul of the ungoverned is not his,
- Nor hath he knowledge of himself; which lacked,
- How grows serenity? and, wanting that,
- Whence shall he hope for happiness?
- The mind
- That gives itself to follow shows of sense
- Seeth its helm of wisdom rent away,
- And, like a ship in waves of whirlwind, drives
- To wreck and death. Only with him, great Prince!
- Whose senses are not swayed by things of sense-
- Only with him who holds his mastery,
- Shows wisdom perfect. What is midnight-gloom
- To unenlightened souls shines wakeful day
- To his clear gaze; what seems as wakeful day
- Is known for night, thick night of ignorance,
- To his true-seeing eyes. Such is the Saint!
- And like the ocean, day by day receiving
- Floods from all lands, which never overflows;
- Its boundary-line not leaping, and not leaving,
- Fed by the rivers, but unswelled by those;-
- So is the perfect one! to his soul's ocean
- The world of sense pours streams of witchery,
- They leave him as they find, without commotion,
- Taking their tribute, but remaining sea.
- Yea! whoso, shaking off the yoke of flesh
- Lives lord, not servant, of his lusts; set free
- From pride, from passion, from the sin of "Self,"
- Toucheth tranquillity! O Pritha's Son!
- That is the state of Brahm! There rests no dread
- When that last step is reached! Live where he will,
- Die when he may, such passeth from all 'plaining,
- To blest Nirvana, with the Gods, attaining.
HERE ENDETH Chapter II OF THE BHAGAVAD-GITA, Entitled "Sankhya-Yog," Or
"The Book of Doctrines." |