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	Introduction to Suddha Dharma Gita Introduction to the Study of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita of 26 adhyayas (chapters) and 745 slokas as Released by Suddha Dharma Mandalam By Swami Subramanyananda* This article is a very important work of a very respected man (the reverenced Dr. Sir S. Subramanya Ayer Avergal (Swami Subramanyananda) who was then the President of the High Court of Justice of Madras, Chancellor of the University of Madras, and vice president of the Theosophical society from 1907 to 1911), not only by His erudition in the field of Yoga and Hinduism, but also due to His high spirituality, knowledge of the Science of Yoga as It has been taught through millennia by the Great Sears and Masters that are in charge of all evolutionary processes on earth. I urge all sincere seekers of the truth and Practitioners of Yoga to read and study this article carefully since it deals with important issues and reveal important information about the most important sacred text of humanity... The Srimad Bhagavad Gita Domingos Oliveira Preface of the First Sanskrit Edition of The Srimad Bhagavad Gita Published in India in 1917 *Swami Subramanyananda is the name given to Dr. Sir S. Subramanya Ayer Avergal, After being admitted in the order of Anandas, who was then the President of the High Court of Justice of Madras and vice president of the Theosophical society (from 1907 to 1911), He was chosen by the Divine Hierarchy to give the first public announcement about Suddha Dharma Mandalam, its basic principles and training system.. Through elevated initiations Swami Subramanyananda became a member of the millenary line of Gurus called Guruparampara. * Swami Subramanyananda was the first Initiatory Authority in Suddha Dharma Mandalam * Srimad Bhagavad Gita is the one supremely holy book in the proud possession of Aryavarta for millennia that has exacted the admiration and adoration of scholars and laymen alike both in the East and the West. It is also evident it is again the one book, whose authority is invoked by one and all in support of pet theories as also of those pertaining to sectarian disputations. That the teaching of the Gita has nothing to do whatsoever with such distressing controversies and curious theoretical malformations, but that it is a precious book of whole culture, continues to be lamentably missed still, in spite of the voluminous literature on the subject, and with what is added on to it year after year. This is essentially due to the baneful tendency to read into the Gita one's own predilections and not making an applied attempt to understand critically the central theme of the teaching as it is. That the Suddha Sanatana Dharma is the one most suitable Dharma to the human family during Kali epoch was anticipated by the Divine Narayana in His last great Advent as Sri Krishna, when He graciously vouchsafed the teaching of this Supreme Dharma in the form of the Gita to Arjuna. This Supreme Dharma, otherwise known as Pranava Sastra or Gayatri Dharma or Yoga Brahma Vidya, is Srimad Bhagavad Gita, the correct text of which was published by Suddha Dharma Mandalam, near 1917 .- T. M. Janardanam, 1939 - Suddha Dharma Director and third Initiatory Authority. Introduction to Suddha Dharma Gita FOREWORD This edition of the Gita is, in a very real and substantial sense, a new one, The seventy and odd verses, which ought to form part of the Scripture, but are included in none of the existing editions, have been traced and duly incorporated into it. The question therefore: Is the Gita complete? Raised recently in the columns of the newspapers, will no longer bear discussion, Any one, who might have thought that those who raised this question of incompleteness had the least idea of tampering with the text of this venerable book, should no longer allow such a suspicion to linger in his mind. It is needless to say that none of the verses, in question, are of modern invention and all of them are to be found in the parent work, the Mahabharata, but in parts and contexts where they should not be. All that has been done is merely to transpose them to their proper place in this Gita, thereby making it what it was in the Bharata of twenty-four thousand slokas, the predecessor of the epic as we have it now (See Adiparva I.78.). The details as to the verses incorporated, as stated above, are dealt with in the Editor's preface, and it is therefore unnecessary to add anything regarding them. Though the addition, thus made, does not, in the slightest degree, affect the teaching of the Lord according to all the existing editions, yet there can be no doubt that a manifest symmetry and completeness are secured to the Scripture by the incorporation into it of the verses alluded to. The above-mentioned change is, however, not the main ground for the claim that this edition is new. Its novelty and value rest chiefly on the division of the Scripture into twenty-six chapters adopted in accordance with Hamsa-yogi's commentary known as the Khanda-rahasya. This commentary, hitherto little known outside the ancient Organization called the Suddha-dharma-Mandalam, is a veritable store-house of invaluable interpretations of the secret teachings, contained in some of the most important Aryan sacred books such as parts of the Veda, a number of the Upanishads, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and a few of the Puranas. It may at once be pointed out that the name Hamsa-yogi is not the name of a specific individual author but that of an adhikara-purusha, who is a member of the occult hierarchy engaged in the spiritual government of our globe, and who is charged with the duty of furnishing to the world esoteric explanations of scriptural teachings from time to time. In the preface to the said commentary, in so far as it relates to the Gita, the author points out that the original division was into twenty-four chapters, excluding the first called the Gitavatara, which is merely introductory, and the last named the Brahma stuti, devoted to eulogy of Brahman. Those, who have so long been accustomed to the division of the book into eighteen chapters, will naturally demand an explanation of the present division into twenty-four chapters, now for the first time made publicly known. The obvious answer is that the division has its foundation in the Gayatri. But it may be asked how it was that such a foundation was felt to be necessary by the author? Some elucidation of this also may be attempted forthwith. It lies in the unbounded sway which has been exercised on the Aryan settlers in the south of the Himalayas by two of the greatest symbols known to civilized man. They are the Pranava or the syllable Om, made up of' the three letters A, U and M. and the fourth letter Be which, according to the phonetic rules of ancient Sanskrit grammar, is latent in them, and the Gayatri, which consists of the following 24 syllables: tat-sa-vi-tur-va-re-ni-yam-bhar-go-de-va-sya-dhee-ma-hi-dhi-yo-yo-nah-pra-choda-yat. Of these symbols, the former was, if one may say so, of primeval origin. At all events, it was pro-Aryan as is evident from the mantra " Om mani pad me hum," still in .use in those countries where the blood in the bulk of the population is Atlantean. Of the four letters of the Pranava, the first represents Atma or the Self-aspect of Brahman; U the Prakriti or the Not-self aspect; M the patent relation between the two; and Be the latent one, both together being spoken of as the Shakti or the Force-aspect. These four ultimate concepts furnish the basis for a synthetic philosophy, which strictly accounts for everything in the manifested cosmos. Further, the monosyllable itself is more than a mere symbol and when uttered by a true white magician, it is capable of producing the most marvelous results. This syllable has to be pronounced at the beginning and the end .of every sacrifice, of every religious rite, of the study of the scriptures and of the recitation of mantras by those who meditate with the aid of them. Next, as regards the Gayatri, both in point of spiritual power and in its value as a symbol, it is second only to the Pranava which it, in a way, expands and exemplifies, and consequently is spoken of as Veda-mata, the Mother of knowledge, sciences and arts. Hence, the long established practice of swriters of Scriptures like the Mahabharata, to model their compositions on the analogy of the Gayatri, for the double purpose of invoking divine benediction on such compositions and of making them the means of conveying lessons of great significance to those who study them. This being the case, the next point for consideration is, out of the great variety of objects and ideas comprised in and symbolized by the Gayatri, what the things, or ideas were that the author of the Gita had especially in his mind in making the chapters twenty-four? They are, for very clear reasons, the twenty-four great factors, which enter into the constitution of the manifested cosmos, including, of course, the evolution of our own humanity. Those factors, in the technical language of the hooks, are the twenty-four Tatwas evolved out of the Matter-aspect of Brahman called moola-tatwa in the Yoga-Deepika, by the Force-aspect of Brahman called bahu-bhavana-maha-shakti according to the; ideation of Brahman's Self-aspect, the Paramatma. The Tatwas, in question, consist, as is well-known, of the five maha-boothas or the elementary substances which are the prototypes of what, in our own physical plane, are called earth, water, fire, air and ether; the five tanmatras or the vibratory rates which regulate and govern the guna or quality peculiar to each of the said five elements; the five karmendriyas or motor organs the five gnanendriyas or sensory organs; manas, the organ of ratiocination and intellect; buddhi, the organ of intuition; Ahankara, the organ of egoism or the 'I'; and the Avyakta, the subtlest undifferentiated organ of the Atma or the Monad. To pursue the subject in the very instructive words of the Dharma-Deepika I. ii. 2-18: “The twenty-four Tatwas are named Puru and their collective aspect hears the same name. “That is no other than the divine City with nine gateways. The Self reposes in it and derives, in consequence, .its name of Purusha in all the worlds. " All men are hence called Purushas and likewise the Devas. " The Purusharthas are but the powers of Purusha that secure for him the desired results. Hear me while I explain to you their nature and characteristics. " Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha are recognized as the Purusharthas; but there is a fifth known as Prapti. "To every one comes the feeling; I will become the Protector of all, hence such protector ship becomes the foremost and first Aim of his existence. So, Dharma, the first of the purusharthas, is said by the wise to be no other than that protector ship. Every man resolves within himself; I will become the knower of that which forms the connotation of all sounds; hence, Artha forms the second of the purusharthas; so say the knower of Truth. Every man says to himself; I will be happy, that Kama or desire forms the third of the purusharthas, which manifests itself as that happiness. "Every one says to himself at the end of all his labors; I am free, hence Moksha or liberation is said to be the fourth of the purusharthas. " Every one says to himself; I have at last reached the goal; hence Prapti or realization, beneficent in its nature, is declared by the knowers of Brahman to be a purushartha too." It will thus be obvious that one object of the author in making the chapters correspond in cumber to the syllables of the Gayatri was indelibly to fix upon the mind of the student what all ought to know, the intimate and inseparable, connection that subsists between the two dozen f actors which lie at the very root of the evolution of men and Devas on the one hand and on the other, the splendid fruition of that evolution, the purusharthas, so well described in the passages quoted above. It may not be out of place to add that Valmeeki's Ramayana furnishes another striking instance of the adoption of a similar scheme; the scheme being the introduction of the twenty-four letters found in the Gayatri into, an equal number of verses respectively, each of which stands at the head of a group of one thousand, out of the twenty-four thousands that make up the whole epic. Furthermore, this immortal work of the Maharshi (whom the silver-tongued Kalidasa, with becoming reverence, speaks of as the Seer of the Path, Margadarsi maharshi) itself contains a Gita in twenty-six chapters hearing the name Arsha Gita, which, with Lord Narayana's blessings, it is hoped, would see the light of day at no distant date (Dharmadeepeka V. 1, 48, 49), Passing next to the second notable feature of the division, namely, the classification of the twenty-four chapters into four groups, here again, it is the Gayatri that furnishes the basis, in that the groups correspond to what are called its four feet (chatushpat). To render this apparently enigmatical statement intelligible, some explanation may be necessary. That Samsara or conditioned existence is no other than Brahman in Its manifested aspect is a settled point. And, in all conditioned existence, three factors stand out foremost. They are Gnana or cognition, Iccha or desire and Kriya or activity. Their summation is what we know and speak of as consciousness and life. This life, in expressing itself, exhibits four distinctly marked stages or states. In the lowest of them, lowest only from our point of view activity, in the next higher desire, and in what is above it, cognition predominates respectively. In the fourth or the last stage or state, there is the merging and summation of the lower three. The experience in this highest state of sublime fruition is so unique, profound and blissful as to warrant such numerous high sounding names as Samadhi, Suddha-dharma, Yoga, Amrta, Nirvana, Sukha, Eka, Namaskara, Sarana, Brahma-samsthiti, Paramapada and Tureeya (see also Foreword to the Pranava-vada, p.,29). And it is in this last state, the Self shines forth most and accounts for the description of it in that celebrated passage of the mandookya Upanishad I. 7. " Ohaturtham manyante sa atma sa vijneyah - They think of it as the Fourth. That is the Self. And That should be known. These four states have been viewed as strung together on a thread in obedience to the Divine Will and are spoken of as Bhagavat-sankalpa-sootra. To be sure, it is to impress what has been thus roughly indicated above upon all who devote themselves to the study of the sacred science which the Geed expounds, that the division into four groups has been made in it the very groundwork, as it were, of the whole structure The last and the third feature of the arrangement, which requires notice, is that each of the four groups consists of six chapters and neither more nor less. The reason is, that this number also has been used as a technical sign for certain ideas and facts deserving to be known and remembered. The ideas, relevant in the present connection, are what relate to the duties incumbent upon a member of Aryan society according to the sacred Books. Those duties are (1) Adhyayana - study, (2) Adhyapana - teaching, (3) Yajana - sacrifice, (4) Yajana - conducting a sacrifice for others, (5) Dana - giving and (6) Pratigraha - receiving. These duties, in relation to a person who is an aspirant for liberation, are explained in the Dharma -Deepika, I. ii, 36.40, to he as follows (1) The subject of study is Brahman in the light of Its symbol, the Pranava (2) The work of teaching is to instill in others the excellence of seeing everything with an equal eye; (3) Sacrifice is the attitude which enables the aspirant to stand face to face with his own Higher Self as well as the 'Supreme Self; (4) The conducting of a sacrifice for others is the seeing of himself everywhere; (5) Giving is the surrender of the Self to-. Brahman through meditation on the Absolute (Suddha-Yoga); and (6) Receiving, is but the preserving of the body for the Purpose of observing dharma. Manifestly, it is to remind aspirants for liberation that among other things, such are the very peculiar duties incumbent upon them that the groups are made to consist of six chapters each. No reference has been made till now to the reason for the introduction by the author of the first and the twenty-sixth chapters and his linking them with the body of the twenty-four chapters compacted together under the four groups. The obvious explanation is that the Gayatri can never stand by itself but only in relation to the Pranava, which is its one basis and support. In actual practice too, the mantra of the twenty-four syllables is uttered with an Om at the beginning, that is, before the syllable tat, and another at the end, that is, after the syllable yat. The two Oms represent Brahman, the substratum of the twenty-four primary factors to which the -twenty-four chapters correspond. The Om at the beginning signifies that Brahman is the source from which the factors manifest themselves, and Om at the end signifies that those factors merge and become synthesized in that very Brahman. All this is made quite plain by the respective contents of the two chapters. In the first chapter, no doubt, prominence is given only to the Shakti-aspect of Brahman; that is because She is the Maha chaitanyam, the One Life in the whole cosmos, carrying out the infinite evolutionary processes therein. Another reason for, the prominence is that it is this Maha-chaitanyam which all must invoke in order that success may attend their undertakings. The same is pointed out by Krishna asking Arjuna to offer worship to Durga* for success when Bheeshma, the generalissimo of the Kurus blares his conch by way of actual declaration of war. The contents of the twenty-sixth chapter are even clearer on the matter. There Arjuna once more offers worship to Brahman after the conclusion of the discourse by Krishna, but this time, however, without special, reference to any limited aspect of It. With reference to the suggestive name, Gitavatara adhyaya, by which the said first chapter is called, it would interest readers if their attention is drawn to the very -crucial circumstances in which the Scripture made its appearance. They were as follows: It was the duty of Narayana the supreme head of the occult hierarchy in charge of our globe, to arrange for the ushering in of the Kali-yuga with as little commotion and disturbance as such a transition period would admit. Accordingly, the Lord sent forth a ray of Himself through the person called Krishna, to do what was necessary on the spot. Similarly, Nara, the chief minister of the Lord, was directed to send and did send a ray of His to act through the person called Arjuna. These two Avataras performed their appointed task completely. At last, the time came -for them to lay, down their high offices and to give the final message to the humanity that was to evolve in the new age. This message was delivered at the most important meeting which took place during the very last sitting of the Parliament of Nations, if one may so describe it, convened to decide questions of great moment-questions affecting the very safety of the world and the happiness of humanity. Among them were such questions as the following. Were the Panchalas, like the modern Belgians, to be left to the mercy of the overwhelming forces of the then Superman, Duryodhana? Or, were they to have the support of the allied armies? Wag the future civilization to be utterly materialistic, and brute force to rule over men? Or were justice and spirituality to have another chance to reign on earth? In a Word, was there to be war or peace? Such was the critical juncture when the final message had to be given. The whole situation was grasped with wonderful tact and insight; the cobwebs of the pacifists were swept aside; the duty of fighting on behalf of a righteous cause was declared in no uncertain terms, and, in order that the will of the Supreme may be done and the future evolution of the humanity allowed to run its course smoothly on to the ordained end, the path to be trodden by it, in the coming age, was marked out with the unerring wisdom of Him who came in obedience to the law of world-government enunciated in the well-known verse "Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati Bharata ! Adbhyutthanm adharmasya tadatmanam srjamy aham, Paritranaya sadhoonam vinasaya, cha dushkrtam Dharma sansthapandrthaya sambhavami yuge yuge." The Gita is the record of that glorious message which has over since been cherished as the very life-blood of the Aryans ** for whom it was mainly intended and which has been during these many centuries preserved by the Indo-Aryan branch among them for the benefit of the whole world. • Professor Moulton's incident, as it might be described for brevity's sake, which occupied public attention recently, naturally occurs to one's mind in this connection, it is high time that the ignorance involved in the invention of the phrase "She-devil" by that professor, is exposed by some one quite competent to undertake the 'task. No one could do it better, if he will, than the learned scholar who, under the name of Arthur Avalon, has placed the literary world under a deep debt of gratitude by his able translations of some portions of the great body of literature bearing upon Shakti - dharma, as be has felicitously termed it a literature awaiting proper study and exposition. In the meantime one should not allow this opportunity to pass by without putting on record an emphatic protest against the insult offered by the inventor of the objectionable phrase, alluded to above, to the votaries of the Goddess about whom he seems to have notions so grotesque as inevitably imply utter absence of knowledge of the subject be pretended to deal with. Surely none that had paid even the slightest attention to the abundant information accessible in the sacred books of the said votaries, regarding the aspect of Brahman spoken of as Shakti, could fail to understand her real and supreme nature and fall into the egregious blunder of which the professor bas been guilty.Even a boy, who bas been taught the Gayatri by means of which he has to invoke her daily, would know that to every one who worships .her, she is the Mother, the Teacher, the Protector and the Savior as her well-known names "Savitri " Sarasvati " and "Gayatri " which be uses in the course of the worship, respectively connote.True she has other names, a thousand of them too, described in many portions of the Scripture, including the one which has excited the professor to make such a display of his fanaticism. These names are all fully explained, as for instance, in the commentary by Bhaskara on "Lalitasahasra-nama" translated into English by R. Ananta Krishna Sastri, now employed in the State Library of Baroda, with the assistance of the late Mr. Cooper Oakley, once Registrar of the` University on behalf of which the professor was to. have lectured. The whole of those 'names do , no more than point in detail to bar infinite activities which, however, must be and are summed up under the three beads of creation, preservation and disintegration. Now who does not know that in himself as weil as in everything around him those three processes are ceaselessly going on?And none but men of supposed erudition like the professor could think of ascribing creation and 'preservation alone to the Divinity and allocate disintegration to what is not It.A materialistic man is so wedded to and overpowered by the mere sense of pleasure that he cannot understand that pain and suffering, ' misfortune and catastrophe are the very instruments by which man's lower nature is purified so that his higher one may grow unhindered. Divine power righting wrongs by death and bloodshed, as for instance in the seat of war just now, is incomprehensible to him. That the awe-inspiring aspect in which the Godhead reveals itself in cataclysms which sink continents into the sea at one stroke, as it were, as well as the-love and delight-inspiring aspect of it which reveals itself in landscapes of grandeur and beauty, charming faces and the like, are equally entitled to reverence and worship, seems to be beyond the grasp of minds constituted like that of the professor. Those minds alone can look upon disintegration as evil, forgetting that that process is as necessary as the other two for the healthy existence of everything. This simple truth has never been lost eight of by the Aryans and consequently the Goddess he invokes is as acceptable to them as the universal disintegrating agent am she is in Her creative and preservative capacity. She is always to them a Goddess and never a devil. And so such, names of hers Kali, Chamundi and Bhairavi, etc.., descriptive of bar retributive and chastening attributes appeal to his devotional nature not a whit less than Her other names descriptive of Her benign qualities.It would have been well that, in the discussion before the Senate, those Fellows, who rightly and courageously opposed the proposal to invite the professor to lecture on its behalf, wore less apologetic than some of them seemed to have been in their speeches, judging from the reports in the newspapers. These gentlemen were entitled to put their opposition on much stronger grounds than that the professor behaved obnoxiously in writing as he did of what was an object of worship to the whole Aryan community with such levity- They bad a right to point out that the offensive phrase invented by him disclosed, on the face of it, the unfounded character of the claim for Oriental erudition which was, by the bye, to be paid for at a rate too high in all conscience.This has been pointed out more than once. The late Mr. T. Subba Row, one of the most brilliant graduates of the local University and a deep student of comparative religion, lecturing thirty years ago in December 1886, enters fully into the nature and characteristics of this third aspect of the Trinity from the Aryan point of view. A few of big illuminating observations are quoted below as the little hook containing his lectures is not as widely known as its high merits justify In the same manner (as the visible Sun which radiates heat and light), Parabrahman radiates from the Logos and manifests itself as the light and energy of the Logos. Now we see the first manifestation of Brahman is a Trinity, the highest Trinity that we are capable of understanding. It consists of Moola-prakriti, Ishwara or the Logos and the conscious energy of the Logos, which is its power and light. This light from the Logos is called the Daivi Prakriti in the Gita; it is the Gnostic Sophia and the Holy Ghost of the Christians.To make this clearer, I may point out, that this light is symbolized as Gayatri. You know Gayatri is not Prakriti. It is considered as the Light of the Logos and in order to convey to our, minds a definite image, it is represented as the Light of the Sun. But the Sun from which it springs is not the physical Sun that we see hut the Central Sun of the Light of Wisdom- This Light is further called the "Maha-chaitanyam"of the whole cosmos. It is top life of the whole of Nature. It will be observed that what manifests itself as light, as consciousness, and as force is just one and the same energy. All the various kinds of forces that we know of, all the various modes of consciousness with which we are acquainted, and life manifested in every kind; of organism are hut the manifestations of one and the same power being one that springs from the Logos originally.This light of the Logos is the link, so to speak, between objective matter and the subjective thought of Ishwara. It is called in several Buddhist hooks as Fohat. It is the one instrument with which the Logos works," (Philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita by T. Bobby Row, 111’. 9p. 15, 16, 17, 18-) ** The civilization of this race has not yet reached its highest point and that cannot be so long as things continue in the deplorable state in which they are in the parts of the world occupied by the different branches of it claiming to be the most advanced in knowledge, manners and character. The parallel between the present state of affairs in the said parts and what existed when the Avatara that gave the Gita came is so exact as to make the advent of another Avatara indispensable. And Surely those many men and women, who are ardently looking forward to the advent of a Supreme Teacher at no distant date, are not credulous persona who are victims to their own fancy and imagination, but who through their intuition, see the coming great event correctly, May their expectations be realized and may that Teacher and Avatara appear soon in fulfillment of the promise contained in the words of the verse "sambhavami yuge yuge" quoted above, restore dharma and righteousness, and among the other changes to be effected by Him, uplift our downtrodden (subjugated, oppressed) nation which has in spite of difficulties managed to bold the great common heir-loom - the Gita in trust for all mankind. To sum up, in a few sentences, the author's scheme described above at some length, it may, in one view, be taken as intended to convey, by a simple formula, certain great facts connected with the human evolution, from the moment when the Divine fragment “mamaivama”, in the language of Sree Krishna, descends into matter, thus gets bound, and starts on the journey, along the downward are the Pravritti marga, until it reaches along the upward are the Nivritti marga, the other end of the journey, and becomes free again. The formula runs thus: 0 - 4 into 6 =24,0 (0-4-6 + 24 – 0 The figure 4 represents the four states of matter differing in density, through which the evolving ego makes his journey, their names being Sthoola - the gross, Sookshma - the subtle, karana - the causal and tureeya - the fourth. The figure also marks the different stages of the Ego's consciousness in the aforesaid planes of matter, the names of those states being jagrat, svapna, sushupti and tureeya, the English equivalents of which do not express their real meaning. The figure, 6, represents certain most essential and important activities or works of the Ego during his evolution; i. Educating oneself; ii. Educating others, iii. As the result of the last two, sacrifice of one's self-centeredness, iv. Substitution of the motive power of service to the world for the centre thus sacrificed, v. Surrender of the individual self unto its source, Brahman, which brings about liberation, vi. The liberated spirit voluntarily accepting limitation in the shape of the human body or the subtler ventures of the Nirmana-kaya, Sambhoga-kaya, Dharma-kaya and the like, in order to help less evolved egos towards their liberation. The figure 24 represents the total output of the whole evolutionary process, - the 24 tatwas. As regards the zero at either end of the formula, it represents Brahman, which can only be known by the eliminating process of Neti Neti - Not this, not this. It is equivalent to saying that Brahman is No-thing to us. Therefore a zero is the best mathematical symbol for such a predicate the No-thing, which nevertheless cannot but be regarded as the Plenum. Such a predicate is ex hypothesis incapable of being, in any way, affected by the something, which is spoken of as evoluting in it. And so, the scriptural saying: " Poornam adah, poornam idam, poornat poornam udachyate, poornasya poornam adaya poornam eva avasishyate. That is full and this is full; from That full rises this full. Taking away this full from That, what remains is yet full." Hence the uses of zeros at both ends of the formula are what it must be. Having thus discussed the most important aspect of the division and arrangement in question, it is scarcely necessary to add that, all that has been said so far deals with only but a small part of the ground meant by the author to be covered by big scheme. ' What the late Mr. T. Subba Row observes regarding the table of the twelve signs of the zodiac is most likely true of this scheme also. And the key may have to be turned seven times over to unlock all that it contains. But this must be left to competent hands. Passing on to the contents themselves of the Scripture, one may, without exaggeration, say that the book, in the light in which it is presented in the current editions, has hitherto been in more than one sense a puzzle and a riddle. It fascinates but eludes real solution. Nay, it sets up, as it were, redoubtable champions against each other; as for example, in the latest instance, of the modern action-loving robust Tilak versus the ancient venerable subtle Sankara of maya fame. According however to the arrangement followed by Hamsa yogi and reproduced here, it is believed that the Scripture will be found to be quite a revelation to earnest students. For, the remarkable sequence of thought that runs throughout the chapters, and the logical coherence that characterizes the relation of the chapter preceding with the one that succeeds it, afford the light necessary for a firm grasp of the great and leading ideas intended to be conveyed to the student. Combined with the light thus available on the very face of the chapters themselves, a study of them with the help of Hamsa-yogi's priceless comments and explanations cannot but be of the utmost profit to all who are able to overcome the possible prejudice due to the fact that the arrangement and; the commentary in question have hitherto not been known widely and publicly. As might be expected, Hamsa-yogi departs materially in many instances from the interpretations of other commentators. It is not possible here to enter into any consideration of such differences. However, by way of; illustrating the point, attention may be drawn to the meaning attached by Hamsa-yogi to two significant terms that occur, frequently in the Gita, namely, Aham and Mam. In connection with more than one verso, both the terms are understood by Him to be, .in truth, inapplicable to Sree Krishna. The former term is construed as the Atman the Self that is immanent in all, and the latter Brahman's Shakti. The absolute propriety and reasonableness of attaching such meanings to the two said important terms will he most clearly seen in the case of the famous verse which is the concluding one in the discourse and which has been a source of much controversy among the followers of the different creeds. Put by way only of free paraphrase with an explanatory word or two added, Hamsa-yogi's interpretation of the verse comes to this: “Abandon all notions and actions engendered by the great Illusion, the heresy of Separateness; seek the grace of Brahman's Shakti and, through Her, attach yourself and hold fast to the One, the supreme synthesis of all. And then the Self will save you from the misery and suffering due to delusions, which are the offspring of that heresy”. That this interpretation is the one most consonant to the great truths underlying all the Upanishadic teachings, of which the Gita has been rightly spoken of as the very cream, is unquestionable. For, to the intellect which honestly seeks for the cause of all conditioned existence, no rest is possible, unless and until it is grasped that the whole of the ever-changing and endless phenomena are but the manifestations of the unchanging eternal causeless Cause, the "unmoved Mover" of Leibnitz, the Absolute. And consequently, only when one unreservedly centres himself, as it were, in that Absolute, be is on the right path; hence the injunction in the verse to reach the One, the Absolute, in which everything is synthesized. As regards seeking the grace of Shakti, the reason is that SHE alone is the path to the attainment of the goal according to the tenets of the Suddha-dharma-Mandalam, which but reflects primeval teaching, as has been attempted to be shown in the Foreword to the Yoga Deepika, pp. 23-24. In addition to what has been urged there, it would be most appropriate here to pointedly invite attention to the fervent prayer, which", every Aryan is enjoined to address to that Shakti at the twilight hour of morning and evening, as he begins to meditate on Her adorable divine Light that at first burns up all the dross all the evil and then illumines: "Vareniyam bhargo devasya". Look at the terms of this invocation beginning with: "ayatu varada devi" and consider whether they do not afford the strongest support to the position taken up by the commentator, in this matter: "Come Thou, O Goddess, that granteth our prayers; Thou art the unperishing, the equal of Brahman. 0 Gayatri, the mother of metrics, accept this Vedic chant and prayer of ours; Thou art the vital element, the power of endurance, courage and strength in us; Thou art Radiance Thou art the abode of the shining ones and the adored of hem; Thou art all, and their life; Thou art everything and its life: Thou art the vanquisher and the subduer. Om". The very names by which the Goddess thus addressed are known, show the all-embracing relation in whom She stands to the universe as a whole and to every devotee of Hers. She is Savitri, the Producer and the Mother; She is Sarasvati the Teacher and bestower of knowledge, and wisdom; She is Gayatri - She it is that enables the worshipper who chants Vedic prayers to Her to cross from this shore of bondage to that of liberation. How then can anyone rightly question the correctness of the interpretation of the term mam, which the commentator has adopted? Lastly, as to the commentator's construction of the term aham: Now, in taking it as synonymous with the universal Self, from the mere grammatical point of view even, Hamsa-Yogi has the conclusive authority of the Gita itself, as for instance in the following verse - Aham atma Gudakesa sarva bhoota saya sthitah aham adischa madhyancha bhootanam anta eva cha - Aham, O Gudakesha, is the Self, seated in the heart of all beings; Aham is the beginning, the middle and also the end of all beings. Again, in asserting that it is that Self that is the one source of salvation to all, the commentator takes up the only tenable position. For no one can deny that salvation can come only from within, from the Self in the heart and from no-other source. Nowhere is this more explicitly put than in the verse which - runs thus -- Tesham eva anukampartham aham, gnanajam tamah nasayamy atmabhavastho Gnana deepena bhasvata - Hence it is that through compassion, I, the Self (Aham) destroy the darkness and delusions born of nescience by means of the Light of the lamp of wisdom existing in thy own Self." It this all-important fact, that salvation is from within, which is most difficult to realize. And as the Kathopanishad, IV. 1. puts it "Kaschit dheerah pratyagatmanam aikshat avrita chakshur amrtatvamichchan Rare indeed is that wise One who, intent upon, immortality and with eyes turned inward, seeth the Pratyagatman." And that is why world -Teachers - have at all times endeavored to impress upon humanity that the salvation of every man is in his own hands. In a charming account (in the form of a novel) of a great One, who went through the tragedy which every soul sooner or later has to undergo and receives, the illumination that brings with it the peace that passeth the understanding, the vital point under notice is expressed in words which once read or heard can never be forgotten. After his initiation and admission into the Great White Brotherhood ever bent upon serving the world, the hero of the story is addressed by the priest who acts as the hierophant on the occasion thus: - "Hear me, my brother, there are three Truths which are absolute, and which cannot be lost, but yet remain silent for lack of speech. " The soul of man is immortal, and its future is the future of a thing whose growth and splendor has no limit. " The principle which gives life dwells in us, and without us, is undying and eternally beneficent, is not heard or seen or smelt, but is perceived by the man who desires perception. " Each man is his own absolute law-giver, the dispenser of glory or gloom to himself ; the decreer of his life, his reward, his punishment. " These Truths, which are as great as is life itself, are as simple as the simplest mind of man. Feed the hungry with them. Farewell…(The Idyll of the White Lotus, pp. 183184, 3rd edition). Such being the case, Hamsa-yogi could not but have construed the term Aham as he does, the more so because his commentary, is intended for the use of students fully capable of following the inner teachings of the Scripture. The concluding few lines in the last paragraph would show that it is not meant to suggest that commentators who take the two words Aham and Mam as referring to Sree Krishna do so without warrant. For, the terms themselves do also admit of such an interpretation. Nor is it difficult to see why words capable of such double interpretation occur in this and other similar Scriptures. The simple reason is that all may profit by the teaching to the extent each one's development permits. For example, in this very instance, whilst Hamsa-yogi's construction will appeal only to the advanced student, it would be otherwise in regard to one who could not as yet rise to the conception of the Deity as impersonal. _ Another justification for the employment of the term Aham, which covers the actual speaker who is the avatars on the one hand and the universal Self on the other, is that the former throughout the discourse speaks only in the name of the latter, the supreme Teacher. As to the interpretation of the ordinary commentator, it cannot result in any real misconception if the representative character of the speaker, just alluded, to, is steadily kept in view. Such however is not the case, owing to the mistaken view largely prevalent as to who Sree Krishna in truth was. Strangely enough, He is taken to be a direct Avatara of Paramatman Himself. No one, who reflects for a moment that our globe is but an infinitesimal speck in one tiny world system out of the countless millions of solar systems in endless space, could help rejecting as absurd the idea that to promulgate on that speck the teachings of the Gita at the beginning of the cycle called Kali-yuga, there was nothing left to the Deity immanent in all nature but Himself to come down and do the simple work which it was the duty of the Head of the occult hierarchy in charge of the globe to get performed. Such idea reveals colossal ignorance of the nature of that ineffable universal presence. Be this as it may, it passes one's comprehension how such an erroneous notion continues to be entertained by many in the face of repeated and most direct statements in many parts of the Mahabharata that Arjuna and Krishna were Avataras of Nara and Narayana alone. In proceeding upon this view of the real nature of the two Avataras, Hamsa-yogi takes care to clear up a difficulty, which is likely to suggest itself with reference to Arjuna in the minds of superficial students. Arjuna's unwillingness to fight, in spite of his duty to do so, and the confusion of mind and forgetfulness, which be says be labors under during the discourse, seem utterly inconsistent with the wisdom and knowledge which cannot but belong to Him as the Avatara of Nara, the constant companion of, and the Maharishi engaged in tapas along with, Narayana Himself. This seeming inconsistency is explained away by Hamsa-yogi by pointing out that Nara was the representative of humanity and their spokesman -loka-pravadaka and janapratinidhi, as he is described in Dharma-Deepika, I. ii, 102 - and consequently, everything in His conduct that seems incompatible with His own exalted personal nature should be taken as reflecting what is true only of the uninitiated soul confronted with the darkness and trials inevitable at such a critical time as the period of transition between the end of one great cycle and the beginning of another. In this view, however, it may be asked why the author made the mighty maharshi, the associate of Narayana, appear in the seemingly anomalous aspect in which He is presented in the divine colloquy? The answer is that it was part of that author's most happy plan adopted by him to carry out his object of making the work a household word among the people for whom he wrote - an object which could not have been attained, had the Gita been a mere dry digest of abstruse metaphysic. Now, what has contributed towards the attainment of the author's intention more than the way he has drawn the characters of the two leading actors? - Arjuna, the brave warrior and prince, ignobly refusing to fight at the critical moment and falling into a state of utter despair and despondency, which cannot but excite pity in all, and Krishna, his life long friend and relative, bringing him round gradually by love and compassion towards him, by dint off infinite patience from beginning to end, and by reviving his spirit by constant and dignified allusions to his manly characteristics and royal traits implied in the well-chosen epithets used in addressing him during all the time he was made to plunge into metaphysical mysteries? Surely, it is such portraiture of these two dramatis persona, which lends to this Book of Books the perennial human interest that has made it the proud possession of man for millennia. To overlook so noticeable a feature of such a composition is sadly to miss its artistic side. And of humanity and their spokesman - loka-pravadaka and janapratinidhi, as he is described in Dharma-Deepika, I. ii, 102 - and consequently, everything in His conduct that seems incompatible with His own exalted personal nature should be taken as reflecting what is true only of the uninitiated soul confronted with the darkness and trials inevitable at such a critical time as the period of transition between the end of one great cycle and the beginning of another. In this view, however, it may be asked why the author made the mighty maharshi, the associate of Narayana, appear in the seemingly anomalous aspect in which He is presented in the divine colloquy? The answer is that it was part of that author's most happy plan adopted by him to carry out his object of making the work a household word among the people for whom he wrote - an object which could not have been attained, had the Gita been a mere dry digest of abstruse metaphysic. Now, what has contributed towards the attainment of the author's intention more than the way he has drawn the characters of the two leading actors? - Arjuna, the brave warrior and prince, ignobly refusing to fight at the critical moment and falling into a state of utter despair and despondency, which cannot but excite pity in all, and Krishna, his life long friend and relative, bringing him round gradually by love and compassion towards him, by dint off infinite patience from beginning to end, and by reviving his spirit by constant and dignified allusions to his manly characteristics and royal traits implied in the well-chosen epithets used in addressing him during all the time he was made to plunge into metaphysical mysteries? Surely, it is such portraiture of these two dramatis persona which lends to this Book of Books the perennial human interest that has made it the proud possession of man for millennia, To overlook so noticeable a feature of such a composition is sadly to miss its artistic side. And certainly, credit is due to Hamsa-yogi for his having called attention to this side of it, though but indirectly, by his pointing out that there can be no ground for misapprehension in the mind of the student on the score of Arjuna's behavior during the discourse, if it is remembered that such behavior was only in the character of jana-pravadaka, the people's spokesman and their advocate, which Arjuna had to assume in the drama. Turning from the said little digression, if it be one, it has to be observed that as the view of the two Avataras in question sanctioned by the Mahabharata, is, as already stated, the one accepted by Hamsa-yogi, his commentary will be better appreciated by students who agree with him than by those who differ from him on the point. And consequently, the former will find much that is original, illuminating and always consonant to reason in the disquisitions of this commentator. Pending their publication, readers of this edition will see that Gobbila's Karika, prefixed to the text, contains a remarkably succinct and clear explanation of the gist (substance) of each and every chapter according to the arrangement of the Gita here adopted. Furthermore, this Karika is relied on by Hamsa-yogi in the commentary and will thus form a useful introduction to the study of the commentary itself in due course. In the fifty-two verses beginning with the 180th and ending the Karika, Ghobhila brings to light certain circumstances, which might otherwise escape notice. According to his view, the first set of six chapters constitutes the Gnana or cognition group, the second, the sankalpa or Iccha or desire group; the third, the karma or activity group; and the fourth and the last, the yoga or samahara or summation group. Again be shows that the 25th chapter, the last but one, sums up the subject-matter of the preceding 24 chapters in regular order; that is to say: -The first verse of this penultimate chapter deals with the very first of the twenty-four chapters namely, Nara-Narayana-dharma Gita; the second verse with Avatara-Gita; the third with Adhikara-Gita; the fourth with Shiksha Gita; the fifth with Karana-Gita; the sixth with Kaivalya-Gita; the seventh with Swaroopa-Gita ; the eighth with Sadhana-traya-Gita; the ninth with Maya and Moksha-Gitas; the tenth with Brahma-svaroopa-Gita; the eleventh with Brahma-vibhootti-Gita; the twelfth and the thirteenth with Pranayama-Gita; the fourteenth with Paramatma Gita; the fifteenth with Akshara-Gita; the sixteenth with Raja-vidya-Gita; the seventeenth with Parama-hamsa-Gita; the eighteenth with Sanyasa-Gita; the nineteenth with Atma-Gita; the twentieth with Prakritti-Gita; the twenty-first with Karma-Gita; the twenty-second with Bhakti-Gita; the twenty-third with Gnana-Gita; and the twenty-fourth with Yoga-Gita. Furthermore, he points out that the twenty-sixth and the last chapter called, Brahma-stuti-Gita, is to be understood as indicative of the very essence of the teaching of the whole Book. The intrinsic circumstances, thus brought to light by Gobhila, cannot but prove to demonstration that this Aryan Book of Revelation, passed out of the superhuman hands that writ it, exactly as Gobhila found it and as it is laid before the public, for the first time in this edition. Among the statements of Gobhila in this excellent summary of his, those bearing upon four most interesting points are particularly striking. First of all, the statements regarding the vexed subject of maya (1) deserve allusion. (1) The derivation of the term maya, according to the authorities of Suddha-dharma, is as follows: The first letter 'm' represents Brahman collectively (samashti), the 2nd letter 'X' means the manifested aspect of Brahman as Paramatma, Atma and Jeeva, cosmically. The third and the last letter 'ya' is the feminine of 'yar' which connotes the bahu-bavana-mahashakti or the infinite becoming potency of Brahman at work in the whole of conditioned existence samsara. Cognition of the diverse things seen in such existence without relating them to their cause, the Brahmic potency, is avidya, illusory nescience, while the comprehension of their cause in them is vidya or ripe knowledge. As the said avidya is the first and immediate result of the Self being bound to its material embodiment by Brahman's potency, the character of such a result has, become a denomination of the cause itself In this point of view, maya is ya ma (that which is not) transposed according to, what; is called the tantrik vyutpatti or etymology.With reference to the statement made above that 'm' represents Brahman, it is to be remembered that that letter is the last and the third in the Pranava and it constitutes the connecting link between A the self and the not-self. That relation is said to be Nishedha sambandha first affirming then negating, identification followed by repudiation, Pravritti succeeded by Nivritti, bondage by liberation. Thus Brahman's Shakti has two aspects, namely the matter-side and the spirit-side, the Upadhi and the life, the former being spoken of in the Gita as the ashta or the eight-fold Prakritti and the Niter Daivi-Prakritti the Jeeva or the vivifying principle. According to the tenets of the class of great thinkers, among whom Gobhila occupies apparently a very high position, there is no unreality at all in what bears this name of maya. It is a power of Brahman, as real as the rest of Its powers. It is this power which binds the unborn, un-perishing and changeless self to its ever changing material vehicles, wherein that Self undergoes experiences of a two-fold nature, such as the opposites of pleasure and pain and the like. The power appears in three forms spoken of as Daivee-maya, Esha-maya and Gunamayee-maya. The first is the one, which relates to the Paramatman and is the aspect with which His work in the cosmos from the material point of view is effected (come into being). It is in this aspect of the Power that Mahatmas who have reached liberation dwell and worship the Supreme Cause of all. The second is the instrument specially serving the great purposes of the Hierarchs and of the still higher Beings, who, having attained proximity to Brahman, appear as Avatara-purushas, for the protection of righteousness and the re-establishment of dharma, etc.., in the worlds. Hamsa-yogi explains, in the course of his comments that it was in the Esha-maya form of the Lord that Arjuna saw the Visvaroopa scene, so marvelous and wonderful, so terrible and awe-inspiring as to compel him to desist from continuing to witness it even with the Divine eight vouchsafed to him for the moment and tremblingly to implore the Avatara to close the scene by reassuming his pleasing and beautiful human form. The third concerns all whose human evolution is still in progress, and who would come under one or other of the four heads of Gnani, Bhakta, Karmatha and Yogi. It is this Gunamayee-maya, which gives rise to four kinds of Shraddhas (Sraddhas) or tendencies and dispositions. That which is generated by the sativiki element is called sâtviki or atma para-shraddha. It involves devotion to one's higher self, that is the Atmic ray in each. Râjasi or samsara-para shraddha exhibits a strong desire for outward material life. Tamasi or svaparâ-shraddha induces, thorough identification with the lower nature, coupled with complete non-recognition of the Self. Lastly, the Tureeya or Maha shraddha; is the synthesizing one, the basis of the other three and the best. The transcending over the influence of Gunamayee-maya is the attainment called Prapti, the fifth and the highest of the purusharthas. Though the Power; in question, is, at first, the cause of ignorance and actions result in there from, yet, later on, It eventually leads to true knowledge in the man who studies Its workings in himself and the world around him, samsara, as bas been well said, being the greatest teacher. And only through such study of samsara and the resulting knowledge of the attributes of the Self can the influence of Gunamayee-maya be conquered. In connection with such conquest, a few more observations seem called for, even at the risk of their being supposed to be trite. That fact has reference to the capability of the human will to attract or repel as it chooses the atomic elements of which Gunamayee-maya entirely consists, For example, the moment a thought of a vicious nature is allowed to enter into one's mind, there rush in tamasic or rajasik atoms and molecules that conduce to the indulgence in, and the gratification of the thought. But, if attention is turned away there from and directed to the good, which is the opposite of such a thought, those atoms and molecules necessarily drop off, and sativik ones takes their place. It follows, therefore, that the most effective way of subduing Gunamayee-maya is to cultivate the habit of exercising the will constantly and steadily, day by day, month by month, and year after year, in eschewing thoughts and emotions belonging to one's lower nature and in ever dwelling on the high, the pure and the beautiful. Difficult as the cultivation of such a habit may seem, practice will disclose its supreme value. With the growth of such practice, the mind gets more and more steady and when it is stilled during, meditation, the light of the Self shines out and leads to that calm which is unshakable and a source of eternal strength. The fortunate man who rules and regulates his life thus is gradually able to realize the golden truth so strikingly and impressively expressed in the following Mundaka Upanishad, passage II ii, 8:.(Sanskrit characters) Bhidyate hridaya-granthih; chhidyante sarva-samsayah; Ksheeyante chasya karmani tasmin drashte paravare. The knot of the heart is broken; all doubts are destroyed; and the effects of past actions are extinguished, when that Purusha, than whom none is higher, is seen, the aspirant who has come to realize the above truth is ever dear to the aspect of Brahman's power characterized as the Gayatri, the savior, which never fails to uplift him. The Lord speaks of it in the Gita as the Daivi-Prakriti or the Para. This has many other names to some of which Gobhila in verses 97 and 98 refers thus: - Ma, Mahesvari, Sarasvati, Maha-lakshmi, Durga, Kali, Dakshina, Sree-vidya and Yoga-vidya. He adds that the yogi ever worshipping this Brahmic splendor, attains to peace and equableness, She is the bestower of every spiritual power, for she is the one fountain head of spiritual force in all the universes. Those who think it worth their while to bear in mind the respective functions of the two aspects of Brahmic power so well analyzed by Gobhila will certainly find the problem of life far less obscure than it would otherwise be to them. Next, Gobhila's description of Sanyasa is worth serious attention. According to him, the true sanyasin is one who, being devoted to the supreme Self, assiduously does every thing connected with the turning of the wheel of Life under the unalterable conviction that such action by him is, apart from all personal motives, as indispensable and right as a necessary consequence of the inexorable fact that there is no element of chance whatsoever in the cosmos and that all things in it have their origin in the very nature of the Absolute. On the contrary, he who, subjecting himself to bodily privations and penances, acts from a desire to enjoy the fruits of his work, capable of producing pleasure and pain, is treated as inferior, while he, who neglects any duty of this connected with the wheel of Life, is spoken of as the lowest. It were well that the above wise opinions were shared more in this country and the notion, that the donning of the yellow robe and a life of comparative idleness were roads to emancipation, was at an end. Thirdly, the explanations regarding the terms Saroopya, Sâyujya, Salokya and Sameepya-mukti afford abundant ground for the reflection on the part of students who are anxious to obtain really definite ideas regarding the meanings of these terms. Gargayana, in the Pranava-vada, takes these terms in relation to the cosmos in the abstract and explains them from that absolutely broad point of view. Gôbhila, however, restricts himself to our own world-system and bases his explanations upon the fundamental relations existing between the three universal factors of kriyâ, ichchâ and gñânâ. He points out that Sâroopya - mukti is secured by one possessing true knowledge of Brahman through Suddha-karma or work done by way of service to the whole world and which service befits him for the office of adhikâra-purusha or a member of the Hierarchy connected with the world. Sâyujya-mukti is stated to be attained through the union effected with the divine Presence in the part of the world-system in which the mukta is evolving, as the result of Suddha-bhakti or devotion to Ishwara accompanied with constant prayer for the welfare of all according to time and place. Salokya-mukti is the result of Suddha Gnana or pure wisdom, which enables the mukta to function in his gnana-deha to which reference was made in the Foreword to Yoga-deepika, p. 39 and which is no other than an atom of the akasic plane that is capable of boundless expansion and contraction within the Solar system and thus enables the mukta to range over the whole of that system at will. The name Salokya is apparently on the analogy which is perceivable between this grade of mukta and the Ishwara of the system in that with reference to the latter this universe is but an atom pulsating with only a part of His glorious life as pointed out in the scriptural passage. “Pâdosya vishva bhootani tripâd asyâmrtam divi. All beings constitute but a fourth part of Him, the three other parts of his remaining immortal in Heaven.” Finally, Sameepya-mukti is effected by the mukta through the, power of his Suddha-yoga passing away altogether out of the five-fold world system in which he had been till then functioning, and entering into the Mahat or the anupâdaka plane, called also Gô-lôka and later on into the âdi-plane, the highest in the solar system. By such passage into these planes, proximity to Ishwara, the representative of Brahman in the system, is reached, and this is the Paramapada, the supreme condition according to the Scriptures. Lastly, verses 174,175 & 176 of the Karika deal with a subject, about which very little is understood, owing to the paucity of information bearing on it even in books held in high repute at the present time by those supposed to be possessed of much scriptural learning: Translated, those verses run as follows: 174. Seekers after Liberation pass on to the next higher step, with the seed and never without it. The pure eight-fold elements (tatwas) shine in such seed. 175. Progress on the part of an aspirant who has already stepped on to a state higher than that he had occupied previously, becomes possible only through the still greater purity of the seed. 176. Aspirants should therefore constantly strive to purify the seed. The substance of these verses, in a word, is that the aspirant, who is endeavoring to pass from one stage of his spiritual growth to the next higher than that occupied by him before, should carry with him the beeja or seed purified. What is this beeja? The answer to this question involves a consideration of certain vital facts connected with the evolution of the human Ego. 1) - That Ego or the ray of Atma, appropriates, at the very commencement of its passage through matter, an atom from each of the five planes, among others, and continues to bold those atoms unchangingly to the very end of the passage (1) Those atoms come thus to be spoken of as the permanent atoms of the Ego in contradistinction to the countless material particles taken up during each life and thrown away at its termination. Such atoms serve as the centres round which fresh atoms and molecules gather as the ego constructs his different vehicles for use during his repeated incarnations. Furthermore, the aroma of the experiences of each life-period as a whole or, in other words, the essential results of those experiences, become impressed on the permanent atoms, so as to enable them to hand on and impart to the different bodies, that will come into existence during the next incarnation, the vibratory capability of adequately responding to the cravings and dispositions which are likely to be manifested by the now personality during that incarnation. Of course, the storage of experience in the permanent atoms in the vast majority of cases is ordinarily of a mixed character, partly good and partly otherwise. As it is the preponderance of the former that would help towards the ascent to the next higher rung on the evolutionary ladder by the ego, his effort has to be constantly to increase such preponderance and thus to diminish the influence of his lower tendencies. (1) The distinction between the ego and the personality should not be lost sight of. The former is the refection of Atma in the nirvanic body, Anandamaya-kosha and Vignanamaya-kosha whereas the latter is the shadow thrown by the Ego on the rather three dim lenses of the Manomaya, Pranamaya, and Annamaya koshas This shadow subsists only during the three stages of a single incarnation between the Bhoo and Svar lokas. The Ego has a relatively permanent life and ceases to exist only when the Atman assimilates into itself the essence of the activities of the Ego, in the course of its long evolutionary pilgrimage - an essence, which may rightly be spoken of as the efflorescence of ages of eons upon eons. It is this process of cleansing and purification that is dealt with in the three verses quoted above. The heads, under which purification has to be effected, are, according to a commentator on this Karika, five Akshara, Karana, Atma, Paramatma, and Parabrahman. The meaning of this somewhat obscure statement seems to be this: The first is the mystic syllable or syllables or beejaksharas to be used for the time being as the special instruments in connection with meditation and the like. The reason for the necessity of the use of such Syllable is said to be that appropriate mystic syllables are the best means of access to the Self in the heart of every man. Akasha being the highest and the subtlest plane on which the Ego exists, sound, the quality of that element, is what would naturally bring him into direct and actual contact with the Self manifest in him. The next head, Karana, is defined in the Gita itself as adishthana, karta, karana, karma, and daivam. The first is apparently the various vehicles which form the basis or the field for all action; the second is the personality using those bodies during a particular incarnation; the third consists presumably of the organs known as karmendriyas and gnanendriyas; the fourth is the actual life lived; and the last is the particular form of the gunamaye-maya in other words, the particular shraddha out of the four, namely, the tamasee, rajasee, satvikee and the tureeya shraddhas explained in an earlier passage. As to Atma, Paramatma and Parabrahman, the ego's knowledge and comprehension of them has, at every stage, to be enlarged by the constant use of the eliminating process of Neti Neti. For, no one, however great, can say he knows all about the Absolute. The Dharma-deepika passages (II. ii 291-298) quoted in the Foreword to the Yoga-deepika (p. 31) are worth remembering in this connection and they state in effect that even the, Seers, whose descriptions of Brahman are accepted as the Vedas, are descriptions only as each one of them sees It and no mere. - It is, the result of the purification efforts of the ego with reference to the five heads of Akshara, Karana, atma, Paramatma and Parabrahman that has to be impressed upon the permanent atoms in order to make them clean seeds " for the next harvest so that the same may he fruitful. The literal accuracy of the description in verse 174 that the "pure eight-fold tatwas shine in the seed is confirmed by the testimony of clairvoyants who assert that the permanent atoms of liberated souls, present a most brilliant appearance. Nowhere has this subject been explained more intelligibly than in the passages of the Karika quoted above. And the explanation helps in understanding certain statements made in regard to the class of liberated spirits spoken of in Buddhism literature as Nirmana-kaya, Sambohga-kaya and Dharma-kaya. The first, it is observed, drops his permanent physical atom. After doing so he lives in a body made up of subtler matter and carries on, in invisible spheres, his work in furtherance of the evolution of beings, etc., en the globe. The Sambhoga-kaya drops all the permanent atoms except the Akasic, and thereafter functions only on the nirvanic plane. The Dharma-Kaya drops the akasic atom also, quits the five-fold universe and finds his most exalted vocation on the two higher planes where the forces of Ishwara are directly and more fully at work than in the lower ones. The nature of that exalted vocation is summarized in the 99th verse of the Karika thus: " He, having become possessed of Brahmic powers, by his very nature, enters in the form of Pure light upon the duties of protecting the universe. " No wonder then that the hierophant, in the Idyll of the White Lotus, observes: " The soul of man is immortal and its future is the future of a thing whose growth and splendor has no limit." (1) That is why a Dharma-kaya, is spoken of as Nirvana without remains; while a Nirmana-Kaya is described as a Nirvana with remains. Would that every one of us lift up our vision and contemplate on the glorious vista open to us and pray daily that the Divine Mother may admit us into her presence, bless us and make us capable of bestowing blessings on world-systems. From the above discussion of some of the striking points dealt with in the Karika, it will be seen that it merits the closest study and will prove of the utmost profit to all who would treat it as a book " not to be merely tasted or swallowed but to be chewed and digested." (1) (1) The little Karika included in this edition is, of course, not the only writing of Gobhila, which we possess. A similar masterly work of his on the Mahabharata is one, the publication of which will be a boon to all lovers of our sacred books. The following verses are quoted from it as they throw the much needed light on the division of eighteen followed in the epic as it is in current use, as also the reasons for the division of twenty four being the more acceptable as the complete one… - SANSKRIT CHARACTERS - Before concluding, a word to regard to the materials used in preparing the present edition for the press is necessary. The manuscript, which the Editor had already in his possession, was a copy made many years ago from the manuscript of Swami Yogananda who is evincing much interest in the publication of this and other works hitherto known only to the members of the Suddha Dharma Mandalam to which be belongs. The Editor's said copy has been carefully compared with two others lent to him by Swamis Shankarananda and Bhavananda, both of whom are also members of the said Organization. Furthermore, all the manuscripts have been checked with reference to a palm-leaf handbook, nearly half a century old, containing the first few words of all the verses of the Gita in the order in which they stand in the present edition. This handbook belonged to the Editor's maternal grandfather, Tiruvelundoor Bhashyam Tiruvenkata Chariar, an erudite and versatile Pandit, a friend and relation of Paravastu Ranga chariar, the greatest Samskrit scholar of his time in this Presidency, and the author of a remarkable Sanskrit lexicon, of which unfortunately but one small part dealing with the letter ' A ' has appeared in print. The manuscript of Gobhila's Karika used by the Editor was kindly lent to him by one of the Swamis occupying a very high position in the Organization. It will thus be clear that much care has been taken in making the present edition accurate and reliable, and it is hoped that it will have a wide circulation. M. R. Ry. S. Rm. Ct. Pethachi Chettiar Avl., the Zemindar of Apdippatty, has, as might be expected, accorded the most liberal support to the undertaking and has desired us to place at his disposal not less than 2,000 copies of the work for free distribution among worthy students. (Sanskrit characters) It will be sufficient for the purposes of English readers to state the substance of the verses instead of translating them, That substance may he expressed thus. Only two matters are dealt with in the Mahabharata. They are Brahman and the adhikari or aspirant. In this connection the former has to he looked at in three ways, (1) as the object of the, aspirant's pursuit, (2) as the means for the attainment of the object, and (3) as the fruition. Taking the means first, it is samsara, conditioned or cyclic existence. The three gunas working in it are, satwa, rajas, and tamas, rhythm, mobility and stability respectively. With reference to the two paths of pravritti forth going, and nivrtti, withdrawing, the said three qualities become six, failing under the two heads of adho drshti and oordhva drshti, the downward and upward creations or evolutions. Next from the Object of pursuit itself, which is twofold as Paramatma and Atma that goes by the name of Jeeva, there proceed tatvikam - active proclivity, rasikam - desire proclivity and chaitanam -cognitive proclivity. These again double themselves in relation to the paths already mentioned. Lastly, with regard to fruition, which is no other than the attainment of the knowledge of Brahman, there come into existence Suddha or primary Satwa element, Suddha or primary Rajas element and Suddha or primary tamas element, and become duplicated for the same reason. The resultant eighteen are dealt with in the eighteen parvas or sections of the Mahabharata, These eighteen, however, constitute but the three feet of the Gayatri, which originating from the Pranava becomes in its turn the Mantra-mata or the mother of all knowledge, sciences and arts, But Brahman, the One in its samashti or undivided aspect, possessing like the sun, as it were, the glorious power of creation, preservation and disintegration, forms the fourth foot, Consequently the Mahabharata of 24,000 slokas falling under four divisions or groups, being the one originally composed, is the more preferable and it is this part of the work of Vyasa, that is regarded as the very essence of the fifth Veda. This name as shown elsewhere has been given to the Mahabharata for the reason that it points the way to the fifth and the greatest of the purusharthas, namely, Prapti which leads to the supreme state of Brahma-sameepyam or proximity to Brahman. M. R, Ry. Rao Sahib Calavala Kannan Chettiar Avl. of Messrs King and Co. Madras has also, out of his well-known generosity and love of Aryan wisdom, been good enough to order 1,500 copies to be placed at his disposal for a similar purpose. M. R. Ry. P. L. S. Shanmukham Chettiar Avl., of Murayoor, Ramnad District, has, through a desire to disseminate the knowledge of the contents of the present edition, taken 500 copies. We cannot give adequate expression to the obligation we are under to the said gentlemen, for the kind patronage thus extended by them towards the carrying out of the object which the great Ones have in view, in causing the publication of this Gita and other similar sacred books in forms hitherto not accessible to the general public. The encouragement received at the very outset of our new undertaking argues that the intention in bringing out this edition will be soon realized. It is needless to say that that intention is to place the Gita, according to its true and original arrangement, within the reach of the poorest man, as may be judged from the nominal price of four annas charged per copy - a price that, even with reference to the mere cost of printing the edition, leaves a deficit which we are in a position to meet from a donation of Rs. 500 given by Mr. R. Ry. Rao Sahib Kannnan Chettiar Avl., himself last year and which we take this opportunity of gratefully acknowledging. It should be added that the wish of those at whose instance the present edition is issued will be parried out in the sense in which they want it to be done, only when the Gita, as here arranged, is translated into English, according to the acceptation of Hamsa-yogi and placed within the reach of all through the medium of that modern lingua franca. . And steps are being taken to give effect to such wish of theirs. This English version, which it is the ambition of those that are concerned in this good work to place before the reader as soon as practicable, will contain translations of Hamsa-yogi's splendid preface and Gobhila's Karika both of which are worthy, of as careful a study as the teachings of the Lord Himself. Of course, it is hardly necessary to say that the Editor fully realizes that the present edition of the Sanskrit text may meet with much opposition at the hands of those who look upon all change whatsoever as necessarily evil. Such opposition, however, has to be encountered with reference to every effort to revive truth; and the right course, in cases like the present, is to proceed on the firm conviction that that truth will prevail unless the particular time chosen for its revival is inopportune. The custodians of the literature, which it is now sought to bring to light, hold that the time for the commencement of the work entrusted by them to the Editor is ripe. The satisfaction which he derives in carrying out their wish, he considers as ample reward for his labor of love; whilst the unpopularity, which that labor is likely to expose him to in certain quarters, cannot hinder him from performing his self-imposed task to the best of his ability and power. For, he recalls to his mind the reproof, gently administered three centuries back by the saintly author of Upadesa-ratna-mala to his hostile critics in the lines, which run thus (Sanskrit characters) -"The learned will rejoice themselves, and they who are eager to learn will say with delight: ' Here we have got it will then study and ponder over it. O my heart! What matters it that others speak ill through malice? Indeed is it not their very nature, to speak so?'"- Least the need for the above remarks be questioned, it may be well to say that the justification for them lies in the fact of the attempt to disparage the Editor's work persistently made by some who ought to know and behave better - an attempt however which only brought patronage and support from enlightened friends who have been able to see the value of that work in the interests of the sacred science. For the information of those friends, it may be stated that he has been desired to publish, as circumstances permit, four other Gitas each modeled on the Gayatri and consisting of twenty six chapters all of profound interest: 1. Shruti Gita contained in the Taittireeya aranyaka; 2. Brahma Gita contained in forty-nine Upanishads enumerated in the Editor's preface; 3. Arsha Gita contained in Ramayana to which reference has already been made in an early part and 4. Suddha Gita contained in Devee-bhagavata, not the book current by that name, but in a work purporting to be a report of a dialogue between Yoga Devi and Lord Narayana. This humble attempt, to arrest the eyes of intuitive students to our great scripture in the form in which it is presented here, will fail in its purpose if the Scripture's truest claim to their attention is not pointed out directly and emphatically. That claim rests on the totally un-sectarian character of the Scripture from every point of view. Its creed, as Hamsa-yogi himself observes, is none of the numerous cults, which have exercised away over the minds of the different sections of the community from time to time. Its object is not, in the words of Hamsa-Yogi to support Vaishnavam, Shaktam, Sambhavam, Bouddham, Kanadam, Sankhyam, Yaugikam, Tantram, Vedatam or any of the other special cults. On the contrary, it is the perfect exposition of the most perfect system of philosophy, ethics, religion and morale, - suddha-dharma, Its subject matter is Parabrahman (the Absolute) in both its aspects of transcendence and immanence. In the exposition of that subject-matter with the use of the Supreme symbol, the Pranava, the monosyllable (Om represents the samashti or the collective view of it and the three letters of which that syllable is made up represent the three ultimate sources of everything in the whole of the cosmos. As already observed in a previous paragraph, A, the first of those letters, stands for that One Self immanent in everything and of which all other selves are but reflections; the second letter U stands for the root-element from which the matter furnishing the vehicles for all manifested entities is evolved; the third and the last letter M stands for what constitutes the relation between the Self or the subject on the one hand and the material vehicle or the object on the other; this relation possessing the very peculiar characteristic of being a relation by negation (nishedha-sambandha) and of which the best expression is contained in the logia “Aham Etat - na - I - This – not". In the practical investigation and understanding of the subject itself, Brahman, the instruments to be used by the investigator are the three faculties possessed by one and all, namely, the power of cognition (Gnana), will or desire (ichchâ) and of activity (Kriya) which last means the giving of final concrete expression to the prompting of the second with the aid of the first. The merits of this Suddha Dharma have been summed up by the Lord Himself in the following weighty and comprehensive words raja-vidya-kingly science, raja-guhyam - royal Mysteries, Pavitram idam uttamam - supremo purifier, pratyakshavagamam the teacher of the means of direct realization of bliss, dharmyam - consonant to the law of the righteous, susukam kartum - pleasant and facile to follow, avyayam - productive of unperishing results. It will thus be seen that this Suddha-Dharma is in no way an artificial system but has its foundation in the very nature of man and the universe. It cannot therefore but appeal to all temperaments, of the Gnanee - the philosopher, Bhakta the mystic, the Karmatha - the philanthropist, desirous of actively serving his fellow beings, not excluding the mute brethren of the animal kingdom and lastly the raja-yogi, the true man of science, who, in addition to investigating external nature, in both its visible and occult sides, fathoms the depths of his own inner spiritual nature, sees face to face the deity in the heart - samyak darsanam and becomes immortal by bathing in the light of that eternal Maha chaitanyam which, emanating from Him, animates all existence. Surely this is the one system of thought and life that can conduce to the practice of universal love and the realization of that dream of all great souls, universal brotherhood. As these last words had not dried up their inky freshness, there came to hand certain musings of a young and dear friend, Mr. V. Sundaram, affording pleasant proof of the timeliness of the endeavor to diffuse and popularize the knowledge and study of this system of universal philosophy and religion. For, these musings, which show the quest, which that philosophy will answer, and the thirst, which that religion will quench, are pressing upon budding minds like his, capable of true spiritual bloom. And so, this Foreword cannot more fittingly close than with those graceful lines of his, breathing sweet devotion unto the God whom they invoke, and concluding, as they do, with the noble prayer which must be in the lips of all bumble seekers after Him who is the Fountainhead of infinite Love and wisdom: Oh God, that seems to have a life and yet no life, For dwell'st Thou not in lifeless things as well? How wondrous dost Thou seem what Thou art not! What, is too small for Thee or what too great? Yet great and small are but of Thine own make. Can'st Thou be known in full or part alone? And yet Thou art what both Thou seem'st and art! To have known Thy part, is't not to know Thy whole, Sith, in parts diverse, Thine all is manifest ? Thine own existence dolt Thou feel or no ? Or dost Thou know Thyself to know not Thee, Consciously, unconscious of Thine own extent, Yet feel'st all things in Thee, Thyself in all? Thou wondrous Thing of contradictions strange, Where meet extremes and stranger contrasts blend In perfect harmony and astounding peace! Thou great Task master, stern relentless Judge, And yet our kindest Friend and gentlest Aid, Thou emblem of sweet mercy and of love, Art Thou a myth to be so strangely true? Or Truth itself is confounding to behold? An idle fabrication of the mind? A seeming something with no truth within? What can be truer, more assuredly real, Than what inspireth most, uplifteth most? The very thought of Thee elevates our minds And fills us with an unknown reverence We know not whence, but beaming out from Thee ! Then bow much more Thyself can'st lift us up! Thou one Reality, eternal Truth That hast had neither birth not shalt have death, Accept my prayer, my poorly lisped praise. This boon I ask, this only boon I crave, Oh teach me but to know and love Thee more This is all I wish and all I need to wish. OM TAT SAT.

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