being bestowed upon the bhakti-yogin or even upon the karma-yogin. Also this knowledge would seem here to be necessary to the attainment of union with Krishna.

Throughout the Gita, Krishna lays stress upon the knowledge at least of the path that one is competent to follow.

For the Buddha, ignorance is the real root of all evil and suffering. It is generally mentioned as the first member of the formula of "Dependent Origination," which runs as follows:

On ignorance depends karma;

On karma depends consciousness;

On consciousness depend name and form;

On name and form depend the six organs of sense;
On the six organs of sense depends contact;

On contact depends sensation;

On sensation depends desire;

On desire depends attachment;
On attachment depends existence;

On existence depends birth;

On birth depend old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief and despair.

-Buddhism in Translations, 84.

Later he explains (171) that ignorance is not "the causeless primary cause of the world," for ignorance depends upon the arising of the depravities (sensual pleasure, passion for existence, heresy, and ignorance); but that in speaking of rebirth-the condition that is to be escaped from-it is most convenient to consider ignorance as the starting point.

Since all these various forms of misery arise from ignorance, upon the destruction of the latter they also are all destroyed. But there is in Buddhism no comparatively easy path to the destruction of ignorance, as there is in the Gita. One cannot attain perfection in Yoga first, and then find wisdom in one's soul. Knowledge must be gained first, and then release will come. The discipline in elevated wisdom is the means by which

ignorance is to be abandoned, and this discipline consists in complete mastery of the "Four Noble Truths." Briefly these are:

I. THE NOBLE TRUTH OF MISERY

Birth is painful, and so is old age; disease; death is misery; sorrow, lamentation, grief, and despair are misery; to wish for what one cannot have is misery; in short, all the five attachment groups (form, sensation, perception, predispositions, and consciousness) are misery.

II. THE NOBLE TRUTH OF THE ORIGIN OF MISERY

It is desire leading to rebirth, joining itself to pleasure and passion and finding delight in every existence-desire, namely, for sensual pleasure, desire for permanent existence, desire for transitory existence. It may arise from anything that is agreeable to man.

III. THE NOBLE TRUTH OF THE CESSATION OF MISERY

"It is the complete fading out and cessation of this desire, a giving up, a loosing hold, a relinquishment and a non-adhesion." It may be destroyed in just those things in which it arose.

IV. THE NOBLE TRUTH OF THE PATH LEADING TO THE
CESSATION OF MISERY

It is the Noble Eightfold Path, to wit:

1. Right Views (free from superstition and delusions).

2. Right Aspirations (high and worthy of the intelligent, earnest man).

3. Right Speech (kindly, open, truthful).

4. Right Conduct (peaceful, honest, pure).

5. Right Livelihood (bringing hurt or danger to no living thing).

6. Right Effort (to prevent the arising of, or to abandon, all demeritorious qualities; and to cause the arising and the preservation of all meritorious ones).

7. Right Contemplation (when in respect to the body, the sensations, the mind, the elements of being, the priest lives observant of them, strenuous, conscious, contemplative, and has rid himself of lust and grief).

8. Right Concentration (the successive entering of the four trance states, the first characterized by joy and happiness, the second by inner tranquilization and intentness of thought, the third by indifference, contemplation, and happiness, and the fourth by the absence of misery and happiness-contemplation refined by indifference).

Thus it will be seen that the powers of intellect and will are both necessary for the attainment of Nirvana, the intellect to comprehend the Four Noble Truths, the will to hold the "individual" to the Eightfold Path.

Of all the people of the Gita, the Sankhyan would be best fitted to become a Buddhist, for his intellectual power is assured, and his will would be well developed. Moreover, the doctrine would probably appeal to him, for it is but a very short step from the nearly passive soul of the Sankhyan, whose one active power is that of bringing the matter to which it is attached to consciousness, to the Buddhist denial of the soul, in which consciousness is a power inherent in matter. The denial of the true existence of the soul would disconcert him more, but to consider all action as taking place in matter is not so very different from this idea:

Misery only doth exist, none miserable.

No doer is there; naught save the deed is found.
Nirvana is, but not the man who seeks it.

The Path exists, but not the traveler on it.

-Buddhism in Translations, 146.

Contrary to the teaching of the Gita, Buddhism excludes from the attainment of Nirvana everyone who does not possess deep intellectual understanding and great will power-at least until they have gained these.

The Bhagavad Gita is more hopeful. According to verse 5, chapter 8, one may attain union with Krishna merely by fixing the thoughts firmly upon him at deatha seemingly unjust and illogical proceeding. "He who at the time of death, thinking of me puts off the body and goes forth, comes to my Being, without doubt." This is probably the easiest way, though perhaps it is not so easy as it seems; for the hour of death would seem to be the time at which the mind and the emotions would be most liable to be distracted. Probably it is true that anyone who is capable of fixing them upon Krishna at this time deserves the reward he receives, on account of past love of Krishna and concentration upon him. Krishna wisely points out that it is best to fix the thoughts always upon him, so that they will be sure to be upon him at death.

Again (Gita 11:55) the upper class of karma-yogins is accounted for: "He who works for me, who is intent upon me, who is devoted to me, free from attachment and without enmity toward all beings, comes to me, O Pandava." No great power of either intellect or will is required of these people.

But there are other passages in which the fate of the karma-yogin seems less assured. In the opening verses of the twelfth chapter, Krishna enumerates the paths that various persons are fitted to follow, stating in each case the reward to be gained, namely, salvation. But on reaching the last class of those who can only renounce the fruits of work, he says that these "becoming self-controlled, should make a renunciation of all the fruits of work," without stating definitely that by this means alone they will attain release.

In 6:36 Krishna states that Yoga is with difficulty won by karma-yoga alone: "Yoga is difficult to attain for one whose self [which the Cridhari commentary interprets as cittam, or thought] is uncontrolled; but it may be attained by one whose self [or thought] is

subdued and persevering, by the right methods." It is the yogin who practices the discipline of the Yoga philosophy that possesses these powers. Of course he must also be a karma-yogin.

Verse 25, chapter 13, of the Gita, has a distinctly Buddhistic flavor. "But others who even though not knowing [the Self] upon hearing it from others, worship, they cross over death, intent upon what they have heard." What they heard is not Buddhistic, but their method of attaining Nirvana is; compare Buddhism in Translations, page 268: "The Brahman and his wife, in great delight, gave a liberal repast, and at the close of breakfast, The Teacher preached to these two persons the Discourse on Old Age. At the close of the discourse, both the Brahman and his wife became established in the fruit of never returning." That is, they were subject to death on earth no more, but would go to some Heavenworld whence they would pass into Nirvana. Krishna, in saying "cross over death" and not "reach salvation" very likely had the same procedure in mind. It is probable that in both cases the persons concerned merited the reward through striving in past existences.

DESIRE AND ATTACHMENT

The keynote of the ethics of the Gita and Buddhism is non-attachment. Perhaps more is said about it in the Gita, but it is no less important in Buddhism on that account.

The highest type of human being in the Gita is the Yogin. Krishna says (6:46), "The Yogin is regarded as higher than the men of penance, higher than the men of knowledge; the Yogin is higher than the men of works, therefore become a Yogin, O Arjuna." Also (6:47), "Among all Yogins he whose inmost soul is intent upon me, who worships me full of faith, I consider the most truly united."