Soul and material processes. When he fully perceives that his body and soul have really nothing to do with each other, the soul is no longer attracted to the body, and is freed from all further rebirth.

In the Sankhya there is no connection between the different souls. They are infinite in number and never have been, or will be, one. But Krishna says (Gita 13:2), "Know me to be the knower of the field (Soul) in all fields (matter), O Bharata. Knowledge of the field and of the knower of the field is esteemed by me to be true knowledge." This certainly means that Krishna is all the infinite number of souls, and that in this way they are all one. But Krishna goes further than this. Not only does he unite all souls, but he also says that he is matter as well, thus making Soul and matter one in the last analysis. In this way he nearly turns the Sankhya into a lower Vedantic system. Of course in the true Vedanta, the soul-principle, the Brahman, is the sole reality of the universe, while matter is only màyà, or illusion, whereas in the Sankhya-Vedanta system of Krishna, màyà has as much reality as the Brahman.

If one wished to say that the Gita was chiefly concerned with a single one of the three great philosophies, it would be more nearly correct to connect it with the Yoga. The whole tenor of the work is primarily emotional: its appeal is to the will. It is hard for the ordinary, intellectually inclined Westerner to conceive of a personal God as being the whole universe, as Krishna says he is, or of such a Being including in himself the "Unmanifested Reality" that some of us may think of as being behind the physical universe. From these considerations it is plain that the Gita was not composed for the benefit of intellectual or scientific people who do not require a personal God to live contentedly.

Krishna's nature might almost be said to be utilitarian. He exists primarily for that great majority of people who need to worship some Being or beings of

infinite power and strength, or at least of potency exceeding their own. Krishna considers this part of humanity as really great, though one hears comparatively little of them. He recognizes that there are a few who possess the faculty of intuition, by which they are enabled to see beyond the relatively unimportant strivings of the world into the true reality beyond. These individuals do not need him. By this peculiar gift they are rendered capable of perceiving that the reality of every individual thing is identical with the one Reality of the universe. When this insight is completely realized, Nirvana is gained. Of these he says (Gita 12:3, 4), "Those who worship the Imperishable, undefined, unmanifest, all-pervading, unthinkable, exalted, immovable and enduring, having restrained the senses and become of equal mind towards all, they attain to me, rejoicing in the good of all creatures.'

There are again others who by means of the intellect alone may discriminate between the soul and processes of nature which have no connection with the soul. Such people who are able to follow the Sankhya, the way of the intellect, are perhaps more numerous than the Vedantists, but they also are in a very small minority. This path is harder for man to follow. In the Way of Intuition there can be no question as to whether it is hard or easy, for man either does or does not follow it according as he does or does not possess intuition. If he does, he follows that path naturally and easily; if he does not, the path cannot be hard for him, for he cannot follow it at all.

On the contrary, the path of mental realization is hard even for those who are intellectually fitted to follow it. "The toil of those whose mind is set on the Unmanifest is greater, for the path of the Unmanifest is hard for mortals to attain" (Gita 12:5). Very few people would be capable of the continuous mental effort of winnowing their soul from all their actions, yet when this

is done when the absolute non-activity of the soul has become not only an intellectual conviction, but a manner of action and a part of true understanding-the soul is freed from all further rebirth and connection with matter. The Sankhyan, of course, finds no necessity for a personal God.

The Yoga sets forth another method of attaining salvation which is less difficult for many people than the Sankhya. This necessitates great power of will and perseverance. The object is the realization of the oneness of the individual with the personal God, by means of certain exercises designed to bring about self-hypnotization through correct posture, restraint of breath, and withdrawal of the senses. This very high emotional exaltation is attainable by a greater number than the foregoing intuitional or mental realizations, but even those who are endowed with the faculties necessary for following any one of these paths form a minority among

men.

There are some people who strive to attain salvation through Yoga and fail, because of insufficient control of the mind. Arjuna is concerned about these and asks Krishna (Gita 6:37), "If one is uncontrolled, yet full of faith, his mind wandering from Yoga, without having attained the full perfection of Yoga, what path does he follow, O Krishna? Can it be that he, falling short of both worlds vanishes like a riven cloud, or, O Mightyarmed One, does he remain wavering and confused upon the path of the Brahman?" Krishna replies that there is no loss for anyone who performs good works. Such a one enters the heaven-world that is gained by such deeds, and after living there for long ages, is reborn on earth in the house of pure and holy folk, or even in a family of Yogins, where, possessing the same attainments that he had won in his former life, he strives again for perfect attainment.

The two paths that most people are fitted to follow are those of works: one, the renunciation of all selfish work-in which all action is performed as a sacrifice to Krishna without thought of personal reward, but solely for the good of other people; and the other, for those who are incapable even of this altruistic ideal of action, the resolute renunciation of all claim to the rewards that ordinarily follow the work they have done.

Knishna has a manifestation to fit the requirements of the nature of each of these five classes of people who in one way or another worship him. For the Vedantist he is the Supreme Eternal, the Highest Self; for the Sankhyan he is purusha, the soul-principle; for the Yogin he is simply Everything-the power behind Nature that causes all things to come forth at the beginning of a cycle and destroys them all at the end-the Lord of Beings. "I am the father of this world, the mother, the guardian, the father's father; I am the aim of knowledge, the purifier, the syllable Om, and the Rig, Yajur and Sama Vedas. I am the path, the Supporter, the Lord, the Witness, the resting-place, the refuge, the friend; I am creation, destruction and preservation, the treasure and the immortal seed" (Gita 9:17, 18). "'I am the source of everything, from Me everything arises; thinking thus the wise worship Me, full of affection'"' (Gita 10:8).

Those who worship Krishna through works are also provided for, whether they be polytheists or monotheists, for Krishna includes all gods in himself, and so ultimately, in sacrificing to them, they sacrifice to him. "Those who are devoted to other gods and who sacrifice to them full of faith, sacrifice to me, O Kaunteya, though irregularly" (Gita 9:23).

It will thus be seen that the whole doctrine of Krishna rests upon his own self, be it single or multiple or both. It has been said that to pass from the Vedanta system with its exciting doctrine of the unity of the individual

soul and the Universal Soul into the more austere and unemotional Sankhya system is like getting into a cold shower. To follow out the simile, to go from the doctrine of Krishna to that of the Buddha is like a plunge into interplanetary space. For the highly emotional, inspiring, and gorgeous doctrine of souls as expounded by Krishna is substituted the view that nowhere in the universe is there any permanent, abiding principle, spiritual or material. All individual things-gods, men, animals, vegetables, and atoms-all pass away in time, though they may in the case of the gods last hundreds of thousands of years. Such entities are generally compounded of various material, emotional, and mental qualities which are continually changing their mutual relations and never remain the same for two consecutive minutes.

Heraclitus has substantially the same view of eternal flux in the world. For him everything is involved in the ceaseless round of life and death. Nowhere is there any permanence or being, but only becoming. He says (Fragment 81),1 "We both are and are not." An interesting parallel is found in H. C. Warren's "Buddhism in Translations," 166. "That things have being, O Kaccana, constitutes one extreme of doctrine; that things have no being is the other extreme. These extremes, O Kaccana, have been avoided by The Tathagata, and it is a middle doctrine he teaches": namely, "Dependent Origination," the process of becoming which takes place in definite order according to law. The law of change for Heraclitus and the law of Karma2 for the

1 Heraclitus, edited by G. T. W. Patrick.

2 Karma may be interpreted in four ways: (1) Simply as work of any kind, physical, emotional, or mental. (2) The effect which this work as a cause will bring about. (3) Potential action laid up in the character, which is the result of former action, and will, in time, become actual. (4) The law of Karma, or the law of cause and effect, according to which every act brings about another act as its necessary consequence. It is, of course, to the last meaning that the above example has reference.

Regarding the law of Karma William James said (Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 522), "As I apprehend the Buddhistic doctrine of Karma, I agree in principle with that."