[Footnote 84: III. 30. 17. The gosava is a 'cow-sacrifice.' The pu[n.][d.]ar[=i]ka is not explained (perhaps 'elephant-sacrifice').]
* * * * *
CHAPTER XV.
HINDUISM (CONTINUED).—VISHNU AND ÇIVA.
In the epic the later union of the sectarian gods is still a novelty. The two characters remain distinct enough. Vishnu and Çiva are different gods. But each in turn represents the All-god, and consequently each represents the other. The Vishnu-worship which grew about Krish[n.]a, originally a friend of one of the epic characters, was probably at first an attempt to foist upon Vedic believers a sectarian god, by identifying the latter with a Vedic divinity. But, whatever the origin, Krishna as Vishnu is revered as the All-god in the epic. And, on the other hand, Çiva of many names has kept the marks of Rudra. Sometimes one, sometimes another, is taken as the All-god. At times they are compared, and then each sect reduces the god of the other to an inferior position. Again they are united and regarded as one. The Vishnu side has left the best literary representation of this religion, which has permeated the epic. It is pantheism, but not an impersonal pantheism. The Blessed Lord is the All. This is the simple base and crown of its speculation. It is like the personal development of Vedantic philosophy, only it is here degraded by the personality of the man-god, who is made the incarnate All-god. The Krishna of the epic as a man is a sly, unscrupulous fellow, continually suggesting and executing acts that are at variance with the knightly code of honor. He is king of Dv[=a]rak[=a] and ally of the epic heroes. But again, he is divine, the highest divinity, the avatar of the All-god Vishnu. The sectaries that see in Çiva rather than in Vishnu the one and only god, have no such representative to which to refer. For Çiva, as the historical descendant of the Vedic Rudra,—although even in his case there is an intrusion of local worship upon an older Vedic belief,—represents a terror-god, either the lightning, the fairest of the gods, or, when he appears on earth, a divine horror, or, again, "a very handsome young man."[1] These two religions, of Vishnu as Krishna and of Çiva alone, are not so much united in the epic as they are super-imposed upon the older worship of Brahm[=a], and indeed, in such a way that Çiva-worship, in a pantheistic sense, appears to be the latest of the three beliefs that have influenced the story.[2]
The personal pantheism of the older Vishnuism has in its form and teachings so close a resemblance to the Christian religion that it has always had a great attraction for occidental readers; while the real power of its "Divine Song" gives the latter a charm possessed by few of the scriptures of India. This Divine Song (or Song of the Blessed One) is at present a Krishnaite version of an older Vishnuite poem, and this in turn was at first an unsectarian work, perhaps a late Upanishad. It is accepted by Vishnuites as a kind of New Testament; and with the New Testament it has in truth much in common. It must be pointed out at the outset that there is here the closest connection with the later Upanishads. The verse, like that of the Katha Upanishad (quoted above), which stands almost at the beginning of the Song, is typical of the relation of the Song to the Upanishad. It will be noticed how the impersonal 'That,' i.e., absolute being, brahma, changes almost at once to the personal He ([=a]tm[=a] as Lord). As shows the whole Song, brahma throughout is understood to be personal.[3] The caste-position of the priest in the Git[=a] is owing to the religious exaltation of the poem; and the precedence of S[=a]man is not unusual in the latest portions of the epic (see below).]
To understand the religion which reaches its culmination in the epic no better course could be pursued than to study the whole of the Divine Song. It is, however, too long a production to be introduced here in its entirety; but the following extracts give the chief features of the work, than which nothing in Hindu literature is more characteristic, in its sublimity as in its puerilities, in its logic as in its want of it. It has shared the fate of most Hindu works in being interpolated injudiciously, so that many of the puzzling anomalies, which astound no less the reader than the hero to whom it was revealed, are probably later additions. It is a medley of beliefs as to the relation of spirit and matter, and other secondary matters; it is uncertain in its tone in regard to the comparative efficacy of action and inaction, and in regard to the practical man's means of salvation; but it is at one with itself in its fundamental thesis, that all things are each a part of One Lord, that men and gods are but manifestations of the One Divine Spirit, which, or rather whom, the Vishnuite re-writer identifies with Krishna, as Vishnu's present form.
The Divine Song, as it is revealed in the epic by Vishnu (-Krishna) to his favorite knight, Arjuna, begins thus: "Know that the 'That' in which is comprised the 'This' is indestructible. These bodies of the indestructible Eternal One have an end: but whoso knows Him as slayer, and whoso thinks Him to be slain, these two have not true wisdom. He slays not and is not slain. He is not born, he does not die at any time; nor will He, having been born, cease to be. Unborn, everlasting, eternal, He, the Ancient One, is not slain when the body is slain. As one puts away an old garment and puts on another that is new, so He, the embodied (Spirit), puts away the old body and assumes one that is new. Everlasting, omnipresent, firm, unchanging is He, the Eternal; indiscernible is He called, inconceivable, unchangeable."[4]
The Song now turns into a plea that the warrior who is hearing it should, as one born to be a soldier, be brave and fight, lest his sorrow for the slain be taken for fear; since "nothing is better for a warrior than a just fight," and "loss of fame is worse than death." Then follows (with the usual inconsequential 'heaven') "If thou art slain thou wilt obtain heaven, and if thou art victorious thou shalt enjoy earth; therefore, careless of pleasure and pain, get ready for the fight, and so thou wilt not incur sin. This is the knowledge declared in the S[=a]nkhya; hear now that of the Yoga," and the Divine Lord proceeds:
"Some are pleased with Vedic words and think that there is nothing else; their souls are full of desires; and they think that going to heaven is the chief thing. Yet have the Vedas reference only to the three qualities (of which all things partake). Be free from the three qualities (do not care for rewards). In action, not in fruit, is the chief thing. Do thy work, abiding by serene devotion (Yoga), rejecting every tie; be indifferent to success and failure. Serene devotion is called indifference (to such things). Action is lower than devotion of mind. Devotion is happiness. Do thou, wise in devotion, abandon the fruit that is sprung from action, and, freed from the bonds of birth, attain a perfect state."