Despite its occasional power and mystic exaltation, the Divine Song in its present state as a poetical production is unsatisfactory. The same thing is said over and over again, and the contradictions in phraseology and in meaning are as numerous as the repetitions, so that one is not surprised to find it described as "the wonderful song, which causes the hair to stand on end." The different meanings given to the same words are indicative of its patchwork origin, which again would help to explain its philosophical inconsistencies. It was probably composed, as it stands, before there was any formal Ved[=a]nta system; and in its original shape without doubt it precedes the formal S[=a]nkhya; though both philosophies existed long before they were systematized or reduced to Sutra form. One has not to imagine them as systems originally distinct and opposed. They rather grew out of a gradual intensification of the opposition involved in the conception of Prakriti (nature) and M[=a]y[=a] (illusion), some regarding these as identical, others insisting that the latter was not sufficient to explain nature. The first philosophy (and philosophical religion) concerned itself less with the relation of matter to mind (in modern parlance) than with the relation of the individual self (spirit) to the Supreme Spirit. Different explanations of the relation of matter to this Supreme Spirit were long held tentatively by philosophers, who would probably have said that either the S[=a]nkhya or Ved[=a]nta might be true, but that this was not the chief question. Later came the differentiation of the schools, based mainly on a question that was at first one of secondary importance. In another part of the epic Krishna himself is represented as the victim of 'illusion' (iii. 21. 30) on the field of battle.
The doctrine of the Bhagavad G[=i]t[=a], the Divine Song, is by no means isolated. It is found in many other passages of the epic, besides being imitated in the Anug[=i]t[=a] of the pseudo-epic. To one of these passages it is worth while to turn, because of the form in which this wisdom is enunciated. The passage immediately following this teaching is also of great interest. Of the few Vedic deities that receive hymnal homage chief is the sun, or, in his other form, Agni. The special form of Agni has been spoken of above. He is identified with the All in some late passages, and gives aid to his followers, although not in battle. It will have been noticed in the Divine Song that Vishnu asserts that the Song was proclaimed to the sun, who in turn delivers it through Manu to the king-seers, the sun being especially the kingly god.[15] In the third book there is an hymn to the sun, in which this god is addressed almost in the terms of the Divine Song, and immediately preceding is the doctrine just alluded to. After the explanation is given that re-birth affects creatures and causes them to be born in earth, air, or water, the changes of metempsychosis here including the vegetable world as well as the animal and divine worlds,[16] the very essence of the Divine Song is given as "Vedic word," viz., kuru karma tyajeti ca, "Perform and quit acts," i.e., do what you ought to do, but without regard to the reward of action (iii. 2. 72, 74). There is an eightfold path of duty, as in Buddhism, but here it consists in sacrifice, study, liberality, and penance; truth, mercy, self-control, and lack of greed. As the result of practicing the first four, one goes on the course that leads to the Manes; as the result of practicing the last four, one goes on the course that leads to the gods. But in practicing any virtues one should practice them without expectation of reward (abhim[=a]na, arrière pensée). The Yogi, the devotee, who renounces the fruit of everything, is the greatest man; his powers are miraculous.
There follows (with the same light inconsistency to be found in the Divine Song) the appeal for action and the exhortation to pray to the sun for success in what is desired. For it is explained that the sun is the father of all creation. The sun draws up clouds with his heat, and his energy, being transmuted into water, with the help of the moon, is distilled into plants as rain, and in this way the food that man eats is full of solar energy, and man and all that live by food must regard the sun as their father. Preliminary to the hymn to the sun is given a list of his hundred and eight names,[17] among which are to be noticed: Aryaman, Soma, Indra, Yama, Brahm[=a], Vishnu, Çiva, Death, Time, Creator, the Endless One, Kapila, the Unborn One, the Person (Purusha; with which are to be compared the names of Vishnu in the Divine Song), the All-maker, Varuna, the Grandfather, the Door of Heaven, etc. And then the Hymn to the Sun (iii. 3. 36 ff.):[18] "Thou, O Sun, of creatures art the eye; the spirit of all that have embodied form; thou art the source of all created things; thou art the custom of them that make sacrifice; thou art the goal of the S[=a]nkhyas and the hope of the Yogis; the course of all that seek deliverance … Thou art worshipped by all; the three and thirty gods(!) worship thee, etc…. I think that in all the seven worlds[19] and all the brahma-worlds there is nothing which is superior to the sun. Other beings there are, both powerful and great, but they have no such glory as the sun's. Father of light, all beings rest in thee; O Lord of light, all things, all elements are in thee. The disc of Vishnu was fashioned by the All-maker (one of the sun's names!) with thy glory. Over all the earth, with its thirteen islands, thou shinest with thy kine (rays)….[20] Thou art the beginning and the end of a day of Brahm[=a]…. They call thee Indra; thou art Rudra, Vishnu, the Father-god, Fire, the subtile mind; thou art the Lord, and thou, eternal brahma."
There is here also a very significant admixture of Vedic and
Upanishadic religion.
In Krishna, who in the Upanishads is known already by his own and his mother's name, pantheism is made personal according to the teaching of one sect. But while the whole epic is in evidence for the spuriousness of the claim of Krishna to be regarded as incarnate Vishnu (God), there is scarcely a trace in the original epic of the older view in regard to Vishnu himself. Thus in one passage he is called "the younger brother of Indra" (iii. 12. 25). But, since Indra is at no time the chief god of the epic, and the chapter in which occurs this expression is devoted to extolling Krishna-Vishnu as the All-god, the words appear to be intended rather to identify Krishna with Vishnu, who in the Rig Veda is inferior to Indra, than to detract from Vishnu's glory. The passage is cited below.
What now is the relation of Vishnu-Krishna to the other divinities? Vishnuite and Çivaite, each cries out that his god includes the other, but there is no current identity of Brahm[=a], Vishnu, Çiva as three co-equal representations of one God. For example, in iii. 189. 5, one reads: "I am Vishnu, I am Brahm[=a], and I am Çiva," but one cannot read into this any trinitarian doctrine whatever, for in context the passage reads as a whole: "I am N[=a]r[=a]yana, I am Creator and Destroyer,
I am Vishnu, I am Brahm[=a], I am Indra, the master-god, I am king Kubera, Yama, Çiva, Soma, Kaçyapa, and also the Father-god." Again, Vishnu says that the Father-god, or grandparent of the gods, is 'one-half of my body," and does not mention Çiva (iii. 189. 39). Thus, also, the hymn to Çiva in iii. 39. 76 ff. is addressed "to Çiva having the form of Vishnu, to Vishnu having the form of Çiva, to the three-eyed god, to Çarva, the trident-holder, the sun, Ganeça," but with no mention of Brahm[=a]. The three gods, Brahm[=a], Vishnu, Çiva, however, are sometimes grouped together (but not as a trinity) in late passages, in contrast to Indra, e.g., ix. 53. 26. There are many hymns to Vishnu and Çiva, where each is without beginning, the God, the uncreated Creator. It is only when the later period, looking back on the respective claims of the sects, identifies each god with the other, and both with their predecessor, that one gets even the notion of a trinity. Even for this later view of the pseudo-epic only one passage will be found (cited below).
The part of Brahm[=a] in the epic is most distinctly in process of subordination to the sectarian gods. He is holy and eternal, but not omniscient, though wise. As was shown above, he works at the will of Vishnu. He is one with Vishnu only in the sense that all is one with the All-god. When Vishnu 'raises the earth' as a boar, Brahm[=a] tells the gods to go to him.[21] He councils the gods. His heaven is above Indra's, but he is really only an intermediary divinity, a passive activity, if the paradox may be allowed. Not like Indra (to whom he is superior) does he fight with All-gods, or do any great act of his own will. He is a shadowy, fatherly, beneficent advisor to the gods, his children; but all his activity is due to Vishnu. This, of course, is from the point of view of the Vishnuite.
But there is no Brahm[=a]ite to modify the impression. There existed no strong Brahm[=a] sect as there were Vishnu and Çiva sects. Brahm[=a] is in his place merely because to the preceding age he was the highest god; for the epic regards Creator, Praj[=a]pati, Pit[=a]maha, Brahm[=a] as synonymous.[22] The abstract brahma, which in the Upanishads is the same with the Supreme Spirit, was called personally Brahm[=a], and this Brahm[=a] is now the Brahmanic Father-god. The sects could never get rid of a god whose being was rooted alike in the preceding philosophy and in the popular conception of a Father-god. Each age of thought takes the most advanced views of the preceding age as its axioms. The Veda taught gods; the Br[=a]hmanas taught a Father-god above the gods; the Upanishads taught a Supreme Godhead of which this Father-god was the active manifestation. The sects taught that their heroes were incarnations of this Supreme, but they carried with them the older pantheon as well, and, with the pantheon, its earlier and later heads, Indra and Brahm[=a]. Consequently each sect admits that Brahm[=a] is greater than the older Vedic gods, but, while naturally it identifies its special incarnation first with its most powerful opponent, and thus, so to speak, absorbs its rival, it identifies this incarnation with Brahm[=a] only as being chief of lesser divinities, not as being a rival. One may represent the attitude of a Krishna-worshipper in the epic somewhat in this way: "Krishna is a modern incarnation of Vishnu, the form which is taken in this age by the Supreme Lord. You who worship Çiva should know that your Çiva is really my Krishna, and the chief point is to recognize my Krishna as the Supreme Lord. The man Krishna is the Supreme Lord in human form. Of course, as such, being the One God in whom are all things and beings, he is also all the gods known by names which designate his special functions. Thus he is the head of the gods, the Father-god, as our ancestors called him, Brahm[=a]; and he is all the gods known by still older names, who are the children of the secondary creator, Brahm[=a], viz., Agni, Indra, S[=u]rya, etc. All gods are active manifestations of the Supreme God called Vishnu, who is born on earth to-day as Krishna." And the Çivaite says: "Çiva is the manifestation of the All-god," and repeats what the Vishnuite says, substituting Çiva for Vishnu,[23] but with the difference already explained, namely, that the Çiva-sect has no incarnation to which to point, as has the Vishnuite. Çiva is modified Rudra, and both are old god-names. Later, however, the Çivaite has also his incarnate god. As an example of later Çiva-worship may be taken Vishnu's own hymn to this god in vii. 80. 54 ff.: "Reverence to Bhava, Çarva, Rudra (Çiva), the bestower of gifts, the lord of cattle, the terrible, great, fearful, god of three wives;[24] to him who is peace, the Lord, the slayer of sacrifices (makhaghna)[25] … to the blue-necked god; to the inventor (or author) … to truth; to the red god, to the snake, to the unconquerable one, to the blue-haired one, to the trident-holder; … to the inconceivable one … to him whose sign is the bull; … to the creator of all, who pervades all, who is worshipped by all, Lord of all, Çarva, Çankara, Çiva, … who has a thousand heads a thousand arms, and death, a thousand eyes and legs, whose acts are innumerable." In vii. 201. 71, Çiva is the unborn Lord, inconceivable, the soul of action, the unmoved one; and he that knows Çiva as the self of self, as the unknowable one, goes to brahma-bliss. This also is late Çivaism in pantheistic form. In other words, everything said of Vishnu must be repeated for Çiva.[26]
As an example of the position of the lowest member of the later trinity and his very subordinate place, may be cited a passage from the preceding book of the epic. According to the story in vi. 65. 42 ff., the seers were all engaged in worshipping Brahm[=a], as the highest divinity they knew, when he suddenly began to worship "the Person (Spirit), the highest Lord"; and Brahm[=a] then lauds Vishnu as such: "Thou art the god of the universe, the All-god, V[=a]sudeva (Krishna). Therefore I worship thee as the divinity; thou, whose soul is devotion. Victory to thee, great god of all; thou takest satisfaction in that which benefits the world…. Lord of lords of all, thou out of whose navel springs the lotus, and whose eyes are large; Lord of the things that were, that are, that are to be; O dear one, self-born of the self-born … O great snake, O boar,[27] O thou the first one, thou who dwellest in all, endless one, known as brahma, everlasting origin of all beings … destroyer of the worlds! Thy feet are the earth … heaven is thy head … I, Brahm[=a], am thy form … Sun and moon are thy eyes … Gods and all beings were by me created on earth, but they owe their origin to thy goodness." Then the creation of Vishnu through Pradyumna as a form of the deity is described, "and Vishnu (Aniruddha) created me, Brahm[=a], the upholder of the worlds; so am I made of Vishnu; I am caused only by thee."