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The terms maitra (friendliness) and karuna (com- passion) might naturally suggest the Buddhist virtues so named, since they do not occur in the Upanisads!. But in the Gita also they are mentioned only once, and the general context of the passage shows that no special emphasis is put on these two virtues. They do not imply any special kind of meditation of universal friendship or universal piety or the active performance of friendly and sympa- thetic deeds for the good of humanity or for the good of living beings in general. They seem to imply simply the positive friendly state of the mind that must accompany all successful practice of non-injury to fellow-beings. The Gita does not advocate the active performance of friendliness, but encourages a friendly spirit as a means of discouraging the tendency to do harm to others. The life that is most admired in the Gi#d@ is a life of unattachedness, a life of peace, contentment and perfect equanimity and unper- turbedness in joys and sorrows. The vices that are denounced are generally those that proceed from attachment and desires, such as egoism, pride, vanity, anger, greediness, etc. There is another class of virtues which are often praised, namely those which imply purity, sincerity and alertness of mind and straightness of conduct. The negative virtue of sense-control, with its positive counterpart, the acquirement of the power of directing one’s mind in a right direction, forms the bed-rock of the entire superstructure of the Gita code of moral and virtuous conduct. The virtue of sameness (samatva), however, seems to be the great ideal which the Gita is never tired of emphasizing again and again. This sameness can be attained in three different stages: subjective sameness, or equanimity of mind, or the sameness in joys and sorrows, praise and blame and in all situations of life; objective sameness, as regarding all people, good, bad or in- different, a friend or an enemy, with equal eyes and in the same 1 The term maitra occurs only once in the Muktikopanisat, II. 34, and the Muktika is in all probability one of the later Upanisads. 512 The Philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita [cH. impartial spirit; and the final stage of the achievement of this equanimity is the self-realized state when one is absolutely un- perturbed by all worldly things—a state of transcendence called gunatita. Thus in the Gitd, 11. 15, it is said that he whom sense- affections and physical troubles cannot affect in any way, who is unperturbable and the same in joys and sorrows, attains immor- tality. In 1.38 Krsna asks Arjuna to think of joys and sorrows, gain and loss, victory and defeat as being the same, and to engage himself in the fight with such a mind; for, if he did so, no sin would touch him. In 1. 47 Krsna says to Arjuna that his business is only to perform his duties and not to look for the effects of his deeds; it is wrong to look for the fruits of deeds or to desist from per- forming one’s duties. In 11. 48 this sameness in joys and sorrows is described as yoga, and it is again urged that one should be unperturbed whether m success or in failure. The same idea is repeated in 11. 55, 56 and 57, where it is said that a true saint should not be damped in sorrow or elated in joy, and that he should not be attached to anything and should take happiness or misery indifferently, without particularly welcoming the former or regretting the latter. Such a man is absolutely limited to his own self and is self-satisfied. He is not interested in achieving anything or in not achieving anything; there is no personal object for him to attain in the world!. To such a man gold and stones, desirables and undesirables, praise and blame, appreciation and denunciation, friends and foes are all alike. Such a man makes no distinction whether between a friend and foe, or between a sinner and a virtuous man®. Such a man knows that pleasures and pains are welcomed and hated by all and, thinking so, he desires the good of all and looks upon all as he would upon himself—on a learned Brahmin of an elevated character, on a cow, an elephant, a dog or a candala; and the wise behave in the same way*. He sees God in all beings and knows the indestructible and the immortal in all that is destructible. He who knows that all beings are pervaded by all, and thus regards them all with an equal eye, does not hurt his own spiritual nature and thus attains his highest®. As the culmination of this development, there is the state in which a man transcends all the corporeal and mundane characteristics of the threefold gunas, and, being freed from birth, death, old age and 1 Gitd, 11. 17, 18. 2 Ibid. x1v. 24, 25. 3 Ibid. v1. 9. 4 Ibid. v1. 31; also v. 18. 5 Ibid. x11. 28. xiv] The Ethics of the Gita and the Buddhist Ethics 513 sorrow, attains immortality. He knows that the worldly qualities of things, the gunas, are extraneous to his own spiritual nature, and by such thoughts he transcends the sphere of all worldly qualities and attains Brahmahood!. Apart from the caste-duties and other deeds that are to be - performed without any attachment, the Gita speaks again and again of sacrifices, tapas and gifts, as duties which cannot be ignored at any stage of our spiritual development. It is well worth pointing out that the Gita blames the performance of sacrifices either for the attainment of selfish ends or for making a display of pomp or pride. The sacrifices are to be performed from a sense of duty and of public good, since it is only by the help of the sacrifices that the gods may be expected to bring down heavy showers, through which crops may grow in plenty. Physical tapas is described as the adoration of gods, Brahmins, teachers and wise men, as purity, sincerity, sex-continence and non-injury; tapas in speech is de- scribed as truthful and unoffending speech, which is both sweet to hear and for the good of all, and also study; mental tapas is described as serenity of mind (manah-prasada), happy temper (saumyatva), thoughtfulness (mauna), self-control (atma-vint- graha) and sincerity of mind; and the higher kind of tapas is to be performed without any idea of gain or the fulfilment of any ulterior end?. Gifts are to be made to good Brahmins in a holy place and at an auspicious time, merely from a sense of duty. This idea that gifts are properly made only when they are made to good Brahmins at a holy time or place is very much more limited and restricted than the Mahayana idea of making gifts for the good of all, without the slightest restriction of any kind. ‘Thus it is said in the Siksa-samuccaya that a Bodhisattva need not be afraid among tigers and other wild animals in a wild forest, since the Bodhisattva has given his all for the good of all beings. He has therefore to think that, if the wild animals should eat him, this would only mean the giving his body to them, which would be the fulfilment of his virtue of universal charity. The Bodhisattvas take the vow of giving away their all in universal charity?. Thus the fundamental teaching of the Gitd is to follow caste- duties without any motive of self-interest or the gratification of sense-desires. The other general duties of sacrifices, tapas and ¥ Gia xiv. 20,.23,.20. 2 Ibid. xvi. 11-17. 8 Siksa-samuccaya, ch. XIX, p. 349. 514 The Philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita [cH. gifts are also to be practised by all and may hence be regarded in some sense as being equivalent to the sadharana-dharmas of the Vaisesika and Smrti literature. But, if caste-duties or customary duties come into conflict with the special duties of non-injury (ahimsa), then the caste-duties are to be followed in preference. It does not seem that any of the other special duties or virtues which are enjoined can come into conflict with the general caste- duties; for most of these are for the inner moral development, with which probably no caste-duties can come into conflict. But, though there is no express mandate of the Gita on the point, yet it may be presumed that, should a Sidra think of performing sacrifices, tapas or gifts or the study of the Vedas, this would most certainly be opposed by the Gita, as it would be against the prescribed caste-duties. So, though non-injury is one of the special virtues enjoined by the Gita, yet, when a Ksattriya kills his enemies in open and free fight, that fight is itself to be re- garded as virtuous (dharmya) and there is for the Ksattriya no sin in the killing of his enemies. If a person dedicates all his actions to Brahman and performs his duties without attachment, then sinfulness in his actions cannot cleave to him, just as water cannot cleave to the leaves of a lotus plant?. On the one hand the Gita keeps clear of the ethics of the absolutist and meta- physical systems by urging the necessity of the performance of caste and customary duties, and yet enjoins the cultivation of the great virtues of renunciation, purity, sincerity, non-injury, self- control, sense-control and want of attachment as much as the absolutist systems would desire to do; on the other hand, it does not adopt any of the extreme and rigorous forms of self- discipline, as the Yoga does, or the practice of the virtues on an unlimited and universalist scale, as the Buddhists did. It follows the middle course, strongly emphasizing the necessity of self- control, sense-control and detachment from all selfish ends and desires along with the performance of the normal duties. This detachment from sense-pleasures is to be attained either through wisdom or, preferably, through devotion to God. 1 Gitd, v. 10. XIV] Analysis of Action 515 Analysis of Action. The consideration of the Gita ethics naturally brings in the problem of the analysis of the nature of action, volition and agent.