English
Our bodies are always changing, and, though the different stages in this growth in childhood, youth and old age represent comparatively small degrees of change, yet these ought to prepare our minds to realize the fact that death is also a similar change of body only and cannot, therefore, affect the unperturbed nature of the self, which, in spite of all changes of body at successive xIV] Eschatology 519 births and rebirths, remains unchanged in itself. When one is born one must die, and when one dies one must be reborn. Birth necessarily implies death, and death necessarily implies rebirth. There is no escape from this continually revolving cycle of birth and death. From Brahma down to all living creatures there is a continuous rotation of birth, death and rebirth. In reply to Arjuna’s questions as to what becomes of the man who, after proceeding a long way on the path of yoga, is somehow through his failings dislodged from it and dies, Krsna replies that no good work can be lost and a man who has been once on the path of right cannot suffer; so, when a man who was proceeding on the path of yoga is snatched away by the hand of death, he is born again in a family of pure and prosperous people or in a family of wise yogins; and in this new birth he is associated with his achievements in his last birth and begins anew his onward course of advancement, and the old practice of the previous birth carries him onward, without any effort on his part, in his new line of progress. By his continual efforts through many lives and the cumulative effects of the right endeavours of each life the yogin attains his final realization. Ordinarily the life of a man in each new birth depends upon the desires and ideas that he fixes upon at the time of his death. But those that think of God, the oldest instructor, the seer, the smallest of the small, the upholder of all, shining like the sun beyond all darkness, and fix their life-forces between their eyebrows, and control all the gates of their senses and their mind in their hearts, ultimately attain their highest realiza- tion in God. From the great Lord, the great unmanifested and incomprehensible Lord, proceeds the unmanifested (avyakta), from which come out all manifested things (vyaktayah sarvah), and in time again return to it and again evolve out of it. Thus there are two forms of the unmanifested (avyakta), the un- manifested out of which all the manifested things come, and the unmanifested which is the nature of the eternal Lord from whom the former come!. The ideas of deva-yana and pitr-yana, daksinayana and uttarayana, the black and the white courses as mentioned in the Upanisads, are also referred to in the Gita. Those who go through smoke in the new-moon fortnight and the later six months (when the sun is on the south of the equator), and thus take the black - course, return again; but those who take the white course of fire 1 Gitd, vit. 16-23. 520 The Philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita [cH. in the full-moon fortnight and the former six months (when the sun is on the north of the equator) do not return again!. No very significant meaning: can be made out of these doctrines. They seem to be but the perpetuation of the traditional faiths regarding the future courses of the dead, as referred to in the Chandogya Upanisad. The Gita, again, speaking of others, says that those who follow the sacrificial duties of the Vedas enjoy heavenly pleasures in heaven, and, when their merits are exhausted by the enjoyments of the good fruits of their actions, they come back to earth. Those who follow the path of desires and take to religious duties for the attainment of pleasures must always go to heaven and come back again—they cannot escape this cycle of going and coming. Again, in the Gita, xvi. 19, Krsna says, ‘I make cruel vicious persons again and again take birth as ferocious animals.” The above summary of the eschatological views of the Gita shows that it collects together the various traditionally accepted views regarding life after death without trying to harmonize them properly. Firstly, it may be noted that the Gita believes in the doctrine of karma. 'Thus in xv. 2 and in Iv. g it is said that the world has grown on the basis of karma, and the Gita believes that it is the bondage of karma that binds us to this world. ‘The bondage of karma is due to the existence of attachment, passions and desires. But what does the bondage of karma lead to? The reply to such a question, as given by the Gita, is that it leads to rebirth. When one performs actions in accordance with the Vedic injunctions for the attainment of beneficial fruits, desire for such fruits and attachment to these desirable fruits is the bondage of karma, which naturally leads to rebirth. The pro- position definitely pronounced in the Gita, that birth necessarily means death and death necessarily means birth, reminds us of the first part of the twelvefold causal chain of the Buddha—‘‘ What being, is there death? Birth being, there is death.” It has already been noticed that the attitude of the Gita towards Vedic per- formances is merely one of toleration and not one of encourage- ment. ‘These are actions which are prompted by desires and, like all other actions similarly prompted, they entail with them the bonds of karma; and, as soon as the happy effects produced by the merits of these actions are enjoyed and lived through, the per- formers of these actions come down from heaven to the earth and } Gita, vitl. 24-26. XIV] Eschatology 521 are reborn and have to pass through the old ordeal of life. The idea that, there being birth, there is death, and that, if there is death there is-also rebirth, is the same in the Gita as in Buddhism; but the Gita form seems to be very much earlier than the Buddhistic form; for the Buddhistic form relates birth and death through a number of other causal links intimately connected together in an interdependent cycle, of which the Gita seems to be entirely ignorant. The Gita does not speak of any causal chain, such as could be conceived to be borrowed from Buddhism. It, of course, knows that attachment is the root of all vice; but it is only by implication that we can know that attachment leads to the bondage of karma and the bondage of karma to rebirth. The main purpose of the Giéd is not to find out how one can tear asunder the bonds of karma and stop rebirth, but to prescribe the true rule of the performance of one’s duties. It speaks sometimes, no doubt, about cutting asunder the bonds of karma and attain- ing one’s highest; but instruction as regards the attainment of liberation or a description of the evils of this worldly life does not form any part of the content of the Gita. The Gita has no pessimistic tendency. It speaks of the necessary connection of birth and death not in order to show that life is sorrowful and not worth living, but to show that there is no cause of regret in such universal happenings as birth and death. The principal ideas are, no doubt, those of attachment, karma, birth, death and rebirth; but the idea of Buddhism is more complex and more systematized, and is therefore probably a later development at a time when the Gita discussions on the subject were known. The Buddhist doctrine that there is no self and no individual anywhere is just the opposite of the Gita doctrine of the immor- tality of the self. But the Gita speaks not only of rebirth, but also of the two courses, the path of smoke and the path of light, which are referred to in the Chandogya Upanisad'. The only difference between the Upanisad account and that of the Gita is that there are more details in the Upanisad than in the Gita. But the idcas of deva-yana and pitr-yana do not seem to fit in quite consistently with the idea of rebirth on earth. The Gita, however, combines the idea of rebirth on earth with the deva-ydana-pitr-yana idea and _also with the idea of ascent to heaven as an effect of the merits 1 Chandogya Upanisad, v. 10. 522 The Philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita [cH. accruing from sacrificial performances. Thus the Gita combines the different trains of ideas just as it finds them traditionally accepted, without trying to harmonize them properly. It does not attempt to discuss the point regarding the power of karma in determining the nature of rebirths, enjoyments and sufferings. From some passages (IV. 9 or VI. 40-45) it might appear that the bonds of karma produced their effects independently by their own powers, and that the arrangement of the world is due to the effect of karma. But there are other passages (xvI. 19) which indicate that karma does not produce its effects by itself, but that God rewards or punishes good and bad deeds by arranging good and bad births associated with joys and sorrows. In the Gita, Vv. 15, it is said that the idea of sins and virtues is due to ignorance, whereas, if we judge rightly, God does not take cognizance either of vices or of virtues. Here again there are two contradictory views of karma: one view it: which karma is regarded as the cause which brings about all inequalities in life, and another view which does not attribute any value to good or bad actions. The only way in which the two views can be reconciled in accordance with the spirit of the Gita is by holding that the Gita does not believe in the objective truth of virtue or vice (punya or papa). There is nothing good or bad in the actions themselves. It is only ignorance and foolishness that regards them as good or bad; it is only our desires and attachments which make the actions produce their bad effects with reference to us, and which render them sinful for us.