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The author wished to produce a poem to express his own bound less reverence for Krishna, to gather the best thoughts of the Upanishads and unite them with the most helpful parts of the philosophies, and at the same time to bind people to the ordinary life and worship of Hindu society. His book was not intended to be a class-book to be used in a Vedic school or by a few hermits in a forest, but a manual which the farmer, the soldier, the shopkeeper, and the Brahman might read day by day, while pursuing their ordinary avocations. He did not wish to turn men into sannyasis, but wished to present a religious system which people might accept and use, while they continued their ordinary daily work and 9o OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY lived within the caste system. The two most significant points in his teaching are the supremacy of Krishna and the theory of Karma-yoga. The significance of Krishna lies in this, that he is conceived as the absolute Brahman, the object of all the meditation of the sages of the Upanishads, and at the same time as a personal god approachable with sacrifice and prayer, like other personal gods. The significance of Karma-yoga also lies in its combination of philosophy with the popular life : as Krishna unites the loftiest meditation of the philosopher with the simplest worship of the ignorant, so Karma-yoga unites philosophic renunciation of the world with practical everyday life. The commands of Karma-yoga are : Give up all desire for the fruits of action, and thereby fulfil the philosophic ideal, but continue to do your ordinary work in the world at the same time, and thus fulfil your duty as a member of a Hindu family and caste. The author of the (jita is as anxious to persuade his readers to fulfil all the rules of caste laid down in the Dharmasastras, as he is to make them rise to the philosophic contemplation of the absolute Brahman. (See section 90.) No other Hindu book has laid hold of the educated classes with the same power as the Gita. 65. About the Christian era the great books of Mahayana Buddhism began to be written. Some of the early ones are in the vernaculars, but very soon Sanskrit comes to the front, and thereafter every great Buddhist work was written in Sanskrit. A very large literature sprang up in North India at this time. Many most famous and influential works might be mentioned, the Questions of King Milinda, the Lalita Vistara, the Saddharma Pundarlka, the Buddha- charita, the Amitayits Sutra, &c. These and many of the books of the old Tripitaka were carried over to China and translated into Chinese by competent scholars, both Indian and Chinese. INCARNATION 91 Mahayanists formed a canon for themselves, consisting mainly of new Mahayana texts but also including large parts of the old canon. In arrangement it is a Tripitaka also. This canon has been lost in India, but is preserved in distinct forms in Tibet and in China. The student will most readily get some idea of it by looking through Bunyiu Nanjio's Catalogue of the Chinese Translation of the Buddhist Tripitaka. NOTE.— The text below is THE LAW AGAINST WIDOW-REMARRIAGE : ' Until death let the widow live a life of endurance, self-restraint, and chastity, yearning to fulfil the law of wives of one husband, that most excellent law.' Aldnava Dharmaiastia, v. 158. f^TrTT 92 OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY ILLUSTRATIVE READINGS 15. Hindu Incarnation Krishna speaks at the battle of Kurukshetra : — ' Many births of Me and thee have passed, O Arjuna. I know them all ; but thou knowest them not, O affrighter of the foe. Though birthless and unchanging of essence, and though lord of born beings, yet in My sway over the Nature that is Mine own I come into birth by My own Magic. For whensoever the Law fails and lawlessness uprises, O thou of Bharata's race, then do I bring Myself to bodied birth. To guard the righteous, to destroy evil-doers, to establish the Law, I come into birth age after age. He who knows in verity My divine birth and works comes not again to birth when he has left the body, he comes to Me; O Arjuna. The Four Castes were created by Me according to the orders of Moods and Works ; know that I am indeed the doer of that work, yet no worker, unchanging. Father of this universe am I, mother, ordainer, grand- sire, the thing that is known and the being that makes clean, the word Om, the Rik, the Sama, and the Yajus ; The way, the supporter, the lord, the witness, the dwell ing, the refuge, the friend, the origin, the dissolution, the abiding-place, the house of ward, the changeless seed.' Bhagavadgita, iv. 5-9, 13, ix. 17-18 ; Barnett, in the Temple Classics. INCARNATION 93 16. Buddhist Incarnation Gautama the Buddha speaks on Gridhrakuta : — ' An inconceivable number of thousands of kotis of Aeons, never to be measured, is it since I reached superior enlighten ment and never ceased to teach the law. I roused many Bodhisattvas and established them in Buddha-knowledge. I brought myriads of kotis of beings, endless, to full ripeness in many kotis of Aeons. I show the place of extinction, I reveal to all beings a device to educate them, albeit I do not become extinct at the time, and in this very place continue preaching the law.' ' Repeatedly am I born in the world of the living.' 'What reason should I have to continually manifest myself? When men become unbelieving, unwise, ignorant, careless, fond of sensual pleasures, and from thoughtlessness run into misfortune. Then I, who know the course of the world, declare, " I am the Tathagata," and consider, How can I incline them to enlightenment? How can they become partakers of the Buddha-laws? So am I the Father of the world, the Self-born, the Healer, the Protector of all creatures. Knowing them to be perverted, infatuated, and ignorant, I teach final rest, myself not being at rest.' Saddharma ruihianka, xv. 1-3, 7, ^1-23; S.B.E., vol. xxi. 94 OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY 17. From the Vedanta Sutras NOTE. — A literal translation of each sutra is given in italics, and then the meaning follows in roman. 1. Then therefore Brahman-inquiry. Here beginneth the inquiry into Brahman. 2. Whence the birth, &c.} of Ms. Brahman is that from which the creation, preserva tion, and destruction of this world proceed. 3. From being the source of Scripture. The omniscience of Brahman follows from its being the source of Scripture. 4. But that from immediate connexion. But that Brahman is to be known from Scripture, because it is connected with the Upanishads as their purport. 5. From seeing not, nnscriptural. On account of seeing (i. e. thinking) being attributed in the Upanishads to the cause of the world, the pradhdna of the Sahkhya philosophy is not to be identified with the cause indicated by the Upani shads ; for it is not founded on Scripture. 6. If figurative, no, from word Self. If it be said that the word ' seeing ' is used figura tively, we deny that, on account of the word Self being applied to the cause of the world. Badarayana, Vcdtinla Siilras, I. i. i-G. INCARNATION 95 TABLES 16. Chronology of the Incarnation Period External Events 184 B.C. 44 Caesar murdered 31 Augustus supreme History and Religion 184 B.C. Fall of Asokan Empire Images in Buddhism 72 Fall of Suriga Dynasty Literature Second Stage of Mahabhdrata Books I and VII of Ramdyana 29 Christ crucified The New Testa ment Gonclophares Kanishka A. D. 100 A.I). 2CO Christianity in Malabar A.D. 300 Constantine grants Christians toleration, A.D. 320 Krishna as the Atman MAHAYANA LEADERS Asvaghosha Third Stage Nagarjuna or Mahdbhdrala The Gild !\lana~i'a Dliarma- idstra Aryadt Gradual Trans lation of Bud dhist Books into Chinese 96 OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY 17. The Six Orthodox Systems of Hindu Philosophy 1. The Karma Mimdmsd, 'work inquiry', the philosophy of sacrifice, founded on the 6rauta Sutras. Jaimini wrote the main treatise, the Karma Mlmdihsd Sutras. 2. The Uttara Mimdmsd, 'later inquiry', the philosophy of the Upanishads, the Vedanta, systematized by Badarayana in his workxknown as the Vedanta Sutras, the Brahma Sutras, or the Sarirdka Sutras. 3. The Sahkhya, a dualistic atheism, ascribed to the early sage Kapila. No early treatise survives. B. The Yoga. In this system the Sankhya metaphysic is combined with a personal God and with bodily and mental exercises called yoga. Patanjali, of the second century B.C.