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The roots merge into the earth, The earth merges into smell, smell into water, water into Taste, Taste into fire, fire into Form, Form in to Air, Air into Touch, touch into Akasa and Akasa into sound. "The Indriyas merge into the Adhi-daivas. The Adhi-daivas merge into the Manas. Manas merges into Ahankara. "Ahankara merges into Mahat (i.e. gives up the unconscious por- tion and becomes Jiva Sakti and Kriya Sakti itself. Sridhara.) "Mahat merges into the Gunas. "The Gunas merge into unmanifested Prakriti. Prakriti merges into Kala. Kala merges into Jiva. Jiva merges into Atma. Atma rests in self. "When these processes are meditated on, there is no delusion." SATVA RAJAS AND TAMAS. SKANDHA XI. CHAP. 25. "Sama or Control of the mind, Dama or Control of the Senses, forbearance, discrimination, tapas, truthfulness, compassion, mem- ory, renunciation, contentment, faith, shame and charitableness are the attributes proper of Satva. Selfish desire, Selfish exertion, pride, discontent, variety, selfish-invocation of the Devas, idea of separate- ness, material enjoyment, love of excitement, love of fame, derision, power and violence, are the attributes proper of Rajas. 444 A Study of the Bhagavata Purana "Anger, greed, untruthfulness, cruelty, begging, parading of re- ligion, languor, quarrel, repentance, delusion, grief, dejection, sleep, helplessness, fear and indolence are the attributes proper of Tamas. "The sense of I-ness and My-ness is produced by the mixture of the three Gunas (I have Sama, selfish desire and anger. My Sama, selfish desire and anger. Thus IJ and My are common to all the three Gunas. Sridhara) All our dealings having the elements of Manas (Satvic), the Tanmatras (Tamasic), the Indriyas and the Pranas (Raja- sic) in them, proceed from a mixture of the three Gunas. Devotion to Dharma (Satvic), Kama (Rajasic) and Artha (Tamasic), that bears the fruits of faith (Satvic), attachment (Rajasic) and wealth (Tamasic) is also based on a mixture of the Gunas. "The performance of religion for the gratification of desires (Kamya Dharma which is Rajasic), the performance of the duties of married life (Grihasta Dharma which is Tamasic) and the perfor- mance of the daily and occasional duties assigned to one’s position in life (Svadharma which is Satvic) are based on a union of the three Gunas. Man is Satvic, when he has got the Satvic attributes. He is Rajasic when he has got the Rajasic attributes. He is Tamasic when he has got the Tamasic attributes. "When a man or woman worships Me with unselfish devotion and by the performance of duties, he or she is Satvic. "The person who worships Me, for the attainment of desires is Rajasic. "The person who worships Me with a view to do injury to others is Tamasic. "Satva, Rajas and Tamas are attributes that grow in the minds of jivas, they are not My attributes. "When Satva prevails over the other two Gunas, man acquires re- ligiousness, wisdom, and other attributes, as also happiness. When Rajas prevails, it causes distraction, attachment and a sense of sep- arateness. Man acquires karma, fame and wealth. But he becomes miserable. "When Tamas prevails, delusion, inaction and ignorance follow. "When the Mind attains calm, the senses become abstemious, the body free from fear and the mind free from attachments, Satva grows up and makes it easy to perceive Me. Purnendu Narayana Sinha, M. A., B. L. 445 "When the mind becomes distracted by actions, and desires mul- tiply, when the senses of action become disordered and the mind al- ways wanders away, Rajas has its hold over man. "When the mind can not grasp, when it languishes, when even desires do not crop up, and there is indolence, melancholy and igno- rance, they all proceed from Tamas. "With Satva, the Deva element prevails, with Rajas, the Asura element prevails and with Tamas, the Rakshas element prevails. "The waking is from Satva, dream from Rajas and deep sleep from Tamas. "By Satva, people go higher and higher up, by Rajas they move about in the middle, and by Tamas they move lower down. "Satva takes one to Svarga Loka, Rajas to human Loka and Tamas to Naraka. Those who are void of Gunas attain Me. "Action that is offered up to Me or that is unselfish is Satvic. Self- ish action is Rajasa. Heartless action is Tamasa. "SAtvic wisdom is that which relates to Atma, as separate from the body. "Rajasic is half perceived wisdom. Tamasic is wisdom relating to the material universe. "Wisdom centred in Me is Nirguna or without Gunas. "Satvics like to reside in the forest. Rajasics in human habitations and Tamasics in gambling houses. Houses where I am worshipped are beyond all the Gunas. Births are caused by Guna and Karma. Those who conquer these become devoted to Me and attain my state." COMPANY. SKANDHA XI. CHAP. 26. "King Pururavas was forsaken by Urvasi. He then thought within himself what the body of a woman was composed of, where its beauty lay, and the origin and the end of that body. ’Therefore’ said he ’wise men should not associate with women or those that are addicted to women. By contact of the senses with their objects, mind gets dis- turbed, not otherwise. What you have not seen or heard of before can not disturb your mind. Let not the senses indulge in objects and mind will attain calm’ Keep company with Sadhus. 446 A Study of the Bhagavata Purana "Give up bad company. Acquire from the Sadhus devotion to Me and you shall ultimately attain Moksha." KRIYA YOGA AND IDOL WORSHIP. SKANDHA XI. CHAP. 27. (The details will not be interesting to the general reader). JNANA YOGA. SKANDHA XI. CHAP. 28. "Do not either praise or blame other men and their actions. Look upon all as one, pervaded by the same Prakriti and the same Purusha. By criticising others, the mind is directed to a false channel and it de- viates from the right path. What is good or what is bad of Dvaita? By direct perception, reasoning, self intuition, and scriptural teachings, know every thing in this manifested Universe to have a beginning and an end and to be thus unreal. Therefore free yourself from all attachments. (The ways of acquiring discriminative knowledge are then given in eloquent terms for which read the original). "Clearing up all doubts by discrimination, the sage should be fixed in the bliss of self, having abstained from every thing else. "The body of gross matter is not Atma. The Indriyas, their guid- ing Devas, Manas, Buddhi, Chitta and Ahankara are not Atma. The Bhitas, the Tanmatras and Prakriti are not Atma. These do not affect the seer. Whether the clouds gather or disperse, what is that to the Sun. "Akasa is not affected by the attributes of air, fire, water and earth nor by the changes of seasons. "The immutable is not affected by the impurities of Satva, Rajas and Tamas, however often they may cause the birth and rebirth of the Ahan principle. "But still (the unliberated sage) should avoid contact with the Gu- nas. He should by firm devotion to Me, cast off all attachments and all passions. When the disease is not properly treated, it gives trouble again and again. So when attachments are not completely removed and Karma is not counteracted they trouble the imperfect Yogi. Purnendu Narayana Sinha, M. A., B. L. 447 "The yogis that deviate from the path on account of obstacles that are spread out for them by the Devas through men (For the Sruti says:—"The Devas do not like that men should know all this." Srid- hara) are re-united to the path of Yoga in a better birth through the practices of their former birth. "The immature Yogi may be overpowered by diseases and other grievances of the body. He should overcome some of them by Yoga concentration (by concentration on the Moon, the Sun and others he should overcome heat cold &c., Sridhara), others by prescribed pos- tures accompanied by retention of breath (diseases caused by gaseous derangement are to be overcome by postures, accompanied by re- tention of breath), and some others by Tapas, Mantra and medicine. He should overcome some evils by meditating on Me, by taking My name, and by making rehearsals about Me. He should overcome other evils by following the lords of Yoga. "Some practise these to keep themselves young and free from dis- eases, solely with the object of attaining some Siddhis. This is not approved of by good people. The effort is fruitless. The body has an end. True in following the path of Yoga, the body sometimes becomes free from diseases and infirmities. But the Yogi should put no faith on these Siddhis. "When the Yogi gives up all desires, becomes fixed in self-bliss, and makes Me his all in all, he is not overcome by obstacles." BHAKTI YOGA. SKANDHA XI. CHAP. 29. Uddhava said:— "This path of Yoga seems to Me to be difficult of pursuit. Tell me O Achyuta, some means by which man may attain perfection with- out such exertion. Generally those that try to concentrate their mind become tired at last, being unsuccessful in their attempts. The dis- criminating sage has recourse to Thy lotus-feet, the fountain of all bliss. Tell me the path that leads to Thee." Shri Krishna replied:— "Do all actions for Me and bear me in mind as much as you can. Offer up the mind and all thoughts to Me. Be attached to the duties 448 A Study of the Bhagavata Purana of Bhagavatas. Live in sacred lands, where my Bhaktas dwell. Follow what they do—see Me in all beings as well as in self, pure as Akasa. With the eye of pure wisdom, look upon all beings as my existence and respect them as such. Brahmana or Chandiala, stealer or giver, big as the sun or small as his ray, tender hearted or cruel, the sage must look upon all alike. Then he shall have neither rivalry, nor jealousy nor reproach for others. His egoism shall also be gone.