their active duties for ascetic contemplation. It may be doubted, however, whether this was the spirit of the Vedas,* and it may be most probably referred to a period subsequent to those works-prior however to the Grecian invasion; for at that time a number of sects were already in existence, as the Gymnosophists, Sarmanes or Germanes, and Hyllobii, all of the ascetic class.

In compliance with the purport of the Vedas, the Vedanta philosophy, though it did not prohibit works, countenanced them only so far, as they prepared the soul for that state, in which it should be capable of acquiring divine knowledge, and when purified from all mundane illusion it might be fit, to recognise its identity with the Supreme. The union with the supreme spirit resulting from this identification, and the consequent exemption from returning to any human form, are, according to the Vedanta, attainable by divine knowledge alone, and at all events, such knowledge being attained, the performance of rites, the observance of ceremonies became objects of comparative indifference-ast—“ If purificatory rites be considered essential, (it may be said) they are indifferent, for if Janaka and others observed rites and ceremonies, yet wise men have

* Menu permits the householder to become a Sanyasi at once, or to pass over the intermediate stage of the hermit with attention to ceremonies. His commentator adds, a Brahman may proceed from the first order, or the student, to the state of a Sanyasi, but this is quite at variance with the text, which declares that if a Brahman have not read the Vedas, begotten a Son, and performed sacrifices, and yet aim at final beatitude, he shall sink to a place of degradation. These are called the three debts-to the sages, the manes, and the gods; and it is repeatedly declared that the man, who has not acquitted himself of those obligations shall not pretend to supreme felicity, or to divine wisdom derived from contemplative devotion. The text is therefore entirely consistent with the old system: the comment interpolates more modern ideas.-Menu. Ch; vi. v. 25. 35. 38. also 94. 95.

+ आचारदर्शनादितिचेन तुल्यंतुदर्शनं जनकादेर्यथा कभी चारदर्श

÷ | fagiàïafajèïenge qafat.

offered no sacrifice with fire," Brahma Sútra* 3, 4, 9. And the doctrine was further extended to the neglect of all instituted observances whatever: "If it be said the attainment of (divine) knowledge cannot be without the observance of the stated orders, (as student &c. and the ceremonies incident to cast) that is not the case-it may be attained in them; that is obvious: but it may be attained out of them, as well as in them, as was seen with Raikka and others, and it is also confirmed by the law, for the sa cred codes relate that Sanwartta and others, belonging to no instituted order, attained perfection." Ibid. 3, 4, 36. Passages from the Upanishads also may be adduced, undervaluing the ritual. Nothing obtained through perishable means can be eternal, hence what use of rites." "Neither can he (the Supreme) be conceived by the help of austerities or religious rites." "All votaries who repose on God alone their firm belief, originating from a knowledge of the Vedant, and who by forsaking religious rites, obtain purification, being continually occupied in divine reflections during life, are at the time of death entirely freed from ignorance, and absorbed into God, "Mundak Upanishad, translated by Rammohun Roy."

66

In permitting however the practice of the ritual, even after divine knowledge is obtained, the Vedanta, makes a wide distinction between its ceremonies, and positively interdicts all those performed for any particular objects, as sacrifices supposed to be the means of obtaining power, wealth, progeny, and other worldly goods the only works authorized are the Nitya and Naimittika, the constant and occasional rites incumbent on every order of Hindus, as the daily Sandhyas, oblations with fire, and libations to the manes. In these

अथानामिण सर्वथा विद्यानधिकार इति चेन्न । अन्तर ञ्चापितु तद्दृष्टेः । आश्रममन्तरा विनापिचज्ञानंस्यात् ॥ रैक्कादेस्तद्दर्श नात् अपिचस्मर्य्यते ॥ अनाश्च मे सम्वर्त्तकादीनां सिद्धिस्मृता स्मर्य्यते ॥

also the performer must propose to himself no benefit, and must observe them merely in conformity to the directions of the Sastras. With such a reservation, recommendation of the observance of certain ceremonies is not unfrequently urged. "Those rites, the prescription of which wise men found in the Vedas," are truly themeans of producing good consequencesMundak Upa-"All acts are to be regarded, before knowledge is obtained, for the purification of the intellect, as a steed to convey a traveller to his home" Brahma Sútra.*

The duties of the order are to be discharged, according to the text: that is, it is said in the Kaushárava-Beholding this as himself, let him perform rites without hesitation,† meaning that the individual, possessed of divine knowledge, shall discharge the duties of his order, not those which do not appertain to his caste." Ibid.The work we are about to examine also admits, though rather reluctantly, the superiority of divine knowledge, and contemplative exercise over works and faith: thus Arjuna is directed to fix his mind on Krishna: if he cannot do that at once, he must endeavour to effect it by practice,-if that is above his strength, he is to perform works, abandoning their fruitand if that is still too great an effort, he is to put his trust in Krishna. The subsequent passage in a great manner disarranges this series, but the scope of the section corrobates its tenor, and it harmonises with the general spirit of Hindu theology.

It may therefore be concluded, that the Vedanta philosophy, although it places the ritual as subordinate to divine knowledge, rather inclines to the

+ विद्दत्वाञ्चाश्रमकमपि । ३२ | पश्यन्निममात्मानं कुर्य्यात् कम्मीविचारयन्नितिकोपारवश्रुतौ विहितत्वादाश्रमस्य अपिनावर्णस्यच कर्म ज्ञानी कुर्य्यात् ॥

performance of disinterested acts of devotion, and recommends those ceremonies, which propose no particular fruit to the performer. This is not the case with some other philosophical divisions of the Hindus, and as observed in the Gita "some learned men have taught that acts should be shunned as faulty." Lect. 18, 3,* this, as Sankara and Sridhara Swami observe, refers particularly to the Sanhhyas, who object to all the sacrificial ceremonial of the Vedas, and declare that all acts are to be relinquished: although however condemning the ritual of the vedas as sanguinary and futile, the Sankhyas do not exclude all attention to outward observances, and they enjoin particular postures, modes of breathing, and looking, which they profess contribute to constrain the wanderings of the spirit, and force it into a conjunction with its primitive source.

These practices are properly the invention of a different School, the Patanjala, in which in like manner they are substitutes for the ceremonies of the Vedas, They effect the Yoga, or Union of the individualised with the universal spirit, and hence the system, by which they are inculcated, is called the Yoga Sastra,-the like identification, however, or consequent exemption from transmigration, is the great object of all the philosophical sects, and the term is, therefore, familiar to them, as well as to that to which it is particularly applied. They have also adopted more or less extensively the ceremonial of the yoga, or the contrivances, by which intellectual aberration is to be restrained, and the mind forced into exclusive meditation on spirit. In this light the Bhagavad Gita is a yoga work, and the different divisions treat of various kinds of Yoga, or the various means, by which union with the supreme spirit is to be attained.

Whether the ritual of the Vedas be observed or not, there is no reason to conclude, that either the

* त्याज्यं दोषवदित्येक कर्म प्राजर्मनीषिणः ।

Sankhya or the Vedanta School admits the compatibility of divine knowlege with the discharge of active social duties. Up to the period of seclusion, the student or the householder, may be preparing himself by a tranquil. lised mind, and indifference to the objects of human solicitude, for that perfect calm in which knowledge is alone attainable, but it is not possible that a man engaged in worldly occupations should accomplish the requisite condition of quiescence. Hence the institution of the different degrees or asramas, and particularly those of the Vanaprastha and Bhikshuka, or Hermit and Beggar, as indispensable stages in the scale of perfection.

In the course of time it was probably found, either that the encouragement given to ascetic devotion was injurious to social happiness, or that it was considered an unfair monopoly of emancipation, and a kind of compromise was admitted, by which the acquisition of divine knowledge should be placed within the reach of all whom it was worth while to conciliate. Hence the practice of mortification and penance came to be discountenanced, and the discharge of social duties according to the station and caste of the individual to be insisted on, at the same time that emancipation was pursued: indifference to the result was all that was stipulated for: men were to adore, as Epicurus worshipped, nulla spe, nullo pretio inductus: the doctrine of the Vedas that those works especially which propose some benefit, should be abandoned, was strained into the posi

In the Gita the practisers of austere penance and mortifications are denounced as followers of a demoniac faith,

अशास्त्रविहितं घेोरं तप्यन्ते येन पेोजनाः । दम्भाहकार संयुक्ताः कामण्गबलान्विताः ॥ कर्षयन्तः शरीरस्थं भूतग्राममचेतसः । मांचैवान्तः शरीरस्थं तान् विद्ध्यासुरनिश्चयान् ॥

Those men who filled with pride and hypocrisy, perform horrid penance, undirected by the ritual, and characterised by violence, passion and desire; are fools who torment, the aggregated elemen tary essence of the body, and me who am present in it; know them to put their faith in fiends, 17, 5, 6.

B