October, 1873.] CHRISTIAN TRACES IN THE BHAGAVAD GITA. 287 thine too, Arjuna! I know them all, but thou knowest them not. (iv. 5.) For the establishing of righteousness am 1 born from time to time.* (iv. 8.) The ignorant, the faithless, and he of a doubt¬ ing mind is lost. (iv. 40.) “I do nothing, let the absorbed think, who knows the truth, whether he sees, hears, touches, smells, eats, goes, sleeps, or breathes. . . . Ho who, performing his actions in Brahma, acts free from inclination, is not stained by sin. (v. 8, 10.)f Knowledge is enveloped in ignorance, therefore the creatures err. (v. 15.) Yet the knowledge of those in whose minds this ignorance has been destroyed by it, illumin¬ ates like the sun the highest, (v. 16.) He who can bear in this world, before he is forced from the body, the pressure of desire and anger, he is absorbed, a happy man. (v. 23.)§ Let the Yogi always exercise himself in secret, (vi. 10.) Absorption is not his who eats too much, nor his who eats not at all. (vi. 16.) Besides thee there is no one who can resolve this doubt, (vi. 39.) Hear, now, how thou mayst know me wholly, Partha! That knowledge... I shall declare to thee ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go. {John, viii. 14.) To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the Truth. (John xviii. 37.) For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John, iii. 3.) He that believeth. . . shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. {Mark, xvi. 16.) Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatso¬ ever ye do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Cor. x. 31.) And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in tho name of the Lord Jesus. {Col. iii. 17.) Having the understanding darkened. . through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. {Eph. iv. 18.) Until tho day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts. {2 Pet. i. 19.) God . . . hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in tho face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor. iv. 6.)t Blessed is the man that endureth temptation. {James, i. 12.) But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and, when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy father which is in secret. {Matt. vi. 6.) Why do tho disciples of John fast often . . . but thine eat and drink ? {Luke, v. 33.) The Son of man came eating and drinking. {Matt. xi. 19.) Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. {John, vi. 68.) I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. ii. 2.) savour of the prophecies of the Revelation. In my opinion there can, at present, be no doubt whatever that the incar¬ nation of Vishnu as Krishna—the only one represented as a truly human incarnation of the person of the god—is an imitation of the Christian dogma regarding tho person of Christ, pointed to, not only by tho similarity of the name Krishna to Christ, and the many coincidences in the legends about Krishna with the life of the Saviour, as has also already been supposed by Fra I’aolino h S. Bartolomeo in his Sy sterna Brahuianicum (Roma, 1791), by H. Windisch- raan and others, and lastly also by Weber (Ind. Studien, I. 400, II. 398 ff., and by Wheeler, Hist, of India, 1.4G4 ff.), but also, as may be specially shown, by the Bhagavad- Gita itself.
- Conf. gvctdlvatara Upanishad, vi. 6 (Biblioth. Ind.
vol. XV. p. 66): * Who is the establisher of virtue and the destroyer of sin.’ t Conf. iii. 30; Psalm liv. 23, and specially Heh. xii. 1-2. Comparo further with the doctrine here adduced Thomas tL Kempis, de Imit. Christi, II. iv. 2: “ No good action would be difficult if thou wort free within from inordinate affection. When it is the one simple intention of thy mind to obey the will of God and do good to thy fellow-men, thou wilt enjoy this inner freedomconf. (ibid. II. v.): “ If you are simply inteut on union with God, what you see in the world will little move you. Nothing will be lofty, or great, or pleasant, or to be desired, except simply God or of God.” The same thought also occurs in the Svetdivatara- Upanishad, the doctrine of which is closely related to the Bhagavad-Gita, and in which also traces of Christian influ¬ ence may bo pointed out. There it says {Biblioth. Ind. vol. XV. p. 65, 6. 4): “ Whoever after ho has performed works endowed with qualities, places them and all his fondness upon God—for if they do not exist, tho effects also cease— obtains, by tho cessation of work, that which is different from the principles (of nature), (that is to say, he becomes like Brahma).” One should notice also the specification of individual actions (’(V Xoyoy'ev cpya>—(ire tadicTf, tire irivcrt) in the passages cited, and the enumeration of cor¬ poreal functions in the 8th and 9th slokas which stand in the closest connection with tho 10th. J Compare also Clemens Alexandrinus, Protrept. § 114 (ed. Sylburg, p. 31) cap. xi.—“ Let us put away, then, let us put away oblivion of the truth, viz. ignorance ; and re¬ moving the darkness which obstructs, as dimness of sight, let us contemplate the only truo God. For in us light has shone forth from heaven, .. purer than the sun, Bwcetor than life hero below.” § Sukht nara,—conf. also the expression of Paul, 1 Cor. vii. 40. Tho idea enunciated in this sloka bears an entirely Christian stamp, and reminds us of the words of Chrysostom (de Virginitatc, cap. xi.), ed. Montfancon, tom. viii. p. 337 : “ Do yon understand then the glory of virginity ? of those who living on the earth, strive after a life like that of the celestials, clothed in the body, suffer not the incor¬ poreal to excel them in virtue, and render mortals the rivals of angels.”
