The Anugita
1882 | 64,929 words
Volume 8, The Sacred Books of the East. This part Contains the english translation of the Anugita (a portion of the Ashvamedhika Parva from the Mahabharata)....
Chapter XXVI
Brahman said:
That Mahat which was first produced, is (afterwards) called egoism; when it is born as (the feeling itself)[1] I, that is said to be the second creation. That egoism is stated to be the source of all entities[2], that from which the changes take place[3]; it is full of light, the supporter of consciousness; it is that from which the people are produced, the Prajāpati. It is a deity, the producer of the deities, and of the mind; it is the creator of the three worlds. That which feels[4] thus--'I am all this'--is called (by) that (name). That eternal world is for those sages who are contented with knowledge relating to the self, who have pondered on the self, and who are perfected by sacred study and sacrifice. By[5] consciousness of self one enjoys the qualities; and thus that source of all entities, the producer of the entities, creates (them); and as that from which the changes take place, it causes all this to move; and by its own light, it likewise charms the world.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
I. e. when the Mahat develops into the feeling of self-consciousness--I--then it assumes the name of egoism.
[2]:
See on this Sāṅkhya-sāra. Hall's Introd. p. 31, note.
[3]:
So Arjuna Miśra. Nīlakaṇṭha says it means 'born from the change, or development, viz. Mahat.' The Sāṅkhya-sāra, p. 17, however, shows it means 'appertaining to the quality of goodness.' See also Sāṅkhya-kārikā 25, and commentary there, which is of great help here. The sense is this: Egoism is of three descriptions; it appertains to the quality of goodness, and as such is the creator of the deities and mind, the deities being those presiding over the ten senses (cf. Sāṅkhya-sāra, p. 17); it is full of light, or appertains to the quality of passion (cf. ibid.), and as such imparts to the other two qualities their virtue of activity (cf. Sāṅkhya- kārikā commentary, p. 91, Tārānāth's ed.); it is also of the quality of darkness, and as such the producer of the: triple world (see ibid.) See Sāṅkhya-sūtra II, 17, 18, and comment, where a view somewhat different in one or two details is stated.
[4]:
Sāṅkhya-sāra, p. 16; Sāṅkhya-kārikā 24, p. 89 (Tārānāth's ed.)
[5]:
Arjuna Miśra says that the words Ahaṅkāra &c. are here explained; qualities here means objects, as at Gītā, p. 55. The meaning of the first clause is, that the feeling that the objects are for oneself, and therefore enjoying them, gives the name of Ahaṅkāra to the principle in question, its creation of all the elements gives it the name of Bhūtādi. It is called Vaikārika, as the cause of the various activities and developments going on. The last clause seems to be an explanation of the epithet Taijasa, also applied to egoism.