the repetitions, so that
one is not surprised to find it described as "the wonderful song,
which causes the hair to stand on end." The different meanings given
to the same words are indicative of its patchwork origin, which again
would help to explain its philosophical inconsistencies. It was
probably composed, as it stands, before there was any formal
Ved[=a]nta system; and in its original shape without doubt it precedes
the formal S[=a]nkhya; though both philosophies existed long before
they were systematized or reduced to Sutra form. One has not to
imagine them as systems originally distinct and opposed. They rather
grew out of a gradual intensification of the opposition involved in
the conception of Prakriti (nature) and M[=a]y[=a] (illusion), some
regarding these as identical, others insisting that the latter was not
sufficient to explain nature. The first philosophy (and philosophical
religion) concerned itself less with the relation of matter to mind
(in modern parlance) than with the relation of the individual self
(spirit) to the Supreme Spirit. Different explanations of the relation
of matter to this Supreme Spirit were long held tentatively by
philosophers, who would probably have said that either the S[=a]nkhya
or Ved[=a]nta might be true, but that this was not the chief question.
Later came the differentiation of the schools, based mainly on a
question that was at first one of secondary importance. In another
part of the epic Krishna himself is represented as the victim of
'illusion' (iii. 21. 30) on the field of battle.

The doctrine of the Bhagavad G[=i]t[=a], the Divine Song, is by no
means isolated. It is found in many other passages of the epic,
besides being imitated in the Anug[=i]t[=a] of the pseudo-epic. To one
of these passages it is worth while to turn, because of the form in
which this wisdom is enunciated. The passage immediately following
this teaching is also of great interest. Of the few Vedic deities that
receive hymnal homage chief is the sun, or, in his other form, Agni.
The special form of Agni has been spoken of above. He is identified
with the All in some late passages, and gives aid to his followers,
although not in battle. It will have been noticed in the Divine Song
that Vishnu asserts that the Song was proclaimed to the sun, who in
turn delivers it through Manu to the king-seers, the sun being
especially the kingly god.[15] In the third book there is an hymn to
the sun, in which