nculcates action as the embodiment
of the duty of man, through which alone he can attain unto absorption.

Even to the present time these different schools of thought not only
prevail; they have also begotten and are nourishing different schools
of religious life and practice which present different ideals and
enforce different methods.

The Brahman author, or authors, of the Bhagavad Gita was inspired with
the laudable ambition of harmonizing these conflicting teachings and
of blending their peculiarities into one consistent whole, which would
appeal to all the followers of the many-sided Brahmanical faith. This
he accomplished with rare beauty of language, and with a success which
has won admiration and acceptance by nearly all the people of India.
And this is the more remarkable since the worship of Krishna is
distinctly a part of the Vaishnavite cult of Hinduism, and as such
does not appeal to the Saivites, or the worshippers of Siva.

But the author, naturally and inevitably, failed to produce a
congruous scheme of saving truth and religious appeal. The result is
that we see, on almost every page, contradictory teachings and
conflicting methods of salvation. This, of course, is by no means
fatal to it in the estimation of Hindus, with whom consistency has
never been a foible, and in the eyes of whom two mutually
contradictory teachings can rest peacefully side by side.

Here we find dualism and monism locking hands together, and the three
ways of liberation--that of ritual, of asceticism, and of
knowledge--not only find full expression, but are also supplemented by
the inculcation of faith and of the obligations of caste. To a
Westerner, this jumbling together of such antagonistic ideas and
methods would be as repulsive as it would be absurd. But the Oriental
mind works on different lines from the Occidental, and is never
hampered by logical inconsistency.

The Song of the Adorable One is divided into three chapters, of six
divisions each.

The first extols the benefits of the Yoga method; but it also adds
that action should be supplemented to Yoga for the speediest
attainment of beatification.

In the second part, the pantheism of the Vedanta is inculcated, and
Krishna identifies himself with the universal Spirit and claims
adoration as such.

In the third part, an effort is made to blend the Sankya and the
Vedanta conceptions, an effort which largely permeates the whole book.
That is, it claims that _p