This page has not been fully proofread.

BHAGAVAD GUNA DARPANA
 
Yudhishthira said :-

 
(2) Who is the One (Supreme) Deity according to the
What is the one Supreme Goal? Praising
and worshipping Whom may men attain the good?
 
śāstras?
 
(3) What dharma is considered by you as the best of
dharmas? By reciting which mantra is a man released
from bonds of birth and samsāra?
 
According to the 'sastras':-This phrase is to be taken
along with each one of the questions.
 
Considered by you as the best :-This phrase (in the third
stanza) is to be taken to link up with the previous stanza also,
just as a lion walks along, looking also behind. That is, this
must be taken to qualify each one of the questions, of course,
making the necessary changes in the case-inflections (of the
nouns).
 
Sastras:--The word in the original, loka, means the thing
by which we see, i.e., the body of śāstras, consisting of śruti,
smriti, etc. (because only the sastras can teach us about the
gods).
 
The One (Ekam):-That which has none superior to or
equal to itself. This is inferable from the later passages,
"Of Him who is the greatest in the world" and "He who is the
great, supreme splendour", which answer the question.
This word is used here not to denote an individual or its
number, because this is always inferable from the form of the
word daivatam, which consits of the nominal stem (pratipadika)
and the suffix indicating the singular. Therefore, the word One
would become of useless significance. Besides, if there is any
deity not indicated as one and not possessing an individuality,
the word One may perhaps be used. Since there is no such deity
who is without individuality or is manifold, One must have its
distinctive meaning as stated above. Moreover, it cannot be
the attribute of any (deity), as in the answer to the question,
there is nothing referring to One as number.
 
Deity (daivatam):-that which possesses qualities like
.brightness, etc., peculiar to the Rulership of the Universe. The
question, therefore, is: "Which is that Deity, which you
 
14