The references to the S[=a]nkhyas, or S[=a]nkhya-Yogas, are not yet exhausted.  There is another in a following chapter (vi. 18. 13) which some scholiasts say refers to the Ved[=a]nta-system, though this is in direct contradiction to the text.  But the extracts already given suffice to show how vague and uncertain are, on the whole, the philosophical views on which depends the Divine Song.  Until the end of these citations one hears only of nature and spirit, the two that have no beginning, but here one finds the Supreme Spirit, which is as distinct from the indestructible one as from the destructible.  Moreover, ‘nature’ is in one place represented as from the beginning distinct from spirit and entirely apart from it, and in another it is only a transient phase.  The delusion (illusion) which in one passage is all that exists apart from the Supreme Spirit is itself given up in favor of the S[=a]nkhya Prakriti, with which one must imagine it to be identified, although from the text itself it cannot be identical.  In a word, exactly as in Manu, there are different philosophical conceptions, united without any logical basis for their union.  The ‘system’ is in general that of the S[=a]nkhya-Yogas, but there is much which is purely Ved[=a]nta.  The S[=a]nkhya system is taught elsewhere as a means of salvation, perhaps always as the deistic Yoga (i. 75. 7:  “He taught them the Sankhya-knowledge as salvation").  It is further noticeable that although Krishna (Vishnu) is the ostensible speaker, there is scarcely anything to indicate that the poem was originally composed even for Vishnu.  The Divine Song was probably, as we have said, a late Upanishad, which afterwards was expanded and put into Vishnu’s mouth.  The S[=a]nkhya portions have been redressed as far as possible and to the illusion doctrine is given the chief place.  But the Song remains, like the Upanishads themselves, and like Manu, an ill-assorted cabinet of primitive philosophical opinions.  On the religious side it is a matter of comparative indifference whether that which is not the spirit is a delusive output of the spirit or indestructible matter.  In either case the Spirit is the goal of the spirit.  In this personal pantheism absorption is taught but not death.  Immortality is still the reward that is offered to the believer that is wise, to the wise that believes.  Knowledge and faith are the means of obtaining this immortality; but, whereas in the older Upanishads only wisdom is necessary (wisdom that implies morality), here as much stress, if not more, is laid upon faith, the natural mark of all sectarian pantheism.

Despite its occasional power and mystic exaltation, the Divine Song in its present state as a poetical production is unsatisfactory.  The same thing is said over and over again, and the contradictions in phraseology and in meaning are as numerous as 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