Gita Madhurya -Ramsukhdas 46

Gita Madhurya -Swami Ramsukhdas

Chapter V

INTRODUCTION Lord Krsna in the fourth chapter from the thirty-third to the thirty-seventh verse eulogized the tradition of going to the teachers who have realized the Truth, having renounced actions and objects and ordered Arjuna to gain knowledge from then) . In this process of Self-Realization it is indispensable to meditate upon God in loneliness. Arjuna did not want to fight because he thought that he would incur sin by fighting. He wanted to attain salvation. So Arjuna thought that the Lord was asking him to gain knowledge by renouncing aetions. Then the Lord in the thirty-eighth verse of the fourth chapter declared, "He who is perfected in Yoga, gains it (knowledge) in the Self." It means that a striver following the Diseipline of Action need not go to the great persons who have realized the truth nor has he to practise any other spiritual discipline in order to gain knowledge. Thus Karmayoga (the Discipline of Action) as the means of Self-Realization has been eulogized here. Arjuna in'the thirty-third verse of the fourth chapter heard the glory of the customary method of gaining knowledge and in the thirty-fourth verse by the term 'Viddhi' he held it as the Lord's order for him to gain knowledge by that method. Thus he heard the praise of Karmayoga (the Discipline of Action) in the thirty-eighth verse and the forty-first verse. In the forty-second verse He ordered him to perform his duty of fighting. Thus having heard the glory of 'Jnanayoga' and 'Karmayoga' both and also His order to gain knowledge and perform his duty. Arjuna could not decide which one of the two disciplines was better. Therefore, in order to get his doubt cleared Arjuna puts up the question.