Gyaneshwari -Sant Gyaneshwar
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Chapter-18
Release
Then in chapter three, it proceeds to teach the method of attaining deliverance, for the persons who are bound by ignorance. Here we are told that those who are bound by body-consciousness, should give up motivated and prohibited actions and perform assiduously the actions prescribed by the scriptures. So the Lord concludes the third chapter, by the statement, that the prescribed actions should be performed in good faith. This is how the first three chapters, contain the karmakanda of the Vedas. When a doubt arose as to how this performance of obligatory functions, would release one from the bonds of ignorance (1436-1440), Lord Krishna explains that when the bound person reaches the stage of a seeker, he should dedicate all his actions to the Supreme Brahman. He told Arjuna, that whatever prescribed actions he performs, through the agency of body, speech and mind, he should perform them in dedication to God. He proceeds to explain at the end of chapter four, that this Yoga of action, should end up in the worship and praise of God. The same theme has been continued till the end of chapter eleven, in which it is stated, that the Lord should be worshipped through work. In these eight chapters, he has described the upasanakanda i.e. the division relating to spiritual discipline, in which the Gita explains how one should avoid the obstacles in one’s path (1441-1445). The true and compassionate knowledge, which springs through the grace of God and from following the sect of the Guru, has been described at great length from the verse ‘He who is non-hostile to all creatures’ in chapter twelve to the verse ‘absence of pride’ in chapter thirteen, and so I have included chapter twelve in jnanakanda i.e. the division of Vedas, dealing with knowledge. The theme of the four chapters beginning with the chapter twelve to the end of chapter fifteen, contain the jnanakanda, dealing with knowledge. In this way the Gita, which is a beautiful digest, consisting of three divisions, is telling all, in a thundering voice, that they should partake of this fruit in the form of liberation. In chapter sixteen, it expounds the nature of ignorance which is inimical to the means of knowledge. Chapter seventeen states, that this enemy of knowledge must be conquered, with the aid of scriptures. In this way, from chapter one to the end of chapter seventeen the Lord has explained the gist of Vedas, which were born from His very breath. The eighteenth is the crowning chapter, which contains the pith of the discourses in the previous chapters (1451-1455). |
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