Bhagavadgita -Radhakrishnan 5

The Bhagavadgita -S. Radhakrishnan

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY 3. Chief Commentators The Gita has been recognized for centuries as an orthodox scripture of the Hindu religion possessing equal authority with the Upani ads and the Brahma Sutra and the three together form the triple canon The teachers of the Vedanta are obliged to justify their special doctrines by an appeal to these three authorities and so wrote commentaries on them expounding how the texts teach their special points of view. The Upanisads contain many different suggestions about the nature of the Absolute and Its relation to the world. The Brahma Sutra is so terse and obscure that it has been used to yield a variety of interpretations. The Gita gives a more consistent view and the task of the commentators, who wish to interpret the texts to their own ends, becomes more difficult. After the decline of Buddhism in India, different sects arose, the chief being Advaita or non-dualism, Visistadvaita or qualified non-dualism, Dvaita or dualism and Suddhadvaita or pure non-dualism. The various commentaries on the Gita were written by the teachers in support of their own traditions (sampradaya) and in refutation of those of others. These writers are able to find in the Gria their own systems of religious thought and metaphysics, since the author of the Gita suggests that the one eternal truth which we are seeking, from which all other truth derives, cannot be shut up in a single formula. Again, we receive from the study and reflection of the scripture as much living truth and spiritual influence as we are capable of receiving. The commentary of samkara is the most ancient of the existing ones. There were other commentaries older than his, to which he refers in his Introduction, but they have not come down to us. samkara affirms that Reality or Brahman is one without a second. The entire world of manifestation and multiplicity is not real in itself and seems to be real only for those who live in ignorance (avidya). To be caught in it is the bondage in which we are all implicated. This lost condition cannot be removed by our efforts. Works are vain and bind us firmly to this unreal cosmic process (samsara), the endless chain of cause and effect. Only the wisdom that the universal reality and the Individual self are identical can bring us redemption.. When this wisdom arises, the ego is dissolved, the wandering ceases and we have perfect joy and blessedness.