Contents
Shri Sankara's Gita Bhashya
(Sri Sankaracharya's Commentary on the Gita)
CHAPTER -1
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Thus, the first chapter entitled 'Yoga of the dejection of Arjuna'"[1], in the Upanisads known as 'The Celebrated Songs of the Lord'—expounding the Knowledge of the Supreme Spirit, and the Science of Yoga, in the form of a dialogue between Śrī Krsna and Arjuna —embodied in the Bhisma Parva of śrī Mahābhārata, the Compendium of one hundred thousand verses produced by Vyāsa. Discipline comprises severe training in a particular mode of lifev in accordance with its rules; it also connotes the particular mode of approach and reaction towards the problems one is faced with, as a result of his mental training in a specific department of knowledge. We accordingly speak of the discipline of mathematics, the discipline of physical sciences, the discipline of metaphysics etc. Similarly, here also. The first chapter deals with the ' dejection of Arjuna', engendered by his great reluctance at having to engage in a battle in which relatives and friends would be slain; he develops a distaste for the enjoyment of worlrlly pleasures, such as undisputed sover eignty after vanquishing relatives-turncd-enemies. Such a feeling of distaste towards worldly pleasures (yairāgya) is a help to spiritual advancement; it is in fact one of the four essential requisites for liberation (sāilhanā-catusfayu). Hence the dejection portrayed in the Chapter too is appropriately entitled as a 'Yoga '. (Yoga, of course, has the different connotation of KarmaYoga, when the Lord differentiates between Sūmkhya and Yoga. See II. 10. Com). |
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References and Context
- ↑ Fvcry chapter of the Gita is designated as a 'Yoga', which is best translated (with reference to the subject-matter of the Gitā) as 'spiritual discipline'; and in this book, metaphorically, as ' the way ' in many of the succeeding chapter- headings. (Also as -'knowledge" in chap. VIII and "mode" in Chap. X, XVI and XVT1.)