Srimad Bhagavadgita-Rahasya OR Karma-Yoga-Sastra -Bal Gangadhar Tilak
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CHAPTER XI
RENUNCITATION AND KARMA-YOGA
This statement from the Isavasya has been quoted as an authority for the harmonis- ing of Jnana and Karma, wherever there was occasion to deal with the Karma- Yoga in the Vedanta-Sutrag, as also in other places. But, the Isavasya Upanisad does not rest there. In order to support the statement made in the second stanza, it subsequently starts the exposition of 'avidya', that is, , Karma, and ' vidya ', that is, Jnana ; and in the ninth stanza, it is stated that "persons who devote themselves only to avidya or Karma enter darkness, and those who are steeped merely in vidya or the Knowledge of the Brahman enter a still darker darkness ". Having in this way shown the inferiority of pure avidya (Karma), and pure vidya (Jnana), this Upanisad explains in the eleventh stanza the necessity of the union of ‘vidya ' and ' avidya ' in the following words :- vidyam ca 'vidyam ca yas tad vedobhayam saha l avidyaya mrtyum tirtva vidyaya 'mrtam asnute II [1] The plain and clear meaning of this stanza is: "that man, who understands both vidya (Jnana) and avidya (Karma) at the same time, goes (easily) through the affairs of the ' mrtyu ' that is, of the perishable illusory world, by means of avidya that is, Karma ; and attains immortality by means of vidya, that is, of the Realisation of the Brahman "; and the same idea is repeated in the three succeeding stanzas[2], in which vidya is referred to as ' sambhuti ', that is, the original cause of the world, and avidya, which is different from that vidya, as 'asambhuti' or 'vinasa'. From this, it becomes quite, clear that the Isavasyopanisad is in favour of the simultaneous, possession (vbhayam saha) of vidya and avidya. In the above stanza, the words ' mrtyu and ' amrta ' are mutual opposites, just like ' vidya ' and ' avidya '. Out of them, amrta quite clearly means the imperishable Brahman, and it follows that mrtyu, which is the opposite of it, means the perishable mrityu-loka mortal world) or the lifq iji this world ; and both these, words have been used in the same sense in the Nasadiya-Sukta of the Rg-veda [3]; When one interprets the- eleventh stanza of the Isavasyopanisad, which has been quoted above, taking these clear meanings of the words vidya etc.,. that is, taking vidya as meaning Jnana, avidya as meaning Karma, amrta as meaning the Brahman, and mrtyu as meaning the mortal world, it will he clearly seen that the simultaneous possession (ekakalina-samuccaya) of vidya and avidya is men- tioned in the first line of this stanza : the separate results of both are mentioned in the second part of the stanza, in order to further emphasise that statement. |
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