Srimad Bhagavadgita-Rahasya OR Karma-Yoga-Sastra -Bal Gangadhar Tilak
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CHAPTER XIII
THE PATH OF DEVOTION
Therefore, one cannot lay down the proposition, that it is only the men folk belonging to the three upper classes, who obtain Release ; and if one accepts the position that even women and Sudras can obtain Release, then, one must explain by what means they can obtain Knowledge. Badarayanacarya mentions the means : "visesanu grabas ca" [1], i. e., "the special favour of the Paramesvara" ; and it is stated in the Bhagavata [2] that this means, in the shape of Devotion cum Action, has been. mentioned as a special favour (visesanugraha), "in the Bharata and naturally also in the Gita, because the Srutis cannot be heard by women, Sudras, or nominal Brahmins (of the Kali-yuga)". Although the Knowledge which is acquired by this path, and the Knowledge of the Brahman mentioned in the Upanisads, are one and the same, yet, the difference between men and women or between Brahmins, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras does not any more remain in this path, and the special quality of this path has been mentioned in the Gita in the following stanza : — mam hi partha vyapasritya ye 'pi syuh papayonayah I that is, "O, Partha, by taking shelter in Me, women, Vaisyas and Sudras and other lower classes, in which birth has been taken as a result of sin, attain the highest perfection"; and! this same stanza has appeared again in the Anugita in the Mahabharata [4] ; and, it is stated in the conversation, between the Brahmin and the hunter (vyadha) in the Vanaparva, that the desh-selling hunter has explained how Release can be attained by acting according to one's own duties desirelessly; and the- same explanation has been given in the Santi-parva by Tuladhara, who was a merchant, to the Brahmin ascetic Jajali [5] From this it follows that, that; man whose Reason has become equable towards all, is the highest of mm, whether he is a carpenter, or a merchant, or a butcher, by profession. It is clear that, according to the Blessed Lord, the spiritual worth of a man does not depend on the profession followed by him, or on the caste to which ha belongs, hut entirely on the purity of his conscience. When in this way, the gateway of Release has been opened to all people in society, there arises in the hearts of all such persons, a strange self-consciousness, of which the nature can be ganged from the history of the Bhagavata religion in Maharashtra. To the Paramesvara, women, or the lowest of mixed tribes, or Brahmins are the same. "The Paramesvara craves (only) for your Faith". |
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