Gita Rahasya -Tilak 568

Srimad Bhagavadgita-Rahasya OR Karma-Yoga-Sastra -Bal Gangadhar Tilak

CHAPTER XV APPENDIX PART I.— THE GITA AND THE MAHABHARATA. The statement made by me above that the Gita, which supports Action, has been included in the Mahabharata for sufficient reasons, and at a proper place, for morally justifying the lives of great persons like Sri Krsna, and that it must have been a part of the Mahabharata, is fully confirmed if one considers the construction of these two books. But before entering into such a comparison, it is necessary to^ briefly consider the present form of these two books. Srimat Samkaracarya has stated at the very outset in his commentary on the Gita, that there are 700 stanzas in the Gita ; and we find the same number of stanzas in all the available editions of the book. Out of these 700 stanzas, there is one stanza of Dhrtarastra, 40 of Safijaya, 84 of Arjuna, and 575 of the Blessed Lord. But the Gita-Mahatmya (Eminence of the Gita) of five and a half stanzas at the commencement of that chapter of the Bhismaparva, which comes after the eighteen chapters of the Gita are over, that is, of the 43rd chapter of the Bhismaparva, in the edition of the Mahabharata published at the Ganpat Krishnaji Press at Bombay, it is stated that :- satsatani savimsani slokanam praha kesavah I arjunah saptapancasat saptasastim tu sanjayah I dhrtarastrah slokam ekam gitaya manam ucyate II that is : " In the Gita, there are 620 stanzas of Kesava, 57 of Arjuna, 67 of Sanjaya, and 1 of Dhrtarastra ", in all 745 stanzas. These stanzas are to be found in the edition of the Mahabharata printed by Mr. Krishnacarya, according to the reading adopted in the Madras Presidency ; but we do not find them in the edition of the Mahabharata printed in Calcutta ; and Nilakantha, who has written a commentary on the Bharata, has said with reference to these five and a half verses, that " gaudaih na pathyante " (i.e., " they are not to be found in the Gauda, that is, Bengali, reading " — Trans.). It would, therefore, appear that these five and a half stanzas have been interpolated into the Mahabharata; but even if these five and a half stanzas are considered an interpolation, yet, it is not possible to say how these 45 stanzas, which are- in excess of the stanzas of the Gita which are now available. were obtained by anybody. As the Mahabharata is a very extensive treatise, it is possible to interpolate stanzas into it, or to take away existing stanzas ; but the same is not the case with the Gita. The Gita was a text in daily recital, and there were formerly many people and there are still some people, who can repeat the whole of the Gita by heart in the same way as the Vedas.