Srimad Bhagavadgita-Rahasya OR Karma-Yoga-Sastra -Bal Gangadhar Tilak
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CHAPTER XV
We do not come across many variant readings in the present Gita, and that is why the few variant readings which exist are well-known to the commentators. Nay, it may even be said that the Gita has been made to contain exactly 700 stanzas, in order that nobody should be in a position to add to or take away from that number ; then, how have 45 stanzas — and those too of the Blessed Lord — been included in the Gita in the Bombay and the Madras editions of the Mahabharata ? The total number of stanzas attributed to Sanjaya and Arjuna is the same according to this arrangement, as in the present available editions of the Gita, namely, one hundred and twenty-four ; and as there is a likelihood of ten other stanzas being attributed to Sanjaya, on account of difference of opinion, just as the seventeen stanzas "pasyami devan", etc., in the eleventh chapter (11. 15-31) have been so attributed, one can say that although the total of the stanzas attributed to Sanjaya and Arjuna may be the same, there might have been a difference in counting the respective stanzas attributed to Arjuna and Sanjaya. But, one cannot account for the 45 additional stanzas, that is, for 620, instead of the now available 575 stanzas attributed to the Blessed Lord. If it is said that a praise (stotra) or ' a description for purposes of meditation ' (dhyana) of the Gita or some other similar subject has been included in this chapter, then, not only is such subject-matter not to be found in the Bombay edition of the Bharata, but that edition has a Gita of only 700 stanzas. Therefore, there is no alternative except to take as authoritative the present Gita of 700 stanzas. This disposes of the Gita. But if one considers the Mahabharata, the difference in the matter of the Gita is as nothing. There is a statement in the Mahabharata itself that it contains a hundred thousand stanzas ; but we do not come across that number of stanzas in the now available editions of the Mahabharata, and the number of chapters in the various Parvas is also not according to the index given in the beginning of the Bharata, as has been clearly proved by Rao Bahadur Chintamanrao Vaidya in his criticism on the Bharata. In these circumstances, one has to take in hand only certain definite editions of these two treatises for purpose of comparison ; and therefore, I have compared them by taking as authoritative the Gita of 700 stanzas, which was accepted as authoritative by Srlmat Samkaracarya, and the edition of the Mahabharata printed in Calcutta by Babu Pratapchandra Roy; and the references in this book to the stanzas quoted from the Mahabharata are according to the above-mentioned edition of the Mahabharata printed at Calcutta.
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