Gita Rahasya -Tilak 11

Karma Yoga Sastra -Tilak

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY Still, although the renunciatory religion has in this way been mentioned in the Gita side hy side with the energistic religion of Action, yet the tradition of the Gita religion of Manu, Iksvaku etc. which has been mentioned in the Gita does not at all apply to the renunciatory religion ; it is consistent only with the tradition of the Bhagavata religion. It, therefore, follows Irom the statements referred to above that according to the writeT of the Mahabharata, the advice which has been given to Arjuna in the Glta relates principally to the Energistic Bhaga- vata religion traditionally handed down from Manu to Iksvaku etc., and that it contains a'reference to the renunciatory path of ascetics only as a side reference. That this progressive or Ener- gistic Naray amy a religion in the Mahabharata and the Bhagavata religion of the Bhagavata-Purana are fundamentally one and the same, will he seen to be quite clear from the statements made by Prthu, Priyavrata, Prahlada and other devotees of the Blessed Lord or from the other descriptions of the path of Desireless Action which are to be found elsewhere in the Bhagavata But the true purpose of the Bhagavata-Purana is not to justify the Energistic principles in favour of Action contained in Bhagavata religion. This justification is to be found in the Mahabharata or principally in the Gita. But, it is stated in the earlier chapters of the Bhagavata, that while justifying these principles, Sri Vyasa forgot to define the moral value of the devotional aspect of the Bhagavata religion, and as Desireless Action ( miskarmya ) by itself is useless without Devotion , the Bhagavata-Purana had to be subsequently written to make up for this deficit. From this, the real import of the Bhagavata-Purana becomes quite clear ;' and on that account, the Euergistic aspect of the Bhagavata religion has not been as forcefully emphasised in the Bhagavata as the devotional aspect of devotion to the Blessed Lord, which has been explained by the recitation of numerous stories. Nay, the writer of the Bhagavata says that all yoga of Energism ( Karma-Yoga ) is useless in the absence of Devotion Therefore, the Bhagavata-Purana which lays stress on Devotion is not — although it relates to the Bhagavata religion — as useful for determining the moral laid down in the Gita, as the Narayaniya Upakhyana of the Bharata itself which contains the Glta ; and if the Bhagvata-Purana is made use of for that purpose, then one must do so, bearing clearly in mind, that both the object and the time of the Bharata and the Bhagavata are quite different. The various questions as to -what were the original forms of the renunciatory religion of monks and of the Energistic Bhagavata religion, what the reasons were for this difference, in what respects the form of ithe original Bhagavata religion has changed in present times etc. will be considered later on in detail.