Gita Rahasya -Tilak
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
Therefore, taking into account these uses of such examination, I too have in the appendix at the end of this book, considered some important points arising in the external examination of the Gita. But those who want to understand the esoteric import of any book, should not waste time in these external examinations. In order to show the difference between those who understand the hidden message of Vakdevi and those who formally worship her, the poet Murari has given a very excellent illustration. He says : — abdhir langhita eva vanarabhataih kim tvasya gambhiratam I apatalanimagnapivaratanur-janati manthacalah II If one wants to know of the immense depth of the ocean, whom should he ask of it ? It is true that on the occasion of the war between Rama and Ravana, powerful and agile monkey warriors crossed the ocean without difficulty and reached Ceylon (Lanka); but how could these poor fellows have gained any knowledge of the immense depth of the ocean ? The only one who can know truly of this depth is the great Mandaracala (Mandara mountain) rooted in patala, which was placed by the gods at the bottom of the ocean, in order to make of it a "mantha" or churner at the time of the churning of the ocean.
According to this logic of the poet Murari, we must now take into account only the words of those scholarS and learned pereons who have churned the ocean of the Gita in order to draw out its moral. The foremost of these writers is the writer of the Mahabharata. One may even say that he is in a way the author of the present-day Gita. I will, therefore, in the first place shortly explain what is the moral involved in the Gita according to the writer of the Mahabharata. From the fact that the Gita is called " Bhagavadgita " or " the Upanisad sung by the Blessed Lord " one sees that the advice given in the Gita to Arjuna is principally of the Bhagavata religion, that is to say, of the religion promulgated by the Bhagavan, because, Sri Krsna is known by the name " Sri Bhagavan " usually in the Bhagavata religion. It is stated in the commencement of the fourth chapter of the Gita [1] that this religion was nothing new, but was something which had been preached by the Bhagavan to Vivasvan and by Vivasvan to Manu and by Manu to Iksvaku. And in the Exposition of the Narayaniya or Bhagavata religion at the end of the Santiparva of the Mahabharata, after the tradition of the Bhagavata religion in the various incarnations of Brahmadeva, that is, during the various kalpas has been described, it is stated in the description of the Tretayuga out of the present life of Brahmadeva, that : — Tretayugadau, ca tato Vivasvan Manave dadau I Manus ca lokabhrtyartham sutayeksvakave dadau I Iksrakuna ca kathito vyapya lokanavasthitah II [2]
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