The Gita according to Gandhi 149

The Gita according to Gandhi -Mahadev Desai

The Four Varnas and Svadharma 19) that "This one slays not nor is slain", "the divine incarnation quells the scruples of Arjuna over, the murdering of his enemies.” The first thing to see is whether the Gita adopts the position that “'metaphysical knowledge permits the perpetration of crimes..? Without examining the statement in any detail that that is the position of the Upanishads, just one or two things may be mentioned. The doctrine that knowledge is not only virtue but that it leads to salvation and nothing else does it, may be traced to the famous Vedic text which declares: 'What will he do with, a knowledge of the text, who has not known That?' That Vedic text to my 'mind emphasizes the distinction between dry learning and metaphysical knowledge which suffuses every pore of one's being, that furnace-fire that turns, the whole iron into fire.