Gita Rahasya -Tilak 13

Gita Rahasya -Tilak

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY The Upanisads, a work as authoritative and acceptable as both; and later on, the Upanisads, the Vedanta-Sutras and the Bhagavadgita acquired the colbctive name of "Prasthana- trayi " (the Trinity of Systems). " Prasthana-trayl " means the three principal authoritative works or pillars of the Vedic religion which systematically and scientifically expounded the two paths of Renunciation (mvrfti) and Energism (pravrtti). When once the Bhagavadgita came in this way to be included in the " Prasthana-trayl " and tha sovereignty of this "Prasthana-trayl" came to be firmly established, all religious opinions or cults which were, inconsistent with these three works or which could not find a place in them, came to be considered as inferior and unaccept- able by the followers of the Vedic religion. The net result of this was that the protagonist Acaryas of each of the various- cults which came into existence in India after the extinction of the Buddhistic religion, such as, the Monistic (advaita), the Qualified-Monistic ( visistadvaita ), the Dualistic (dvaita) and and the Purely Monistic (suddhadvaita) cults with the super- added principles of Devotion ( bhakti ) or Renunciation ( samnyasa ) had to write commentaries on all the three parts of the Prasthana-trayl ( and, necessarily on the Bhagavadgita. also ), and had somehow or other to prove that according to these three works, which had become authoritative and acceptable as Scriptures long before those cults came into- existence, the particular cult promulgated by them was the correct cult, and that the other cults were inconsistent with those Soriptures. Because, if they had admitted that these authoritative religious treatises would support other cults besides those propounded by themselves, the value of their particular cult would to that extent suffer and that was not desirable for any of these protagonists. When once this rule of writing sectarian ( sampradayika ) commentaries on the Prasthana-trayi supporting a particular doctrine came into vogue, different learned writers began to propound in their criticisms their own interpretations of the moral of the Gita on the authority of the commentaries pertaining to their particular doctrine and such criticisms began to gain authority in those particular sects. The commentaries or criticisms which are now available on the Gita, are more or less all of this kind, that is to say, they are written by Acaryas pertaining to diverse sects ; and on that account, although the original Bhagavadgita propounds only one theme, yet it has come to be believed that the same Gita supports all the various cults.