Gita Rahasya -Tilak 565

Srimad Bhagavadgita-Rahasya OR Karma-Yoga-Sastra -Bal Gangadhar Tilak

CHAPTER XV APPENDIX (PARIS'ISTA-PRAKARANA) AN EXTERNAL EXAMINATION OF THE BHAGAVAD-GITA aviditva rsim chando daivatam yogam eva ca I yo 'dhyapayej japed vapi papiyan jayate tu sah II I have in the previous chapters shown how Sri Krsna induced Arjuna to fight, after having proved to him with the help of the Vedanta-Sastra that (i) the Karma-Yoga was more meritorious; that (ii) in the Karma-Toga, Reason was the important factor ; that (iii) Release was obtained by performing Actions according to one's own status in life with a Reason which had become Equable as a result of the Realisation of the Identity of the Brahman and the Atman or by the worship of the Paramesvara ; and that (iv) nothing else is necessary for obtaining Release, and that He did this in order to correct Arjuna, who, after having first visualised the actual form of the terrible destruction of the clan and of the community which was sure to arise on account of the BharatI war, was on the point of renouncing his duties as a soldier, and taking up the life of an ascetic. When I have in this way defined the true import of the Gita, it is easy to meet the objections, which have been raised, to the effect that ' there is no reason to include the Gita in the Mahabharata ', etc., as a result of the misunderstanding that the Gita is a book which deals purely with. Vedanta and supports Inaction. Because, just as Sri-Krsna had compelled Arjuna to abstain from murdering: Yudhisthira, by explaining to Mm the difference between Truth (satya) and Falsehood (anrta) in the Karnaparva, so also was the advice given in the Gita necessary to induce Arjuna to fight ; and considering the matter even from the literary point of view, it is clear that the exposition of the principles of Morality and Immorality in worldly life, or of the Doable and the Not-Doable, have been ultimately mentioned in the Gita, as it was necessary to mention in some place or other the- fundamental principles underlying many similar incidents in various places in the Mahabharata. In the Vanaparva, in the conversation between the Hunter (vyadha) and the Brahmin,, the Hunter has justified why he carries on the trade of selling: flesh on the authority of Vedanta ; and in the conversation between Tuladhara and Jajali in the Santiparva, Tuladhara has justified his profession of a merchant in a similar way . But this justification refers only to those respective professions.