Notes on Bhagavad Gita

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Notes on Bhagavad Gita

 

with the commentary of Sri Sankaracharya

Translated by Alladi Mahadeva Sastry

 

When owing to the ascendancy of lust in its votaries, religion was

overpowered by irreligion caused by the vanishing faculty of

discrimination and irreligion was advancing - it was then that the

original Creator (Adi-kartri), Vishnu, known as Narayana, wishing to

maintain order in the universe, incarnated Himself as Krishna,

begotten in Devaki by Vasudeva, for the preservation of the `earthly

Brahman' of spiritual life on the earth. For it was by the

preservation of spiritual life that the Vedic Religion could be

preserved, since thereon depend all distinctions of caste and

religious order. The Lord, always possessed as He is of (infinite)

knowledge, supremacy, power, strength, might and vigour, controls the

Maya - belonging to Him as Vishnu - the Mulaprakriti, the First

Cause, composed of three Gunas or energies and He appears to the

world as though He is born and embodied and helping the world at

large; whereas really He is unborn and indestructible, is the Lord of

creatures and is by nature Eternal, Pure, Intelligent and Free.

 

This famous Gita-Sastra is an epitome of the essentials of the whole

Vedic teaching.

 

The aim of this famous Gita-Sastra is, briefly, the Supreme Bliss, a

complete cessation of samsara or transmigratory life and of its

cause. This accrues from that Religion (Dharma) which consists in a

steady devotion to the knowledge of the Self, preceded by the

renunciation of all works.

 

Though the Religion of Works - which, as a means of attaining worldly

prosperity, is enjoined on the several castes and religious orders -

leads the devotee to the region of the Devas and the like, still,

when practised in a spirit of complete devotion to the Lord and

without regard to the results, it conduces to the purity of the mind.

The man whose mind is pure is competent to tread the path of

knowledge and to him comes knowledge; and thus (indirectly) the

Religion of Works forms also a means to the Supreme Bliss.

 

The Gita Sastra expounds this twofold Religion, whose aim is the

Supreme Bliss. It expounds specially the nature of the Supreme Being

and Reality known as Vasudeva, the Parabrahman, who forms the subject

of the discourse. Thus the Gita-Sastra treats of a specific subject

with a specific object and bears a specific relation. A knowledge of

its teaching leads to the realisation of all human aspirations.

 

Sankara's Commentary on Gita:

 

III CHAPTER:

 

In all the Upanishads, in the Itihasas, in the Puranas and in the

Yoga-Sastra, renunciation of all karma is enjoined on the seeker of

moksha as an accessory to knowledge. Both in the Sruti # and in the

Smriti, a gradual passage (through the three orders to the fourth

order) is enjoined, as well as a sudden jump (from any one of the

three to the fourth order).

 

[# " On the completion of the student-life one should become an house-

holder; then leaving home he should become a forest-dweller and then

retire from the world. Or he may retire from the world when he is yet

a student, or retire from house or from the forest, whether he is

engaged in austerities or not, whether he has completed or not

student's career, whether he has quenched the sacrificial fires or

not. In short the very day on which he may get disgusted with the

world, the same day he should retire from it. " - Jabala Upanishad 4]

 

[ " Having given up all desire for progeny, for wealth and for the

world, they lead a

mendicant life. " - Bri. Up. III-5-1]

 

[ " Wherefore, of these austerities, renunciation, they say, is

excellent. " " Renunciation

alone excelled. " - Taittiriya Up. IV-78, 79]

 

[`Not by action, not by progeny, not by wealth, but by renunciation,

some attained

immortality. " - Taittiriya Up. IV-12]

 

[ " Give up religion, give up irreligion. Give up truth, give up

untruth. Having given up both

truth and un-truth, give up that by which you give them up. "

 

" Finding the samsara (mundane existence) worthless and wishing to get

at the

essence, the unmarried grow quite weary of life and renounce the

world. "

- Brihaspati (Smriti)]

 

[suka - " By action a person is bound and by wisdom he is released.

Therefore, the sages

who see the goal do no action. " - Santiparva, Mokshadharma 241-7]

 

 

IV CHAPTER:

 

Even dharma is a sin - in the case of him who seeks liberation - in

as much as it causes bondage.

 

XIII CHAPTER:

 

According to our view, when the Kshetrajnas become one with the Lord,

then let the Sastra serve no purpose. It has, however, a purpose to

serve where there is Avidya. Just as, with the dualists (Dvaitins) of

all classes, the Sastra has a purpose to serve only in the state of

bondage but not in the state of liberation, so with us also.

 

The Sastra is concerned with the ignorant who view things as they

present themselves to their consciousness. - It is, indeed, the

ignorant who identify themselves with the cause and effect, with the

not-Self. But not the wise; for these latter do not identify

themselves with the cause and the effect, since they know that the

Self is distinct from the cause and the effect. Not even the dullest

or the most insane person regards water and fire, or light and

darkness, as identical; how much less a wise man. Wherefore, the

injunctions and prohibitions of the Sastra do not apply to him who

knows the Self to be distinct from the cause and the effect.

 

It is only after having duly observed the injunctions and

prohibitions of the Sastra - but not before - that a person attains

to the knowledge that the Self is quite unconnected with causes and

effects. Hence the conclusion that the injunctions and prohibitions

of the Sastra concern only the ignorant.

 

Performance of enjoined acts and abstention from prohibited acts are

possible in the case of those who know of the Self only through the

Scriptures - He who knows Brahman and has realised the identity of

the Kshetrajna with the Lord does not certainly engage in the Vedic

rites. Neither does the person who denies the existence of the Self

and of the other world engage in such rites. But, he who derives his

idea of the Self only from the scriptural injunctions - ie., who

believes in the existence of the Self because the teaching of the

Sastra enjoining certain actions and prohibiting (certain others)

would otherwise be inexplicable, but who does not directly know the

Self in His essential nature - cherishes a longing for the results of

the Vedic rites and devoutly performs them; a fact which is evident

to us all. Wherefore, it cannot be said that the Sastra would have no

purpose to serve.

 

Very rare is the person who attains wisdom. It is, indeed, only one

among many that attains wisdom. As we now see. Nor do the ignorant

follow the wise men; for attachment and other evil passions

necessarily lead to action.

 

Samsara is only based on Avidya and exists only for the ignorant man

who sees the world as it appears to him. Neither Avidya nor its

effect pertains to Kshetrajna pure and simple. Nor is illusory

knowledge able to affect the Real Thing.

 

 

XVIII CHAPTER:

 

When the man who is qualified for Karma Yoga performs obligatory

works without attachment and without a longing for results, his inner

sense unsoiled by desire for results and regenerated by the

performance of obligatory works, become pure. When pure and tranquil,

the inner sense is fit for contemplation of the Self.

 

What is necessary is the mere elimination of the not-Self associated

with the Self - names, forms and the like; but it is unnecessary to

try and teach what the consciousness of the Self is like, inasmuch as

it is invariably comprehended in association with all objects of

perception which are set up by avidya.

 

Therefore we have only to eliminate what is falsely ascribed to

Brahman by Avidya; we have to make no more effort to acquire a

knowledge of Brahman as He is quite self-evident. Though thus quite

self-evident easily knowable, quite near and forming the very Self,

Brahman appears - to the unenlightened, to those whose reason

(Buddhi) is carried away by the differentiated phenomena of names and

forms created by Avidya - as unknown, difficult to know, very remote,

as though He were a separate thing. But to those whose reason

(Buddhi) has turned away from external phenomena, who have secured

the grace of the Guru and attained the serenity of the self (manas),

there is nothing else so blissful, so well-known, so easily knowable

and quite so near as Brahman. Accordingly, the knowledge of Brahman

is said to be immediately comprehended and unopposed to dharma (ix-2).

 

It is only a cessation of the perception of the differentiated forms

of the external world that can lead to a firm grasp of the real

nature of the Self.

 

Knowledge alone can cause total destruction of good or evil deeds

caused by Avidya - not the performance of the nitya-karma. For,

avidya and kama (nescience and desire) constitute the seed of all

action.

 

Right knowledge conduces to absolute cessation of samsara.