How many verses are there in BG ?

[Guest guest]

It seems Sankara codified the number of verses in BG as 700 while describing it as the essence of Vedas. But some of the current versions of Bhagavad Gita have 701 verses the difference being the 1 st verse in 13 th chapter. There are some gaudiya acha ryas who have specified that there more than these verses spoken by both Arjuna and Krishna. What is the conclusive stand on the number of verses ?

[raga 0]

The BBT edition has the following number of verses (listed per chapter):

 

One -- 46

Two -- 72

Three -- 43

Four -- 42

Five -- 29

Six -- 47

Seven -- 30

Eight -- 28

Nine -- 34

Ten -- 42

Eleven -- 55

Twelve -- 20

Thirteen -- 35

Fourteen -- 27

Fifteen -- 20

Sixteen -- 24

Seventeen -- 28

Eighteen -- 78

----------------

TOTAL -- 700

 

I recall hearing a strange number of 712 back during my days in ISKCON. Probably someone miscounted the verses and told the number to others, who never bothered to check it themselves.

 

Where have you read of gaudiya acharyas listing more verses? Bhaktivedanta Swami based his commentary on the commentary of Baladeva, and had Baladeva commented on more verses, they would certainly have been included in BS:s edition.

 

I checked the Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti edition, which included the commentary of Visvanatha and a synopsis of Bhaktivinoda's commentary. It has the same number, 700 verses.

 

[Guest guest]

I do not remember the source. But there is one cassette that I heard briefly in my friend's house that talked about "link verses". These verses that were spoken and not recorded by Vyasa. From what you say there is no such conflict

[raga 0]

Originally posted by ram:

I do not remember the source. But there is one cassette that I heard briefly in my friend's house that talked about "link verses". These verses that were spoken and not recorded by Vyasa. From what you say there is no such conflict

Were they channeled by a visionary of later days, or how did they become known to the world? I've never heard of them before.

 

Or are they coming through the siksa-sampradaya of Arjuna?