We know that the Bhagavadgita is the most important, the most beautiful and the most widely read of the popular philosophical works of our country. It is the essence of the great epic Mahabharata and as such belongs to the Satvata a branch of the vaisnava dharma. It is he smrti prasthan of the prasthan trayi. The dialogue between Arjuna and Lord Krishna and indeed unique. Arjuna, when saw his own cousins, kinsmen are friends on the other side of the battle-field, felt so dejected that he wanted to throw his bow and arrows. Knowing the mental condition of Arjuna, Lord Krishna taught him the truth about the world. He told him not to think that who are the enemies’ other side but consider whether he is performing his duties perfectly. Duty is not based upon anybody's sentiments, likes and dislikes, but upon the nature of reality. We should not surrender ourselves to the cause of our likes and dislikes; rather we should perform actions for our real being. Friends, we know this was the answer given by the Lord to the seeking soul symbolized by Arjuna, when he asked, "Why should we perform such duty which requires the killing of our own kinsmen?"
Such a treasure trove of inspiration and instruction "The Bhagavadgita" also known as 'Gitopnisad' have a number of commentaries on it, by different acharyas of prominence, disagreeing though over it's final purport and also over the means of salvation.
One such work on Bhagavadgita is 'Gitarthasangraha' of Yamunacarya. Yamunacarya is believed to be the grand teacher of Acarya Ramanuja. Writing this sangraha in samasa shaily, he explains the essence of every chapter of Bhagavadgita in thirty-two verses.
Through these verses Yamunacarya stresses on 'Bhakti' as instrumental in gaining salvation. In his opinion karmayoga, when perfected, leads to Jnanayoga and jnana gives way to Bhakti. Thus, the Lord pleased with Bhakti, grants salvation to the seeker (Bhakta). It is important to note that Yamunacarya highlights the message of the Bhagavadgita in accordance with the principles of visistadvaita.
On such a perspicuous sangraha, Vedant Desika wrote a text and commented on its each verse brilliantly. He named it as 'Gitarthasangraharakasa'. The title of this text is sufficient to show Vedantadesika's elegance towards his acharya.
For the reason not known to me, not much attention has been given by the scholars towards these two great works of the great Acharyas. It was always a point of my curiosity to know "how yamunacarya fulfilled the task of presenting a codified system of a philosophy of religion which has one foot in the Upanishads and another in the Agama. "This curiosity compelled me to think in this direction and as a result a 'National Seminar on the Philosophical Importance of Gitarthasangraharaksa' came into existence.
We invited some known scholars of visistadvaita in particular and the scholars of Indian Philosophy in general, from all over the country.
The seminar was a success. It is evident from the fact that the present book is before the learned scholars in your forms. In order to make the book more fruitful the thirty-two verses of Gitarthasangraharaksa along with their explanations from Acharya vedant deshiks view point have been given in the beginning of the book. The scholarly papers along with the report of the seminar are published thereafter.
Friends, I know, we are handicapped in our attempts in presenting a complete account of these above cited great works but we have tried to make this publication more useful by means of entertaining other related papers presented by scholars in the seminar.
Vedas (1182)
Upanishads (493)
Puranas (624)
Ramayana (741)
Mahabharata (354)
Dharmasastras (165)
Goddess (496)
Bhakti (242)
Saints (1503)
Gods (1290)
Shiva (370)
Journal (187)
Fiction (60)
Vedanta (362)
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