Shrimad Bhagawad-Gita: With English Translation and with a Commentary Explaining the Object of Human Life (Set of 4 Volumes)

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Although the Gita is a small book containing only 700 verses, it is likely to endear itself to the thoughtful reader. From the profundity of its thought, its importance is very great. Hence Mahatma Gandhi who himself follows and leads others to follow the path of non-attachment and who is a superior Karmayogi and who has revived 'non- Killing,' says that the meaning of the Gita always grows.

"This is a religious poem. Every time we delve deeper into it a newer and more fascinating meaning is revealed to us. As this is a popular book, the same thing has been explained in many ways. So it is likely that the significance attached to important words might vary, but the general principle of the Gita will never alter. So a student should construe its theorem in a way consistent with this principle." Mahatma Gandhi studied the Gita for forty years, acted up to its teaching and then wrote these words; so it is not possible to contradict them easily.

However learned a man may be, he cannot master the deeper meaning of the Gita by a cursory reading. Lokamanya Tilak pondered over it for forty-five years and then wrote the Gita-rahasya .' In the preface to his translation Mahatma Gandhi says, while trying to act up to Gita we find that the effort fails. In this very failure we see the rays of the success which is coming like the rising sun'. These words, coming from the heart of the Mahatma, who practised a long penance, suggest the profundity of the philosophy of the Gita. To those who do not think or do not act up to it, this work is a sealed book. Without thinking deeply, a mere glance would merely find repetition, contradiction and irrelevancy. Some have actually passed such a judgment.

The meaning of the Gita cannot be comprehended simply by knowing the language of the verse or of the translation, if the reader does not think. The same is the case with the Upanishads and the Vedas. Such works are written by people in a specific state of mind, who have reached a higher plane of thought; their points of view are also deferent. Hence we cannot master the deeper meaning unless we bring ourselves to their points of view.

Shankaracharya and others have said. "The true theorems of the Vedic religion were forgotten in course of time, so the science of Gita was explained to revive those principles and place them before men a second time." This statement is quite true. The Gita ought to be studied by everyone who wishes to see the profound theorems of the Vedic religion which are true for all time. The same is said at the beginning of Chapter 4." The Lord said- I explained this Yoga to Vivaswat, and after being transmitted to Ikshwaku this yoga, traditionally handed down, was lost. Today the same ancient and esoteric yoga has been explained to you, because you are a devotee and friend combined. Here the Lord has said that it is a science handed down from ancient times and put into new words. The Vedas constitute this ancient knowledge, But as people go astray from religion, incarnations of God appear and give them again the traditional knowledge. Shri Krishna was such an incarnation (4). Making Arjuna the pretext, he taught the science of Gita from the platfrom of an incarnation of God, to the whole world. It follows that the knowledge was contained in the pre- Gita treatises and is not anything novel.

In this Commentary, I have shown how the theorems of ancient works like the Vedas, and Upanishads, have been dealt with in the Gita in a new manner. The other commentators have not performed this task and it is the principal purpose of this commentary to show these parallelisms, and this is also its speciality Years ago I had published a short translation of the Gita and had written articles in journals to fix up the meaning of some words in the Gita by evidence drawn from Vedic Literature. Since that time, I have been pondering over the propositions in the Gita and also carrying on the work of comparing the dicta of the Gita with those contained in ancient books. Repeated thinking over this has brought me to the conclusion that the purport of the Vedas, the. Upanishads and the Gita, is identical. People regard the purports of the three as different, only out of ignorance.