Bhagvad Gita Rahasya or Karmayoga Shastra VOL 02

SR No.: 011090
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bhalchandra S Sukhtankar
Publisher: R B Tilak Puna
Publication Year: 1936
Total Pages: 767
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 74 MB

Page 38

Xxxviii PROMINENT PERSONALITIES ON THE GITA ETC.
tell you, however, another episode". And thus the Anugītā s introduced in the Mahabharata. Then, again, the verses in the Gita' are constantly repeated in the Mahabharata throughout its length as of some authoritative work. It is hence certain that the 'Gita' does not belong to the Mahabharata of Sauti but it belongs to the 'Bharata' of Vaisampayana. The date of the former is conceded to be about 250 B. C. as shown. at length in "Mahabharata-Mīmāmsā " (Chapter I); but the date of Vaisampayana's 'Bharata' cannot be indubitably fixed, and hence the date of the Gita', as it is to-day, is uncertain.
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But, there are various arguments which point to 1400 B. C.. speaking roughly in centuries, as the probable age of the Gitā ". In the first place the language of the Gita' strikes one as a spoken language and not classical Sanskrit of the time when it was dead and spoken only by Pandits. We know that Buddha preached his new religion to the people in Pali, a Prakrit; and hence it is certain that in his time Sanskrit was dead as a. spoken language of the common people. The Gita', therefore, precedes Buddha of 500 B. C. Again, there is no reference to Buddhism in the 'Gita', though there are many references to the doctrines of Buddhism in the Mahabharata '. Some people think that in Chapter XVI there is a reference to Buddhist tenets in the description of the Asuri character. But this is a description of Atheists. For Buddhism is in favour of Renunciation, and not the enjoyment of the world. On the other hand, there is not the least doubt that Gita' is postUpanisadic. The doctrine of Renunciation was first preached' by the Bṛhadaranyaka', and it pervades the spirit of all the thirteen old Upanisads. It is clear the Gita' is not for Renunciation. Indeed, Arjuna is actuated by that spirit when he asks the first and subsequent question in the Gita and Śri Krsna sums His preaching in the pithy verse ( संन्यासः कर्मयोगश्र्व निःश्रेयसकरावुभौ । तयोस्तु कर्मसंन्यासात्कर्मयोगो विशिष्यते ॥ G1. 5. 2). This is wrongly interpreted by those who believe that the object of the 'Gita' is to preach 'Samnyasa'. Lokamanya Tilak has pointed out its true import, which is also the natural one. As: the "Maitrayaniya Upanisad" must be dated 1900 B. C.