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CONTINUITY OF CHAPTERS OF THE GITA 649
Path of Devotion, has been mentioned in the subsequent ninth chapter; but at the very commencement of that chapter, there is a statement that: "I am explaining to you Spiritual Knowledge side by side with worldly knowledge" (9. 1). It, therefore, follows that the subject-matter of Devotion has been included in the Gita in the subject-matter of Spiritual Knowledge. In the tenth chapter, the Blessed Lord has described his own Manifestations (vibhuti); but this very thing has been referred to by Arjuna as 'adhyatma' in the commencement of the eleventh chapter (11. 1); and, as has been stated above, we find several statements that the imperceptible form is superior to the perceptible form, inter-mixed here and there with the descriptions of the perceptible form of the Paramesvara. When, having regard to these statements, Arjuna asks in the commencement of the twelfth chapter whether the worship to be performed is the worship of the Perceptible or of the Imperceptible, the Blessed Lord has stated in reply, that the worship of the Perceptible, that is to say, Devotion, was the easier course; and immediately thereafter in the thirteenth chapter, He commences the description of "Knowledge' (jñāna), and of the Body (kṣetra) and the Atman (kṣetrajña); and He also says at the commencement of the fourteenth chapter that: "param bhūyah pravakṣyāmi jṇānānām jñānam uttamam " (14. 1), i. e., "I am again describing to you completely that same Spiritual and worldly Knowledge", as was stated by Him at the commencement of the seventh chapter; and even while explaining this Knowledge, the thread of Devotion is kept running in the texture. From this it follows, that the Blessed Lord did not intend to deal with Spiritual Knowledge and Devotion individually and independently, and that both these matters are woven together in the exposition of the Spiritual and worldly Knowledge (jñānavijñāna) begun in the seventh chapter. That Devotion is something distinct and Spiritual Knowledge is also something distinct, is a stupid theory which has been started by the advocates of those respective paths; that is not the opinion of the Gita. The Knowledge of the form of the Parameśvara, which has to be acquired by means of meditation on the Absolute Self in the Path of the worship of the Imperceptible
| SR No. | 011090 |
| Book Title | Bhagvad Gita Rahasya or Karmayoga Shastra VOL 02 |
| 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 |