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APPENDIX. (PARIS'ISTA-PRAKARANA) AN EXTERNAL EXAMINATION OF THE
BHAGAVAD-GĪTĀ. aviditvā rşim chando daivatam yogam eva ca ! yo 'dhyāpayej japed vāpi pāpīyan jāyate tu saḥ 11
(SMRTI). I have in the previous chapters shown how Sri Krsna induced Arjuna to fight, after having proved to him with the help of the Vedānta-Sāstra that (i) the Karma-Yoga was more meritorious; that (ii) in the Karma-Yoga, Reason was the important factor; that (iii) Release was obtained by performing Actions according to one's own status in life with a Reason which had become Equable as a result of the Realisation of the Identity of the Brahman and the Ātman or by the worship of the Parameśvara; and that (iv) nothing else is necessary for obtaining Release, and that He did this in order to correct Arjuna, who, after having first visualised the actual form of the terrible destruction of the clan and of the community which was sure to arise on account of the Bhārati war, was on the point of renouncing his duties as a soldier, and taking up the life of an ascetic. When I have in this way defined the true import of the Gītā, it is easy to meet the objections, which have been raised, to the effect that there is no reason to include the Gītā in the Mahābhārata', etc., as a result of the misunderstanding that the Gītā is a book which deals
* “That man who teaches or recites any incantation mantra ) without knowing the Rşi, metre, (chanda), deity (devatā), and purpose (vini yoga) of it, commits a sin". This is a statement from some Smrti text, but I cannot find out from which text. But the root of it is in the Arseya Brāhmana Sruti text (Arseya. 1). That is, as follows:- yo ha vā aviditārseyacchandodaivatabrāhmanena mantrena yājayati va 'dhyāpayati va sthanum varcchati qurtam vā prati padyate". The Rsi, metre, etc., of any incantation are its external aspects; and one should not recite the incantation unless one knows these aspects. The same rule must be applied to a book like the Gītā.
