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718
GITA-RAHASYA OR KAR
purely with Vedānta and supports Inaction. Because, just as Sri-Krsna had compelled Arjuna to abstain from murdering Yudhisthira, by explaining to him the difference between Truth (satya) and Falsehood (anata) in the Karnaparva, so also was the advice given in the Gītā necessary to induce Arjuna to fight; and considering the matter even from the literary point of view, it is clear that the exposition of the principles of Morality and Immorality in worldly life, or of the Doable and the Not-Doable, have been ultimately mentioned in the Gītā, as it was necessary to mention in some place or other the fundamental principles underlying many similar incidents in various places in the Mahābhārata. In the Vanaparva, in the conversation between the Hunter (vyādha) and the Brahmin, the Hunter has justified why he carries on the trade of selling flesh on the authority of Vedānta ; and in the conversation between Tulādhāra and Jājali in the Sāntiparva, Tuladhāra has justified his profession of a merchant in a similar way (Vana. 206-215; and Sān. 260-263). But this justification refers only to those respective professions. In the same way, though there are dissertations in several places in the Mahābhārata on the questions of Non-Violence, Truth, etc., yet, as they also are one-sided, that is to say, are made only with reference to the subject-matter in question, these dissertations cannot be said to be the principal part of the Mahābhārata; nor do these one-sided dissertations explain whether or not people should take as illustrations the lives of those great persons like Sri Krsna and the Pandavas, for describing whose magnificent deeds, the Mahābhārata was written by Vyāsa, and should act accordingly. If worldly life is fruitless, and if it is the better course to take up the life of an ascetic sometime or other, one is faced with the questions why Sri Krsna or the Pāndavas should have taken part in these useless activities. as also why Vyāsa should have laboured for three years (Ma, Bhā. Ā, 62. 52), and written a book of nearly a hundred thousand verses for glorifying those activities for the general good, with whatever motive they might have taken part in those activities. These questions are not satisfactorily solved by saying that the duties prescribed for the various castes and the different stages of life are for the purification of the Mind;
