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892
GÍTA-RAHASYA OR KARMA-YOGA
[ There is no difference of opinion as to the broad meaning (phalitūrtha) of this stanza; but, commentators have entered into a useless hair-splitting discussion about the terms used in it. "sarvatahsamplutodake" is a compound phrase in the seventh case (locative case); but if it is looked upon not merely as the locative case, nor as an adjectival phrase qualifying the word 'udapāna', but as the 'sati saptami' (locative absolute), one can syntactically work out the sentence in a simple way as : "sarvatahsaṁptutodake sati udapāne yāvūn arthaḥ (na sval pam api prayojanam vidyate) tāvān vijānatah brāhmaṇasya sarvesu vedeşu arthaḥ ", without taking any outside words as implied, and this also gives the following clear and simple meaning :-"Just as no one cares for wells when there is water everywhere, (because drinking-water can be had anywhere without difficulty and sumptuously), so has the man, who has attained Knowledge, no more any use for mere 'Vedic' ritual like sacrificial Yajñas etc". The Vedic ritual has to be performed for obtaining the final Release-giving Knowledge, and not merely for obtaining heaven; and that man who has already obtained this Knowledge, has nothing new to learn by performing Vedic ritual. That is why it is stated later on in the 3rd chapter of the Gītā (3. 17) that “to him who has acquired Knowledge, there is no more any duty left in the world". When one can without difficulty obtain as much pure water as desired from a large lake or from a river, who will even look at a well? In such circumstances, no one attaches the slightest importance to a well. In the last chapter of the Sanatsujātiya (Ma. Bhā. Udyo. 45. 26), this very stanza occurs again with a slight verbal difference; and the meaning of it has been given in the commentary on it by Madhyācārya in the same way as above; and in the Sukānupraśna, where the relative worth of Jñāna (Knowledge) and Karma is being described, it is clearly stated that "na te (jñāninah) karma prasamsanti kūpas nadyāṁ pibann iva", that is, "just as one who gets water from the river, does not attach any importance to a well, so do they', that is, the Jñānins, not attach the slightest importance to Karma" (Ma. Bhā. Sān. 240. 10).
