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GITĀ, TRANSLATION & COMMENTARY, CHAP. IV 941
the course of the further description of the Nārāyaniya doctrine as follows:-When the Krta-Yuga of the seventh, that is to say, the present life of Brahmadeva was over,
tretāyugādau ca tato vivasvān manave dadau 1 manuś ca lokabhrtyartham sūtāyekşvākave dadau II eksvākunā ca kathito vyāpya lokān avasthitaḥ gamusyati ksayānte ca punar nārāyanań nrpa ! yatīnām cāpi yo dharmaḥ sa te pūrva nypottama |
kathito harigitāsu samāsavidhıkalpitaḥ II that is, “this doctrine was propounded by Vivasvān to Manu in the beginning of the Tretā-yuga; Manu gave it to his son Iksvāku for universal welfare, and Iksvāku then propounded it to the world; O Rājā! when the world has been destroyed, (this doctrine) will go back to Nārāyana. This doctrine, and side by side with it, “Jutīnām cūpı”, that is, 'the Samnyāsa doctrine also', has been explained to you before in the Bhagavadgitā" (Ma. Bhā. San 348. 51-53). From this, it becomes clear, that the tradition of the Bhāgavata doctrine given here relates only to the Tretāyuga, which came before the Dvāpāra-yuga at the end of which the Bhāratiya war took place; and that more has not been described out of fear for the amount of space which the description would take up. This Bhāgavata doctrine is nothing else but "Yoga' or * Karma-Yoga'; and this tradition of the Karma-Yoga having been propounded to Manu, appears not only in the Gītā, but has also been referred to in the Bhāgavata-purāna (Bhāg. 8. 24. 55); and the importance of the Karma-Yoga propounded to Manu has also been described in the 52nd chapter of the Matsyapurāna. But the subject-matter stated in any of these places is not as exhaustive and complete as in the Nārāyaniya Upākhyāna. When one realises that the tradition of 'Vivasvān to Manu to Iksvaku' does not at all apply to the Sāmkhya doctrine; and that no third Nisthā in addition to the Samkhya and the Yoga doctrines has been propounded in the Gitā, the fact that this tradition is of the Karma-Yoga comes to be proved in a second way (Gi. 2. 39). But, although the tradition of the Sāmkhya and the Yoga doctrines may not
