Bhagvad Gita Rahasya or Karmayoga Shastra VOL 02

Author(s): Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bhalchandra S Sukhtankar
Publisher: R B Tilak Puna

Page 71

CONTINUITY OF CHAPTERS OF THE GĪTĀ
641
a 'Sāmkhya-nistha'. And the Blessed Lord has clearly indicated his opinion in the fifth chapter, that out of these two paths, the path of performing Action is the more meritorious. But, the important objection of the School of Renunciation against Action is, that by performing Action, the Realisation of the Parameśvara is obstructed; and that Action must be abandoned, as there can be no Release unless the Knowledge of the Parameśvara has been acquired. It is stated in a general way in the fifth chapter that this objection is groundless, and that one can obtain the same Release by the Path of Action, as can be obtained by the Path of Renunciation (Gi. 5. 5). But, as this general proposition has not been fully developed in that chapter, the Blessed Lord is now dealing in the sixth chapter with the important question, namely, how the Knowledge of the Parameśvara, and ultimately Release, is obtained by Action, while Action is being performed, which question had been incompletely dealt with in the fifth chapter. That is why, instead of saying that the Path of Devotion is an independent path, the Blessed Lord has in the beginning of the seventh chapter said to Arjuna, that,
mayyāsakta manāh pārtha yogam yuñjan madāśrayaḥ 1 asañśayar samagram mām yathā jñāsyasi tacchrnu 11
(Gi. 7. 1).
that is, "O Pārtha, listen to the way (which I am explaining to you) by which (yathā) you will undoubtedly acquire complete knowledge of Me, while you are following the Path of Yoga, that is, of Karma-Yoga, keeping your mind fixed on Me, and having surrendered yourself to Me"; and this very thing has been described in the next stanza as 'Jñāna-vijñāna' (Gi. 7. 2). The words "yogam yuījan" in the first stanza quoted above, namely, in the stanza “mayyāsaktamanāḥ ", etc., which words (yogam yunan) mean, 'while you are performing the Karma-Yoga', are most important, but no commentator seems to have attached any great importance to those words. “Yoga' is necessarily the 'Karma-Yoga' which has been described in the first six chapters; and this stanza.