Bhagvad Gita Rahasya or Karmayoga Shastra VOL 02

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

Page 73

CONTINUITY OF CHAPTERS OF THE GĪTĀ
643
that this rasa or Desire for objects of pleasure (visaya-vūsanā) should go out of the Mind, one has to fully Realise the Parameśvara (Gi. 2. 59). Therefore, that means, that is, vidhi, by which this Knowledge of the Parameśvara is acquired by a man, while he is following the Path of Karma-Yoga, is being described by the Blessed Lord from the seventh chapter. From the words, "while practising the Karma-Yoga", it follows that this Knowledge has to be acquired while the Karma-Yoga is being practised, and that Karma or Action has not to be abandoned for acquiring that Knowledge; and therefore, the statement that the Paths of Devotion and of Spiritual Knowledge are two independent paths, which have been described from the serenth chapter onwards as alternatives for the Path of Karma-Yoga, is groundless. As the Karma-Yoga in the Gitā has been adopted from the Bhagavata religion, the description of the
idhi (means) mentioned in the Karma-Yoga for the acquisition of Knowledge, is nothing but the description of the means mentioned in the Bhāgavata or the Nārāyaniya doctrine; and that is why Janamejaya has been told by Vaišampāyana at the end of the Santi-parva that “the Energistic (pravrttıpara ) Nārāyaniya doctrine, together with the incidental forms of worship, have been described in the Bhagavadgitā" (see the stanzas quoted at the beginning of the first chapter ). As said by Vaišampāyana, this path also includes the vidhi (practices) relating to the Path of Renunciation; because, although the distinction between these two paths is, that in one of them, Karma has to be performed, whereas in the other, Karma has to be abandoned, yet, as the Spiritual and worldly Knowledge (jñāna-vijñāna) necessary in both is the same, the practices prescribed for acquiring Spriritual Knowledge are common to both. Therefore, in as much as, the express words “while following the Path of Karma-Yoga” have been used in the above stanza, it follows that (i) the exposition of Spiritual Knowledge (jñāna) and worldly Knowledge (vijñāna) in the seventh and subsequent chapters is principally in support of Karma-Yoga; that (ii) the practices relating to the Path of Renunciation, which have been included in that jñānavijñāna have been so included on account of the comprehensive nature of that jñāna-vijñāna, and that (iii) this jñāna-vijñāna,