Sambodhi 1989 Vol 16

Author(s): Ramesh S Betai, Yajneshwar S Shastri
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 10

THE BHAGAVADGITA AND DR. RADHAKRISHNAN
11
Dr. G. K. Bhat
If the Gita takes the pride of place for man seeking a way towards betterment of human life, so does Dr. Radhakrishnan for thinkers in the east and the west, and especially for Indians. An Indian of remarkable pre-eminence, an intellectual politician, who rose to the rank of President of India, a life-long Bhäsyakāra of Indian philosophy and religion, an independent thinkcr and a philosopher in his own right, Dr. Radhakrishnan could well be described as a sage of the twentieth century. Being also a Sanskritist, it would be interesting to sce how Dr. Radhakrishnan looks upon the Gitā and what it signifies, according to him, for mankind.
Dr, Radhakrishnan's views on the Gitä are expressed in his monumental volume on Indian Philosophy, and more elaborately, along with an English translation and notes, in his text-edition of the Gila (George Allen and Unwin Ltd., Great Britain), which was first published in 1948 and has been reprinted several times.
There is no dearth of books on the Gitā, both of the text-interpretative type and of discursive type, and in several languages beginning with the Sanskrit down to the present-day languages of India and of several other countries. The comman man worships the Gitā as a Divine Mother, and accepts her teaching as the nectar of milk, milked for him by the Divine Krşņa from the cow of the Upanişads. The intelligent man cqually revers the Gitā, but is sometimes puzzled by the inconsistent or conflicting statements found in the Text, and then chooses to follow the lead of some Ācārya, Bhāşyakāra or Interpreter. The scholar, with due reverence and devotion to this unique Text, enters still into a search for the original Gitā and attempts to seek an explanation for the apparent contradictions and the mixture of diverse thought-currents that seem to exist in the Gita and that his intellectual approach refuses to slur over by a mere feeling of devotion. But then, we have several different views, and interpretations of the Gitā from the old tradition of Sanskrit Bhäsyakāras like Sankarācārya, through Saint-philosophers like jñāneśvara, down to modern thinkers like Tilak or Mahatma Gandhi. Such a diversity of views among the intellectuals is a little bewildering to the common, intelligent man of the world, although it may not affect any one's,