In
the whole range of the world’s literature, few books can be found which can
favourably compare with “the Bhagavadgita” in point of interest or of
influence.[1]
This poem of seven hundred slokas embodies within its short compass as will be
seen from the sequel, the best philosophy and the best religious and moral
principles that Ancient India could offer to the world. The charmingly simple
diction and the melody of the verses in which its loftiest teachings are
clothed, make it a very fascinating study. The wonderful sequence with which
the teachings are presented, the thought – stimulating phrases and clauses with
which the work abounds, the popular mould in which the whole is cast, and the
clearness with which the most sublime truths are propounded, make this one of
the most interesting books.
It is a significant fact that from a very
remote past down to our times, this sacred book of India has continued to exercise
a very wide influence on not only the ordinary but also some of the most
thoughtful minds. It is no wonder that it should have a great hold on the mind
of the orthodox Hindu, for there is almost no traditional Indian ideal which is
not here reverently handled and allotted an exalted place-worthy of it. Such of
the Hindu commentators as had any literary and spiritual genius, found it hard
to withstand the temptation of writing a commentary on the work. But that it
should meet with the admiration and praise of the modern educated Hindus, and
should have compelled the attention of the thoughtful Europeans and Americans,
is a feature unparalleled in the whole history of Ancient Indian literature.
Countless editions of the text see the light every year and are cordially
welcomed by our countrymen. There is almost no Indian vernacular[2]
which has not translated it, and no article or book on religion or philosophy
which does not directly or indirectly draw its contents. Nay more, even social
and political essays and articles written by patriotic Hindus of the present
times may be said to often betray a strong passion for quotations from the
Gita.[3]
Then its influence upon the Westerns is by no means little.[4]
The work has been translated into English,[5]
Greek, Latin, Italian, French and German.[6] [7]The
practical nature of its teachings no less than the music of its language gives
it a charm to the mind of the Europeans and Americans. The unusual respect paid
to it by scholars reputed for their vast learning, indefatigable literary
research and philosophic acumen, excited the attention of Christian
Missionaries also. Some of them struck with the similarity of many of its
teachings with those of the New Testament, have tried to prove that the Gita
has borrowed its best ideas from the Bible.[8]
Thus the book has received different treatment at different hands. The orthodox
Hindu considers it a revelation and tries to follow its teachings, the modern
educated Hindu commends it, and the European scholar admires it, while the Missionary
tries to explain it away in any manner that suits his purpose. That this little
book, the very time and authorship of whose composition is yet a matter of
great difference of opinion among Scholars, [9] should be thus filled with unusual interest
for men of different times and countries and of varying mental caliber, and
that its influence on some of the most enlightened modern minds should be of
such great magnitude, is a sufficient ground for any reflecting person to pause
and ask himself, “ What is the valu of
the Gita as a guide to practical life?”
In
the following pages an attempt will be made to answer this important question.
Other phases of the study of the book will be subordinated to this main point,
and will be dealt with only is so far as they affect it. No special research is
claimed for the ideas here presented and no special school of philosophy is
sought to be supported. No paragraph here will be devoted to establish or to
refute the genuineness and historicity of the author, the hero and the
incidents related in the book. No discussion will find a place herein which
considers the vocabulary, the age and literary value, the inspired nature, the
number of followers, the character, and social position of fame of the speaker
or author of the Gita. It is not meant here that such considerations are
utterly useless. They may have their own value to the philologist, to the
historian or to the theologian. But to find an answer to the question proposed
above, such enquiry is obviously quite unnecessary. We are only concerned here
with the simple question whether the Gita has any practical wisdom to teach,
whether its philosophy or theology can offer any practical method of
self-culture. The book has therefore to be studied not from the too credulous
orthodox, nor from the all – admiring patriotic standpoint, much less from the
fault – finding view of critics. We have to approach the book much in the same
manner as we would a treatise on Chemistry. Just as we would verify the thrust
of the one by means of experiments, we should verify those of the other by an
appeal to reason and experience. If reason vouchsafes the truth and if
conscience approves of the ethics, we shall accept them and not otherwise.
The Title
“Bhagavadgita”
The
grammatical accuracy if the title “भगवद् गीता “ deserves some careful investigation. The
word GITA (गीता ) is
derived from GAI (गै
) to song, of which it is the past passive participle. The termination TA(ता) might be also used in an abstract sense, in
which case its gender would be neuter by Panini’s rule “नपुंसके भावे क्त: “.
With the termination “क्तिन् “ another form GEETIH (गीति:) is also possible in the same sense. In the
present case the word has taken the feminine termination टाप (आ)
where it becomes evident that क्त is a
passive participle termination and the whole word is therefore only an
adjective requiring some feminine substantive to qualify. Hence the word
MADBHAGVADGITA (मद्भगवद्गीता) by itself cannot form the full title of the
work and is grammatically speaking incorrect.
This becomes more clear from an examination of
the colophon at the end of each chapter which invariably runs “ॐ तत्सदिति श्रीमद्भगवद्गीतासूपनिषत्सु ब्रह्मविद्यायां योगशास्त्रे श्रीकृष्णार्जुनसंवादे.” Now when the sentence is construed it will
be found that the only word which is grammatically co-ordinate with मद्भगवद्गीतासू
is उपनिषत्सु , the
gender, number and case both being the same, while all other are independent in
construction. Hence it is obvious that the expression BHAGAVADGITA (भगवद् गीता) is
only a shortened form of BHGAVADGITOPANISHAD (भगवदगीतोपनिषद) which
is the full and correct title of the work, the plural perhaps being intended to
refer to the Upanishadic doctrines propounded. [10]
Gita is a further contraction used more often and we speak of “The
Bhagavadgita” of “ the Gita” meaning of course “the Bhagavadgitopanishad.” This
process of contraction is by no means rare in Sanskrit. Thus Vedavyasah is
shortened into Vyasah (व्यास:
) and Bheemsenah into bheemah (भीम:).
What is The
Bhagavadgita?
The main question with which this essay has
started gives room to another incidental point to be settled. What is the
Bhagavadgita? This has to be decided at the vast outset, because on the answer
to this question depends the pertinence of the main enquiry. It is a truism
that no one would look for grammatical truths, in a treatise on medicine, or
consult a book on Astronomy with the expectation of finding in it information
on legal matters. Hence to be assured that we are justified in looking for
practical ethics in the Gita, it is very essential to ascertain what the book
is meant for. This question has been answered in different ways by different
scholars.[11]
Some think it a reconciliation of the warring religious sects of the times of
the author. [12]
Others see in it an endeavour to exalt the caste duties above all other
obligations. [13]And
some others hold that the Gita is meant to revive Krishnaism and emphasize the
Krishnavatar. But it is curious that none of such views takes cognizance of
what the author himself calls his work. In the colophon at the end of each
chapter, he says: “ Thus ends the chapter called so and so of the Upanishads
sung by the Lord, which are the philosophy of Brahman and the Science of Yoga,
as expounded in the course of the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna.” The
author clearly intends therefore that the book must be judged as a philosophy
of Brahman and a Science of Yoga.
The question now assumes another shape. What
is Brahman, and what is Yoga according to the Gita? “What is the Grahman you
spoke of?” is the first of the seven questions which Arjuna is made to ask Sri
Krishna at the beginning of the eighth chapter. The answer given is “Brahman is
the Highest Unchangeable.” In the thirteenth chapter again, a description of
this Brahman is given, “I shall now tell you what ought to be known and knowing
which one attain immortality. It is the beginning-less Highest Brahman.” Then
follows a long description carried on by means of seemingly contradictory
assertions. From these two passages, we learn that the Brahman of the Gita is
the Highest Reality that knows no change. Now for the term Yoga: As in the case
of the word Brahman, the author refers to this word in two places, in one of
which he defines the term, while in the other he gives a general description
intended to convey to the readers’ mind what is meant by the word. In the 48th
verse of the second chapter, we read “समत्वम् योग उच्चते” “evenness is called Yoga.” And in verses 20
to 23, chapter VI, we have the following description of Yoga. “Where the mind
becomes quiescent, controlled by practice, where seeing the Self by Self one is
satisfied in himself; where one experiences absolute bliss known only to the
mind but ever beyond the senses; and standing where one swerves not from the
truth; where no other gain is considered greater, and where placed one is not
moved by the greatest pain that (state), a state in which there is the absence
of all contact with misery, is to be understood by the term Yoga.”
In the whole of the Gita there is no other
place where the terms Brahman and Yoga are made the subject of discussion, and
there is no other definition or description of either term, though both the
words are freely interspersed throughout the work. That in the shorter of the
passages cited above, the terms are intended to be defined and that longer
extracts are meant to be explanatory to the definitions, is corroborated by the
following considerations:
The epithet “Paramam (परमम)” “Highest” of Brahman in the definition is
recognized in the descriptive passage by the word “Param (परम)” which also means Highest, and in both the
contexts Brahman is considered as the great Reality to be known. This is not
the case, for instance, in the passage “ममं योनिर्महत्वम” where, though the epithet “Mahat (महत)” “great” is used, Brahman evidently denotes
something other than the Reality; so also with Yoga. The definition identifies
it with “Evenness” and though the term “YOGA” primarily meaning “connection” is
here used by what is called विपरीत लक्षण (indication by the opposite) to denote
separation of दुःखसंयोग ( the contact of misery.)[14]
In fact a little further on in the same chapter comes this passage which makes
the assurance doubly sure. “योऽयं योगस्त्वया प्रोक्तः साम्येन मधुसूदन। एतस्याहं न पश्यामि चञ्चलत्वात् स्थितिं स्थिराम्।।6.33।।” “ This Yoga
described by you as evenness, Oh, Slayer of Madhu, I cannot see how it can
remain permanent, seeing that the mind is fickle.”
Our investigation therefore leads us to the
following conclusion. Brahman is the Highest Reality or Truth and Yoga is
evenness of mind in which the Truth is seen. Brahma- Vidya is thus the
Philosophy of the Real and Yoga – Sastra is the science of equanimity, perfect
equanimity being according to the Gita the one condition in which the mind can
have access to the Real. What does the “Bhagavadgita” profess to be then? It
proposes to put forth the theory of the Real, and to recommend a line of
conduct which will lead us to the realization, the Gita calls Yoga. Whatever
leads up to this Yoga is also called Yoga by transference of the term. Thus
each chapter of this book deals with a separate Yoga, though the ultimate aim
is the Yoga properly so called, to wit, equanimity.[15]
Yoga has several other meanings in Sanskrit, but when we talk of the Yoga of
the Gita, we had better dissociate all such meanings from this word.
Yoga S’astra
The bulk of the Gita is taken up with the Yoga
Sastra rather than with Brahma Vidya, though as we have said the work itself
claims to be both. Philosophical truths are adduced here more for the purpose
of supporting the Yoga doctrines rather than for entering upon an intellectual
discussion of philosophical problems. It is not that the intellect is given a
low place in the Gita, nor that the glorious results of rational enquiry are
here held up for ridicule or contempt, but the results of all philosophic
enquiries are made the very basis of its chief subject, the Yoga. Philosophy is
brought down to the lower level of every day experience without losing even a
ray of its lustre, and its truths are here presented in such a simple manner
and as it were in such a concrete form that the commonest minds can understand
them and put them into daily practice. It is very often said with reference to
Indian philosophy that it aims at something beyond this world and ignores the
present life, that it asks us to give up life if we wish t cure the evils of
life, and that it is, in short, merely an impracticable theory promising a
state of perpetual happiness after death in reward for an utter neglect of the
practical life. The Gita is the one standing protest to this baseless charge.
Its object is to show how the highest of the Vedantic truths are at the same
time the simplest of all, how every one of them can be applied and meant to be
so applied to this very practical work-a-day world and how religious means no
more than philosophy applied to everyday life. The Gita as a Yoga Sastra or
Science of Yoga, shows how, in whatever stations of life we may be, and
whatever may be our intellectual capacity , each one of us may understand and
live religion to the extent of our capability, every minute of our life. Nay
more, the Yoga Sastra of the Gita is mainly intended to show that here in this
very life is to be sought the highest beatitude and further to point out that
there is really not so much antagonism between religion and the life of the
world as is commonly fancied. This statement may be received at first with some
doubt by a portion of our readers, but the sequel, it is hoped, will place it
on surer foundations. For the present we may state the Yoga Sastra tries to
explain the practical part of Vedanta and to offer an ideal character to be
realized.
The practicality of the Gita consists in its
recognising the varieties of minds and inclinations. Though truth is one, and
the ultimate goal must be the same, yet it cannot be insisted that all must
follow the same method to reach it. Though perfect health is the goal of all
his patients, a doctor would not prescribe the same course of treatment to them
all. Several things would have to be taken into consideration, age, sex,
present state of health, as well as the general habits of the patient.
Similarly, a religion to be practicable to a large portion of mankind should be
ready to supply the need of various minds that seek it. This is what the Gita
attempts to do. It classifies religious aspirants into four divisions, the
active man, the emotional man, the mystic and the man of reason. These four
classes are not mutually exclusive of one another, for all the four
characteristics do actually exist in every mind to some extent or other. The
classification however is based on the predominance in individual souls of one of
the four natures, and though no two minds may be said to be exactly similar in
all particulars, yet the Gita considers that for all practical purposes, it
will be sufficient to divide human minds into these four types. And there is a
Yoga for each of these types; though the goal to be attained is in each case
the same.
The Ideal of
the Gita
And what is this goal? This question has
received several answers from the various Acharyas who have commented on the
Gita. It is said by some that is the great ideal of the Gita, Gita being
sometimes called the Gospel of duties. Others say that love is regarded as the
great ideal of life by the author of Gita. Some others declare that knowledge
is the goal, while yet others maintain that meditation is its ultimate aim.
Now, there are passages in the Gita, which
taken by themselves confirm each of these views. Let us take “work” for
instance.
It
is said in in II- 47 ,
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि।।
II.47 ।।
“Yours
is only to work.” Again in chapter III, we have “Regularly perform your work,
for action is better than inaction.” “Working without attachment, man attains
the highest.” “Janaka and others attained perfection solely through work.” This
view has not only the sanction of the texts such as those quoted just now, but
also stands to reason; for is it not quite natural that one should work for
what one wants to reach? No one but a lazy person would expect to find the goal
without work. Again, take “love.”: This side too, has its texts. In chapter V,
we read, “It is they that get absorption in Brahman, who have absconded their
doubts, who are self-controlled and who ever love all beings.” In XI, it is stated, “He who is free from
hatred towards every being reaches Me.” In XII again, “They reach Me only, for
they are ever bent on doing good to all beings.”
These and other similar passages point to
universal love as the ideal and reason also supports it. For, there can be
really no good work except through a motive of love, and the best thinkers of
all times have preached and rest of mankind have given their assent to nothing
but universal love as the means of eradicating the evil of life. Meditation or
concentration of thoughts also claims the support of the Gita. “There is
neither enlightenment nor religion fervour for one who has no concentration;
and for one without any fervour no peace can come; whence happiness without
peace?” Again, we are told in VI, “Applying himself thus constantly, the Yogin
gains control over his mind and obtains the peace and blessedness of My
Estate.” The Yogin is said in the next Sloka to be greater that ascertain,
greater than intellectual man, and greater than workers. This side too
therefore, can make out a strong case in favour of it. Reason is ready to
support it. For, what do all achievements represent but degrees of
mental-concentration? All knowledge is acquired by concentration of mind, that
is, by fixing the mind exclusively on the particular subject of enquiry. So,
concentration may also be said to be the ideal. As for knowledge, we have
numerous Gita texts in its favour too. “All actions Oh! Partha, finds its
culmination in knowledge.” “The Jnanin is My very Self.” And so on we find
numerous other texts eulogizing knowledge; and reason has everything to say on
the side of knowledge, for, reason itself is based on previous knowledge and in
its turn is the accumulator of fresh knowledge. Work, love and concentration
may be easily shown to lead to knowledge, and therefore on this side also, a
very good position is made out, for those holding that knowledge is the ideal.
Now, as we have already seen, there are four chief types of mind in this world,
and it is natural that each one should have a different aim according to his particular
inclination. And if we consider the other varieties of minds also for which
there is ample room in this world of ours, we should be hardly surprised to
find that there are numerous and different goals for which they are severally
making.
And the Gita supports all these! So, we have a
medley of ideals all supported by Gita texts! “IS there no way out?” “Does not
the Gita then recognise the superiority of any one ideal over the others?” this
is the natural question that should now possess our mind, and the answer is
very simple. Each one of these ideals is called a Yoga by the Gita and the Gita
is the Science of Yogas. It is very object is to reconcile all the views. It is
very object is to reconcile all the views. And how does it effect this
reconciliation? Is it by raising any one of them into distinction and allowing
that Yoga to lord over others? No. In the solution of this most vital of
problem lies the practicality of the Gita, which is the greatest commentary yet
written on Vedanta. Persons ignorant of the true tenor of the Gita have tried
to make it a sectarian treatise, and by twists and tortures of slokas, they
have attempted to produce proof- texts in their favour. The Gita has been made
by such men to support by turns, work and no work, love and indifference,
reason and mystic practice. But there is not one of these theories which does
not take only a part and neglects the rest of the work. Taken as a whole, the
Gita can never be made to support any one of the theories exclusively. It
supports all ideals or none. No one sectarian can claim the special sanction of
the Gita in his favour. Knowledge, work, love, concentration are all here
commended but none at the expense of the others.[16]
People very often quarrel over words rather
than facts. Even very intelligent men sometimes fight with one another, for the
reason that some of them do not choose to set forth ideas in exactly the same
words as others. An amusing story is related to four boys who were given a coin
that they might purchase and equally divide among themselves some fruit they
liked best. Each wanted to purchase the same fruit, but not knowing the
language of one another, they began to quarrel, as each boy insisted on
purchasing the fruit he named. Only the names were different: but they did not
know it. At last, a man who knew all the four languages showed them the fruit
itself and they were all equally glad and satisfied that each of them had at
last carried his point. They then gave up quarreling when they found out their
mistake and saw that all the four words stood for the same fruit and not for
different things as they had supposed. Somewhat similar to this is the
reconciliation effected by the Gita. Truth is the fruit of all the four ideals
described above. Work leads to truth, concentration leads to truth, knowledge
leads to truth and love leads to truth. All the four are real indeed. In fact
each is an aspect of the same thing. To start with, they may appear different
but they all finally converge to one point and then it is seen that each of
them involves the others.
This point of convergency is called Yoga by
the Gita. To attain that state of mind is to attain Yoga. This state has been
defined by the author of the Gita in a single word “evenness.” The mind has to
reach a point where it is not affected by any external circumstances. As it is,
the mind is subject to a thousand and one changes and the goal is to transform
it into a state of “evenness.” Every change is limiting the mind, and the ideal
of the Gita is to train the mind so as to transcend as far as possible all such
limitations. The process may be whatever is suited to the individual and each
such process is called a Yoga, because it leads to the real Yoga, which is
“evenness.” No one can hope to reach this “evenness,” until he has come to
combine in him the ideal of work, concentration, knowledge and love. We have
now to enter upon a more detailed study of each of these four Yogas of the
Gita, in order to understand how the real ideal is reached through them.
[1] Cf. “ In the whole literature of the world there are few poems
worthy of comparison, either in point of general interest, or of practical
influence, with the Bhagavadgita. It is
a philosophical work, yet fresh and readable as poetry, etc.” (Ch. 1, Gita and
Gospel by Rev J. N. Farquhar, M. A., Formerly Exhibitioner, Christ Church,
Oxford).
[2] “ Such is the estimation in which the work is held both in Asia and
Europe, that it has been translated into Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and other
European language and is also well known by European translators, of which Sir
C. Wilkins, published in London in 1785, was the first.” Footnote to p. 124. “
Indian Wisdom.” By Sir Monier Williams.
[3] “ This revival of interest
in Krishna and his worship is clearly part of the great national movement which
has been so potent in Bengal religiously, socially and politically these last
twenty years.” Appendix to Gita and Gospel, by Rev. J. N. Farquhar, M. A.
[4] “ The poem has also received
a great deal of attention and admiring recognition from Europeans.” Appendix to
Gita and Gospel.
[5] “ It was the first piece of Sanskrit literature ever translated
into English. This translation was by Charles Wilkins, and appeared as early as
1785, under the title of The Song of the Adorable One. Since then it has been
frequently brought before the English public,” etc. Gita and Gospel, Ch I.
[6] Among the principal translation in European language other than
English may be mentioned the Greek version of Galanos, the Latin version of
Lassen, the Italian version of Stanisallo Gatti, the French version of Burnouf
and the German version of Dr. Lorinser.
[7] “The lofty sublimity to which it so often rises the practical
character of much of its teaching, the enthusiastic devotion to the one Lord
which breathes through it and the numerous resemblances it shows to the words
of Christ, fill it with unusual interest for men of the West.” Gita and Gospel
, Ch. I.
[8] Sir Monier Williams
hesitates “ to concur in any theory (such as the one proposed by Dr. Lorinser,
Prof. Weber and others) which explains these coincidence by supporting that the
author had access to the New Testament or he derived some of his ideas from the
first propagators of Christianity.” He quotes the Rev. F. W. Farrar who in his
interesting and valuable work “ Seekers after God” points out “ that the attempts of the Christian
Fathers to make out Pythagoras a debtor to Hebraic wisdom, Plato an Atticizing
Moses, Aristotle a picker up of ethics from a Jaw , Seneca a correspondent of
St. Paul, were due “in some cases to ignorance, and in some to a want of
perfect honesty in controversial dealing,” and concludes that “ his ( Rev.
Farrar’s) arguments would be even more conclusive if applied to the
Bhagavadgita.” Vide p. 142, Indian
Wisdom.
Also see “ Dr. Lorinser’s attempt ( Die
Bhagavadgita, ubersetz and erlautert von Dr. F. Lorinser, 1869) to prove that
the author of the Gita borrowed many ideas from the Bible must be pronounced a
failure. Cf. Garbe, 19, 83-85; Max Muller, Natural Religion, 87-100. Hopkins R.
I., 429.” Footnote to page 4, Gita and Gospel.
[9] I quite agree with my friend Dewan Bahadur J. S. Chakravarti, M.A.,
F.R.A.S., Comptroller, Mysore Government, who in his introduction to his
lamented father Rai Bahadur Bireswar Chakravarti’s translation (in Rhyme) to
the Bhagavadgita, says: “ There are, on the one hand, writers like Telanga, who
after a careful and elaborate examination of the question of the question come
to the conclusion that “the date at which the Gita can have been composed must
be earlier than the third century B. C., though it is impossible to say how
much earlier;” on the other hand, we have scholars oof the stamp of Lorinser,
Weber nd Lassen who hold “that the Bhagavadgita was not written before the
scholars who have written on the subject are men of vast scholarship,
indefatigable industry and clear judgment no one can, for a moment, doubt; but
all of them cannot be said to have been altogether free from bias.”
[10] “It is, however, stayed an Upanishad or rather a series of Uanishads,
because, like the Upanishads, it reveals
secret and mystical doctrines.” Foot – note 4 to page 125. “Indian Wisdom,” by
Sir Monier Williams.
Both the
singular and plural forms of the word Bhagavadgita also seem to have been used
by authoritative writers like Sankaracharya.
[11] . “ They both (the Bhagavadgita and the Swetaswataropanishad) aim
at reconciling the conflicting views of different systems, and both do so by
attempting to engraft the Sankhya and Yoga upon Vedanta doctrine.” “ Indian
Wisdom,” p. 123.
So also
Prof. Max Muller who sees in the Bhagavadgita a reconciliation of the
philosophies of Yoga and Sankhya, though unlike Sir Monier Williams, Prof. A
Macdonell and others, he holds that the word Sankhya – Yoga denotes only one
philosophy.
[12] See “ Summary of the
Bhagavadgita” in “ The Religious and Moral Teaching of the Bhagavadgita
examined,” by John Murdoch.
[13] “ But the leading idea of the Gita is that Krishna is Brahma
incarnate, round that all the rest of the teachings gathers” Gita and Gospel,
p. 15.
[14] Possibly on the strength of this description (तं विद्याद् दुःखसंयोगवियोगं योगसंज्ञितम्) and professedly on the
latter half of an introductory verse by Bhoja in his commentary on the Yoga
Sutras, Prof. Max Muller remarks that Yoga means not union but disunion. But
Patanjali himself says in his aphorism that the term in his science only
denotes the restraint of the modifications of the mind (योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः) And word “API(even)” in the above quotation from Bhoja which the
Professor has simply passed over, clearly shows that Bhoja , by no means, took
“separation” as a distinct signification of the term “Yoga.” This view is made
all the stronger by the word “APOORVA” (peculiar) in the first half of the same
verse.
[15] It will become clear as we go on, how this definition of “Yoga” as
equanimity, equally applies to Jnana – Yoga, Karma – Yoga and other Yogas.
[16] सांख्ययोगौ पृथग्बालाः प्रवदन्ति न पण्डिताः।
एकमप्यास्थितः सम्यगुभयोर्विन्दते फलम्।।5.4।।
यत्सांख्यैः प्राप्यते स्थानं तद्योगैरपि गम्यते।
एकं सांख्यं च योगं च यः पश्यति स पश्यति।।5.5।।
It is to
be noted that the word Sankhya is the Gita stands for Jnana, but not for the
system of philosophy (by Kapila) technically so called. This view is shared not
only Oriental authorities like Sri Sankaracharya but also by some of the
occasional critics like Dr. Paul Deussen who in his Outlines of Indian
Philosophy says “The words (Sankhya and
Yoga) are thus (i.e., in the sense of reflection and concentration) used where
they occur for the first time and it is an open question, demanding further
research whether not only in the Bhagavadgita but also throughout the
Mahabharata, the words Sankhya and Yoga are not so much names of philosophical
systems as general terms for the two methods of reflection and concentration.”
