bhagavdgItA - commentaries

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namaste.

 

I was going to post the following article on commentaries on

gItA as part of the bhagavadgItA preliminaries of the gItA

satsang. However, I could not get the article ready in time

(of one week allotted for the preliminaries). Hence, I put

a different title for the article for general discussion

in the advaitin.

 

It was shown in an earlier article that the essence of

the upanishads is carried on in the gItA. While the sanskrit

of the upanishads is terse and ancient, sanskrit of the gItA

is more classical and easier to understand. Further, there

are injunctions on the study of the upanishads which makes

them restrictive in availability. There are no such

injunctions on the gItA and thus gItA is universally

available.

 

BhagavadgItA has many commentaries and the purpose of this

post is to list some of these commentaries.

 

The earliest extant commentary on the gItA is the gItAbhAShyA

by shri shankara. According to shri shankara, the purpose of

the gItA is the end of the phenomenal world and its accompanying

activity. The liberated person recognizes that the highest

reality is one without a second, in which there are no

distinctions of subject and object. Shri shankara therefore

relativizes the gItA's emphasis on action and interprets the

reference to the supreme divine Being as lower level understanding

of the Absolute as other than one's self. Another thing that is

to be noted in shri shankara's interpretation of the gItA is,

he rejects the view of jnAna-karma-samuccaya, the belief that

the gItA teaches that knowledge and action are not separate

practices but elements of one path to liberation. This

misunderstanding was due to a former commentator BodhAyana's

work (to which shri Ramanuja's interpretation has some

similarity).

 

Commentators who followed shri shankara's interpretation of

the gItA include Anandagiri who wrote a commentary on shri

shankara's bhAShya and Madhusudana who wrote GUDArtha-dIpikA,

another standard commentary on the gItA in classic advaitic way.

Other commentators following shri shankara's interpretation

include Sridhara and Nilakantha.

 

The two major works with vishiShTAdvaita interpretation are the

work by Ramanuja and by his guru YAmuna. Here, the emphasis is on

devotional element. YAmuna's gItArthasaMgraha says that the gItA's

object is to show that NarayaNa is the highest brahman and bhakti

is the only means of liberation. Ramanuja rejected the doctrine

of the unreality of the world and believed that the gItA taught

that the true self is not divine and not one with the other selves.

The interpretation of the gItA is in terms of viShNu, the only

true god and liberation is attained by devotion to and service

to Him.

 

The dualistic interpretation of the gItA is by Madhva who wrote

two works on the gItA: the gItA-bhAShya and the gItA-tAtparyanirNaya.

Madhva radically interprets the text that it asserts an eternal and

complete distinction between the supreme Lord, the many souls and

matter and that devotion is the exclusive method that leads to

liberation.

 

There are many modern commentaries on gItA as well. Foremost

among them is the one by Bala Gangadhar Tilak who wrote gItA-rahasya.

In this, he asserts that gItA teaches

jnAnamUlaka-bhaktipradhAna-karmayoga, i.e., a life of work founded

on knowledge and centred on devotion to the supreme god. Gandhi's

and Vinoba Bhave's commentaries on gItA are already referred to by

shri Ram Chandran. Aurobindo wrote two series of essays on the gItA

which were published in a collection called Essays on the gItA. He

interprets gItA as integral yoga that synthesizes all paths into a

position which affirms that the divine is beyond issues of dualism

and non-dualism. Radhakrishnan's classic book on bhagavadgItA is a

standard reference text. While Radhakrishnan did not put any slant

on interpretation in his book, the notes following the verses seem

to suggest his view is that the gItA carries the essential principles

of a spiritual religion. Swami Vivekananda gave series of lectures

on the gItA which are carried in his collective works.

 

Many western commentaries and translations of gItA into western

languages are available. The first was by Edwin Arnold "the song

celestial". There are other popular versions including (i) the song

of God by swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, (ii) swami

Nikhilananda's bhagavadgItA, (iii) Kees Bolle "the bhagavadgItA: a

new translation, and many others. The most interesting and unique

one I came across recently is the one by Swami Tadatmanandaji of

ArshavidyA Gurukulam (a member of our list) who put bhagavadgItA

into poetic english, sung to the same tune as the original sanskrit

verses.

 

Thus, truly, bhagavadgItA occupies a major place in the world

literature on spirituality as evidenced by interest in it from

shri shankara's time to the modern day.

 

 

Regards

Gummuluru Murthy

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