Chapter 4
Core of the Teaching
Many Doctrines Evaluated
▀ ▄ ▀ Comparison of the Doctrines of Renounciation, Devotion and Works
1 Renouncement of Life and Works, ‘Sannyasa’ संन्यास (... contd from previous Note One)
The actual reality which rejects this exclusivity
However, we have to admit that it is quite impossible to persist in this view on an impartial reading,
This is in face of the continual assertion that action should be preferred to inaction. This assertion is found throughout Gita to the very end of the discourse.
Gita teaches that the superiority lies with
▀ The true, the inner renunciation of desire by equality and
▀ The giving up of works to the supreme Purusha.
2 Doctrine of Devotion भक्तियोग
Circumstance in favour of the doctrine
Others again speak of the Gita as if the doctrine of devotion were its whole teaching. They put in the background its monistic elements and the high place it gives to quietist immergence in the one self of all. Here we must acknowledge that undoubtedly its following elements are most striking and most vital part of the teaching of Gita.
These elements are :
▀ Its emphasis on devotion
▀ Its doctrine of the Purushottama, पुरुषोत्तम the Supreme Being who is superior both
▀ to the mutable Being and
▀ to the Immutable and
who in His relation to the world is what we know as God
These elements are conducive to the belief that Gita advocates the doctrine of devotion as a sole or main doctrine.
The actual reality which rejects this exclusivity
At the same time, it is also true that this Lord is
▀ The Self in whom all knowledge culminates and
▀ The Master of sacrifice to whom all works lead, as well as
▀ The Lord of Love into whose being the heart of devotion enters.
It is important to note here that the Gita preserves a perfectly equal balance. It emphasizes all the following aspects at different course of its teaching :
▀ Knowledge
▀ Works
▀ Devotion
This is only done for the purposes of the immediate trend of the thought. It is NOT done with any absolute and separate preference of one over the others. Gita unequivocally proclaims that ‘He in whom all three meet and become one, He is the Supreme Being, the Purushottama’.
3 Doctrine of Works कर्मयोग
Circumstance in favour of the doctrine
The present day is in fact the time when the modern mind began to recognise and deal at all with the Gita.
At the present day the tendency is to subordinate Gita’s elements of knowledge and devotion in favour of the path of Action.
It takes advantage of its continual insistence on action and to find in it a scripture of the Karmayoga, a Light leading us on the path of action, a Gospel of Works.
･ﾟﾟ･:.｡..｡.:ﾟ::✼✿ - *▀ ▄ Chapter Four - Core of the Teaching ▄ ▀ ✿✼:ﾟ:.｡..｡.:･ﾟﾟ･
End of Note Two
»»»»»» to continue to Note Three
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