atha prathamo ‘dhyāyaḥ – arjuna-viṣāda-yogaḥ

INTRODUCTION

Nārāyaṇa is beyond the Avyakta;
From the Avyakta the Mundane Egg is born;
Within the Mundane Egg, verily, are these worlds
And the Earth made up of the seven Dvipas.

oṃ
nārāyaṇaḥ paro ’vyaktād aṇḍam avyakta-sambhavam |
aṇḍasyāntas tv ime lokāḥ sapta-dvīpā ca medinī ||

The- twofold Vedic Religion.
The Lord created the universe, and wishing to secure order therein. He first created the Prajapatis (Lords of creatures) such as Marichi and caused them to adopt the Pravṛtti-Dharma, the Religion of Works. He then created others such as Śanaka and Sanandana and caused them to adopt the Nivṛtti-Dharma, the Religion of Renunciation, characterized by knowledge and indifference to worldly objects.

It is the twofold Vedic Religion of Works and Renunciation that maintains order in the universe. This Religion which directly leads to liberation and worldly prosperity has long been practiced by all castes and religious orders (varṇa-aśrama) – from the brāhmaṇas downwards, – who sought welfare.

The purpose of the Divine Incarnation.
When, owing to the ascendancy of lust in its votaries, religion was overpowered by irreligion caused by the vanishing faculty of discrimination, and irreligion was advancing, it was then that the original Creator (Adi-kartṛ), Viṣṇu, known as Nārāyaṇa, wishing to maintain order in the universe, incarnated Himself as Kṛṣṇa, begotten in Devaki by Vasudeva, for the preservation of the ‚earthly Brahman,’ of spiritual life (Brāhmaṇatva) on the earth. For it was by the preservation of spiritual life that the Vedic Religion could be preserved, since thereon depend all distinctions of caste and religious order.

The Lord, always possessed as He is of (infinite) knowledge, supremacy, power, strength, might and vigour, controls the Maya, – belonging to Him as Viṣṇu, – the Mūlaprakṛti, the First Cause, composed of three Guṇas or energies, and He appears to the world as though He is born and embodied and helping the world at large; whereas really He is unborn and indestructible, is the Lord of creatures, and is by nature Eternal, Pure, Intelligent and Free.

Without any interest of His own, but with the sole intention of helping His creatures. He taught to Arjuna, who was deeply plunged in the ocean of grief and delusion, the twofold Vedic Religion, evidently thinking that the Religion would widely spread when accepted and practiced by men of high character.

The Gita and the Commentary.
It is this Religion which was taught by the Lord that the omniscient and adorable Veda-Vyasa (the arranger of the Vedas) embodied in the seven hundred verses called Gitas.

This famous Gita-śastra is an epitome of the essentials of the whole Vedic teaching; and its meaning is very difficult to understand. Though, to afford a clear view of its teaching, it has been explained word by word and sentence by sentence, and its import critically examined by several commentators, still I have found that to the laity it appears to teach diverse and quite contradictory doctrines. I propose, therefore, to write a brief commentary with a view to determine its precise meaning.

Jnana-Yoga is the means to the Supreme Bliss.
The aim of this famous Gita-Śāstra is, briefly, the Supreme Bliss, a complete cessation of samsāra or transmigratory life and of its cause. This accrues from that Religion (Dharma) which consists in a steady devotion to the knowledge of the Self, preceded by the renunciation of all -works.

So, with reference to this Religion, the doctrine of the Gita, the Lord says in the Anu-Gita as follows: „That religion, indeed, is quite sufficient for the realization of the state of Brahman, the Absolute” (MBh 14.16.12).
In the same place it is also said:
„He is without merit and without sin, without weal and woe, – he who is absorbed in the one seat, silent and thinking nothing” (MBh 14.19.7; 14.19.1).
And He also says:
„Knowledge is characterized by renunciation.” (MBh 14.43.26).
Here also at the end Arjuna is thus exhorted:
„Abandoning all dharmas, come to Me alone for shelter” (BhG 18.66).

How Karma-Yoga is a means to the Supreme Bliss.
Though the Religion of Works, – which, as a means of attaining worldly prosperity, is enjoined on the several castes and religious orders, – leads the devotee to the region of the Devas and the like, still, when practised in a spirit of complete devotion to the Lord and without regard to the (immediate) results, it conduces to the purity of the mind (sattva-śuddhi).

The man whose mind is pure is competent to tread the path of knowledge, and to him comes knowledge; and thus (indirectly) the Religion of Works forms also a means to the Supreme Bliss. Accordingly, with this very idea in mind, the Lord says:
„He who does actions, placing them in Brahman” (BhG 5.10),
„Yogins perform actions, without attachment, for the purification of the self” (BhG 5.11).

Tlie specific subject and object of the Gīta-śastra.
The Gītā-śāstra expounds this twofold Religion, whose aim is the Supreme Bliss. It expounds specially the nature of the Supreme Being and Reality known as Vāsudeva, the Parabrahman, who forms the subject of the discourse. Thus the Gītā-śāstra treats of a specific subject with a specific object and bears a specific relation (to the subject and object). A knowledge of its teaching leads to the realisation of all human aspirations. Hence my attempt to explain it.