Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Poetry and Art

SABCL - Volume 27

Part 2. On His Own and Others’ Poetry
Section 2. On Poets and Poetry
Philosophers, Intellectuals, Novelists and Musicians

Shankaracharya on the Bhagavad Gita [1]

On this shloka in the second chapter of the Gita:

एषा ब्राह्मी स्थितिः पार्थ नैनां प्राप्य विमुह्यति ।

स्थित्वाऽस्यामन्तकालेऽपि ब्रह्मनिर्वाणमृच्छति ॥

eṣā brāhmī sthitiḥ pārtha naināṃ prāpya vimuhyati

sthitvā'syāmantakāle'pi brahmanirvāṇamṛcchati

Shankara says:

सैषा ज्ञाननिष्ठा स्तूयते । यथोक्ता... ब्रह्मी स्थितिः सर्वं कर्म संन्यस्य ब्रह्मरूपेणैवावस्थानमिति...

saiṣā jñānaniṣṭhā stūyate, yathoktā... brāhmī sthitiḥ sarvaṃ karma saṃnyasya brahmarūpeṇaivāvasthānamiti...

Where is there even in the preceding shlokas the idea of सर्वं कर्म संन्यस्य [sarvaṃ karma saṃnyasya]?

But the final stroke comes here:

अन्ते वयस्यपि... मोक्षमृच्छति... किमु वक्तव्यं ब्रह्मचर्यादेव संन्यस्य यावज्जीवं... ब्रह्मण्येवावतिष्ठते स ब्रह्मनिर्वाणमृचछति ॥

ante vayasyapi... mokṣamṛcchati... kimu vaktavyaṃ brahmacaryādeva saṁnyasya yāvajjīvaṃ... brahmaṇyevāvatiṣṭhate sa brahmanirvāṇamṛcchati.

This is pure insinuation. Nowhere in the whole of the Gita can there be found the idea of ब्रह्मचर्यादेव संन्यस्य [brahmacaryādeva saṁnyasya]!

How can a commentator do without insinuation? He has to make the Gita (or the Upanishads) mean what he teaches; if it doesn’t actually say what he teaches, he has to explain that it meant that all the same. If the Gita doesn’t teach what he teaches, it would be teaching something that is not the Truth, and how can the Gita teach untruth?

In Krishna’s time were there any Sannyasis at all? Rishis there were, but few, and not the sort to promote ब्रह्मचर्यादेव संन्यस्य [brahmacaryādeva saṁnyasya].

Perhaps at the time of Krishna there were no Sannyasis; but the Gita speaks of Sannyasa and Sannyasis, it even speaks of कर्म सन्न्यस्य [karma sannyasya] but it says कर्माणि संन्यस्त [karmāṇi saṃnyasya] and declares फलत्याग [phalatyāga] to be the true Sannyasa. Arjuna is supposed to remain in the ब्रह्मी स्थिति [brahmī sthiti] and fight, so that would be hardly consistent with the other kind of Sannyasa — not to speak of enjoying राज्यं समृद्धम् [rājyaṃ samṛddham] also.

25 March 1936