| But we shall fail to understand the
teaching aright if the particular scene obsesses us and seek to interpret the general by
the particular. It is a common practice in Sanskrit literature to provide great works with
such or other prologues. It would be a cumbersome process to convert the whole of the
Mahabharata story into a sustained allegory in order to save the Bhagavad-Gita from being
an incitement to violence. We should forget the battle-scene when we study the Gita as a
scripture of Sanatana Dharma.
There are eighteen adhyayas in the Gita and
seven hundred slokas in all. In the following pages 226 slokas are quoted. A study of them
is enough to give a fairly good grasp of the Bhagavad-Gita.
The Bhagavad-Gita professes to give nothing
new beyond what has previously been taught by the Upanishads. It contents itself with a
synthesis of the older teachings. This book does not propose to give any new
interpretation of the Bhagavad-Gita. |
