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Bhakti Is Not Different From The Way Of Effort > Page1
1. In one sense we have reached the other shore of the Gita to-day. In the Fifteenth Chapter all the idea of the Gita find their fulfillment. The Sixteenth and the Seventeenth Chapter are in the nature of supplements, and the Eighteenth Chapter serves as the conclusion. Hence, the Lord at the end of this Chapter calls it shaastra, science. He says, "iti guhyatamam shaastram idamuktam mayaa anagha." "Thus, O flawless one, have I taught you this science, the greatest of secrets."
And he says this not because it is the concluding Chapter, but because in it the science and the philosophy of life that have been taught till now find completion. In this Chapter, paramaartha, the supreme truth, is revealed. The whole essence of the Vedas is here. The function of the Vedas is to awaken in man the awareness of Paramaartha. Because this is done in this Chapter, it has come to be honored as "Vedasaara," the essence of the Veda.
We saw in the Thirteenth Chapter the need for separating the Self from the body. In the Fourteenth we analyzed the efforts necessary for this - through self-control we should give up rajas and tamas; we should develop sattva and at the same time overcome attachment to it, renounce the fruit of it. In the end, it is said that, in order to achieve complete success, Self-realization in essential; but without bhakti Self-realization is unattainable.
About Author : Acharya Vinoba Bhave
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