Commentaries on Bhagavad Geeta are naturally cropping up

Commentaries on Bhagavad Geeta are naturally cropping up

The function of a commentary is to expand, explain, expound and extol the contents of a great book. It is but natural that numerous commentaries crop up round divinely inspired books. Several are the commentaries on the Scriptural Trinity—the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. If a person desires to extol or establish a particular creed or school of thought, it becomes his first and foremost duty to derive authority and sanction for it from this Scriptural Trinity. Otherwise his creed or cult runs the risk of being rejected as heterodox. The commentaries that have come up so far do often suffer from one serious disadvantage. Consciously or unconsciously their authors have tried to read the meaning of their own creeds and cults into these three sacred books. Among these three books again, it is easier for them to read their own particular philosophy into the Bhagavad Gita than into the other two books. This being the case, the largest number of commentaries now available are naturally on the Gita.

Translation is another important consideration. The popularity or usefulness of a book is not to be judged by the number of languages into which it is translated. The one solitary book that has been rendered into almost all the languages in the world is the Holy Bible. But an achievement of this type need not in itself be a hallmark of divine perfection. Political power, missionary zeal and material resources are factors capable of creating popularity for anything under the sun, not to speak of a book like the Holy Bible. Christendom has had the benefit of all these three simultaneously. But the position of the Bhagavad Gita is different. The propagators of this book have never exploited extraneous powers for their purpose. The translators of this book were actuated by the noble urge that the great ideals contained in it were highly beneficial to humanity. Propagation of dogma, cult and creed comes under one category and the propagation of ideals and principles under another. That the Bhagavad Gita is an embodiment of life principles which are supremely above all cults and creeds is self-evident. The influence that it leaves in the mind of its student bears ample testimony to this fact. Let us take a striking case for example. The first English rendering of this book was done by the East India Company. Warren Hastings, the then Governor-General, had contributed a foreword to it. Happily his exact words are available to us. ‘‘These (writings of the inhabitants of India) will survive when the British Dominion in India shall have long ceased to exist, and when the sources which it once yielded of wealth and power are lost to remembrance.” He alone can make this significant utterance, who has known the Law that governs human life. And the Bhagavad Gita teaches just those Laws and principles that govern human life. These Laws and principles require no patron or defender. Even without the aid of propagators these principles ever propagate themselves in the scheme of Nature.

The commentators on the Gita were those who had the least to do with pomp, power or wealth. They had their minds anchored on things sacred. There is a monument to their devout labours erected at Kurukshetra. A temple dedicated to the Bhagavad Gita is today found in that holy place. It is claimed that this was the actual spot on which this immortal utterance was made by the Lord. In that temple are enshrined as many as three hundred commentaries on the Gita, belonging to different periods of time. The writers of these commentaries were themselves men of sterling character and deep erudition. The Bhagavad Gita was the common source of inspiration to one and all of them. This Fountain of Life does not get exhausted with the flow of time. To the spiritual aspirants it is as inspiring today as it ever has been. Because of its eternal value and appeal new and modern commentary are naturally cropping up.

Source: Srimad Bhagavad Geeta-Commentary by Swami Chidbhavananda