GR: Author's Preface

                                                                   Author’s Preface

The "Author" here refers to Bal Gangadhar Tilak.  Please refer to the post titled "Project Gita Rahsaya" before reading this post.

                   Gita is essentially a treatise for leading an action oriented life and not that of contemplation even as it indicates that both can co-exist.

                   Gita states that a life of selfless action never leads to commission of sin and (even if ostensibly it appears to be the case) ultimately such a doer attains Moksha.

                  The plan of Gita Rahsaya is to lay down the life principles and theories in an order first enunciating them for the lay reader and then gradually elaborating them along with a critical comparison with the fundamental principles of other (mostly western) religions and philosophical systems.

                  Even though we attempt to understand and compare the ideas of Moksha with that of other foreign systems it is to be understood that not only is it difficult to comprehend these ideas through the prism of foreign systems but these concepts are beyond comprehension for anyone. The limits of conventional human knowledge fall quite short of such ideas.

                  Outside of the Indian landscape it is Aristotle who has propounded ideas that we find in the Gita though it is possible he does so in a different context. In any case Gita predates Aristotle by several hundreds of years.

                  The beauty of Gita is not that it is a comprehensive system of cosmic knowledge (Brahma-Gyan) but that what to appears be contradictions between the principles of morality, devotion and moksha are infact not true. In other words for Gita the ideas of contemplation and action are mutually compatible. However, Gita quite unequivocally emphasizes on a life of action or Karma.

                                      “Gita Sugita Kartavya Kimanyeeh Shastravistaryeeh”


(Meaning) Learning and Understanding of Gita is sufficient and even necessary. We then need not carry out a detailed study of all other classical philosophical treatises.

Here Gita is not playing down the importance of the other classics but only gently reminding the student to first undertake the study of the Gita before other classics.

Project Gita Rahsaya

             My affair with the Gita (or Geeta) continues. As the previous entry in the blog shows I had attempted to translate Vinoba’s talks on Gita in English. Indeed I did post my translation of the first chapter. But then apart from the usual laziness I display in completing things I start another thing happened and I had to discontinue the translation. I found the English translation by the same publisher! Silly me, I should have thought of that earlier. Anyway no harm done! Perusing the English Vinoba I felt mine was not too bad an attempt.


             In addition I also stumbled upon an mp3 rendition of Vinoba’s talks on the net. This was manna from heaven. The publishers permit free downloads and I copied all the files on my mobile phone and over the course of the last few months I had the pleasure of listening to the lectures while commuting and at times just before going to sleep. God has been kind. There is one nagging fear. Though quite unnecessary I am sure. I have started to appreciate the message of the Lord and of course it’s a powerful voice. My fear is would I be able to sustain my efforts. Would I have the courage and strength not to stray from the path in face of all obstacles for the rest of my life? Of course Lord himself has pointed out that one should leave all such fears and apprehensions to be taken care of by the Almighty. Sometime back I read an account of a woman from New Zealand who spent some time in Lhasa in the company of a Tibetan nun. The account is inspiring. The author (Claire I believe her name is) many years before she came in contact with the nun had met an Indian spiritual teacher who had advised her to "surrender" in order to experience spiritual bliss. As I read it then the idea appeared quite jaded to me. However Claire at the end of her story indicates that she did in fact come to appreciate the idea of ‘surrender’ in course of her association with the nun and Tibetan Buddhism. The reason I bring this up is that over the last few months I too (at least that’s what I feel) have begun to understand the meaning of ‘surrender’. Gita has shown me the way.

            Coming back to Vinoba, in course of his lectures in several places he refers to Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s Gita Rahsaya (Secret of Gita). After reading Vinoba’s lectures and hearing them several times over the tape I got more curious about Gita Rahsaya (GR) hoping to read it seriously to start training myself in Karmayogashastra. A few days back I was browsing through a book sale near Churchgate station and I stumbled upon GR quite by chance. It was destiny at work I think. However, this is serious stuff. Not only is the volume quite hefty, some 700 pages, it is fine print in Hindi which too is not colloquial but classical. Nevertheless I am pleased. Not only I feel this is the logical next step after introduction of the subject by Vinoba but given the vast scope of the project I would be happily employed for sometime to come.

               You can’t keep a passionate translator down for long. Yes ! I now mean to post my thoughts and lessons from GR on the blog. But this time I am only going to post in a bullet fashion key points which I pick up in course of my readings.



**Om Ganeshaya Namah**