| 3. The Blessed
Lord said:In this world a twofold path was taught by Me at first, O sinless
one: that of Sankhyas by devotion to knowledge, and that of Yogins by devotion
to action.In this worldwith reference to the people of the three castes,
for whom alone are intended the teachings of the sastra (Scripture),a twofold
nishtha or path of devotion was taught by Me, the Omniscient Lord, when
at first, at the beginning of creation, I created people and revived the
tradition of the Vedic doctrine for teaching them the means of attaining
worldly prosperity and Bliss.What was that twofold path of devotion fOne
of them was jnanayoga, the devotion of knowledgeknowledge itself being yogasuited
to the Sankhyas, to those who possessed a clear knowledge of the Self and
the notSelf, who renounced the world from the Brahmacharya (the first holy
order or asrama), who determined the nature of things in the light of the
Vedantic wisdom, who belonged to the highest class of samnyasins known as
the Paramahamsas, whose thoughts ever dwelt on Brahman only. The other was
karmayoga, the devotion of action,action itself being Yoga or devotion;
suited to Yogins, to karmins, to those who were inclined to action.If it
had already been taught or is going to be taught by the Lord in the Gitaand
if it had been taught in the Vedas as wellthat both knowledge and action
should be conjoined in one and the same person as a means to one and the
same end, how might the Lord teach Arjuna, who approached Him as a beloved
pupil, that the two paths of knowledge and action were respectively intended
for two distinct classes of aspirants ? |
