Question 6

QUESTIONER: YOU SAY THAT SHANKARA'S COMMENTARY ON THE GEETA IS INCOMPLETE. THERE ARE DOZENS OF COMMENTARIES ON THE GEETA. CAN YOU SAY IF ANY ONE OF THEM IS COMPLETE? DO YOU THINK LOKMANYA TILAK'S INTERPRETATION IS COMPLETE? AT LEAST IT DOES NOT TAKE AN ESCAPIST VIEW OF LIFE; IT IS ACTIVIST AND MORALISTIC. OR ARE YOU TRYING TO SYNTHESIZE TILAK'S ACTIVISM WITH SHANKARA'S SUPRA-MORALISM?

Not one commentary on Krishna is complete. It is not possible, unless someone like Krishna himself comments on him.

Every interpretation of Krishna is incomplete and partial. There are many sides to a single thing, and Krishna is a man of infinite dimensions. So every commentator chooses from them according to what appeals to him. Shankara establishes that sannyas and inaction form the cornerstones of the GEETA. From the same GEETA, Tilak chooses karmayoga, the discipline of action, and he brings all his arguments to prove that action IS GEETA'S central message. Now Shankara and Tilak are polar opposites.

A thousand years have passed since Shankara commented on the GEETA, and in the course of time his escapist philosophy has enfeebled India to her very roots, weakened her in many ways. By its nature, escapism is enervating. Shankara's teachings sapped this country's vitality and dynamism. A thousand years' experiences were enough to turn the pendulum in the opposite direction. It became urgent that someone comment on the GEETA saying that it stands for dynamism and action. So Tilak comes forward with a statement which is at the other extreme of Shankara While Shankara had chosen inaction and renunciation, Tilak chose activism and action.

So Tilak's commentary is as incomplete as Shankara's.

There are any number of commentaries on the GEETA. They are not in dozens, but in hundreds, and the number increases every day. However, not one of them has done justice to Krishna's philosophy. And the reason is that not one commentator has shown the courage to be super-rational. Each of them has tried to be rational and logical.

In fact, a commentator cannot be other than rational. If he transcends the rational he will not write a commentary on the GEETA, he will instead create the GEETA itself. When one attains to the super-rational state a GEETA is born through him. Then commentary becomes unnecessary. A commentary means that you don't understand something in the GEETA and I explain it to you by way of interpreting it. It is an attempt at interpreting something. And when you explain something you have to keep within the bounds of logic and reason.