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References had to be made to such opinions, not with a view to recommending a new set of religious or philosophical obligations or doctrines in their place, but to expound the open and dynamic metaphysics of wisdom itself. This is sufficiently clear from the text itself: Abandoning all duties, come to Me, the One, for refuge: I shall absolve you from all sins; do not despair ". (XVIII, 66)
The Gita's own teaching, however, belongs to the context of contemplative mysticism based on an intuitive approach rather than on reason or logic in the ordinary sense. What the Gita wants, to emphasize is repeated twice (in IX, 34 and in XVIII, 65):
"Become one in mind with Me; be devoted to Me; sacrifice to Me; bow down to Me; unifying thus yourself, you shall surely come to Me. . ."

THE GITA TEACHES DIALECTICS OR YOGA

Throughout the Gita we are able to recognize a certain antique and somewhat outmoded yet time-honoured type of reasoning known as Dialectics which has close similarities to the method of Yoga as intended by the author of the Gita.. Yoga and Dialectics have very much in common. When the dialectical character of the treatment of the Gita is understood, a door then opens, automatically leading to the solution of many enigmas that have puzzled commentators throughout history. The yogic method of equating, balancing, or canceling-out the counterparts belonging to an argument or a situation in life has a tradition dating back to antiquity in India and to pre-Socratic times in the West. The paradoxes of Zeno and the dialectical method of Parmenides which were present in the writings of Plotinus 1000 years later, and which have at least a theoretical kinship another 1500 years later in our own times in Hegel and Bergson, have a mystical intuitive contemplative approach to wisdom or happiness which is the way of perennial philosophy none other than the Yoga of the Gita.
Each of the eighteen chapters of the Gita has been called a Yoga. Indeed, the very first chapter has the enigmatic title

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“The Yoga of the Conflict (vishada) of Arjuna”.  Conflict or suffering itself here becomes elevated to the status of a Yoga. It is not merely practical aspects of spiritual life or discipline that have been thus called Yoga, but even chapters devoted to theoretical problems of philosophy, such as Chapter XII (The Yoga of the Distinction between the Actual and the Perceptual). It is only in the sense of Dialectics that such a term as Yoga in these titles has meaning.
In giving due credit to the author of the Gita in this matter of understanding the term Yoga as the author himself understood it or intended it to mean consists therefore of another important reason which justifies the need and enhances the value of the present commentary. Numerous enigmas and unexplained portions are found in almost every commentary which is available to the present day. In the light of a truer, larger and more comprehensive concept of Yoga as here accepted, it has been possible to delve deeper into the methodology, epistemology and scheme of values which the Gita represents.

THE KEY OF DIALECTICS NOT APPLIED TO  THE GITA HITHERTO

The polemical pattern adopted by Sankara and the other classical commentators has followed the usual norms and methods of logical reasoning. With Sankara in particular, it has been a method of successively discrediting a series of supposed anterior sceptics called purva-pakshin.The Gita, on its part, however, uses a dialectical method to determine a scale of values in life, rather than teaching a particular doctrine. This series of values in the Gita culminates in that supreme Value called the Absolute or the Brahman. 'The Gita is a textbook on the Science of the Absolute (Brahma- Vidya). As Prof. Ribot has been able to recognize in his appreciation of the Gita already quoted,   “discursive reflection " does not belong to the Gita. Rather it is one of  “mysticism and of intuitive penetration."
The supreme Value implied in the Gita teaching is attainment of identity with the Absolute personified in the Guru here who happens to be Krishna. That the Guru and the Absolute are one is not a new proposition in Vedanta. Stress on devotion to a Guru cannot be considered a form of theism but is only normal to wisdom teaching in India.

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The twice-repeated verse quoted above, occupying key positions at the end of Chapter IX, which marks the centre of the work, and near the end of' the last chapter, respectively, fixes for us the simple truth that the Gita is meant by the author to teach one doctrine only. This teaching is that of a complete bi-polar affiliation between the contemplative and the pure Absolute as one of the most important prerequisites for attaining to full wisdom of the Absolute.

THE WISDOM DIALOGUE BETWEEN GURU AND DISCIPLE

 The key to the proper appraisal of the Gita consists in the recognition of the Gita as a dialogue between a wisdom teacher and a disciple, a Guru-sishya samvada. All wisdom teaching implies a representative questioner or a doubter who is sceptical of the doctrine propounded. Such a person typifies and sums up in himself the position in regard to the wisdom in question, and is known in Vedantic literature as the purva- pakshin,  as we have already said.   The Guru himself who gives the revised, revalued or restated version of the wisdom in question, represents the siddantin, the one of finalized or accomplished view. Between the two poles represented by the Guru and the sishya there takes place what we call the dialectical revaluation of the wisdom.
Such dialogues are not altogether unknown in the West where we have those of Socrates recorded by Plato. The Socratic method is that of rejecting a number of opinions of Athenian young men such as Glaucon or Timaeus and thereby arriving at what is knowledge and not mere opinion. In Buddhist literature such dialogues are very common as in The Milinda Questions where Nagasena is questioned by King Milinda. We have the Yoga Vasishta which treats of wisdom in the same dialogue form. Instead of Arjuna who is the questioning disciple in the Gita, we have Sri Rama in the Yoga Vasishta, and not as a warrior but as a seeker of Vedantic wisdom. Many of the Upanishads have the same literary device. It is perhaps the most suitable way to strike the delicate contrast so often implied in the revaluation of wisdom implied in the text. Young Nachiketas and Yama form the typical disciple and Guru of the Katha Upanishad. Nachiketas resembles Arjuna in the type of doubt that he represents in his person.

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The core of the Gita therefore consists of a dialogue on the most secret aspects of Upanishadic wisdom. If the Upanishads are considered as original wisdom texts or shrutis, there is no reason to exclude the Gita from such a category of literature, when we know that Vyasa inserted this dialogue between Guru and Sishya in a larger epic poem, the Mahabharata  for other reasons.

VYASA’S RESORT TO LITERARY DEVICES

It is easy to imagine how Vyasa was obliged to resort to some literary devices so that a wisdom dialogue could be fitted into an epic text in the most unobtrusive manner possible. These literary devices (mentioned in more detail later) are introduced in a graded order of actual or perceptual  value and help to merge the contemplative context lodged at the core of the epic. There is a perfect symmetry of construction and whatever artificial elements are introduced at the beginning of the work are again resorted to in inverse order, before the event of the dialogue is left behind normally for the continuation of the narrative proper of the Mahabharata itself.

ORTHODOXY’S DOMAIN

If, in spite of its clear character as a wisdom text, some persons still persist in calling the Gita a religious book of obligations, it must be because of their inability to separate the painting from the canvas, or the wall from the picture drawn thereon. The epic is the wall on which the picture is the wisdom teaching of Vyasa. If it is not ignorance that makes them call the Gita an epic or traditional lore of religious obligation (smriti), the persistent willfulness must be attributed to the fact that orthodoxy still secretly nourishes the idea of having chosen preserves or private domains into which they do not wish the generality of the people to walk as freely as they like. This tendency is not unknown in respect of orthodoxies other than Hinduism. We can only say by way of a note of warning that such closing tendencies are neither possible nor compatible with the free and open way of unity and human solidarity towards which all thinking men and women are turning their eyes at present.
 
VYASA’S  “SIGNATURE”

Vyasa's name occurs thrice in the text. He is first mentioned as a seer (rishi) in X, 13, and again as a silent recluse (muni) in X, 37; but in XVIII, 75 Vyasa is referred to as having to do with the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna. In this last instance, the use of his name has a definite purpose which should not be missed. After the various literary devices have been discarded, and before closing the work, Vyasa puts his own real signature to the treatise, just as an artist might initial the corner of a painting. Indirectly, he wants to make it clear that all that was reported by Sanjaya to the blind king Dhritarashtra as actually having transpired objectively, had its original prototype in the words of Vyasa himself. In other words, if we consider it as a dramatic piece rather than a narrative poem, Vyasa himself appears before the close of the drama, from behind the drop curtain in which Sanjaya is seen reporting the events of the Mahabharata war to the king. Vyasa thus explicitly intends to claim the authorship of the Gita.

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GURU CHARACTER OF KRISHNA
It should further be noticed that in the verse (XVIII, 74) just preceding the verse mentioned, there is the use of the word samvada (dialogue). That this dialogue was not intended to be merely one between the charioteer Krishna and the warrior Arjuna is made sufficiently clear to the reader as early as II, 7, where Arjuna refers to himself as a sishya or disciple: " I am your disciple; do discipline me, coming thus for refuge to you ". The Guru is not so directly mentioned there, but only in another context in XI, 43: " You are the supreme Guru "; but given the disciple, the teacher is to be understood. The situation demands him, by implication. Thus, although Krishna is successively a Charioteer, Friend, Adviser, Divine Person or Representative of the Absolute Principle, there is no violation of meaning to call him Guru over and above and inclusive of all the other relationships.He is not, however, a Guru like Bhishma or Drona who are referred to as Gurus in  II, 5, but a Guru in a more absolute sense. He is called the Lord of Yoga (Yogeshvara) in XVIII, 78, which is also not inconsistent with Guruhood. Krishna refers to himself as representing the Absolute in its different

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aspects in XXV, 3 " My womb is great Brahma -supreme Deity " and XXV, 27 " For I am the basis of the Absolute and the unexpended nectar of immortality, and the eternal way of right conduct, and of lonely final happiness," and in many  other places.These indications are more than sufficient to justify our taking the Gita as a dialogue on wisdom between a Guru and his sishya.This dialogue portion occupies the centre of the Gita and covers the greater portion of the work. If the Gita is to be compared to a lotus flower (it is called Bharata Pankajam, " Lotus of the Bharata " in the Gita Dhyana already referred to), such a lotus would have many protective petals covering its heart. The core of the Gita with its fragrance would represent the dialogue portion set down by the son of Parasara (Vyasa) which contains the wisdom of the Absolute stated as revealing itself to the supreme Sun. Protecting such a precious teaching are the outer features that accompany the teaching only indirectly, and which refer to the epic's war situation. These latter have to be treated as incidental to the Gita teaching, although not to be treated as having nothing to do with the rest or as being totally extraneous to the subject-matter of the Gita.

LITERARY DEVICES
How these peripheral chapters are related organically with the  central chapters of the Gita will become clearer after we have been able to discuss the internal structure of the Gita as a whole. It is sufficient for us to recognize here that there are three different grades of contents in the Gita marked out by the author through literary devices at the beginning and at the end, and even in the middle of the book, in chapter XI. Sanjaya, the charioteer of the blind king Dhritarashtra speaking to his sire is the front curtain as it were. Here the actualities of war are dealt with in the words of Sanjaya. This is device or curtain No.1.
When the dialogue is between Arjuna as the warrior speaking to Krishna, his relation, or charioteer, a more philosophical or religious attitude is reflected, though still of the relativist order. This is device or curtain No. 2. Then, when Krishna speaks to Arjuna as a teacher of Absolute Truth after being called a Guru by Arjuna, the 26 subject matter attains to the purity of the white light of Vedantic Wisdom in its best sense. The Vedanta as presented in the Gita, however, has an original ring, which is different from the academic and theoretical versions of later exponents such as Gaudapada or Sankara, where it is based on states of consciousness only. In the Gita it retains its Upanishadic ontological character, closely resembling the later Upanishads such as the Svetashvatara which encompass all life values, ontological and teleological, more comprehensively. Where Krishna thus reaches wisdom to Arjuna is the core of the Gita, or device or curtain No. 3.How these three curtains are raised or dropped in the actual text has been indicated in detail in the course of our comments on the verses. It is unnecessary to refer to them here. There is yet another separation, filtration or elimination to be effected before we arrive at the central doctrinal core of the Gita. Many matters are treated as anterior opinion (purva-paksha) which must be kept apart from the proper teaching of the Guru. This is the first filtration.
    Then, even in the words of the Guru we have to distinguish between what is referred to as permissive only, coming as it does from the background of the spiritual life of India, which is merely incidental to the discussion, and the independent original teaching. This is the second filtration. The conclusive teachings are always underlined sufficiently clearly by Vyasa and attributed to the Guru Krishna. Such finalized doctrines are further distinguished by certain peculiarities of expression (such as   the  one in  XVIII, 6: "This  is  my  decided and  best conviction ")  meant  for  explicit  reference  by  him,  and consciously employed. We shall refer to these in the body of the commentary.
Thus in trying to arrive at the very central core of the teaching of the Gita, we have to keep in mind three curtains and two filtrations, to rid it of all matter extraneous to the teaching proper, and which are like the outer packing protecting its precious inner content.

THE ARCHWAY AND FRAME OF REFERENCE

When all the precautions mentioned above have been taken in trying to arrive at the core of the teaching of the Gita, the careful reader will find there are still kinds, degrees or gradations

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of secret teachings alluded to by means of the words of Krishna or Arjuna, whether at the ends or beginnings of chapters. Each of the eighteen chapters has a separate frame of reference enshrining a unitive value, within whose four walls the reasoning lives and moves. Moreover, the validity of a certain statement even by the Guru Krishna would seem to be contradicted in a different chapter. No such contradiction will be found within the same chapter except in the second and last ones where the structure is complex, and where the literary devices and some philosophical considerations tend to mix different points of view. The details of such peculiarities of structure will be noted in the commentary and in the section below when we come to deal with the inner structure of the Gita in greater detail. Here  it is sufficient for us to note that each chapter of the Gita as a rule, should be regarded as a distinct unit, though not as a separate philosophical vision (darshana) altogether. Each chapter is like a differently shaped stone forming the archway that the total eighteen chapters together may be likened to. The early and later chapters have to rest on pillars that touch the ground. Hence they are conceived in a more actual matter-of-fact or earthy spirit, actuality and realism being retained side by side with thorough-going Absolutism, as far as they are in keeping with the scheme of contemplative values conceived by the author of the Gita.

IMPORTANCE OF THE TWO CENTRAL CHAPTERS
As far as the wisdom teaching is concerned chapters IX and X occupy a key position. The end of chapter XX contains that famous verse, which we have said sums up the Gita doctrine, and this verse is repeated almost verbatim in XVIII, 65, which is the end of the teaching. The end of chapter IX is thus the middle of the Gita taken as a whole. A careful study of the contents of chapters IX and X will show that they hold many secrets into which we cannot enter in this precursive introduction. We should note, however, that in IX, 2 the distinction of this chapter is very openly indicated: “ Royal Science, Crowning Secret, purificatory is this, superior, objectively verifiable, conforming to right living. very easy to live, (and) subject to no decrease “.“ By Me all this world is pervaded, My form unmanifested; all beings have existence in Me and I do not have existence in them.” “ And further, beings do not exist in Me - behold My status as a divine Mystery; further, Myself remaining that Urge behind beings, bear them but do not exist in them either.”
“The foolish misunderstand Me because of My adopting the human form, ignorant as they are of My being that is beyond, as the Lord of all beings.”

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 The first verse of chapter X likewise refers to the further superiority of the contents of that chapter even to chapter IX." Again, 0 Mighty-Armed, listen to My supreme Word, which I, desiring your well-being, shall tell you, so dear (and favourably disposed) " When  the chapter  ends, Arjuna is made by the author to refer backwards (to the two chapters IX and X) in XI, 1, as pertaining to adhyatma (having the Self for subject) helping us to determine the status of these two chapters, as intended by the author:
" Arjuna said: By that speech which has been spoken by you, out of favour for me, the highest secret known as pertaining to the Self, this, my confusion, has vanished."

THE INVISIBLE KEYSTONE

We know that the cosmology of the Upanishads which began with the worship of the phenomenal gods of the Vedas found maturity in the course of the history of thought and arrived at wisdom having its centre in the Self of man. The Self was finally equated to the Absolute and spoken of as a supreme Value referred to Ananda (Happiness).
It is this same central and neutral Value which the Gita places at the core of its teaching in these most centrally placed chapters, IX and X. How these two chapters are complementary to each other would require a detailed examination of their contents, a task we have reserved for our commentary on the text itself. It is enough here to say that the most valuable contemplative teaching of the Gita should be sought in these central chapters. Even here, chapter IX is conceived asymmetrically and negatively, as compared with chapter X, which refers to a more positive aspect of the Absolute.
The neutral Absolute is not discussed at all. It is left as a numinously silent factor implied or hidden in the two chapters taken together. Like the verb in a sentence, the keystone of the Gita arch is almost invisible - an ineffable presence- and left to the intuitive imagination of the seeker for wisdom to realize or experience. He is free to see a golden or green leaf which contains the Verb of verbs or the Word of words - representing the Absolute as the Self or as a unique Value

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between the two chapters as a correlating principle hidden between them, if he so likes. This is as much as to say that the Gita teaching in its essence is the same as that of the Maha-Vakyas (great dicta) of the Upanishads and the Vedanta generally. Vedism and Rationalism meet in the Gita teaching without conflict, through Dialectics which is the same as Yoga.

FUNCTION OF THE LAST CHAPTER

A well known Sanskrit verse of the Mimamsakas (doctrinal critics) lays down seven lingas (indications) by which to determine the subject-matter of a shastra (text-book):
" Commencement and end, repetition, originality, utility, critical discussion and legitimacy of conclusion are the indications in determining the meaning."
The beginning and the end are the two first mentioned among them, and when a statement is repeated many times (abhyasa), that should also be taken to indicate the original contribution or the finalized doctrine of the work. The finding and the contribution of the Gita as a whole has therefore to be determined by some similar methodical approach.
A careful study of the structure of the last chapter gives up to us many indications of value regarding what is intended to be taught finally in the Gita. It is sufficient to note here that the very topics which have concluded chapter IX are found at the conclusion of chapter XVIII. Moreover, the reference to samnyasa (renunciation) at the beginning of the last chapter repeats a subject which has found prominent mention quite early in the work in III, 4; V, 1; and VI, 1 and 2. The last chapter returns to the same subject. From the repeated return to the same topic, taken together with the reference to renouncing the world and living a life of begging, mentioned by Arjuna himself as early as XI, 5 (which is really the proper beginning of the dialogue), we can discover that the discussion and revaluation of the Gita is round the topic of what constitutes proper renunciation.
The last chapter helps us to determine the matter beyond  doubt. Tyaga (relinquishment) is the revised idea that the Gita recommends for the generality of aspirants, although the

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possibility of full-fledged samnyasa (renunciation) is not ruled out as in XVIII, 49:
" He whose reason is unattached in situations whose Self has been won over, from whom desire has gone, by renunciation (samnyasa) he reaches the supreme perfection of transcending action "'. As Ramakrishna, the saint of Bengal, is said to have put it, the Gita teaches tyaga (relinquishment), and fast repetition of the word Gita (gitagitagita ... ) results in the reversed syllabic formation of the word tyagi or tagi - as near as is natural to the pronunciation by a Bengali.
In the essential wisdom which the Gita teaches in common with the rest of the Upanishads and in its own original revaluation of the notion of that particular contemplative pattern  of behaviour known as samnyasa (renunciation) we have two of the main contributions of the Gita teaching. If to these we add the third item which is the method of attaining to wisdom by establishing a strict bipolar relationship with the Absolute (in IX, 34 and. XVIII, 65), we would have touched on all the chief items of the teaching that the Gita represents.

STRUCTURAL SURVEY OF THE CHAPTERS

In our commentary we have introduced each chapter with prefatory remarks. A rapid review of the chapters, however, will help us to arrive at a preliminary precision regarding the structure of each. This survey will also help to clarify in advance certain other matters of importance  regarding peculiarities of reasoning, style and construction of the Gita which must be discussed in the remaining part of this introduction.
Chapter 1. The Dialectical Conflict of Arjuna (Arjunavishada-yoga): The first curtain is raised in the middle of verse 21, where Arjuna is introduced and asks charioteer Krishna to “stop my chariot right in the middle between the two armies ". The second curtain is introduced in the middle of verse 28 and remains to the end of the chapter, when the first curtain drops again. No wisdom proper is intended to be discussed here, yet, regardless of this fact, we note that the author does not intend it to be outside the scope of the work. It has as respectable a title as the other chapters, being called a Yoga. This Yoga does not refer to a state of happiness as should be

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expected from the definition of Yoga in the Gita itself - “disaffiliation from the context of suffering " (VI, 23) - but here, even referring to agony or unhappiness, it is still called a Yoga. The agony of Arjuna is not the plight of a coward in the face of imminent danger. Note the phases of his despondency, beginning with pity and proceeding to philosophical, religious and humanitarian considerations, all of a very respectable order. Although Krishna laughs at Arjuna, in the remainder of the Gita we find no contradiction of Arjuna's opinions, but rather a revalued statement of Arjuna's position in absolutist terms.
The only possible fault of Arjuna's attitude lurks in the expression  “my own people”  (svajana) in verse 28 where he starts his arguments. Ancestor worship, considerations of caste or clan, the non-hurting principle and the principle of renunciation, are not against the spirit of the Gita as a whole, but Arjuna thinks as a relativist in these matters, while Krishna teaches an absolutist revision of them.
The first chapter is thus the only one which contains the problems of the Gita stated correctly before the discussion by the Guru Krishna. This chapter therefore requires the closest attention. And yet oddly enough, commentators even like Sankara, have almost ignored it or even treated it as superfluous. Sankara's commentary begins only with verse 10 of chapter II and he dismisses what precedes in a summary fashion not at all in proportion with the rest of his labours. The remaining seventeen chapters of the Gita make an attempt to dialectically revalue these same problems. It is therefore very important not to leave unnoticed even those minor peculiarities of this chapter in which the author hides here and there certain indications for the guidance of the intelligent reader.
We should note that a secondary literary device consisting of Duryodhana the ruler speaking to Drona, the Vedic type of Guru, and reporting himself to Bhishma, the patriarchal type of Guru, is found between verses 2 and 12, hidden as it were, as a device No.1 (a) within the device No.1 of Sanjaya. The object must be to bring out the contrast existing even in the relativist and actual world of this impending battle. Vedic values referring to the way of the shining phenomenal gods (deva-yana) have to be contrasted with ancestral values referring to the way of the forefathers (pitri-yana), and Duryodhana as the chief goes from Drona to Bhishma who respectively
 
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represent these sets of values. King Duryodhana needs Sanjaya's enumeration of the names of heroes for purposes of clear classified recognition (samjnartham) as stated in verse 7, i.e., to relate the contending parties to the sets of values which each represents.Contemplation  is  not different  from commonsense in its keen sense of the actual. Lazy indifference to actuality is not the kind of mysticism upheld in the Gita. This secondary device underlines the need for seeing things as they actually are before the contemplative life is recommended, so that no escapism may be implied in the teaching. This attitude is further evident in the qualification “ expert”  (daksha) as applied to a yogi in XII, 16, which is again found in XVIII, 43, included among the virtues of a true fighter.
Verses 13 to 20 describe the actualities of the war situation again as  seen by  Sanjaya  according  to  curtain  device  No.1 . Verses 21 to 28 continue curtain device No.1, and when curtain device No. 2 is revealed in the middle of verse 28 it continues to the end of the chapter.

At the end of this section Arjuna attains to a state of intransigence rather than  the state of pity with which he began. He throws away the bow and arrow instead of merely letting the bow slip from his hands (verse 30). The feeling of pity which was vague is backed by a definite attitude which leads into the maturely formulated  dilemma, to ripen further into the dialectically formulated doubt brought out in the next chapter. Only after all these stages does Arjuna become qualified, according to the secret scheme of the author, to call himself a disciple of the Guru Krishna. This chapter, therefore, is meant to indicate the nature of Arjuna's spiritual agony which, by the end of the chapter, attains the status of a religious conflict based on sin. Arjuna's scruples are vague, but they still have the strength and virility of a representative sceptic of his time. As the anterior prerequisite for the whole teaching to follow, Arjuna's conflict deserves to be treated as a Yoga.Chapter II : Unitive Reasoning (Samkhya-Yoga): The Sanjaya curtain device No. 1 opens with verse 1, but in verse 2 the  second curtain device appears where the dialogue between the charioteer Krishna and the friend is given. This continues up to verse 9 where the first curtain drops for a moment, to be raised again in verse 11. Arjuna has now been able to formulate his doubt properly to form the anterior sceptic's

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position which Krishna begins to answer seriously. The actual teaching of the Gita pertains to wisdom from this point. Practical wisdom is added on after chapter IX only. What is most significant here is that Krishna gains the full status of a Guru after the discipleship of Arjuna has been expressed by him in verse 7. Arjuna's doubt is given the same rank as that of a Nachiketas or a Svetaketu of the Upanishads. Curtain device No.3 is thus revealed from verse 11.
In passing we should particularly note verse 39 where there is a change over from the two sections of this chapter, from the first part called Samkhya-buddhi (Rationalism revalued) to the second part, called Yoga-buddhi (Unitive discipline) in most commentaries but which is one of vital importance to the understanding of the method and teaching of the Gita. Although internally divided into these two sections, the title Samkhya-Yoga (Unitive Reasoning) is justified. Samkhya (Rationalism) when treated unitively attains the status of a yoga, and Buddhi (Pure Reason) when employed to reconcile counterparts also attains the same Yoga status. That Samkhya and Yoga are the same has been plainly stated in V, 4 and 5:
“That Samkhya (Rationalism) and Yoga (Unitive Self-discipline) are distinct, only children say, not the well-informed (pandits); one well-established in any one of them obtains the result of both”.  “That status attained by men of Samkhya (rationalist persuasion) is reached also by those of the Yoga (Unitive Self-disciplined persuasions Samkhya and Yoga as one - he who thus sees, he (alone) sees” .
Chapter III : The Unitive Way of Action (Karma-Yoga):
From  this  chapter  to XI,  9,  curtain  device  No.1  is abandoned.
This is to indicate that it is idealistic, perceptual  or conceptual aspects of wisdom alone, as opposed to practical, objective or actual features of reality, that have been included within these limits. This chapter treats of  “Necessity”, in the form of an urge to action in life, prompted by desire, as a negative yet imperative or eternal value in human life. Verse 41 refers to desire as the enemy. A person under the sway of desire is condemned at the end of chapter XVI. In that chapter as here, desire is named as the enemy. Here it is to be fought by Arjuna within his own nature; there, in chapter XVI the man

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of desire is to be punished by an  angry god, representing the Absolute conceived dualistically. In that later chapter the corrective principle is spoken of as an outside factor, while it resides, though also dualistically, within the nature of Arjuna himself, in chapter III. The explanation of this difference will be clearer as we examine the other chapters where the author's architectural design becomes manifest. Here meanwhile, action is raised to the status of a supreme Necessity, as in its symmetrically placed counterpart, chapter XVI.
Chapter IV:. Unitive Wisdom (Jnana-Yoga): This chapter belongs to  curtain device No.3. Whereas the last chapter gave primacy to action in the form of Necessity with a capital N, this chapter shows a complete turnabout by giving primacy to wisdom in its concluding verses. This apparent adoption of two opposing standpoints in two adjacent chapters will be explained when, in the next chapter, the unitively revalued attitude to Samkhya (Rationalism) and Yoga (Unitive Self-discipline) is stated in emphatic terms, as we quoted above, under Chapter XI.The wisdom referred to in this chapter is not plain knowledge arising out of reason in the logical sense, but a timeless or unitive wisdom belonging to the context of the Absolute. In the last verse it is disclosed that there is still a victory to be won by the wise man against his own ignorance. The actual enemy was subjectively referred to in Chapter III. Here the enemy has a more theoretical status. Actual fighting is not referred to at all, but a positive attitude is given to Arjuna to " stand firm in the unitive way (yoga) and stand up, 0 Bharata (Arjuna)! " in verse 42. Thus the call to actual warfare fades off into the background as the chapter-stones in the archway we have spoken of are placed nearer to the crowning keystone. Chapter V:  Unitive Action and Renunciation (Karma-Samnyasa-Yoga): Yoga as a practical discipline is all that is alluded to as action here. Supreme peace is the note on which this chapter ends. To obey Krishna. it is hardly necessary for Arjuna to stir from his posture of sitting.Chapter VI:  Unitive Contemplation (Dhyana-Yoga):  This chapter finally arrives at treating the subject of Yoga as a personal discipline. In verse 6: “ The Self is dear to one (possessed) of Self, by whom even the Self by the Self has been won, for one not (possessed)of Self, the Self would be in conflict with the very Self, as if an enemy “

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“ Earth, water, fire, air, sky, mind, reason also, and consciousness of individuality, thus here divided is my eight- fold nature.” “This is the non-transcendental (apara-immanent). Know the other to be My nature, which is transcendental, constituting life, 0 Mighty-Armed (Arjuna), by which the phenomenal world is sustained.” The mention of two selves implies giving equal and opposite status to the contingent and the necessary aspects of the personality. The avoidance of conflict between the actor and the action is the yoga here. Yoga is a unitive discipline wherein opposing tendencies in life are cancelled out in the neutrality of the Absolute. Verses 20 to 23, where happiness is stressed and disconnection is defined as Yoga, are a revaluation of the Yoga more dualistically treated by Patanjali and others. The question of any social duties does not even remotely arise here. Chapter VIII:  The Unitive Way of Wisdom-Synthesis (Jnana-Vijnana-Yoga):  The synthesis of subjective and objective attributes of the Absolute, without any trace of duality between them, is the peculiarity of this fully philosophical chapter. These aspects of the Absolute, distinguished as " higher and " lower " are referred to in verses  4 and  5:
The synthesis is clear from verse  24:
" Unreasoning persons consider Me as the unmanifest come to manifestation; not knowing My supreme (Value), unexpended, with no superior."
The subjects covered in this chapter are indicated in the last verse (30):
" Those who know Me, taking together what refers to existential (adhibhuta), hypostatic (adhidaiva) and sacrificial aspects (adhiyajna), they know Me in a unitive spirit, even at the time of their departure." The purely philosophical and non-social nature of the teaching of the Gita becomes more and more evident as we

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approach the central chapters. No bow and arrow or even “standing up " is required of Arjuna here:

Chapter VIII: The Unitive Way in General Spiritual Progress (Akshara-Brahma-Yoga): The fighting referred to in verse 7 of this chapter: " Therefore at all times remember Me and fight: when your mind and intelligence are surrendered to Me, you shall come to Me; (have)  no  doubt." has  been  made  a  secondary  matter  to  the contemplation of the Absolute. Some vestige of the necessary aspects of life might still cling to a person who might have attained to the wisdom of the Absolute. Such a vestigial factor makes the path of the aspirant tend to the dark or bright ways mentioned in verse 26:
" These, the white and the black, are known to be in this world the twin perennial paths; by one of them one attains to non-return, while by the other one comes back."
Yet, in spite of this reference to two paths leading to worlds dark or bright, this chapter is a purely spiritually conceived one, leading to unitive values in the next two chapters. But before coming to them, this chapter answers many theoretical questions synthetically.
Chapter IX: Unitive Contemplation as a Royal Science and Crowning Secret (Raja-Vidya-Raja-Guhya-Yoga) : The pure, neutral and impersonal Absolute to be thought of as the highest of Values in spiritual or contemplative life is clearly evident from verses 4 and 5:
This should be read with verse 11 in the first instance:
" The foolish misunderstand Me because of My adopting the human form, ignorant as they are of My being that is beyond, as the Lord of all beings."

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and with the series of verses from verse 13 to 19:
 “But those of Great Self, 0 Partha (Arjuna), affiliated to My divine nature, adore with mind exclusive of all extraneous interests, having known Me as the Unexpended Primal Source of all beings." Always singing praises of Me, ever striving, firm in vows and saluting Me devotedly, they are ever united in worshipful attendance." Others also, sacrificing with the wisdom-sacrifice, unitively, dualistically, as also in many ways facing universally everywhere, worshipfully attend on Me.    “ I the ritual action, I the sacrifice, I the ancestral oblation, I the potent medicinal herb, I the holy formula, I also the melted butter, I the fire, I the offering.
" I the Father of this world, the Mother, the Supporter, and the Grandsire (Ancestor), the Holy One that is to be known, the Purifier, the syllable AUM, as also the (Vedas called) Rik, Sama and Yajus." (I) the Goal, the Supporter, the Lord, the Witness, the Abode, the Refuge, the Friend, the Becoming, the Dissolution, and Ground of being, ontological Basis, and never- expended Seed." I radiate heat (and) I rain; I withhold and I send forth; I am immortality and death, as also being and non-being, 0 Arjuna." This series enumerates all possible contemplative values, ending with that neutral Absolute which is both existing and non-existing (sat and asat). Not only is the Absolute free from all taint of action, but the status of the worshipper and the worshipped here becomes equal, as verse 29 puts it:
" I (regard) all beings equally: To Me there is none hateful or dear. They however who worship with devotion, they are in Me and I too am in them."
There is a note of hope for all irrespective of any conduct   or class of society as stated in verses 30 and 31:

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" Even if one of very evil actions should worship Me with a devotion exclusive of all else, he should be accounted to be good all the same merely by the fact that he has a properly settled determination. " Instantaneously he becomes established in his own right nature and enters into eternal peace. Believe Me in all confidence, 0 Son of Kunti  (Arjuna)  that  one  affiliated  to  Me  with  fidelity  knows no destruction."
Social obligations are declared to be not binding on anybody at all in the next verse (32):
" They too who resort to Me for refuge, 0 Partha (Arjuna), whoever they might be, (whether) women, workers (shudras), as well as farmer-merchants (vaishyas), (all) of sinful origin, they too attain to the supreme Goal ".
Verse 34 gives that secret code indication that the first half of the discussion of contemplative wisdom is over. A scanning of the items of values implied in verses 16 to 19 inclusive (given above) will, however, reveal that more objective or positive values are reserved for the next chapter, where the specialized aspects of the Absolute overtly intruding into the visible world of values (though only partially representative of the Absolute universal Principle) are enumerated. This chapter may thus be considered " negative-subjective " compared with the next chapter which becomes " positive-objective "  The later chapters maintain this positive character to a greater and greater degree. Chapter X:  The Unitive Recognition of Positive Values (Vibhuti-Yoga):  We have now passed the zenith of the teaching of the Gita. Here objective values of the nature of presences or numinous factors still of a contemplative rather than of a public or socialized order are enumerated first. Verses 4 and 5 have the complete series of the innermost of contemplative values which could also be virtues:
"Reason, wisdom, non-delusion, patience, truth, self- restraint, calmness, pleasure-pain, becoming and  non- becoming, sense of danger-security.
" Non-hurting, balance, contentment, austerity, benevolence, fame-shame, are the various distinct attitudes arising from Me alone.

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The overt aspects of the contemplative presences are enumerated in the latter half of the chapter. The Absolute has an urge, a force of becoming, exerting its pressure on the flux of life. This creative becoming in its most potent expression has three grades which are called “having specific character (vibhutimat)”, “having value here and now (shrimat)” and “expressing a radical stability (urjitam)”. This last-named aspect of the Absolute, which emerges again in XIV, 27, is the foundation aspect from which the notions of justice and duty have their source.
Chapter XI: . The Unitive Vision of the Absolute (Vishvarupa–Darshana-Yoga): Leaving the "objective"  behind, a bolder, yet positively objective vision of the Absolute is given in three different sub-sections in this chapter. There is the Sanjaya version of Arjuna's vision which belongs to curtain device No. 1, and there is also the vision as seen by Arjuna which belongs to curtain device No. 2, and there is the vision as explained by Krishna which belongs to curtain device No.3 or the wisdom-discourse proper, the samvada. Arjuna's request for a vision of a theological deity (in the relativist context of Sanjaya’s conventional device No. 1 ) is significantly not granted by Krishna. He prefers to assume his ordinary form after discarding the vision aspect, thus ruling out a theistic god from the Gita teaching altogether. Arjuna himself wavers between the status of a contemplative disciple and that of a mere friend of Krishna as revealed in verse 41.
What we should by no means fail to notice in this chapter is that the author goes out of his way to introduce curtain device No. 1 in referring to the terrible and destructive aspect of the Absolute. It is the actual warfare that is terrible and not the idea of it. When Krishna refers to himself as representing time, it is not pure Time that is meant, but actual time, like that kept by a ticking clock. Actual time is filled with terrible events which need not at all terrify a wise man who is capable of looking at the same Time in a more conceptual or purer manner.When Krishna refers to himself as engaged in the destruction of the people it is the actuality of war that is portrayed in a lively and imaginative manner. Arjuna is asked to be only the incidental outward cause of the killing. Because even this encouragement to incidental or pretended fighting as seen in verse 30 belongs only to the Sanjaya or curtain device No. I, it need not be taken as belonging to the serious