Swami Vivekananda’s Thoughts on the Gita -Sir Edwin Arnold

If we study the Upanishads, we notice the sudden introduction of the discussion of a great truth. Compared with that, the Gita is like these truths beautifully arranged together in their proper places––like a fine garland or a bouquet of the choicest flowers. The Upanishads deal elaborately with Shraddha in many places, but hardly mention Bhakti. In the Gita, on the other hand, the subject of Bhakti is not only again and again dealt with, but in it, the innate spirit of Bhakti has attained its culmination.

Wherein lies the originality of the Gita which distinguishes it from all preceding scriptures? It is this: Though before its advent, Yoga, Jnana, Bhakti, etc., had each its strong adherents, they all quarreled among themselves, each claiming superiority for his own chosen path; no one ever tried to seek for reconciliation among these different paths. It was the author of the Gita who for the first time tried to harmonize these. He took the best from what all the sects then existing had to offer, and threaded them in the Gita.

The reconciliation of the different paths of Dharma, and work without desire or attachment—these are the two special characteristics of the Gita.

© "The Song Celestial" by Sir Edwin Arnold, published by Rajendra Publishing House Private Limited, 205, Neelam, Worli Sea Face Road, Mumbai 400 018. Reprinted with permission.

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