[Advaita-l] Anubanda Chatushtaya of Gita

[jaldhar at braincells.com]

On Sat, 26 Apr 2025, Sangeerth P via Advaita-l wrote:

> My doubt is generally these has to be told at the beginning of the text
> right? Why are it told in the middle? I was even able to find one from
> BG-2-11 अशोच्यानन्वशोचस्त्वं प्रज्ञावादांश्च भाषसे । गतासूनगतासूंश्च
> नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिताः
>
>   1. Adhikari: Pandit(one who has Panda(jnana))
>   2. Vishaya: ?
>   3. Prayojana: नानुशोचन्ति
>   4. Sambhanda:?
>
> First of all my doubt is can this sloka be considered as the one telling
> the Anubanda Chatushtaya? If yes, what would be the vishaya and sambandha?
> What are the other slokas in Gita which talks about this? And can someone
> explain more about Sambhanda part. I need some more clarity on this. Any
> citations done by Acharyas would be of great help.

In terms of literary genre the Gita as part of the Mahabharata is a katha 
or akhyana. The Gita as shastra is interpreted on top of the Gita as 
narrative.  So you can't expect it to follow exactly the same form as a 
text like e.g. tarkasangraha or vedantaparibhasha purposely written as a 
shastra.  Each of the acharyas has interpreted this in a slightly 
different way.  For instance Shankaracharya ignores the entire 	1st 
adhyaya because it is purely narrative.

For Shankaracharya, a relevant comment in my opinion is from the end of 
his introduction where he says:

इमं द्विप्रकारं धर्मं निःश्रेयसप्रयोजनम् , परमार्थतत्त्वं च वासुदेवाख्यं परं ब्रह्माभिधेयभूतं 
विशेषतः अभिव्यञ्जयत् विशिष्टप्रयोजनसम्बन्धाभिधेयवद्गीताशास्त्रम् । यतः तदर्थविज्ञाने 
समस्तपुरुषार्थसिद्धिः, अतः तद्विवरणे यत्नः क्रियते मया ॥

"The gItAshAstra describes this twofold dharma[1], which is the purpose of 
the highest good, and the supreme essence of the ultimate goal, which is 
the paraM brahma, named vAsudeva, as the meaning of the specific purpose 
and relationship[2]. Because knowing the meaning of that is the 
fulfillment of the purpose of all human beings.[3] I have endeavored to 
explain it."

[1] pravR^ittimArga (path of karma) and nivR^ittimArga (path of vairAgya)

[2] Note the words are vishiShTa prayojana sambandha

[3] All human beings are the adhikAris for reading gItA.  However, those
who possess the qualities such as shama, dama etc. will benefit more. 
Shankaracharya notes that Arjuna was only a madhyama adhikari because he 
was riddled by doubt and so on.  Yet by BhagavAns kR^ipA, the gItA was 
spokent to him alone.


-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>