Hari Om! I am copying excerpts from the Commentary by Gurudev. (It is present in some editions only):
We find in the Gita all the known paths to perfection sketched out in the Vedas namely, jnana, bhakti and karma, by which realisation of the Upanishads is reached when one has fully purified oneself by the pursuit of ritualism, karma-kanda, and has spent a period of time in living the upasana-kanda. People believed that these three are irreconcilable factors, and so many schools rose up and each started quarrelling with all the others. This was the chaotic condition in which Vyasa found Hinduism, during the pauranika age. In the Gita he has tried to find for the Aryan children of the Vedas reconciliation and a synthesis in which all can walk hand in hand.
Many are the modern reviewers of the Gita who fail to realise this idea and claim, as in Gita Rahasya, that "jnana accompanied by bhakti and dominated by karma is the Gita way for Perfection". Others say, "bhakti is the most emphatic creed in the Gita teachings". There are still others who say that jnana alone is the theme and that the Gita is an exclusive textbook for sannyasins. In fact, all these are explained in the Gita and much more- the synthesis of them all, as indicated in the body of Gita- chap. 2
We find in the Gita all the known paths to perfection sketched out in the Vedas namely, jnana, bhakti and karma, by which realisation of the Upanishads is reached when one has fully purified oneself by the pursuit of ritualism, karma-kanda, and has spent a period of time in living the upasana-kanda. People believed that these three are irreconcilable factors, and so many schools rose up and each started quarrelling with all the others. This was the chaotic condition in which Vyasa found Hinduism, during the pauranika age. In the Gita he has tried to find for the Aryan children of the Vedas reconciliation and a synthesis in which all can walk hand in hand.
Many are the modern reviewers of the Gita who fail to realise this idea and claim, as in Gita Rahasya, that "jnana accompanied by bhakti and dominated by karma is the Gita way for Perfection". Others say, "bhakti is the most emphatic creed in the Gita teachings". There are still others who say that jnana alone is the theme and that the Gita is an exclusive textbook for sannyasins. In fact, all these are explained in the Gita and much more- the synthesis of them all, as indicated in the body of Gita- chap. 2
