[Advaita-l] Bhagawat Gita an obscure text?

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On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 8:24 PM, Suresh <mayavaadi at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Is it true that the Gita was an insignificant text until Adi Sankar
> commented on it?
>

No.
Moreover, what does the word 'insignificant' mean ?
'Not read by many' or 'not containing anything useful'.
If first, then please note that number of idiots in this world never comes
down and those who pass their times reading novels and magazines is quite
high. I mean to say number of readers is not something that decides value
of a book. And, the value of book is same if someone comments it or not,
because the value of a book depends on the subject which is propounded by
it.
If second, then go and read the bhagavadgItA first - is our advise. Those
who have read it know that it contains many things. It's not that
bhagavatpAda came and filled bhagavadgItA with useful things or values.
So, in no way it was or is insignificant.
If you just meant that bhagavatpAda increased it's readership, then it may
be so. But, who knows. There is no statistics available. Just doubting and
imagining is of no use.

 There aren't many commentaries on it prior to his, probably because no
> saint or scholar thought it worth his time.
>

This probably shows that you are guessing and have no solid proof.
To show another cause of unavailability of older commentaries to you or me,
let me say that there is no rule that all written commentaries of a book
remain available of infinite time. So, it is also possible that those older
commentaries were not preserved well. Hum !!
No need to imagine that those were not created. Doubt always and
everything. But, why doubt to blame traditional assumptions then !!


>  But once Sankar wrote his commentary, it has almost become a tradition
> for every school to write one. Today Gita and Hinduism have become
> synonymous.
>

God knows about your capacity of past-viewing. You see these things so
vividly !!


> My question, however, is, why would Sankar choose such an insignificant
> text when the Upanishads were much more respected and valued?
>

First of all, all of us have free-will. So, he created bhAShya because he
was free.
Why not he created bhAShya-s of upaniShad-s only ?
Same free-will.


> If he had to, why not something else (like yoga vasista or something with
> a more advaitic tilt)?
>

Free-will !!

Compare his free-will and capacity to choose and like to yours. There is
nothing hidden.