[Advaita-l] Bhagavad GIta - 745 Verses

[V Subrahmanian]

In the 13th chapter, the opening verse for which there is the
Shankara-bhashya is:

shrI bhagavAnuvAcha...idam sharIram kaunteya...

But there is said to be a verse preceding this, in the form of a question
by Arjuna:

arjuna uvAcha - prakRtim purSham chaiva kshetram kshetrajnameva cha.
etadveditumicchaami jnAnam jneyam ca keshava.

The cahukhambaa edition gives this verse in the footnote and says: some
take this verse as part of this chapter.  But since Shankara has not
commented upon this verse, it is to be seen as not authentic and therefore
to be ignored.

But then we have the entire first chapter and the first ten verses of the
second chapter of the gita not commented by Shankara and commented  by
others of the Advaita sampradaya. In fact Anandagiri and Dhanapati suri who
have commented on the bhashya, write on these verses independently.
Madhusudana Saraswati too has commented on these verses.

The purported 13th chapter first verse, of course, has not been commented
upon by these Acharyas too.  I have heard Swami Paramarthananda mentioning
this verse and giving out the meaning too, before going into the popular
first verse of the 13th chapter.  He says, when we include that verse, we
find the 13th chapter in perspective.

regards
subrahmanian.v