[Advaita-l] Anugita bhasya

[jaldhar at braincells.com]

On Mon, 21 Jun 2021, Ven Balakrishnan via Advaita-l wrote:

>
> You mentioned Sankara’s bhasya on Anugita - do you know if this is 
> available in English, and where I can procure a copy?

I was going to direct you to "Bhagavadgita with Sanatsujatiya and Anugita" 
translated by Kashinath Tryambak Telang in The Sacred Books of the East 
volume 8, originally published in 1910.  But it looks like I've made a 
mistake.  As the Gita and Sanatsujatiya were translated according to the 
bhashyas of Shankaracharya, I assumed the same applied to the Anugita. 
But on rereading the introduction, it seems Telang has only used the 
commentaries (on the entire Mahabharata) by Nilakantha and Arjuna Mishra. 
Nilakantha I know is an Advaitin, I'm not sure about Arjuna Mishra.

This does not change very much though.  It is still the case that 
Shankaracharya knows about the Anugita, he considers it an authentic part 
of the Mahabharata and therefore he endorses its view that Arjuna is not a 
jnani.  Take this excerpt from the introduction the Bhagavadgitabhashya:

तस्य अस्य गीताशास्त्रस्य सङ्क्षेपतः प्रयोजनं परं निःश्रेयसं सहेतुकस्य संसारस्य अत्यन्तोपरमलक्षणम् 
। तच्च सर्वकर्मसंन्यासपूर्वकादात्मज्ञाननिष्ठारूपात् धर्मात् भवति । तथा इममेव गीतार्थं 
धर्ममुद्दिश्य भगवतैवोक्तम्  स हि धर्मः सुपर्याप्तो ब्रह्मणः पदवेदने  इति अनुगीतासु ।

"The aim of this Gita shastra is in brief, the supreme bliss whose source 
is the complete cessation of samsara and its cause. This comes from the 
dharma that consists of the solid establishment of atmajnana by means of 
the renunciation of all karma.  In reference to this dharma taught in the 
[Bhagavad] Gita, Bhagavan himself has said "That dharma which is enough to 
know the Parabrahman," in the Anugita.

That's a reference to the shloka I mentioned in my original post. The next 
two quotes are also from the Anugita.

And there is this from the bhashya on Brhadaranyakopanishad I.4.10

  तथा च स्मरणमनुगीतासु भगवतो व्यासस्य क्रियावद्भिर्हि कौन्तेय देवलोकः समावृतः । न 
चैतदिष्टं देवानां मर्त्यैरुपरिवर्तनम् इति ।

Here it is expressly stated that the Anugita is by Bhagavan Vyasa (i.e. 
part of the Mahabharata.)


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