SYNONYMS
śrī bhagavān uvāca—the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; imam—this; vivasvate—unto the sun-god; yogam—the science of one’s relationship to the Supreme; proktavān—instructed; aham—I; avyayam—imperishable; vivasvān—Vivasvān (the sun-god’s name); manave—unto the father of mankind (of the name Vaivasvata); prāha—told; manuḥ—the father of mankind; ikṣvākave—unto King Ikṣvāku; abravīt—said.
TRANSLATION
The Blessed Lord said: I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun-god, Vivasvān, and Vivasvān instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Ikṣvāku.
PURPORT
Herein we find the history of the Bhagavad-gītā traced from a remote time when it was delivered to the royal order, the kings of all planets. This science is especially meant for the protection of the inhabitants and therefore the royal order should understand it in order to be able to rule the citizens and protect them from the material bondage to lust. Human life is meant for cultivation of spiritual knowledge, in eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the executive heads of all states and all planets are obliged to impart this lesson to the citizens by education, culture and devotion. In other words, the executive heads of all states are intended to spread the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that the people may take advantage of this great science and pursue a successful path, utilizing the opportunity of the human form of life.
In this millennium, the sun-god is known as Vivasvān, the king of the sun, which is the origin of all planets within the solar system. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated:
yac-cakṣur eṣa savitā sakala-grahāṇāṁ
rājā samasta-sura-mūrttir aśeṣa-tejāḥ
yasyājñayā bhramati sambhṛta-kālacakro
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
“Let me worship,” Lord Brahmā said, “the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda [Kṛṣṇa], who is the original person and under whose order the sun, which is the king of all planets, is assuming immense power and heat. The sun represents the eye of the Lord and traverses its orbit in obedience to His order.”
The sun is the king of the planets, and the sun-god (at present of the name Vivasvān) rules the sun planet, which is controlling all other planets by supplying heat and light. He is rotating under the order of Kṛṣṇa, and Lord Kṛṣṇa originally made Vivasvān His first disciple to understand the science of Bhagavad-gītā. The Gītā is not, therefore, a speculative treatise for the insignificant mundane scholar but is a standard book of knowledge coming down from time immemorial. In the Mahābhārata (Śānti-parva 348.51-52) we can trace out the history of the Gītā as follows:
tretā-yugādau ca tato vivasvān manave dadau
manuś ca loka-bhṛty-arthaṁ sutāyekṣvākave dadau
ikṣvākuṇā ca kathito vyāpya lokān avasthitāḥ
“In the beginning of the Tretā-yuga [millennium] this science of the relationship with the Supreme was delivered by Vivasvān to Manu. Manu, being the father of mankind, gave it to his son Mahārāja Ikṣvāku, the King of this earth planet and forefather of the Raghu dynasty in which Lord Rāmacandra appeared. Therefore, Bhagavad-gītā existed in the human society from the time of Mahārāja Ikṣvāku.”
At the present moment we have just passed through five thousand years of the Kali-yuga, which lasts 432,000 years. Before this there was Dvāpara-yuga (800,000 years), and before that there was Tretā-yuga (1,200,000 years). Thus, some 2,005,000 years ago, Manu spoke the Bhagavad-gītā to his disciple and son Mahārāja lkṣvāku, the King of this planet earth. The age of the current Manu is calculated to last some 305,300,000 years, of which 120,400,000 have passed. Accepting that before the birth of Manu, the Gītā was spoken by the Lord to His disciple, the sun-god Vivasvān, a rough estimate is that the Gītā was spoken at least 120,400,000 years ago; and in human society it has been extant for two million years. It was respoken by the Lord again to Arjuna about five thousand years ago. That is the rough estimate of the history of the Gīta, according to the Gītā itself and according to the version of the speaker, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. It was spoken to the sun-god Vivasvān because he is also a kṣatriya and is the father of all kṣatriyas who are descendants of the sun-god, or the sūrya-vaṁśa kṣatriyas. Because Bhagavad-gītā is as good as the Vedas, being spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, this knowledge is apauruṣeya, superhuman. Since the Vedic instructions are accepted as they are, without human interpretation, the Gītā must therefore be accepted without mundane interpretation. The mundane wranglers may speculate on the Gītā in their own ways, but that is not Bhagavad-gītā as it is. Therefore, Bhagavad-gītā has to be accepted as it is, from the disciplic succession, and it is described herein that the Lord spoke to the sun-god, the sun-god spoke to his son Manu, and Manu spoke to his son Ikṣvāku.: https://prabhupadabooks.com/bg/4/1
· Srila Prabhupada explains when the gita was spoken
Ṛṣis and kings or the kings who were as good as the ṛṣis is the meaning of the word rājarṣaya, and, as such, every one, whether he was a householder or mendicant, knew Bhagavad-gītā before the battle of Kurukṣetra, or before the period of Mahābhārata, which is calculated to be at least five thousand years before, and as such, how it is hinted that the same knowledge was lost. That transcendental knowledge was lost because there must have been some mala fide interpretations of the knowledge, and such knowledge would do more harm than good to the people. It had to be repeated again by Śrī Kṛṣṇa before a bona fide king, and for this, Arjuna was selected at a critical moment because Śrī Kṛṣṇa acknowledged him to be not only a confidential friend, but also a bona fide devotee at the same time. We have to mark the words especially bhakto ‘si etc.
bhakto ‘si me sakhā ceti
rahasyaṁ hy etad uttamam
“Because you are My devotee as well as My friend and can therefore understand the transcendental mystery of this science.” [Bg. 4.3]
Śrī Kṛṣṇa had many friends and relatives at that time who might have been great scholars also, but He selected Arjuna as the bona fide person to grasp the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā only because Arjuna was a great devotee of the Lord. It may be concluded therefore that the principle of Bhagavad-gītā can be understood only by personalities like Arjuna, who was a completely surrendered soul to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and this knowledge (yoga) can be explained only by personalities like Śrī Kṛṣṇa (i. e. His bona fide devotees) or for the matter of that by the Personality of Godhead only.
Under such circumstances, the bona fide interpretations can be given only by those who follow the footprints of Arjuna, or, in other words, one who happens to come in the line of disciplic succession from Śrī Arjuna as it was formerly delivered from Vivasvān to Manu (and Ikṣvāku). That is the first condition of understanding Bhagavad-gītā. And, violations of this condition means breaking of the link of disciplic succession and thereby losing the real purpose of the great philosophy. Beside, Bhagavad-gītā is not a new thesis of speculative philosophy, but it is as old as the Sun is. Nobody can say what is the age of the Sun, neither can anybody calculate the age of Manu. According to authentic śāstras, the age of a Manu is 72 x 4,200,000 years. It is also understood that at the present moment, the Manu who has been referred to in the Bhagavad-gītā has been passing his age on the point of the 28th period, out of the above mentioned 72 periods of 4,200,000 years each, and because Manu was told by Vivasvān, it may be safely calculated that Bhagavad-gītā was spoken once before the battle of Kurukṣetra at least 197,600,000 one hundred ninety-seven million sixty hundreds of thousand years before.
[Page two.] A transcendental source of knowledge which was coming down in a chain of disciplic succession for millions of years before the battle of Kurukṣetra must have been studied by various scholars of the period, but still, we don’t find more than one edition or interpretation of the Bhagavad-gītā as represented by Śrī Arjuna; but during the last two hundred years, we have so many interpretations of Bhagavad-gītā by different speculators. This advancement of speculative activities by different mundaners without any reference to the chain of disciplic succession, are all mala fide interpretations, and spread of such mala fide knowledge on the so-called basis of the Great Book of Knowledge, will do more harm than good to the people.
Link to this page: https://prabhupadabooks.com/articles/17
· From the Bhagavad-gita we learn it was spoken by the sun god millions of years ago. We take this as authority
here is Vedic literature that gives proof of Lord Parasurama driving out the ksatriyas. We do not take these mundane histories as authority. Regarding the dating of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the Battle of Kuruksetra took place at the beginning of Kali yuga, and Kali yuga has passed more than 5,000 years. The Bhagavad-gita was also spoken at the beginning of the fight, so we take it as 5,000 years ago. From the Bhagavad-gita we learn it was spoken by the sun god millions of years ago. We take this as authority. If you don’t accept my authority, then I don’t accept your authority. That is the way of evidence, to accept the Srimad-Bhagavatam and the Vedic literature. The calculation is that the Kali yuga is 432,000 years, out of which we have passed 5,000 years. https://prabhupadabooks.com/letters/vrindaban/september/01/1975/bahu_rupa
· Gita is also Sruti
Regarding your philosophical question, if the Bhagavad gita is part of Mahabharata which is considered smrti, how can we claim Bhagavad gita to be GITOPANISAD, or one of the Upanisads which are sruti? Actually, because the Gita is spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead it is sruti. But people take it as smrti because it is part of the Mahabharata. We take it as sruti as far as we are concerned. The purport of sruti is to make one advanced in understanding the Absolute Truth. Here the Absolute Truth is explaining personally, therefore the Gita should be taken as sruti. But they take it as smrti because it is part of the Smriti (Mahabharata). In one sense it is both sruti and smrti. Link to this page: https://prabhupadabooks.com/letters/paris/june/14/1974/acyutananda
· This Bhagavad-gita is spoken by God Himself, and that is the best source of knowing about God
God cannot be understand by such ascending process of speculation. You can give a common example how God cannot be understood by ascending process. Take for example that there was one Mr. John who was the great-grandfather of the great-grandfather of George. So, if George wants to know about this Mr. John, his forefather, is it possible for him to know about Mr. John by speculation? He has to know about Mr. John by family history spoken by his father or grandfather. Similarly, God is the Supreme Father, so if anyone wants to know about God, he must try to understand Him through the history of creation. This is called Parampara system. This Bhagavad-gita is spoken by God Himself, and that is the best source of knowing about God. He cannot be known by our limited exercise of the senses. The difficulty of understanding God as person is that as soon as there is conception of person we think of God as a person like us. Therefore, in the Vedas, the personality of God is described in different ways which are distinct from our personalities.
https://prabhupadabooks.com/letters/los_angeles/april/24/1970/syamasundara
· So Krishna’s words are directly Bhagavad-gita, and words spoken about Krishna is the Srimad-Bhagavatam.
Lord Caitanya advised that everyone of the Indians should go outside and, carrying His order or following His footsteps, one should preach Krsnakatha. The Krsnakatha is Bhagavad-gita as well as Srimad-Bhagavatam. If you split the word Krsnakatha, then it becomes Krishna’s words or words spoken about Krishna. So Krishna’s words are directly Bhagavad-gita, and words spoken about Krishna is the Srimad-Bhagavatam. I think the Society to which you have referred in your letter under reply, namely Vishva Hindu Parishad, should take up this message of Lord Caitanya if they are actually serious about doing something for the Vedic culture which is known as Hindu culture.
Actually, there is no such word as “Hindu” in the Vedic literatures. The “Hindu” name was given by the Mohammedans with reference to the river Indus or Hindus, from Sindhu. So the Vedic culture is not for any sect of country, it is meant for the whole human society. In other words, Vedic culture is also known as Sanatana Dharma which means “eternal function of the eternal living entities.” Krishna is eternal, and we all living entities, being parts and parcels of Krishna, are also eternal. And the reciprocal exchange of love between the two eternals is called “eternal occupational duty” or Sanatana Dharma
https://prabhupadabooks.com/letters/los_angeles/march/13/1970/sriman_bankaji.
· Am I this body or I am something other than this body? That is self-realization. So that is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā
Indian man: Not the knowledge.
Prabhupāda: Then what is this? Self-realization, what it is?
Indian man: (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: That is knowledge, that is knowledge. Self-realization.
Indian man: This is, one part is true knowledge.
Prabhupāda: No, not, suppose self-realization, what I am, is it not?
Indian man: Yes.
Prabhupāda: So, what I am, then you have to study in this way, whether you are this body or you are something else. Is it not? So that is in the beginning of the Bhagavad-gītā explained, dehino ‘smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā [Bg. 2.13]. Find out this verse. This is self-realization. Bhagavad-gītā begins with self-realization, what I am. Am I this body or I am something other than this body? That is self-realization. So that is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā.
Indian man: Yes, he has spoken on Bhagavad-gītā also.
Prabhupāda: No, I mean to say, this self-realization, as you said, that “There are as many ways as there are students,” that is not scientific.
https://prabhupadabooks.com/conversations/1976/dec/with_indian_man/poona/december/22/1976
· Just like Bhagavad-gītā is śāstra because it is spoken by Kṛṣṇa, the supreme authority. Therefore, all the ācāryas, they accept it
Dr. Ramachandra: Tasmāc chāstraṁ pramāṇaṁ te…
Srila Prabhupāda: The śāstra means what is spoken by God and His representative. That’s all. That is śāstra. Unless Kṛṣṇa accepts śāstra, how He saying like that? Tasmāc chāstraṁ pramāṇaṁ te. Śāstra should be…
Dr. Ramachandra: Some śāstras must be existing before…
Srila Prabhupāda: Eh?
Dr. Ramachandra: Some śāstras after, existing before Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna.
Srila Prabhupāda: Śāstra? Śāstra means it is authorized. Just like Bhagavad-gītā is śāstra because it is spoken by Kṛṣṇa, the supreme authority. Therefore, all the ācāryas, they accept it. Still the ācārya-sampradāyas are there. Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, Viṣṇu Svāmī, Śaṅkara, they accept all this. And at the time of…
Guest (2): Do you accept the supremacy of the Vedas, veda-pramāṇam.
Srila Prabhupāda: Yes. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ [Bg. 15.15]. And if you do not understand Kṛṣṇa, then you do not know what is Veda. Your knowledge of Vedas will be accepted when you understand Kṛṣṇa. So, if you do not know what Kṛṣṇa, then what is the use of taking so much trouble to study Vedas? You do not know anything. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate [Bg. 7.19].
https://prabhupadabooks.com/conversations/1976/dec/press_conference/hyderabad/december/16/1976
· So, if you take an estimation of that period, it comes to forty million years ago.
Śrīla Prabhupāda: As far as we are concerned, it is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā. Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭam [Bg. 4.13]. The Bhagavad-gītā was spoken five thousand years ago, and in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, “This system of the Bhagavad-gītā was spoken by Me to the sun-god.” So, if you take an estimation of that period, it comes to forty million years ago. Can the European scholars trace back history five thousand years? Can they go back forty million years? We have evidence that this varṇāśrama system has been current at least five thousand years. The varṇāśrama system is also mentioned in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa (3.8.9). Varṇāśramācāravatā puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān. That is stated in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa. Varṇāśrama-dharma is not a phenomenon of a historical period calculated in the modern age. It is natural.
https://prabhupadabooks.com/ssr/6/spiritual_communism
· It has been calculated on the basis of archeological evidence that Kṛṣṇa spoke Bhagavad-gītā on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra more than five thousand years ago.
The phrase man-manā bhava mad-bhakto means “just be always conscious of Me.” This then is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa is repeatedly saying that we should worship Him, offer obeisances unto Him and then come to Him. Bhagavad-gītā clearly points to the absolute necessity of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and Bhagavad-gītā is accepted as the essence of the Upaniṣads. Even from the historical point of view, it has no comparison. It has been calculated on the basis of archeological evidence that Kṛṣṇa spoke Bhagavad-gītā on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra more than five thousand years ago. So, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, even from the historical point of view, is five thousand years old. Its philosophy is the oldest in the history of the world. If we wish to trace it even further back, we find that Śrī Kṛṣṇa spoke it earlier to the sun-god. Kṛṣṇa is eternal, and consciousness of Kṛṣṇa is also eternal. In this way Kṛṣṇa consciousness should be approached. It should not simply be considered a theory. https://prabhupadabooks.com/etkc/6
· One may say that Kṛṣṇa, according to Mahābhārata, lived 5,000 years ago, and this being the case, there is no possibility of His having spoken Bhagavad-gītā to the sun god so many millions of years before
Vedic knowledge is not a recent discovery. It is all old revealed knowledge. Kṛṣṇa refers to it as purātanaḥ, which means ancient. Kṛṣṇa says that millions of years before He spoke this yoga to the sun-god, and we do not know how many millions of years before that He spoke it to someone else. This knowledge is always being repeated, just as summer, autumn, winter and spring are repeated every year. Our fund of knowledge is very poor; we do not even know the history of this planet more than 5,000 years back, but the Vedic literatures give us histories extending millions of years ago. Just because we have no knowledge of what happened 3,000 years ago on this planet, we cannot conclude that there was no history then. Of course, one can disclaim the historical validity of Kṛṣṇa. One may say that Kṛṣṇa, according to Mahābhārata, lived 5,000 years ago, and this being the case, there is no possibility of His having spoken Bhagavad-gītā to the sun god so many millions of years before. If I said that I gave a speech on the sun some millions of years ago to the sun-god, people would say, “Swāmījī is speaking some nonsense.” But this is not the case with Kṛṣṇa, for He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Whether we believe that Kṛṣṇa spoke Bhagavad-gītā to the sun-god or not, this fact is being accepted by Arjuna. Arjuna accepted Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Lord, and therefore he knew that it was quite possible for Kṛṣṇa to have spoken to someone millions of years before. Although Arjuna personally accepts the statements of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, in order to clarify the situation for people who would come after him, he asks:
aparaṁ bhavato janma
paraṁ janma vivasvataḥ
katham etad vijānīyāṁ
tvam ādau proktavān iti
“The sun-god Vivasvān is senior by birth to You. How am I to understand that in the beginning You instructed this science to him?” (Bg. 4.4)
Actually, this is a very intelligent question, and Kṛṣṇa answers it in this way:
bahūni me vyatītāni
janmāni tava cārjuna
tāny ahaṁ veda sarvāṇi
na tvaṁ vettha parantapa
“Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy!” (Bg. 4.5) https://prabhupadabooks.com/rv/5
· Therefore, the Bhagavad-gītā is as worshipable as Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself, both being absolute. One who hears the Bhagavad-gītā “as is” actually hears the words directly from the lotus lips of the Lord
No one would care to read the Gītā if it had been spoken by a material man, and certainly Vyāsadeva would not have bothered to incorporate it into the history of the Mahābhārata. According to the above verses, Mahābhārata is the history of the ancient world, and Vyāsadeva is the writer of this great epic. The Bhagavad-gītā is identical with Kṛṣṇa; and because Kṛṣṇa is the Absolute Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and His words. Therefore, the Bhagavad-gītā is as worshipable as Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself, both being absolute. One who hears the Bhagavad-gītā “as is” actually hears the words directly from the lotus lips of the Lord. But unfortunate persons say that the Gītā is too antiquated for the modern man, who wants to find out God by speculation or meditation. https://prabhupadabooks.com/ssr/3/-2-
(compiled by Yasoda Nandana dasa)
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