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The Philosophy of Bal Gangadhar Tilak: Karma vs. Jñāna in the Gītā Rahasya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

D. Mackenzie Brown
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Extract

Lokamanya Tilak (1856–1920) represents the full tide of ideological activity in the Indian Nationalist movement. Long overshadowed by his younger contemporary, Gandhi, his life and thought are only now, a third of a century after his death, receiving due recognition.

Prior to his entrance upon the political stage, Indian leadership afforded the spectacle of a rather polite debating society which accepted British ideals and values as almost axiomatic. Protests against government policies consisted of thoughtfully worded petitions calculated to appeal to the sense of reason and fair play of officials. Tilak saw little profit in such method, but his rivals in the Nationalist leadership, particularly G. K. Gokhale, were wedded to the traditions of British parliamentary procedure.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , February 1958 , pp. 197 - 206
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1958

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References

1 The centenary of Tilak's birth occurred in 1956 and no less than four book-length biographies were published during that year: The “authorized” biography of Tahmankar, D. V., Lokamanya Tilak: Father of Indian Unrest and Maker of Modern India (London, 1956)Google Scholar; Gopal, Ram, Lokamanya Tilak: A Biography (Bombay, 1956)Google Scholar; Karmarkar, D. P., Bal Gangadhar Tilak: A Study (Bombay, 1956)Google Scholar; Shay, Theodore L., The Legacy of the Lokamanya: The Political Philosophy of Bal Gangadhar Tilak (Bombay, 1956)Google Scholar. (Lokamanya: “revered by the people”).

2 Bhagavad Gītā, XVIII, 43.

3 Tilak, Bal Gangadhar, Śrīmad Bhagavadgītā Rahasya or Karma-Yoga-Śāstra (Poona, 1915)Google Scholar. The work went through several editions in the original Marāthī and was translated into Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Kanarese, Telugu, Tamil, and English. The English edition is a translation by B. S. Sukthankar, (Poona: Tilak Bros., 1935), 2 vols., and is hereafter referred to as Tilak. For a criticism of the English ed., see Franklin Edgerton's rev., JAOS, LVI (1936), 525–528. Tilak was recognized as an able Sanskritist by both Indian and Western scholars. Despite its great length, the Rahasya was written in a four-month period during the winter of 1910–11. The British authorities seized the manuscript and returned it to Tilak only after a government Marāthī expert had carefully examined it and declared it free of seditious passages. See Ram Gopal, pp. 342–346; D. P. Karmarkar, p. 198.

4 Tilak, I, xvi: “His masterwork commentary on the Gītā, is unsurpassed and will remain so for a long time to come.”

5 Bhagavadgītābhasya, VI, 3.

6 Ibid., IV, 21.

7 Tilak, I, 478–480. He cites Ṛgveda, X, 151; IX, 113; II, 12; and Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad, I, 2, 10.

8 Tilak, II, 701n. He cites as authority the Smriti texts in the Nirṇaya-Sindhu, Bk. III. The latter is the most famous of Kamalakara's works and is authoritatively dated A.D. 1612. It refers to about one hundred of the earlier Smritis. See Kane, P. V., History of Dharmaśāstra (Poona, 1930) I, 436–437Google Scholar.

9 Tilak, I, 479. He refers to Jaimini's Mīmāṁsā Sūtra, III, 4, 17–20.

10 Tilak, I, 480. As Tilak sees the Gītā message in his commentary on XVIII, 17, “abandonment, (or renunciation of actions) consists of performing all actions which befall a person on account of scriptural directions proper for his status in life, after he has given up egoism and the hope of fruit.” Tilak, II, 1182.

11 Gītābhasya, XVIII, 48.

12 One exception to this generalization is Tilak's rendering of Chap. II, verse 50. This key passage, which supports much of Tilak's argument is translated by him as follows: “He, who is steeped in the (equable) Reason remains untouched both by sin or merit in this (world); therefore, take shelter in Yoga. The cleverness (skilfulness or trick) of performing Action (without acquiring merit or sin) is known as (Karma-) Yoga” (italics mine). Rahasya II, 896–897. Śaṁkara's bhāṣya supports: “He, who has evenness of mind, rejects in this world both good and evil actions. Therefore strive for Yoga. In respect to actions, Yoga means welfare” (italics mine). Telang translates it: “He who has obtained devotion in this world casts off both merit and sin. Therefore apply yourself to devotion; devotion in (all) actions is wisdom.” Kashinath Trimbak Telang, The Bhagavadgītā with The Sanatsujātīya and The Anugītā, (Oxford, 1882) p. 49. See Edgerton's comment on this passage in his review (n. 3 above), p. 527; he rejects Tilak's rendering as indefensible and concludes: “... a clear perversion of the obvious meaning. Yet on this sandy foundation he bases a great deal of argumentative superstructure. “

13 “Tahmankar, pp. 328, 332; Gopal, pp. 342–346.

14 “Bhagavad Gītā, XVIII, 43.

15 Tilak, I, 511. “… it is admitted that the deletion of knowledge-full action from the world will result in the world becoming blind and being destroyed; and that even jñānins must desirelessly perform all the duties of worldly life, and so give to ordinary people a living example of a good and pure life, since it is the desire of the Blessed Lord that the world should not be so destroyed … ”

16 This theme is developed especially in Chap. XII of the Rahasya.

17 Among the articles involved were those in the Kesari entitled “The Country's Misfortune” and “These Remedies are not Lasting.” Without directly condoning violence, the editorials did give support to the revolutionaries and criticized the British for making violence inevitable by their repressive policies. The Kesari (Poona), May 3,1908.

18 Gokhale was the leader of the moderate wing of the Congress Party of India. For a brief sketch of his life, consult Hoyland, John S., Gopal Krishna Gokhale: His Life and Speeches (Calcutta, 1947)Google Scholar: Gandhi, M. K., Gokhale, My Political Guru (Ahmedabad, 1955)Google Scholar.

19 See Sarma, D. S., The Renaissance of Hinduism (Benares, 1944) pp. 142–145Google Scholar; Sitara-mayya, P., The History of the Indian National Congress (Bombay, 1935), I, 89–91Google Scholar.

20 Satyārtha Prakāśa, XI. For a commentary on his work see Sarma, pp. 164–193.

21 , Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (Almora, 1948), V, 353–359Google Scholar.

22 Roy, Anilbaran, ed., The Message of the Gita, as Interpreted by Sri Aurobindo (London, 1938), p. 48Google Scholar.

23 Ghose, Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, 1st Ser. (Calcutta, 1926), p. 46Google Scholar.

24 Desai, Mahadev, ed., The Gospel of Selfless Action or the Gita According to Gandhi (Ahmedabad, 1946), p. 174Google Scholar. Gandhi insists, “… the Gita will not tolerate complete cessation of all activity” (p. 130).

25 Concerning Gandhi's disagreement with those interpretations of the Gītā which support violence, see his Young India: 1924–1926 (New York, 1927), pp. 933–940Google Scholar.

26 Gandhi, p. 939.

27 See Bahirat, B. P., The Philosophy of Jnanadeva (Pandharpur, 1956), p. 55Google Scholar.

28 At least, as Jñānadeva sees it. Amṛtānubhava, IX, 29; Jñāneṡvarī, XVIII, 867. See Bahirat, p. 99.

29 Bahirat, p. 19.

30 For a commentary on the role of the Chitpāwan Brahmans in Indian politics, consult Sarma.

31 Speech of Feb., 1908. Quoted in Karmarkar, p. 165.

32 See Tahmankar, pp. 23–25.

33 See Karmarkar, pp. 43–44.

34 Quoted in Karmarkar, pp. 107–108.

35 Karmarkar, p. 55.

36 Actually, the Nationalists felt that they had virtually been excluded by the constitutional provisions forced through by the Reform wing of the party. See Sitaramayya, I, 96–98.

37 The Swadeshi movement was designed to encourage the production and consumption of Indian native goods in place of British imports.

38 Quoted in Karmarkar, p. 163.

39 Sarma, p. 143.

40 , Gandhi, Gandhi's Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth (Washington, 1948), p. 611Google Scholar. The coincidence of dates was not intentional, for Gandhi was already on his way to Bombay with plans to launch the non-cooperation movement. But, at least as early as January 2, 1907, in his famous Calcutta speech, Tilak had called for non-cooperation as a weapon against British rule in India. See Balagangadhar Tilak: His Writings and Speeches (Madras, 1908), p. 50Google Scholar.