55. Rāmānuja: Commentary on the Bhagavadgītā - Veṅkaṭanātha: Shedding Light on the Contextual Meaning of the Bhagavadgītā
A Sourcebook in Global Philosophy - Mohammed Rustom
Elisa Freschi [+]
University of Toronto
Description
The Bhagavadgītā is a key text of Sanskrit philosophy. All schools of Vedānta commented on it. The Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta school focuses especially on verse 66, called the “Ultimate Verse”. The verse is presented as being uttered by God Himself to Arjuna, and is the center of an elaborate philosophical reflection around soteriology and the autonomy of human action. In this entry, I translate the Ultimate Verse, its commentary by Rāmānuja (12th c. CE), and last extracts of the sub-commentary on Rāmānuja's commentary by Veṅkaṭanātha (14th c.). This sequence of texts provides one with a golden opportunity to think about the commentarial nature of philosophy in the Sanskrit cosmopolis, where important philosophical points were introduced while commenting upon a previous text. For instance, Veṅkaṭanātha introduces in a soteriological discussion reflections on autonomous action and its impossibility for human beings, as well as the topic of deontics. He explains how an “ought” entails a “can,” discussing the relation between obligations and one’s eligibility with regard to the enjoined acts. The main soteriological teaching in the Ultimate Verse and its commentaries is the idea that salvation is achieved through surrender to God. Surrendering means abandoning one’s ambition to be an autonomous agent and recognizing one’s dependency upon God.