The explanations that are to follow are not idle talk, or clever intellectual manifestations, springing from the fertile imagination of Shri Krishna. In the entire discourse, (in Chapter XIII itself) Krishna assures us that what He explains is only a healthy restatement of what “HAS BEEN SUNG BY THE RISHIS IN MANY WAYS, IN DIFFERENT HYMNS, SEVERALLY.” In short, the subject-matter dealt with here is the very theme which the Upanishads have indicated in their secret verses, especially so “in its passages about Brahman.”Why should we so readily accept these statements of the Rishis in the Upanishads except in a stunned admiration nurtured by our blind belief in them? Krishna points out that even if we had no great respect or reverence for the Rishis as such, we will have to accept their declarations because they are not intellectual dictations, or divine commandments, thrust upon the helpless laity by some winged angels assuming divine prerogative and claiming special sources of secret knowledge. This is the general attitude that poisons the scriptures of almost all other religions. As a contrast to them, our Upanisadic declarations are “FULL OF REASONING AND SO CONVINCING.”
When a truth is declared, along with logical reasoning, the conclusions arrived at are acceptable to any intelligent student by the sheer force of its appeal.
WHEN ARJUNA IS THUS PREPARED TO LISTEN ATTENTIVELY TO THE DISCOURSE OF THE “FIELD” AND ITS “KNOWER,” THE LORD SAYS:
