358 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
“Despite its occasional power and music exaltation, the Divine song in its present state as a poetical production is unsatisfactory. The same thing is said over again, and the contradictions in phraseology and in meaning are as numerous as the repetitions, so that one is not surprised to find it described as “the wonderful song, which causes the hair to stand on end.”
Holtzman [1] says:
“We have before us (in the Bhagvat Gita) a Vishnuite revision of a pantheistic poem.”
Garbe [2] observes:
“The whole character of the poem in its design and execution is preponderatingly theistic. A personal God Krishna stands forth in the form of a human hero, expounds his doctrine, enjoins, above all things, on his listener, along with the performance of his duties, loving faith in Him and self-surrender:…… And by the side of this God—(who is) delineated as personally as possible, and who dominates the whole poem—stands out frequently the impersonal neutral Brahman, the Absolute, as the highest principle. At one time Krishna says that He is the sole Highest God who has created the world and all beings and rules over it all; at another time, he expounds the Vedantic doctrine of Brahman and maya— the Cosmic Illusion, and expounds as the highest goal of human being that he be freed from the World-Illusion and become Brahman. These two doctrines—the theistic and the pantheistic—are mixed up with each other, and follow each other, sometimes quite unconnected and sometimes loosely connected. And it is not the case that the one is represented as a lower, exoteric, (Text p. 9) and, (p. ) as the higher esoteric doctrine. It is nowhere taught that the Theism is a preliminary step to the knowledge of the reality or that it is its symbol, and that the pantheism of the Vedanta is the (ultimate) reality itself; but the two beliefs are treated of almost throughout as though there was indeed no difference between them, either verbal or real.”
Mr. Telang says: [3]
“There are several passages in the Gita which it is not very easy to reconcile with one another; and no attempt is made to harmonise them. Thus, for example, in stanza 16 of Chapter VII, Krishna divides his devotees into four classes, one of which consists of ‘men of knowledge’, whom, Krishna says, he considers ‘as his own self. It would probably be difficult to imagine any expression which
1 Quoted by Garbe.
2 Introduction to Bhagvat Gita.
3 Bhagvat Gita (S.E.B.) Introduction p. II.