Text III
Transcendental Knowledge
១15
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 ikṣvākunā ca kathito vyāpya lokān avasthitāh
“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 Ikṣvāku, 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  Gītā , 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 , super-human. 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.