48 Raja-vidya: The King of Knowledge

are composed of fire. Of all beings on the sun, the
principal personality is a god by the name of
Vivasvan. He is known as the sun-god (siirya-
narayana). On all planets there are principal person-
alities, just as in the United States the chief person
is the President. From the history called the
Mahabharata we understand that formerly there was
only one king on this planet by the name of
Maharaja Bharata. He ruled some 5,000 years ago,
and the planet was named after him. Subsequently
the earth has become divided into so many different
countries. In this way there is usually one and some-
times many controllers of the various planets in the
universe,

From this first verse of the Fourth Chapter we
learn that millions of years ago Sri Krsna imparted
the knowledge of karma-yoga to the sun god
Vivasvan. Sri Krsna, who imparts the teachings of
Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna, here indicates that these
teachings are not at all new but were enunciated
many ages ago on a different planet. Vivasvan, in his
turn, repeated these teachings to his son, Manu. In
turn, Manu imparted the knowledge to his disciple
Iksvaku. Maharaja Iksvaku was a great king and
forefather of Lord Ramacandra. The point being
made here is that if one wants to learn Bhagavad-gita
and profit by it, there is a process for understanding
it, and that process is described here. It is not that
Krsna is speaking Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna for the
first time. It is estimated by Vedic authorities that
the Lord imparted these divine instructions to
Vivasvan some 400 million years ago. From the
