Knowledge Through Disciplic Succession 51
methods. He must understand it as prescribed in
Bhagavad-gita itself, by understanding it as Arjuna
understood it. If we wish to understand Bhagavad-
gita in a different way, or give an individual inter-
pretation, that may be an exhibition of our scholar-
ship, but it is not Bhagavad-gita.

By scholarship we may be able to manufacture
some theory of Bhagavad-gita, just as Mahatma
Gandhi did when he interpreted Bhagavad-gita in an
effort to support his theory of nonviolence. How is it
possible to prove nonviolence from Bhagavad-gita?
The very theme of Bhagavad-gita involves Arjuna’s
reluctance to fight and Krsna’s inducing him to kill
his opponents. In fact, Krsna tells Arjuna that the
battle had already been decided by the Supreme, that
the people who were assembled on the battlefield
were predestined never to return. It was Krsna’s
program that the warriors were all destined to die,
and Krsna gave Arjuna the opportunity of taking
the credit of conquering them. If fighting is pro-
claimed a necessity in Bhagavad-gita, how is it possible
to prove nonviolence from it? Such interpretations
are attempts to distort Bhagavad-gita. As soon as the
Gita is interpreted according to the motive of an in-
dividual, the purpose is lost. It is stated that we can-
not attain the conclusion of the Vedic literature by
the force of our own logic or argument. There are
many things which do not come within the juris-
diction of our sense of logic. As far as scriptures
are concerned, we find different scriptures describ-
ing the Absolute Truth in different ways. If we
analyze all of them, there will be bewilderment.
