ABSTRACT
The usual way of teaching a subject is to build up information to higher and higher levels, each resting on the lower ones, which cannot be dispensed with. It could be called Teaching Up.
But there is another method, Teaching Down, for cases where the final knowledge is already there but not recognized. The method is used extensively in the Glta, and by Sailkara following the Glta. In the Glta as a whole, first the highest truth of the Self is presented. It is not accepted by Arjuna (as is shown in IV. 4 when he queries the immortality of the Self). Now karma-yoga is given, in very uncompromising form. It has three main elements: (1) enduring patiently the pairs of opposites; (2) performing well directed skilful actions with evenness of mind in success or failure; (3) bringing the mind to complete one-pointedness in samadhi meditation. The whole programme is set out in Chapters II and III. Nothing is said here about devotion to the Lord.
