4.2 And then it broke Krishna speaks
एवं परम्पराप्राप्तमिमं राजर्षयो विदुः
स कालेनेह महता योगो नष्टः परन्तप
evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣhayo viduḥ
sa kāleneha mahatā yogo naṣhṭaḥ parantapa
So it was received, handed from one to the next, and the royal sages knew it. But with the long passage of time, that yoga was lost in this world.
Explanation
And then it admits the chain broke.
sa kāleneha mahatā yogo naṣṭaḥ — with the long passage of time, that yoga was lost in this world.
A text that has just established its own pedigree immediately says the pedigree failed. That is the reason it is being spoken again, and it is an unusually honest thing for a scripture to concede.
Going further
Word by word
- evam
- thus
- paramparā
- in a continuous tradition
- prāptam
- received
- imam
- this (science)
- rāja-ṛiṣhayaḥ
- the saintly kings
- viduḥ
- understood
- saḥ
- that
- kālena
- with the long passage of time
- iha
- in this world
- mahatā
- great
- yogaḥ
- the science of Yog
- naṣhṭaḥ
- lost
- parantapa
- Arjun, the scorcher of foes
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The chapter opens with a lineage — Vivasvan to Manu to Ikshvaku — and then admits it broke. Sa kāleneha mahatā yogo naṣhṭaḥ: with the long passage of time, that yoga was lost.
A text establishing its own authority does not usually concede a gap in the chain. This one does, in its second verse. Whatever else the Gita is doing here, it is not pretending the transmission was unbroken.