Rishibhir Bahudha Gitam

Krishna establishes a lineage for what he is about to teach. This knowledge is not new, he says. Sages have sung it in many ways. Different Vedic hymns have expressed it. And the Brahma Sutras — those carefully reasoned aphorisms — have established it conclusively.

There is comfort in this. Like a grandmother saying, 'This is not something I just made up. Our elders said the same thing. It has been tested across generations.' Krishna reassures Arjuna that the teaching ahead rests on ancient, well-examined ground.

This verse mentions the Brahma Sutras, which are the systematic, logic-based exposition of Vedanta. In tradition, the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and the Brahma Sutras together form the 'Prasthanatrayi' — the three foundational texts of Vedanta.

In the Gita Press edition, this is the fifth shloka. It establishes that the description ahead is not one person's invention but the distilled essence of an entire tradition.