Generation after generation, this yoga passed through the hands of royal sages. They lived by it, ruled by it, and handed it forward. But time has a way of wearing things down. A story retold a thousand times starts to shift. A teaching passed across centuries can fade like writing on old cloth.
Krishna acknowledges something honest here: even the finest knowledge can be lost if it is not carefully preserved. The chain broke. The yoga that once guided kings and sages became dim and forgotten on this earth.
This is precisely why Krishna is speaking now. He is not offering Arjuna a new philosophy. He is restoring something ancient that the world forgot. The teaching survives not because of human effort alone, but because the original teacher — Krishna himself — chooses to speak it again.