Introduction left untouched. In the GS, Ag. is inconveniently very brief in many places and very seldom he elaborates his points. Often he is very vague and at times quite consciously he writes in a cryptic man- ner. Yet, he feels sorry that he has disclosed too much of the ideas of the hidden tradition. He also tells us openly that the secret ideas he gives will be elear only to those who are initiated in the tradition of the Saiva School, and to others the top secret given in the GS would be like sky-pictures. busti bas sad sham nood Yet, a very careful study of the GS, with the help of Ag.'s other works, like Tantraloka, Paramartha- sara, Isuarapratyabhijñāvimarsini etc. would convince an impartial, but sympathetic reader, of this fact : Ag, has fairly succeeded in reading and bringing out these ideas of his Saiva School in the BG. Attempts have been made in a humble way both in the Tippant in pt. I and in the Notes in pt. II to eluci- date this point. 766 Som of brod si Xxx111 After thus surveying briefly the contents of the GS, one may be naturally tempted to attempt a comparative study of Ag. and Sankarācārya on the basis of their respective commentaries on the BG. For, Sankara's Gitabhasya is the most well-known commentary of the pre-Ag. period. We have noted earlier that Ag. might have been well aware of Sankara's bhasya. Moreover Ag. occupies as much an important place in the Saiva tradition as CALORE 1. See e.g. ch. III, 14-15; IV, 18, 24; VII, 24-27; XVII, 23-27. 2. Ch. IV, 24, 29-31. Gita-5
