The Bhagavad Gita

I enjoyed this book, but even though it is intended as a simple explanation I still floundered, much as young Arunja, finding the esoteric concepts incredibly difficult to grasp, and alien to Western philosophical tradition. Clearly I have not picked up all the connotations here. Plus, as always in religious scriptures, the names of people, tribes, cultures and concepts can seem overwhelming to someone not inculcated into the religion or belief system from birth, and the endless battles rather monotonous. For example, he says: A loving and careful study of this work shall confer happiness and prosperity on the readers.

Lord Krishna is ever smiling to bless them! The text is in 44 chapters, varying in length from half a side to a dozen or more pages. The illustrations by shri N. Vikram are quite beautiful, using traditional Hindu stylised images and vivid authentic colours. There are plenty of them, each filling slightly over half a page of this large format book. This song divine is being sung in every heart ceaselessly, but we have no ears to listen to it. The ears and all other senses need to be tuned to catch the divine message being delivered within our own bosoms.

They will prove and asset to themselves as well as to the entire humanity. Aug 22, Olivier Delaye rated it liked it. This was a dense albeit intriguing read that, in all honesty, was a bit of a slog to get through. Even after listening to it twice I know, I tend to do that to myself! Like, more enlightenment or something. But, hey, maybe I should give it another go another time, and maybe then I will have a different opinion about it.

Books are like people. You can only welcome them into your life when the time is right and you are ready to do so. May 07, Sidharth Vardhan rated it it was ok Shelves: The book gained popularity only during British rule. The book in its narrative smashes together glorifying accounts of Krishna and a wide array of Indian philosophies.

With so much of subjects covered, the philosophy of 'Just do it and don't hope. With so much of subjects covered, the philosophy of this book is made so flexible and loose that you can read it to draw whatever conclusion you wish to draw. Arjun's killing of his relatives and Gandhi's path of non-violence - both find justification in the book. You can destroy the world if you do so selflessly. Robert Oppenheimer quoted it wrongly while he talked about the decision to drop atom bomb.

However, as to what actions must be taken what is right thing to do? Krishna's answer to question of ethics is selfless action there are others discussed too, but this one is most popular and only one I'll discuss. He wants you to do everything that is required of you i. Drink your whisky but try not to enjoy it. Anything good or bad , including murders is forgiven to those who act selflessly. And what is reward of being good Krishna's definition? Gita like all Hindu texts is based on this most pessimistic and silent assumption that there is something inherently wrong with world and one must get out of it as quickly as possible - and since God with capital 'G' is continually recycling our souls, we must find our exit in methods told in the book itself.

You follow Krishna's instructions and you are relieved of cruel world.

Still, I suggest reading Gita if you base your life on Karma because chances are you don't understand it - most people take Karma to mean a balance of actions and reactions. Karma is far from Newton's third law; and you are not rewarded according to your actions. You may be a good guy and still suffer and you may be the bastard who own the wall street. Krishna was smart enough for to understand that. Nowhere Gita says you are center of world and the equations are build around you.

It says, much like Adidas, 'Just do it'. In one sentence, we can summarize the whole book as 'Just do it and don't hope. Nov 20, Aydin Mohseni rated it really liked it Shelves: What struck me most about the Bhagavad Gita in comparison to the other religious texts with which I'm familiar, inter alia, the Bible and the Qur'an, was two-fold: Firstly that the Gita was written frankly for a more sophisticated audience as the intricacy of the ontological explanations demonstrates.

That is to say, where as the Old and New Testaments could be said to have been written for a semi-literate nomadic tribe, and the lowest-rung on the ladder of Roman society respectively, and the Qur What struck me most about the Bhagavad Gita in comparison to the other religious texts with which I'm familiar, inter alia, the Bible and the Qur'an, was two-fold: That is to say, where as the Old and New Testaments could be said to have been written for a semi-literate nomadic tribe, and the lowest-rung on the ladder of Roman society respectively, and the Qur'an, again, for a predominantly non-literate society, the arguments and explanations provided by Sri Krishna to Arjuna in the Gita are transparently aimed at a more educated aristocratic or clerical class.

And secondly, that while submission of spirit, and performance of social duty, in line with traditional religious best practices, are fundamental doctrines, that the focus on the individual free thought, and the multiplicity of paths to enlightenment are, for me, absolutely fascinating in their dramatic distance from the monotheistic traditions which, perhaps, may also be attributed, to a good degree, to the first observation.

I'll be opening up the Ramayana soon, and am looking forward to digging deeper into the history, philosophy and practice of Hinduism. Jun 09, Chandan Sharma rated it really liked it. While biggest armies ever stood ready to fight each other, Arjuna was haunted by the guilt of killing his own rela http: While biggest armies ever stood ready to fight each other, Arjuna was haunted by the guilt of killing his own relatives, teacher and friends. Krishna, understanding his situation and for the sake of motivating him, narrated very long teachings and told him about the reality of Yoga, soul, life, death and reincarnation.

It says that you should do your duties and not worry about the results. This line has been misinterpreted and has been misunderstand by many people. It seems as the basic principle on which corporate works. They want us to do our work and forget about the incentives. But in book, Krishna suggests Arjuna that you should not associate yourself with the result because whatever which happened, is happening or will happen is due to me the supreme power , hence you should not accuse yourself for any of the incidents occurring or which is about to take place.

There are numerous teachings in this book which tells us about life and death. Many of the teachings are relevant and many of them seem just literature and unpractical. You see what you wish to. If you are a warrior then you will see justification of murdering people in it. So, it works like a mirror and everyone who reads it, derives his own meanings. He was just a spoiled kid who eventually died because of his wrong beliefs.

To conclude, I will suggest you that if you are going to read this, just be neutral and learn whatever you want to. Applying its all teachings in real life is almost impossible. So, try and develop your own outcomes with its guidance. All the Brahmins, judges, police, politicians, parents and teachers are the structures of this society not someone you should must obey to. The supreme power is soul and whatever he does, is eventually right At least politicians would feel happy if they get such clean-chit.

As arrogant as it seems to review an ancient text, I gave this book 2 stars because I'm being honest about how much I did or did not enjoy reading it. If I were a religious person and believed in a Man-God, I may have enjoyed it more No matter how hard we try as humans to understand a language, culture or time period we weren't born to, we can only make copies of the original, which fade with each reproduction. Dec 02, Rakhi Dalal rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Having read it many times,I still think that there is a lot that I still have to understand about this. But I do hope, I'll be able to write about it and do justice to my reading.

I've always enjoyed learning about the beliefs of others - very fluid poetry. Led to this book when reading the introduction to Leaves of Grass by Whitman. Very easy to read - and relatively short short pages for a sacred text though my current only comparison is the Bible which is incredibly long. To me this means you should still plan for positive outcomes in what you attempt to do but whatever the outcome you should continue as if it never happened.

If you do something and things go well a Led to this book when reading the introduction to Leaves of Grass by Whitman. If you do something and things go well and you make a lot of money, you still keep the money but don't gloat or dwell and you should be charitable. If things don't go well you also don't dwell on it. I'll need to read again to be able to lay them all out but there are many paths to reach heaven or enlightenment. Being able to focus your mind without distraction and letting go of all senses to completely be absorbed in oneness with God is a goal and path to enlightenment. One particular part sticks out in my mind in the last third of the book about gunas.

Working toward enlightenment via mastering your mind and senses will a very unsavory thing to start but ends in pure joy. Following your desires rajas you start off with savory initial experiences but you come to an final unsavory end. I liked that there was no finality of good and evil. God created everything and as a creator has some indifference to particular outcomes of particular events. God has laid down the rules - be good and ascend, be evil and descend - but is less interested in individuals. There were no strict laws which always seem to brittle.

I'd like to read it again in a year or so. Oct 28, Harish Challapalli rated it it was amazing Shelves: The Bhagavad Gita occurs in the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata and comprises 18 chapters from the 25th through 42nd and consists of verses The teacher of the Bhagavad Gita is Lord Krishna, who is revered by Hindus as a manifestation of God Parabrahman Himself Personally, I feel i have no words to describe these Trio-epics!! May 06, Matt rated it liked it.

I am not Hindu. I have never been to a Hindu place of worship, and I have had very few conversations with practicing Hindus about their religion. Hence my understanding of the Gita may be very flawed, and very inadequate. But I read it, and this is what I thought.

My intent is to learn, and to help others understand a small portion of a religion I am attempting to understand. What is the Bhagavad Gita? It is a portion of the Hindu scripture called the Mahabharata. As I understand, it is the most well known and widely read and quoted portion of the scripture. It takes place in the middle of a war.

Arjuna is the commander of his army, and feels a moral dilemma about fighting his own cousins. Lord Krishna explains to him his duties, and then expounds the meaning of life, the cycles of reincarnation, and how one can finally escape this life and become one with God. He does this through the Vedantic philosophies, the different Yogis, the Gunas, and other examples and analogies on life. The main lesson is to go through life doing good, but to avoid attachment.

We should work hard, serve others, do our best, but never care about the outcome. Whether we are rewarded are punished, should not matter. The goal is to be one with God. We should act and feel the same toward our friends and foes, saints and sinners, family and strangers. We should be moderate in all things, disciplined in all actions. The level to which we do this determines the state of our reincarnation. Hopefully we will eventually attain perfect union with God, forsake all attachment, and escape the reincarnation cycle. Quotes, and some of my thoughts about them.

Nor will there ever be a future when all of us will cease to exist. Nothing can change that. I can compare it easily to Christ, who was scorned and hated by those of his own religion in his time, and was eventually killed by his own people. They would not recognize him for who he was. I believe the same thing, there is only one God, some are worshiping him the way he desires, but all who worship a supreme being are worshiping him. I am bestowing supernatural sight upon you — behold My divine Yoga. I appreciate the fact that even an attempt to understand is counted for good.

Controlling it, I think, is as difficult as enveloping the wind. Anger gives rise to confusion, confusion to loss of memory. When I typed up those that interested me the most, I typed up I have included here View all 3 comments. Fans of Eastern spirituality. Recommended to Max by: Harold Bloom; my younger brother; my friend Shawn.

I wanted to give this a higher star rating, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. In several respects, this book is an absolute classic, not least of which that in which it is, first and foremost, the flagship book of the Hindu religion. I had tried to tackle a religious edition Bhagavad Gita: As It Is , that with commentary by A. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada , which my younger brother gave me, it having in turn been given to him by the bass player of the hardcore band Glassjaw but found I wanted to give this a higher star rating, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada , which my younger brother gave me, it having in turn been given to him by the bass player of the hardcore band Glassjaw but found it inpenetrable, and checked this more secular or more Western edition from the library. In another respect, it's been a huge influence on the American literary tradition, having been translated into English a little too late to effect the comparable British tradition in any major way. Thoreau and Emerson paid it major lip service, and J. Robert Oppenheimer quoted it when he witnessed an atomic explosion for the first time: But the universe just kept therowing it at me, time and again.

As I said, my brother gave me a copy; one of my groomsmen, Shawn, was reading it on my wedding night. Mitchell's translations are usually fantastic, and this is no exception to prove the rule. It's just that the source material isn't very strong. Chapters are riverting and filled with things to "mull around the ol' noggin'," sotospeak, and then chapter 13 comes in and ruins everything with a dry sermon on the three gunas or modes of material nature.

Mitchell concedes as much in the endnotes to the book. In short, this is worth reading, but it's not necessary to finish the book, short though it is, unless you actually intend on becoming a Hindu. It does, however, contain moments of infallible wisdom, as here: Death is certain for the born; for the dead, rebirth is certain. Since both cannot be avoided, you have no reason for your sorrow. Before birth, beings are unmanifest; between birth and death, manifest; at death, unmanifest again. What cause for grief in all this? Or, as my friend Shawn put it, "There was never a time when you never were, and there will never be a time when won't be.

Atoms in you now were once in others. One might take Richard Dawkins's saying, that we're going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones, as another way of looking at this passage. But I'll gladly give the last word to Mark Twain. I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit. Nov 29, Crisa Valadez rated it really liked it. It's honestly a little hard to fully explain this book. I'm probably going to re-read a few parts to fully grasp the concepts.

The Bhagavad-Gita is a sacred religious text, a brilliant collection of life philosophy, and an enthralling story. I actually purchased this book from a group of transcendentalist poets that I met at an art show. After reading the back cover and seeing quotes from Thoreau, Emerson, and Gandhi, this book highly intrigued me. Being a Buddhist, I wasn't completely sold on al It's honestly a little hard to fully explain this book. Being a Buddhist, I wasn't completely sold on all of the points of this book.

For example, there was an illustration of a cow with a man's head about to cut a man with a cow's head on a chopping block. Along with this strange illustration was a quote that read "Animal killers do not know that in the future an animal will have a body suitable to kill them. However, I believe that there's a little truth to everything. My favorite part of this book was a chapter entitled "transcendental knowledge". I found it particularly interesting that a sadhu holy man can be found anywhere and doesn't have to be religious to be in Krishna consciousness.

I had never before considered the idealism of predestination until reading this. I also agreed that the "sinners of the world" are the close minded people who choose to be ignorant. The concepts of being free from material possessions to be truly enlightened coincided well with my own religion. I think that anyone from any religion should read this book.

Although it can be a bit confusing at times, the Gita really opens your mind and explores great philosophical concepts. It also provides a great storyline between Krishna and the sun god Arjuna. Well I've read this twice now. Still couldn't tell you anything about it. This book was first published in by one of the leading members of Theosophical Society, Mohini Chatterji who has studied the parallels in Bhagavadgita and New Testament. Gita is considered as the sacred Word of God Krishna among Hindus. The Scriptures of ancient Hindus and Hebrews may have been separated by age, culture and nationality but they speak of one and the same trut Bhagavadgita, the sacred Word of God Gita and Bible — A comparative analysis: The Scriptures of ancient Hindus and Hebrews may have been separated by age, culture and nationality but they speak of one and the same truth.

There are similarities in many verses from both the scriptures, and author Chatterji discusses in some detail as how they convey similar meanings with extended commentaries of each verse, and also at the end of each chapter of Bhagavadgita. The discussions are very engaging and very illuminating. A brief summary of the book is as follows: The Gita is set in a narrative framework of a dialogue between Arjuna and his guide and charioteer Lord Krishna. Facing the duty as a warrior to fight righteous war between the two families, the Pandavas and Kauravas, Arjuna is counselled by Lord Krishna moments before the war that Arjuna must fulfill his Kshatriya warrior duty as a warrior and establish Dharma.

Many commentators of Gita suggest that the setting of the Gita in a battlefield is an allegory for the ethical and moral struggles of the human life. Numerous commentaries have been written on the Bhagavadgita with widely differing views on the essentials. Vedanta commentators suggest varying relations between Self and Brahman in the text: Advaita Vedanta proposes non-dualism of Atman soul and Brahman, but Dvaita Vedanta sees them as different.

The Bhagavad Gita by Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa

Bhagavad Gita in chapter 2 provides axiological implications of Samkhya. The Gita integrates Samkhya thought with the devotion bhakti of theistic schools and the impersonal Brahman of Vedanta. He championed the cause of the poor, sick, elderly, troubled, down-trodden and most vulnerable in the society as an important part of his ministry. Christ was commanded to preach repentance, forgiveness and remission of sins. Krishna was to sow the seed of dharma and moksha as the modes of emancipation.

But both came to show light for the humans lost in material existence. Some of the commonalities found by the author are as follows: Some of these comparisons looks a little farfetched but some verses have parallels and have very similar meanings. The Sanskrit to English translation, his commentary on each individual verse demonstrates a careful study of the metaphysical and theological aspects of Gita and his efforts to compare and contrast with Old and New Testaments is the highlight of the book. He has a tremendous elegance in the use of the English language like other Indian scholars of his time.

Highly recommended to readers interested in comparative religion, Gita and Bible. Oct 23, Cassandra Kay Silva rated it liked it Shelves: All this book made me want to do was read the whole Mahabharata. For what is one set of texts in a whole story of interesting characters and events? It is a religious work. I have no problem with religious works of any kind. In fact I treasure them. But the bible without the disciples or prophets? This work felt so incomplete, and that of course is because it is incomplete and frankly there is no written formal English translation of the Mahabharata in its entirety anyway so it All this book made me want to do was read the whole Mahabharata.

This work felt so incomplete, and that of course is because it is incomplete and frankly there is no written formal English translation of the Mahabharata in its entirety anyway so it leads one to the feeling that to fully appreciate the work there is only one thing to do. Lets put it on the to do list. I read the translation by Juan Mascaro and I understand that he was trying to go for a more poetic feel, but he misses the mark with his poetics and frankly if you are that poor with words and poetry I would prefer a literal translation thank you very much.

For anyone reading in this genre there is a beautiful translation of the Ramayana by William Buck. A much better undertaking. Full of light and wisdom. I was struck by how relevant I found it.

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How moving it was. And how it filled me with a hunger to delve deeper into spiritual things. It's given me much to think about. I particularly liked the introduction which grounded me in some of the more obscure terms and gave me a context for its creation and history. Jane try the version that is published by Iskcon. Aug 17, Chris I'm reading the text with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's commentary on the text.

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I'm loving it too, and it sounding how relevant it is, like you said. Dec 14, Dec 17, Miquixote rated it it was amazing Shelves: Famously non-violent Mohandas K. Whenever I was unable to perceive a silver lining on the horizon, I opened the Gita and found a verse that gave me new hope.

As I was reading the lovely language of metaphor and positive emotions my contradiction alarm kept sounding off around something here. Why does Lord Krishna explain that killing can be the perfectly righ Famously non-violent Mohandas K. Why does Lord Krishna explain that killing can be the perfectly right thing to do at the same time as speaking of love, generosity, patience, etc.?

He must resort to killing some of his own family? Seems like such a contradiction! The rusty alarm implanted in my brain long ago, around the time of my university studies, an alarm much maligned by spiritual folk called critical thinking was going ballistic: Another swarm of endless anti-intellectual contradictions glorifying myth and addling our brains with faith over reason dogma The thing is there is background here that the book doesn't explain. The main fault of the version I read. Arjuna had a duty. As a soldier he was bound to protect the citizens from aggressors. Duryodhana, the main cause of the war, was an aggressor worthy of punishment.

He had committed many criminal offenses. He had tried to burn to death all five brothers with their mother, Kunti, his own aunt. And now he was attacking the Pandavas with his army. Duryodhana was a violent man in just about every way possible. And does friendly behavior always mean non-violence?

The shades are coming off Never did I imagine this book of seemingly superficial uplifting optimistic poetics of the soul would actually bring me deep into my mind to challenge my modern intellectual presumptions about what is violence Here are some clear cut examples of how a definition of violence is not so clear: These are acts of mercy, not violence. We can even find a clearer, more modern and applicable example of the fight to end Nazi Germany. To not fight would have been an outrage of incredible violence. It was necessary, and the absolute truth is that it wasn't an act of violence at all.

Arjuna too fought and saved the people of the world from corrupt violent leadership The problem begins when we fight wars for wrong ideals. There are too many examples to give. For this reason a modern reader might and often does, judging by a fair amount of reviews knee-jerk recoil at the message that sometimes the least violent thing to do is do your duty and fight.

But by knowing the background it now seems clear that by removing the aggressors, Arjuna and Krishna created a favorable social condition for the progressive march of civilization toward progress. Like we did with Hitler. Now I am not saying that the world has been marching clearly towards spiritual nirvana. Nastiness and sheer evil still abounds. But Hitler needed to be beaten by force. Today, it isn't difficult to think of examples of violence, masked by religious piety Al Quaeda, Isis, the Inquisition, etc. So we rightly doubt any who justify physical retaliation.

But there are moments of justification that are not false. Krishna is not inventing the existence of 'weapons of mass destruction' George Bush style. The beauty here is that to save us Lord Krishna presents the highest principle of nonviolence he is conclusively and undoubtedly not violent , culminating in one clear course of action: I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. As an atheist I like the sound of that. Abandon all varieties of religion. I kinda recoil at the word 'sin' and the capital-lettered 'Me' God but I can get around it.

That brings me to the other polemic in this book that I will only gloss over: As most religious and spiritual books, it is not nice to atheists But now it's my turn to be creative I believe in all the nice, positive nouns. The first reference to dharma in the Bhagavad Gita occurs in its first verse, where Dhritarashtra refers to the Kurukshetra, the location of the battlefield, as the Field of Dharma , "The Field of Righteousness or Truth". This dharma has "resonances at many different levels". Unlike any other religious scripture, the Bhagavad Gita broadcasts its message in the centre of the battlefield.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , in his commentary on the Gita , [] interprets the battle as "an allegory in which the battlefield is the soul and Arjuna, man's higher impulses struggling against evil". In Aurobindo 's view, Krishna was a historical figure, but his significance in the Gita is as a "symbol of the divine dealings with humanity", [] while Arjuna typifies a "struggling human soul". Other scholars such as Steven Rosen, Laurie L. Patton and Stephen Mitchell have seen in the Gita a religious defense of the warrior class's Kshatriya Varna duty svadharma , which is to conduct combat and war with courage and do not see this as only an allegorical teaching, but also a real defense of just war.

Indian independence leaders like Lala Lajpat Rai and Bal Gangadhar Tilak saw the Gita as a text which defended war when necessary and used it to promote war against the British Empire. Lajpat Rai wrote an article on the "Message of the Bhagavad Gita". He saw the main message as the bravery and courage of Arjuna to fight as a warrior. Liberation or moksha in Vedanta philosophy is not something that can be acquired. While the Upanishads largely uphold such a monistic viewpoint of liberation, the Bhagavad Gita also accommodates the dualistic and theistic aspects of moksha.

The Gita , while including impersonal Nirguna Brahman as the goal, mainly revolves around the relationship between the Self and a personal God or Saguna Brahman. A synthesis of knowledge, devotion, and desireless action is offered by Krishna as a spectrum of choices to Arjuna; the same combination is suggested to the reader as a way to moksha. According to Dennis Hudson, there is an overlap between Vedic and Tantric rituals with the teachings found in the Bhagavad Gita.

The Shatapatha Brahmana , for example, mentions the absolute Purusha who dwells in every human being. A story in this vedic text, states Hudson, highlights the meaning of the name Vasudeva as the 'shining one deva who dwells vasu in all things and in whom all things dwell', and the meaning of Vishnu to be the 'pervading actor'. In Bhagavad Gita, similarly, 'Krishna identified himself both with Vasudeva, Vishnu and their meanings'.

Soon the work was translated into other European languages such as French , German, and Russian. John Garrett, and the efforts being supported by Sir.

5 Lessons in Self-Confidence from the Bhagavad Gita

In , Larson stated that "a complete listing of Gita translations and a related secondary bibliography would be nearly endless". According to Sargeant, the Gita is "said to have been translated at least times, in both poetic and prose forms". The translations and interpretations of the Gita have been so diverse that these have been used to support apparently contradictory political and philosophical values.

For example, state Galvin Flood and Charles Martin, these interpretations have been used to support "pacifism to aggressive nationalism" in politics, from "monism to theism" in philosophy. Gerald Larson summarizes the history of translation and interpretation of the Gita as follows: In her native environment, the Bhagavad Gita is a beguiling, seductive, naturally beautiful and altogether elegant daughter in the Hindu extended family of Sanskrit texts.

Her limbs are perfectly shaped, her shining black hair and moist pale skin glisten in the sunlight; the lines of her body evoke the fullness of her breasts and the lush softness of her lips, and when her sari occasionally drops away to reveal her hidden nakedness, even a distant observer pauses to marvel and reflect upon such spontaneous loveliness. Like all daughters of India, however, her character and substance are profoundly ethnic and contextual.

She is occasionally raped and to some extent always abused, at best becoming a concubine in some house of Western scholarship, at worst a whore in some brothel of ideology or of an insipid cross-cultural mysticism. Her natural paradoxes then appear as an unintelligent fickleness; her simple elegance as simple-mindedness; her refreshing openness to varying perspectives as proof of her lack of originality; and effortless devotion as hopeless naivete.

According to the exegesis scholar Robert Minor, the Gita is "probably the most translated of any Asian text", but many modern versions heavily reflect the views of the organization or person who does the translating and distribution. In Minor's view, the Harvard scholar Franklin Edgerton's English translation and Richard Garbe's German translation are closer to the text than many others. The Gita has also been translated into European languages other than English. In , passages from the Gita were part of the first direct translation of Sanskrit into German, appearing in a book through which Friedrich Schlegel became known as the founder of Indian philology in Germany.

The Gita Press has published the Gita in multiple Indian languages. Raghava Iyengar translated the Gita into Tamil in sandam metre poetic form. The textual development of the Bhagavad Gita has been researched, but the methods of this research have developed since its onset in the late 18th century. According to Adluri and Bagchee, 19th century German Indologists had an anti-Brahmanic stance, [] due to their "Protestant suspicion of the Brahmans.

Bhagavad Gita integrates various schools of thought, notably Vedanta, Samkhya and Yoga, and other theistic ideas. It remains a popular text for commentators belonging to various philosophical schools. However, its composite nature also leads to varying interpretations of the text and historic scholars have written bhasya commentaries on it.

According to Richard Davis, the Gita has attracted much scholarly interest in Indian history and some commentaries have survived in the Sanskrit language alone. The Bhagavad Gita is referred to in the Brahma Sutras, and numerous scholars including Shankara , Bhaskara , Abhinavagupta of Shaivism tradition, Ramanuja and Madhvacharya wrote commentaries on it. He calls the Gita as "an epitome of the essentials of the whole Vedic teaching ". Abhinavagupta was a theologian and philosopher of the Kashmir Shaivism Shiva tradition. The Gita text he commented on, is slightly different recension than the one of Adi Shankara.

He interprets its teachings in the Shaiva Advaita monism tradition quite similar to Adi Shankara, but with the difference that he considers both soul and matter to be metaphysically real and eternal. Their respective interpretations of jnana yoga are also somewhat different, and Abhinavagupta uses Atman, Brahman, Shiva, and Krishna interchangeably. Abhinavagupta's commentary is notable for its citations of more ancient scholars, in a style similar to Adi Shankara.

However, the texts he quotes have not survived into the modern era. Ramanuja was a Hindu theologian, philosopher, and an exponent of the Sri Vaishnavism Vishnu tradition in 11th- and early 12th-century. Like his Vedanta peers, Ramanuja wrote a bhasya commentary on the Gita. Madhva , a commentator of the Dvaita Vedanta school, [] wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita , which exemplifies the thinking of the "dualist" school Dvaita Vedanta. Madhva's commentary has attracted secondary works by pontiffs of the Dvaita Vedanta monasteries in Udupi such as Padmanabha Tirtha , Jayatirtha , and Raghavendra Tirtha.

Chinmayananda took a syncretistic approach to interpret the text of the Gita. Tilak wrote his commentary Shrimadh Bhagavad Gita Rahasya while in jail during the period — serving a six-year sentence imposed by the British colonial government in India for sedition. The Gujarati manuscript was translated into English by Mahadev Desai, who provided an additional introduction and commentary. It was published with a foreword by Gandhi in The version by A.

Unlike in Bengal and nearby regions of India where the Bhagavata Purana is the primary text for this tradition, the devotees of Prabhupada's ISKCON tradition have found better reception for their ideas by those curious in the West through the Gita , according to Richard Davis. In , Maharishi Mahesh Yogi published a partial translation. The Bhagavad Gita , was released With the translation and study of the Bhagavad Gita by Western scholars beginning in the early 18th century, the Bhagavad Gita gained a growing appreciation and popularity.

At a time when Indian nationalists were seeking an indigenous basis for social and political action, Bhagavad Gita provided them with a rationale for their activism and fight against injustice. The Bhagavad-Gita deals essentially with the spiritual foundation of human existence. It is a call of action to meet the obligations and duties of life; yet keeping in view the spiritual nature and grander purpose of the universe. Robert Oppenheimer , American physicist and director of the Manhattan Project , learned Sanskrit in and read the Bhagavad Gita in the original form, citing it later as one of the most influential books to shape his philosophy of life.

Oppenheimer later recalled that, while witnessing the explosion of the Trinity nuclear test , he thought of verses from the Bhagavad Gita XI, If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita ; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, remarked the following after his first study of the Gita , and thereafter frequently quoted the text in his journals and letters, particularly the "work with inner renunciation" idea in his writings on man's quest for spiritual energy: I owed — my friend and I owed — a magnificent day to the Bhagavad Geeta. It was the first of books; it was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us.

The Gita presents its teaching in the context of a war where the warrior Arjuna is in inner crisis about whether he should renounce and abandon the battlefield, or fight and kill. He is advised by Krishna to do his sva-dharma , a term that has been variously interpreted. According to the Indologist Paul Hacker, the contextual meaning in the Gita is the "dharma of a particular varna".

To render it in English for non-Hindus for its better understanding, one must ask what is the sva-dharma for the non-Hindus? The Lord, states Chatterjee, created millions and millions of people, and he did not ordain dharma only for Indians [Hindus] and "make all the others dharma-less", for "are not the non-Hindus also his children"?

According to Chatterjee, the Krishna's religion of Gita is "not so narrow-minded". The Gita has been cited and criticized as a Hindu text that supports varna-dharma and the caste system. Ambedkar , born in a Dalit family and the principal architect of the Constitution of India, criticized the text for its stance on caste and for "defending certain dogmas of religion on philosophical grounds". To Ambedkar, states Klausen, it is a text of "mostly barbaric, religious particularisms" offering "a defence of the kshatriya duty to make war and kill, the assertion that varna derives from birth rather than worth or aptitude, and the injunction to perform karma " neither perfunctorily nor egotistically.

Nadkarni and Zelliot present the opposite view, citing early Bhakti saints of the Krishna-tradition such as the 13th-century Dnyaneshwar. For Dnyaneshwar, people err when they see themselves distinct from each other and Krishna, and these distinctions vanish as soon as they accept, understand and enter with love unto Krishna.

According to Swami Vivekananda, sva-dharma in the Gita does not mean "caste duty", rather it means the duty that comes with one's life situation mother, father, husband, wife or profession soldier, judge, teacher, doctor. For Vivekananda, the Gita was an egalitarian scripture that rejected caste and other hierarchies because of its verses such as For seeing the Lord as the same everywhere present, he does not destroy the Self by the Self, and thus he goes to the highest goal. Aurobindo modernises the concept of dharma and svabhava by internalising it, away from the social order and its duties towards one's personal capacities, which leads to a radical individualism, [] "finding the fulfilment of the purpose of existence in the individual alone.

Gandhi's view differed from Aurobindo's view. According to Jacqueline Hirst , the universalist neo-Hindu interpretations of dharma in the Gita is modernism, though any study of pre-modern distant foreign cultures is inherently subject to suspicions about "control of knowledge" and bias on the various sides. Krishna is presented as a teacher who "drives Arjuna and the reader beyond initial preconceptions". The Gita is a cohesively knit pedagogic text, not a list of norms.

Novel interpretations of the Gita , along with apologetics on it, have been a part of the modern era revisionism and renewal movements within Hinduism. Vivekananda's works contained numerous references to the Gita , such as his lectures on the four yogas — Bhakti, Jnana, Karma, and Raja. According to Ronald Neufeldt, it was the Theosophical Society that dedicated much attention and energy to the allegorical interpretation of the Gita , along with religious texts from around the world, after and given H.

Blavatsky, Subba Rao and Anne Besant writings. These late 19th-century theosophical writings called the Gita as a "path of true spirituality" and "teaching nothing more than the basis of every system of philosophy and scientific endeavor", triumphing over other "Samkhya paths" of Hinduism that "have degenerated into superstition and demoralized India by leading people away from practical action". In the Gita , Krishna persuades Arjuna to wage war where the enemy includes some of his own relatives and friends. In light of the Ahimsa non-violence teachings in Hindu scriptures, the Gita has been criticized as violating the Ahmisa value, or alternatively, as supporting political violence.

During the freedom movement in India, Hindus considered active "burning and drowning of British goods" which technically illegal under the colonial laws, were viewed as a moral and just-war for the sake of liberty and righteous values of the type Gita discusses. Mahatma Gandhi credited his commitment for ahimsa to the Gita. For Gandhi, the Gita is teaching that people should fight for justice and righteous values, that they should never meekly suffer injustice to avoid a war.

According to the Indologist Ananya Vajpeyi, the Gita does not elaborate on the means or stages of war, nor on ahimsa , except for stating that " ahimsa is virtuous and characterizes an awakened, steadfast, ethical man" in verses such as Gandhian ahimsa is in fact "the essence of the entire Gita ", according to Vajpeyi.

Instead, it is teaching peace and discussing one's duty to examine what is right and then act with pure intentions, when one's faces difficult and repugnant choices. Philip Glass retold the story of Gandhi's early development as an activist in South Africa through the text of the Gita in the opera Satyagraha The entire libretto of the opera consists of sayings from the Gita sung in the original Sanskrit. In Douglas Cuomo's Arjuna's dilemma , the philosophical dilemma faced by Arjuna is dramatised in operatic form with a blend of Indian and Western music styles.

The Sanskrit film, Bhagavad Gita , directed by G. Steven Pressfield acknowledges that the Gita was his inspiration, the golfer character in his novel is Arjuna, the caddie is Krishna, states Rosen. The movie, however, uses the plot but glosses over the teachings unlike the novel. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Bhagavad Gita disambiguation. For other uses, see Gita disambiguation. Krishna and Arjuna at Kurukshetra , c.

Chronology of Hindu texts. Face pages of chapters 1, 2 and 3 of historic Bhagavad Gita manuscripts. Bengali script ; Bottom: Selfless service It is not those who lack energy nor those who refrain from action, but those who work without expecting reward who attain the goal of meditation, Theirs is true renunciation. Bhagavad Gita and related commentary literature exists in numerous Indian languages.

Chapter 11 of the Gita refers to Krishna as Vishvarupa above. This is an idea found in the Rigveda. How a Gita recitation sounds? Cover pages of early Gita translations. Charles Wilkins ; Center: Parraud re-translation of Wilkins ; Right: Wesleyan Mission Press Influence of Bhagavad Gita.

The Indologist Franklin Edgerton was among the early scholars and a translator of the Gita who believed that the Gita was a later composition that was inserted into the epic, at a much later date, by a creative poet of great intellectual power intimately aware of emotional and spiritual aspects of human existence.

Further, he states that the Mahabharata has numerous such interpolations and inserting the Gita would not be unusual. This text, states Fitzgerald, must have been integral to the earliest version of the epic. Further, states Basham, the verses that discuss Gita's "motiveless action" doctrine was probably authored by someone else and these constitute the most important ethical teaching of the text.

Fragments of this early text have survived into the modern era. The Gita attempts to present a harmonious, universalist answer, state Deutsch and Dalvi. Bhagavad Gita is a part of this recollection. Arjuna's chariot is the body. The blind king Dhritarashtra is the mind under the spell of ignorance, and his hundred sons are man's numerous evil tendencies. The battle, a perennial one, is between the power of good and the power of evil. The warrior who listens to the advice of the Lord speaking from within will triumph in this battle and attain the Highest Good.

That is a view which the general character and the actual language of the epic does not justify and, if pressed, would turn the straightforward philosophical language of the Gita into a constant, laborious and somewhat puerile mystification But there is this much of truth in the view, that the setting of the doctrine though not symbolical, is certainly typical.

Tilak and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as notable commentators see: Gambhirananda , p. Tilak and Gandhi and their use to inspire the independence movement see: Sargeant , p. In the literature, the quote usually appears in the form shatterer of worlds, because this was the form in which it first appeared in print, in Time magazine on November 8, A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists , [] which was based on an interview with Oppenheimer. Robert Neil Minor, ed. Modern Indian Interpreters of the Bhagavad Gita.

State University of New York Press. Nadkarni , pp. The Song of the Lord. World Religions in America, Fourth Edition: Westminster John Knox Press. The Song of God. A Scripture for the Future. The Essence of Bhagavad Gita. Elements of Hindu Iconography.

The Bhagavad Gita

Studies of an Asian God. Handbook of Hindu Mythology. Accomplishing all that would require a human who lived several thousand years, so scholars do place the story of his achievements as those of one man in the area of mythology. They refer to Vyasa as a mythical or symbolic author of the Mahabharata. The Bhagavad Gita, Part 2. Journal of the American Academy of Religion. The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism.

A History of Indian Literature: Buddhist literature and Jaina literature. Notes sur la Bhagavadgita. Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner. Hinduism and the Religious Arts. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Volume 1. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. Philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita: Bhagavad Gita - The Song of God. Subjectivity, Memory and Tradition.

Moral Passion and Christian Ethics. Philosophy East and West. University of Hawai'i Press. The Concealed Art of the Soul: A descriptive catalogue of the Sanskrit manuscripts in the Adyar Library. Adyar Library Oriental Pub. This is especially remarkable in the light of the numerous variants for the remainder of the Mahabharata, some of which are quite serious. Secondary insertions are found in individual manuscripts of the Gita, but these are clearly secondary.

The number of stanzas in the Gita is , a number confirmed by Shankara, and possibly deliberately chosen in order to prevent interpolations. The Bhagavad Gita 3rd ed. The Temple of Kriya Yoga. Koninklijk Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen. As we have already observed, this is the basic and ineradicable distinction between Hinduism and Buddhism". Put very briefly, this is the [Buddhist] doctrine that human beings have no soul, no self, no unchanging essence.

Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy. Spirituality and Indian Psychology: Lessons from the Bhagavad-Gita. McDermott , Indian Spirituality in the West: Structural Depths of Indian Thought. Nadkarni , p. Essence of the Bhagavad Gita: Realization of the Supreme Self: The Fruits of Our Desiring: A New Look at the Bhagavad Gita, p. Retrieved 18 January Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Winternitz , p. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada; et al. Bhaktivedanta Book Trust edition.

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