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Bhagawad gita is one of the
most important scriptures of the mankind. It occupies a
unique place among the followers of Hinduism. The Vedas,
the Upanishads and the Brahmasutra form
the foundations of the orthodox Hindusim or the Sanatana
Hindu Dharma.
The Gita is also given a place among these sacred
scriputures honourably, on an equal footing. One can say
that the Upanishads, the Brahmasutra,
and the Gita are the very basis of the Hinduism. There
are various sects and sub-sects within the folds of the
Hinduism. There are followers of different doctrines (Sampradayas)
among the Hindus. All the leaders of three different
branches of Hinduism have to justify their special
doctrines with references to the authority of the
Upanishads, the Brahmasutra and the Gita, to show that
such doctrines are in consonance with the orthodox Hindu
religion. These bases of Hinduism (the Gita, the
Upanishads and Brahmasutra) are called the triple canon
(Prasthanatraya). Rishi (seer) Ved Vyas is credited with
the authorship of the Gita. However,the Hindus regard it
to be of divine origin preached by the Lord (Bhagawan)
Shri Krishna himself.
Ved Vyas
is also given the honour of being the compiler of the Mahabharata.
The Geeta occurs in the Bhishmaparva of the
Mahabharata from twenty-third to fortieth chapter. The
Geeta begins with the description of both the opposing
armies in the war of Kurukshetra with the description of
their main heroes. Sanjaya narrates the happenning at
the battlefied to the blind king Dhritarashtra,
when he is asked to do so. A great hero and the greatest
warrior of the Pandava side Arjuna sees members of his
family, relatives, and teachers in the battlefield eager
to fight from both the warring sides. This causes
immense sadness to Arjuna. Overwhelmed by the grief he
leaves aside his bow and arrows. The desire for battle
dies in his heart and he sits down in the chariot in the
state of despondency. Then his charioteer, Lord Krishna
preaches him, which is the subject matter of the Geeta.
The Gita
is mainly a religious treatise. Though it contains
ancient Indian Philosophy, policy and the code of
worldly conduct, yet it is essentially a guide to the
Hindu way of life. For centuries millions of Hindus have
found peace and tranquility in their lives by following
the path shown by the Gita. It sets a religious
experience of the ultimate reality. The all sects and
the followers of all the traditions/doctrines among the
Hindus accept the Gita. The Gita can be verily said to
be the foundation of not only of the Hindusim, but of
the root of the religion itself.
The union (yoga) of the self (atma)
with the ultimate reality (paramatma)
is the final goal of the followers of the Gita. It
brings about a reconciliation among the apparently
conflicting doctrines of the way of knowledge (Gyan-Yoga)
of action (Karma-Yoga) and of
devotion (bhakti-yoga). All these paths lead
towards one goal only. The term yoga (means to unite, to
yoke), is used in Gita, in the sense of union of the
self with the supreme being it is not used in the sense
as given in the yoga-sutra of Pantanjali.
DATE AND
TEXT OF BHAGAVADGITA
According to the Hindu traditions and beliefs, the
gita is an eternal scripture. It has always
been available to the human being, as a divine gift, for
their redemption. But the modern scholars and
researchers, both oriental as well as western, have done
a great deal of work to ascertain the date of its
compilation and its original text. They have taken help
from the internal references available in the literature
of that era. Also with the help of linguistics, they
have studied the language used, grammatical
constructions, and word configurations to ascertain its
date. All these evidently point towards the antiquity of
the Gita. Genarality of scholars accept that it could
have been composed and complied sometime around fifth
century B.C. though its text might have undergone many
additions and alterations subsequently. Also it does not
seem plausible that seven hundred verses contained in
the Gita could have been preached by Lord Krishna to
Arjuna in the battlefield. Possibly, a few verses might
have been said which were amplified and elaborated into
a large treatise by the narrators over a period of time.
Moreover the historicity of Lord Krishna and his pupil,
Arjuna is also not beyond doubt. The Vedic age and the
post-vedic age had extended over a period of many
centuries. During this period, compilation of the vedas
and the upnishads, had taken place. Certain
upnishads were compiled as late as the fourth century
A.D.
Lord
Krishna is mentioned as Devaki-putra (Son of Devika)
in the upnishads and the references of Radha, Devaki and
Vasudeva also occur and the beginning of the
christian era, the cult of Lord Krishna and vasudeva was
well established. Ancient Buddhist texts also
mention about krishna occasionally. These facts may be
taken as evidence about the historicity of Lord Krishna.
Vishnu has been depicted as a god in the Vedic hymns. In
the Puranic texts, Vishnu is also mentioned as Narayana.
Lord Krishna is identified with Vishnu or Narayana.
Modern Indian and western scholars have done a
tremendous amount of labour to get the answers to these
puzzles. But there are differences of opinion among the
scholars regarding the date of Gita and about its
original text. The age of the compilation of the
Gita may be taken to be of between fifth and the second
century B.C.
The Gita is regarded as a Upnishad's "bhagavadgitastu"
The Gita presents synthesis of all the elements and
beliefs of he Hinduism, be they major or minor, gross or
subtle. The Gita refines and reconciles the conflicts
inherent in the various thoughts the vedic sacrifices,
Puranic theism, transcendental or immortal nature of the
brahman in the upnishads, dualism and non-dualism of the
philosophical schools and yoga meditation etc. The Gita
provides a solution for these conflicting ideas which is
acceptable to all the adherants of the Hinduism.
The Gita blends into an organic unity, all the
elements of orthodox Hinduism, Indian Philosophy and
Puranic theism. This makes it difficult to
assign the Gita to any specific age,place or tradition.
From the very ancient time commentaries have been
written on the Gita by various teachers and seers. The
commentary of Shankaracharya (A.D.788-320) is the most
ancient among those, which are available to us.
The text given in this work is generally followed and
taken as the authoritative.
COMMENTARIES
ON THE GITA
Since the Gita forms the very basis of the Hinduism a
very large number of commentaries by many seers and
scholars have been written from the ancient times. Many
leaders of various sects have written commentaries on
the Gita to prove that their specific doctrines were in
conformity with the teachings of the Gita. Many scholars
and philosphers of modern age have also written
commentaries on it. Though the commentary of
Shankara is the oldest available to us. Yet he had
mentioned about the commentaries written by scholars
before him. But their works are now lost to us.
The following commentators are important.
- Adi Shankaracharya
(A.D. 788-820)
- Anandagiri (A.D.
thirteenth Century)
- Shridhara (A.D. 1400)
- Madhusudana (Sixteen
Century A.D.)
- Ramanuja (Eleventh
Century A.D.)
- Madhavacharya
(A.D.1199-1276)
- Nimbarka (A.D. 1162)
- Vallabha (A.D. 1479)
- Yamunacharya (date not
known)
- Saint Tukarama (in
Marathi)
- Saint Gyaneshwara (in
Marathi)
Among the
modern commentators notable are, Bal Gangadhara
Tilak (Gita-Rahasya), Vinoba Bhave (Gita in Marathi),
Sri Arbindo, Dr. S. Radha-Krishnan etc.
Many western scholars have also done a lot of work on he
Gita and have produced excellent works. Some of them are
: Sir Adwin Arnold (wrote a translation - The
song Celestial-in beautiful verses), Jacob, Barnett,
Douglas Hill, Franklin Edgerton etc. The Gita
has been translated and commented on in all the
important languages of the world.
WHAT IS THERE IN
THE EARTH YOGA-SHASTRA
The Gita
teaches the practical way to realise the supreme ideal. It
does not give only a purely metaphysical world of
thought to the seeker of the truth, it takes him to the
real world of experience. The supreme bliss can
only be experienced, it cannot be reached by idle
speculation of wits and mental gymnastics. The
Gita gives us a metaphysics (brahma-vidya) as well as a
practical discipline (yoga shastra) . By
emptying our minds of impure thoughts, desires and
wants, by putting our entire energy in the single minded
contemplation of the nature of the ultimate reality, by
constant efforts (abhyas) and being in a state - where
the self (atma) becomes one with the supreme being (paramatma).
This is called "Yoga" (coming from the
root "yuj-it means yoking of or comes into union
with the God (parameshwar). After one attains
this state ignorance (Agyana) illusion (avidya)
and egoistic state of mind (ahankara)
can no longer exist. The self experiences the pure
truth, pure mind and pure bliss (sat, chit, anand). The
Gita Guide ut to this yoga and bhaktiyoga. This is the
essence of the Gita. Gyanyoga is the way of knowledge,
Karmayoga of right efforts, of total devotion and
surrender to the will of God. Thus the Gita
shows the way of salvation to all without any
distinction or reservation. It is for the
entire humanity. Distinctions place, caste creed or sect
do not come in its way. The Gita like the mother ganga
is for the benefit of all. The misconception among a few
that the Gita is meant for the saints and the hermits is
without any basis. The Student (brahmachari), the
house-holder the recluse all have equal claim to its
nectar. It's a panacea to the mankind.
THE CONTECT OF THE
GIFT
The
hundred sons of Dhritarastra and the five sons of Pandu,
fought a fatricidal war in the battlefied of Kurukshetra.
This is the main theme of the mahabharata. The sons of
the blind king Dhritarastra of the Kauravas bore great
animosity to the Pandavas, the sons of Pandu. Kauravas
were ruling the kingdom of Hastinapura and the Pandavas
were the rulers of Indraprastha. The eldest among the
Kauravas, Duryodhana, was very jealous of the splendour
of their cousins, pandavas. He, with the help of his
uncle Shakuni, won the kingdom of the Pandavas, decided
that the pandavas shall spend twelve years in the forest
and then one year in disguise. If they were not
discovered during this period, they would get back their
kingdom. But when the pandavas returned after thirteen
years, their term of exile, Duryodhana refused to return
their kingdom. All efforts to persuade him failed.
Finally, Lord Krishna went to him as the emissary of the
Pandavas. Even his efforts could not succeed. Then the
war became inevitable.
In the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Kauravas fought under
the leadership of Duryodhana and the Pandavas side was
led by the the eldest among the Pandavas, Yudhisthir.
While the army of Lord Krishna's army fought on the side
of the Kauravas he himself was on the side of the
Pandavas. He was charioteer of Arjuna as he had promised
that he would not weild any weapon in the war.When all
the preparations of the war were nearing completion,
sage vedvyas went to the blind king and offered him the
boon of divine vision, so that he could watch the war.
But Dhritarastra declined the offer saying that he did
not want to see the destruction of his sons with his own
eyes. However, he was eager to know the going on the
battlefield. Then vyas granted the boon of divine vision
to Sanjaya, the king of Charioteer. This enabled Sanjaya
to see the war from any where. Sanjaya sitting near,
Dhritarastra told him about the war affairs. In the
meantime the war had commenced. On the twentieth day of
the war, the great warrior Bhishma was felled from his
chariot by Arjuna and had been lying on a bed of arrows.
Dhristarastra became vey sad on hearing this news and
asked Sanjaya to narrate the events of the war from the
beginning i.e. from the time when his sons and Pandavas
had gathered in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. The
Gita starts with the question of the blind king.
Rameshwar Prasad
invites you to the Wonderful Spiritual World
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CONTACT
THE CONSULTANT
Engineer Rameshwar Prasad (B.Tech., M.Tech., P.G.D.C.A.,
P.G.D.M.) VAASTU INTERNATIONAL
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INDIA
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