Thursday, October 15, 2009

Date and text

Bhagavad Gita, a 19th century manuscript.
Further information: Mahabharata

The Bhagavad Gita occurs in the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata and comprises 18 chapters from the 25th through 42nd and consists of 700 verses.[11] Its authorship is traditionally ascribed to Vyasa, the compiler of the Mahabharata.[12][13] Because of differences in recensions the verses of the Gita may be numbered in the full text of the Mahabharata as chapters 6.25–42 or as chapters 6.23–40.[14] According to the recension of the Gita commented on by Shankaracharya, the number of verses is 700, but there is evidence to show that old manuscripts had 745 verses.[15] The verses themselves, using the range and style of Sanskrit meter (chhandas) with similes and metaphors, are written in a poetic form that is traditionally chanted.

Considering GEETHA TATHPARYA of Sri Madhwacharya to understand the Bhagawatgeetha better. Putting your doubts before www.uttaradimath.org will be appropriate.

The Bhagavad Gītā is later than the great movement represented by the early Upanishads and earlier than the period of the development of the philosophic systems and their formulation. The date and the author of the Gītā is not known with certainty and scholars of an earlier generation opined that it was composed between the 5th and the 2nd century BCE.[12][16][17] Radhakrishnan, for example, asserted that the origin of the Gītā is definitely in the pre-Christian era.[12] More recent assessments of Sanskrit literature, however, have tended to bring the chronological horizon of the texts down in time. In the case of the Gītā, John Brockington has now made cogent arguments that it can be placed in the first century CE.[18]

Based on claims of differences in the poetic styles some scholars like Jinarajadasa have argued that the Bhagavad Gītā was added to the Mahābhārata at a later date.[19][20]

Within the text of the Bhagavad Gītā itself, Krishna claims that the knowledge of Yoga contained in the Gītā was first instructed to mankind at the very beginning of their existence.[21]

Although the original date of composition of the Bhagavad Gita is not clear, its teachings are considered timeless and the exact time of revelation of the scripture is to be considered of little spiritual significance by scholars like Bansi Pandit, and Juan Mascaro.[1][22] Swami Vivekananda dismisses concerns about differences of opinion regarding the historical events as unimportant for study of the Gita from the point of acquirement of Dharma.[23]

[edit] Prelude

Main articles: Mahabharata, Kurukshetra war, and Krishna
A manuscript illustration of the Battle of Kurukshetra, fought between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, recorded in the Mahābhārata.

The main theme of the Mahabharata is the exploits of two families of royal cousins, known as the Pandavas and the Kauravas, who were the sons of two brothers, Pandu and Dhritarashtra, respectively. Since Dhritarashtra was born blind, Pandu inherited the ancestral kingdom, comprising a part of northern India around modern Delhi. The Pandava brothers were Yudhishthira the eldest, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva. The Kaurava brothers were one hundred in number, Duryodhana being the eldest. When Pandu died at an early age, his young children were placed under the care of their uncle Dhritarashtra who usurped the throne.[24][25]

The Pandavas and the Kauravas were brought up together in the same household and had the same teachers, the most notable of whom were Bhishma and Dronacharya.[25] Bhishma, the wise grandsire, acted as their chief guardian, and the brahmin Drona was their military instructor. The Pandavas were endowed with righteousness, self-control, nobility, and many other knightly traits. On the other hand, the hundred sons of Dhritarashtra, especially Duryodhana, were endowed with negative qualities and were cruel, unrighteous, unscrupulous, greedy, and lustful. Duryodhana being jealous of his five cousins, contrived various means to destroy them.[26]

When the time came to crown Yudhisthira, the eldest of the pandavas as the prince, Duryodhana, through a crooked game of dice, exiled the Pandavas into the forest.[25] On their return from banishment the Pandavas demanded the return of their legitimate kingdom. Duryodhana who had consolidated his power by many alliances, refused to restore their legal and moral rights. Attempts by elders and Krishna who was a friend of the Pandavas and also a well wisher of the Kauravas, to resolve the issue failed. Nothing would satisfy Duryodhana's inordinate greed.[27][28]

War became inevitable. Both Duryodhana and Arjuna requested Krishna to support them in fighting the war, since he possessed the strongest army, and was revered as the wisest teacher and the greatest yogi. Krishna offered to give his vast army to one of them and to become a charioteer and counselor for the other, but he would not to touch any weapon nor to participate in the battle in any manner.[27] While Duryodhana chose Krishna's vast army, Arjuna preferred to have Krishna as his charioteer.[29] The whole realm responded to the call of the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The kings, princes, and knights of India with their armies, assembled on the sacred plain of Kurukshetra.[27] The blind king Dhritharashtra wished to follow the progress of the battle. The sage Vyasa offered to endow him with supernatural sight; but the king refused the boon, for he felt that the sight of the destruction of his near and dear ones would be too much for him to bear. Thereupon Vyasa bestowed supernatural sight on Sanjaya, who was to act as reporter to Dhritarashtra. The Gita opens with the question of the blind king to Sanjaya regarding what happened on the battlefield when the two armies faced each other in battle array.[30]

[edit] Background

Bronze statue representing the discourse of Krishna and Arjuna, located in Kurukshetra
The discourse on the Bhagavad Gita begins before the start of the climactic battle at Kurukshetra. It begins with the Pandava prince Arjuna, as he becomes filled with doubt on the battlefield. Realizing that his enemies are his own relatives, beloved friends, and revered teachers, he turns to his charioteer and guide, Krishna, for advice.

In summary the main philosophical subject matter of the Bhagavad-gita is the explanation of five basic concepts or "truths":[31]

Krishna counsels Arjuna on the greater idea of dharma or universal harmony and duty. He begins with the tenet that the soul (Atman) is eternal and immortal.[32] Any 'death' on the battlefield would involve only the shedding of the body, but the soul is permanent. Arjuna's hesitation stems from a lack of right understanding of the 'nature of things,' the privileging of the unreal over the real. His fear and hesitance become impediments to the proper balancing of the universal dharmic order. Essentially, Arjuna wishes to abandon the battle, to abstain from action; Krishna warns, however, that without action, the cosmos would fall out of order and truth would be obscured.

In order to clarify his point, Krishna expounds the various Yoga processes and understanding of the true nature of the universe. Krishna describes the yogic paths of devotional service,[33] action,[34] meditation[35] and knowledge.[36] Fundamentally, the Bhagavad Gita proposes that true enlightenment comes from growing beyond identification with the temporal ego, the 'False Self', the ephemeral world, so that one identifies with the truth of the immortal self, the absolute soul or Atman. Through detachment from the material sense of ego, the Yogi, or follower of a particular path of Yoga, is able to transcend his/her illusory mortality and attachment to the material world and enter the realm of the Supreme.[37]

It should be noted, however, that Krishna does not propose that the physical world must be forgotten or neglected. Indeed, it is quite the opposite: one's life on earth must be lived in accordance with greater laws and truths, one must embrace one's temporal duties whilst remaining mindful of a more timeless reality, acting for the sake of service without consideration for the results thereof. Such a life would naturally lead towards stability, happiness and ultimately, enlightenment.

To demonstrate his divine nature, Krishna grants Arjuna the boon of cosmic vision (albeit temporary) and allows the prince to see his 'Universal Form' (this occurs in the eleventh chapter).[38] He reveals that he is fundamentally both the ultimate essence of Being in the universe and also its material body, called the Vishvarupa ('Universal Form').

In the Bhagavad-Gita Krishna refers to the war about to take place as 'Dharma Yuddha', meaning a righteous war for the purpose of justice. In Chapter 4, Krishna states that he incarnates in each age (yuga) to establish righteousness in the world.[39]

[edit] War as an allegory

There are many who regard the story of the Gita as an allegory; Swami Nikhilananda, for example, takes Arjuna as an allegory of Atman, Krishna as an allegory of Brahman, Arjuna's chariot as the body, etc. [40] Compare to this the chariot allegory found in the Katha Upanishad.

Mahatma Gandhi, throughout his life and his own commentary on the Gita,[41] interpreted the battle as "an allegory in which the battlefield is the soul and Arjuna, man's higher impulses struggling against evil."[42] Swami Vivekananda also said that the first discourse in the Gita related to war can be taken allegorically.[43] Vivekananda further remarks, "this Kurukshetra War is only an allegory. When we sum up its esoteric significance, it means the war which is constantly going on within man between the tendencies of good and evil."[13]

In Sri Aurobindo's view, Krishna was a historical figure, but his significance in the Gita is as a "symbol of the divine dealings with humanity";[44] while Arjuna typifies a "struggling human soul."[45] However, Aurobindo rejects the interpretation that the Gita, and the Mahabharata by extension, is "an allegory of the inner life, and has nothing to do with our outward human life and actions":[45]

“ ...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....the Gita is written in plain terms and professes to solve the great ethical and spiritual difficulties which the life of man raises, and it will not do to go behind this plain language and thought and wrest them to the service of our fancy. But there is this much of truth in the view, that the setting of the doctrine though not symbolical, is certainly typical... ”

[edit] Overview of chapters

Krishna displays his Vishvarupa (Universal Form) to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.

The Gita consists of eighteen chapters in total:

  1. Arjuna requests Krishna to move his chariot between the two armies. When Arjuna sees his relatives on the opposing army side of the Kurus, he loses courage and decides not to fight.
  2. After asking Krishna for help, Arjuna is instructed that only the body may be killed as he was worried if it would become a sin to kill people (including his gurus and relatives), while the eternal self is immortal. Krishna appeals to Arjuna that as a warrior he has a duty to uphold the path of dharma through warfare.
  3. Arjuna asks why he should engage in fighting if knowledge is more important than action. Krishna stresses to Arjuna that performing his duties for the greater good, but without attachment to results is the appropriate course of action.
  4. Krishna reveals that he has lived through many births, always teaching Yoga for the protection of the pious and the destruction of the impious and stresses the importance of accepting a guru.
  5. Arjuna asks Krishna if it is better to forgo action or to act. Krishna answers that both ways may be beneficent, but that acting in Karma Yoga is superior.
  6. Krishna describes the correct posture for meditation and the process of how to achieve samadhi.
  7. Krishna teaches the path of knowledge (Jnana Yoga).
  8. Krishna defines the terms brahman, adhyatma, karma, atman, adhibhuta and adhidaiva and explains how one can remember him at the time of death and attain his supreme abode.
  9. Krishna explains panentheism, "all beings are in me" as a way of remembering him in all circumstances.
  10. Krishna describes how he is the ultimate source of all material and spiritual worlds. Arjuna accepts Krishna as the Supreme Being, quoting great sages who have also done so.
  11. On Arjuna's request, Krishna displays his "universal form" (Viśvarūpa), a theophany of a being facing every way and emitting the radiance of a thousand suns, containing all other beings and material in existence.
  12. Krishna describes the process of devotional service (Bhakti Yoga).
  13. Krishna describes nature (prakrti), the enjoyer (purusha) and consciousness.
  14. Krishna explains the three modes (gunas) of material nature.
  15. Krishna describes a symbolic tree (representing material existence), its roots in the heavens and its foliage on earth. Krishna explains that this tree should be felled with the "axe of detachment", after which one can go beyond to his supreme abode.
  16. Krishna tells of the human traits of the divine and the demonic natures. He counsels that to attain the supreme destination one give up lust, anger and greed, discern between right and wrong action by evidence from scripture and thus act rightly.
  17. Krishna tells of three divisions of faith and the thoughts, deeds and even eating habits corresponding to the three gunas.
  18. In conclusion, Krishna asks Arjuna to abandon all forms of dharma and simply surrender unto him. He describes this as the ultimate perfection of life.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)