The Bhagavad Gita, often
referred to as the Gita, is a 700 verse Hindu scripture in Sanskrit that
is part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata.
The Gita is set in a narrative
framework of a dialogue between Pandava prince Arjuna and his guide and
charioteer Krishna. At the start of the Dharma Yudhha (righteous war) between
Pandavas and Kauravas, Arjuna is filled with moral dilemma and despair about
the violence and death the war will cause. He wonders if he should renounce and
seeks Krishna's counsel, whose answers and discourse constitute the Bhagadvad
Gita. Krishna counsels Arjuna to "fulfill his Kshatriya (warrior) duty
to uphold the Dharma" through "selfless action". The
Krishna-Arjuna dialogue cover a broad range of spiritual topics, touching upon
ethical dilemmas and philosophical issues that go far beyond the war Arjuna
faces.
The Bhagavad Gita presents a synthesis
of Hindu ideas about dharma, theistic bhakti, and the yogic paths to moksha.
The synthesis presents four paths to spirituality – jnana,
bhakti, karma,
and rajayogas. These incorporate
ideas from the Samkhya-Yoga and Vedanta
philosophies.
Numerous commentaries have been written on the
Bhagavad Gita with widely differing views on the essentials. Vedanta commentators read varying relations between
Self and Brahman in the text: Advaita Vedanta sees the non-dualism of Atman (soul) and Brahman as its essence, whereas Bhedabheda and Vishishtadvaita
see Atman and Brahman as both different and non-different, and Dvaita sees them as different. The setting of the Gita
in a battlefield has been interpreted as an allegory for the ethical and moral
struggles of the human life.
The Bhagavad Gita is the best known and
most famous of Hindu texts, with a unique pan-Hindu influence. The Gita's call for selfless action inspired many leaders of the Indian independence movement including Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma
Gandhi. Gandhi referred to the Gita as his "spiritual
dictionary".
Nomenclature
The Gita in the title of the text
"Bhagavad Gita" means "song". Religious leaders and
scholars interpret the word "Bhagavad" in a number of ways.
Accordingly, the title has been interpreted as "the Song of God" by
the theistic schools, "the Song of the Lord", "the Divine
Song", and "the Celestial Song" by others.
The Bhagavad Gita (sometimes Bhagavadgita)
is also known as the Isvara Gita, the Ananta Gita, the Hari
Gita, the Vyasa Gita, or simply as the Gita.
Authorship
In the Indian tradition, the Bhagavad Gita,
as well as the epic Mahabharata of which
it is a part, is attributed to sage Vyasa,
whose full name was Krishna Dvaipayana, also called Veda-Vyasa.
Another Hindu legend states that Vyasa narrated it while the elephant-headed
deity Ganesha broke one of his tusks and wrote
down the Mahabharata along with the Bhagavad Gita.
Scholars consider Vyasa to be a mythical or
symbolic author, in part because Vyasa is also the traditional compiler of the Vedas and the Puranas,
texts dated to be from different millennia. The word Vyasa literally
means "arranger, compiler", and is a surname in India. According to
Kashi Nath Upadhyaya, a Gita scholar, it is possible that a number of
different individuals with the same name compiled different texts.
Date
Theories on the date of the composition of the
Gita vary considerably. Scholars accept dates from the fifth century to
the second century BCE as the probable range, the later likely. According to
the Indologist Arvind Sharma, the Gita is generally accepted to be a
2nd-century BCE text.
Kashi Nath Upadhyaya, in contrast, dates it a
bit earlier. He states that the Gita was always a part of the Mahabharata,
and dating the latter suffices in dating the Gita. On the basis of the
estimated dates of Mahabharata as evidenced by exact quotes of it in the
Buddhist literature by Asvaghosa (ca. 100 CE),
Upadhyaya states that the Mahabharata, and therefore Gita, must
have been well known by then for a Buddhist to be quoting it. This suggests a terminus
ante quem (latest date) of the Gita to be sometime prior to the
1st-century CE. He cites similar quotes in the Dharmasutra texts, the Brahma
sutras, and other literature to conclude that the Bhagavad Gita was
composed in the fifth or fourth century BCE.
Composition and significance
The Bhagavad Gita is the best known,
and most famous of Hindu scriptures. While Hinduism is known for its diversity
and its synthesis therefrom, the Bhagavad Gita has a unique pan-Hindu
influence.
The Bhagavad Gita is part of the Prasthanatrayi, which also includes the Upanishads and Brahma sutras. These are
the three starting points for the Vedanta
school of Hindu philosophy. The Brahma sutras constitute the Nyaya prasthana
or the "starting point of reasoning canonical base", while the
Principal Upanishads constitute the Sruti prasthāna or the
"starting point of heard scriptures", and the Bhagavad Gita
constitutes the Smriti prasthana or the "starting point of
remembered canonical base". The Bhagavad Gita is a "summation
of the Vedanta", states Sargeant. It is thus one of the key texts for the Vedanta, a school that provides one of the
theoretical foundations for Hinduism, and one that has had an enormous
influence over time, becoming the central ideology of the Hindu renaissance in
the 19th-century, according to Galvin Flood – a scholar of Hinduism.
Some Hindus give it the status of an
Upanishad, and some consider it to be a "revealed text". Others
consider the Bhagavad Gita as an important Smriti,
or secondary text that exist in alternate versions such as one found in Kashmir
though it does not affect the basic message of the text.
The Bhagavad Gita is the sealing
achievement of Hindu Synthesis, incorporating its various religious traditions.
The text refrains from insisting on one right marga (path) to
spirituality. It openly synthesizes and inclusively accepts multiple ways of
life, harmonizing spiritual pursuits through action (karma), knowledge (jnana),
devotion (bhakti). According to the Gita translator
Radhakrishnan, quoted in a review by Robinson, Krishna's discourse is a
"comprehensive synthesis" that inclusively unifies the competing
strands of Hindu thought such as "Vedic ritual, Upanishadic wisdom,
devotional theism and philosophical insight". Aurobindo described the text
as a synthesis of various Yogas. The Indologist
Robert Minor, and others, in contrast, state the Gita is "more
clearly defined as a synthesis of Vedanta, Yoga and Samkhya" philosophies
of Hinduism.
The synthesis in Bhagavad Gita
addresses the question as to what constitutes the virtuous path and one
necessary for the spiritual liberation and a release from the cycles of rebirth
(moksha). It discusses whether one should renounce a householder
lifestyle for a life as an ascetic, or lead a householder life dedicated to
one's duty and profession, or pursue a householder life devoted to a
personalized god in the revealed form of Krishna. Thus Gita discusses
and synthesizes the three dominant trends in Hinduism: enlightenment-based
renunciation, dharma-based householder life, and devotion-based theism.
According to Deutsch and Dalvi, the Bhagavad Gita attempts "to
forge a harmony" between these three paths.
The Bhagavad Gita's synthetic answer
recommends that one must resist the "either-or" view, and consider a
"both-and" view. It states the dharmic householder can achieve the
same goals as the renouncing monk through "inner renunciation", that
is "motiveless action". One must do the right thing because one has
determined that it is right, states Gita, without craving for its
fruits, without worrying about the results, loss or gain. Desires, selfishness
and the craving for fruits can distort one from the dharmic action and
spiritual living. The Gita synthesis goes further, according to its
interpreters such as Swami Vivekananda, and the text states that there is
Living God in every human being and the devoted service to this Living God in
everyone – without craving for personal rewards – is a means to spiritual
development and liberation. According to Galvin Flood, the teachings in Gita
differ from other Indian religions that encouraged extreme austerity and
self-torture of various forms (karsayanta). The Gita disapproves
of these, stating that not only is it against the tradition but against Krishna
himself, because "Krishna dwells within all beings, in torturing the body
the ascetic would be torturing him", states Flood. Even a monk should
strive for the "inner renunciation", rather than external
pretensions.
The Gita synthesizes several paths to
spiritual realization based on the premise that people are born with different
temperaments and tendencies (guna). According to Winthrop Sargeant, the
text acknowledges that some individuals are more reflective and intellectual,
some affective and engaged by their emotions, some are action driven, yet
others favor experimenting and exploring what works. It then presents different
spiritual paths for each personality type respectively: the path of knowledge (jnana
yoga), the path of devotion (bhakti yoga), the path of action (karma
yoga), and the path of meditation (raja yoga). The guna
premise is a synthesis of the ideas from the Samkhya school of Hinduism.
According to Upadhyaya, the Gita states that none of these paths to
spiritual realization are "intrinsically superior or inferior",
rather they "converge in one and lead to the same goal".
Manuscripts
The Bhagavad Gita manuscript is found
in the sixth book of the Mahabharata manuscripts - the Bhisma-parvan.
Therein, in the third section, the Gita forms chapters 23–40, that is
6.3.23 to 6.3.40. The Bhagavad Gita is often preserved and studied on
its own, as an independent text with its chapters renumbered from 1 to 18.
The Bhagavad Gita manuscripts exist in
numerous Indic scripts. These include writing systems that are currently in
use, as well as early scripts such as the Sharada
script now dormant. Variant manuscripts of the Gita have been
found on the Indian subcontinent. Unlike the enormous variations in the
remaining sections of the surviving Mahabharata manuscripts, the Gita
manuscripts show only minor variations and the meaning is the same.
According to Gambhirananda, the old
manuscripts may have had 745 verses, though he agrees that 700 verses as the
generally accepted historic standard. Gambhirananda's view is supported by a
few versions of chapter 6.43 of the Mahabharata. These versions state
the Gita is a text where "Kesava [Krishna] spoke 620 slokas, Arjuna
57, Samjaya 67, and Dhritarashtra 1", states the Religious Studies and Gita
exegesis scholar Robert Minor. This adds to 745 verses. An authentic manuscript
of the Gita with 745 verses has not been found. Of all known extant
historic manuscripts, the largest version contains 715 verses. Adi Shankara, in
his 8th-century commentary, explicitly states that the Gita has 700
verses, which was likely a deliberate declaration in order to prevent further
insertions and changes to the Gita. Since Shankara's time, the "700
verses" has been the standard benchmark for the critical
edition of the Bhagavad Gita.
Content
Structure
The Bhagavad Gita is a poem written in
the Sanskrit language. Its 700 verses are
structured into several ancient Indian poetic meters, with the principal being
the shloka (Anushtubh chanda). Each shloka consists of a
couplet, thus the entire text consists of 1,400 lines. Each shloka line
has two quarter verses with exactly eight syllables. Each of these quarters is
further arranged into "two metrical feet of four syllables each",
state Flood and Martin. The metered verse does not rhyme.While the shloka
is the principal meter in the Gita, it does deploy other elements of Sanskrit prosody. At dramatic moments, it uses the tristubh
meter found in the Vedas, where each line of the couplet has two quarter verses
with exactly eleven syllables.
Narrative
The Gita is a dialogue between Krishna
and Arjuna right before the start of the climactic Kurukshetra
War in the Hindu epic Mahabaharata.Two massive armies have
gathered to destroy the other. The Pandava prince Arjuna asks his charioteer Krishna to drive to the center of the battlefield so
that he can get a good look at both the armies and all those "so eager for
war". He sees that some among his enemies are his own relatives, beloved
friends, and revered teachers. He does not want to fight to kill them and is
thus filled with doubt and despair on the battlefield. He drops his bow,
wonders if he should renounce and just leave the battlefield. He turns to his
charioteer and guide Krishna, for advice on the rationale for war, his choices
and the right thing to do. The Bhagavad Gita is the compilation of
Arjuna's questions and moral dilemma, Krishna's answers and insights that
elaborate on a variety of philosophical concepts. The compiled dialogue goes
far beyond the "a rationale for war", it touches on many human
ethical dilemmas, philosophical issues and life's choices. According to Flood
and Martin, the Gita though set in the war context in a major epic, the
narrative is structured for the abstract to all situations; it wrestles with
questions about "who we are, how we should live our lives, and how should
we act in the world". According to Sargeant, it dwelves into questions
about the "purpose of life, crisis of self-identity, human soul, human
temperaments, and ways for spiritual quest".
Characters
The thematic story of
Arjuna and Krishna at the Kurushetra war became popular in southeast Asia as Hinduism spread there in the
1st-millennium CE.
·
Arjuna, one of the Pandavas
·
Krishna, Arjuna's charioteer and guru who was actually an incarnation of Lord Vishnu
·
Sanjaya, counselor of the Kuru king Dhritarashtra
(secondary narrator)
·
Dhritarashtra, Kuru king (Sanjaya's audience)
Chapters
Bhagavad Gita comprises 18 chapters (section 25 to 42) in the Bhishma Parva of
the epic Mahabharata. 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. The number of verses in each chapter vary in some manuscripts
of the Gita discovered on the Indian subcontinent. However, variant
readings are relatively few in contrast to the numerous versions of the Mahabharata
it is found embedded in, and the meaning is the same.
The original Bhagavad Gita has no
chapter titles. Some Sanskrit editions that separate the Gita from the
epic as an independent text, as well as translators, however, add chapter
titles such as each chapter being a particular form of yoga. For example, Swami Chidbhavananda describes each of the eighteen
chapters as a separate yoga because each chapter, like yoga, "trains the
body and the mind". He labels the first chapter "Arjuna Vishada
Yogam" or the "Yoga of Arjuna's Dejection".
Chapter 1 (46 verses)
Some translators have variously titled the
first chapter as Arjuna vishada yoga, Prathama Adhyaya, The
Distress of Arjuna, The War Within, or Arjuna's Sorrow.
Chapter 2 (72 verses)
Some translators title the chapter as Sankhya
Yoga, The Book of Doctrines, Self-Realization, or The Yoga
of Knowledge (and Philosophy).
Chapter 3 (43 verses)
Some translators title the chapter as Karma
yoga, Virtue in Work, Selfless Service, or The Yoga of
Action.
Chapter 4 (42 verses)
Some translators title the fourth chapter as Ana–Karma-Sanyasa
yoga, The Religion of Knowledge, Wisdom in Action, or The
Yoga of Renunciation of Action through Knowledge.
Chapter 5 (29 verses)
Some translators title this chapter as Karma–Sanyasa
yoga, Religion by Renouncing Fruits of Works, Renounce and
Rejoice, or The Yoga of Renunciation.
Chapter 6 (47 verses)
Some translators title the sixth chapter as Dhyana
yoga, Religion by Self-Restraint, The Practice of Meditation,
or The Yoga of Meditation.
Chapter 7 (30 verses)
Some translators title this chapter as Jnana–Vijnana
yoga, Religion by Discernment, Wisdom from Realization, or The
Yoga of Knowledge and Judgment.
Chapter 8 (28 verses)
Some translators title the chapter as Aksara–Brahma
yoga, Religion by Devotion to the One Supreme God, The Eternal
Godhead, or The Yoga of the Imperishable Brahman.
Chapter 9 (34 verses)
Some translators title the ninth chapter as Raja–Vidya–Raja–Guhya
yoga, Religion by the Kingly Knowledge and the Kingly Mystery, The
Royal Path, or The Yoga of Sovereign Science and Sovereign Secret.
Chapter 10 (42 verses)
Some translators title the chapter as Vibhuti–Vistara–yoga,
Religion by the Heavenly Perfections, Divine Splendor, or The
Yoga of Divine Manifestations.
Chapter 11 (55 verses)
Some translators title the chapter as Visvarupa–Darsana
yoga, The Manifesting of the One and Manifold, The Cosmic Vision,
or The Yoga of the Vision of the Cosmic Form.
Chapter 12 (20 verses)
Some translators title the chapter as Bhakti
yoga, The Religion of Faith, The Way of Love, or The Yoga
of Devotion.
Chapter 13 (35 verses)
Some translators title this chapter as Ksetra–Ksetrajna
Vibhaga yoga, Religion by Separation of Matter and Spirit, The
Field and the Knower, or The Yoga of Difference between the Field and
Field-Knower.
Chapter 14 (27 verses)
Some translators title the fourteenth chapter
as Gunatraya–Vibhaga yoga, Religion by Separation from the Qualities,
The Forces of Evolution, or The Yoga of the Division of Three Gunas.
Chapter 15 (20 verses)
Some translators title the chapter as Purusottama
yoga, Religion by Attaining the Supreme Krishna, The Supreme Self,
or The Yoga of the Supreme Purusha.
Chapter 16 (24 verses)
Some translators title the chapter as Daivasura–Sampad–Vibhaga
yoga, The Separateness of the Divine and Undivine, Two Paths,
or The Yoga of the Division between the Divine and the Demonic.
Chapter 17 (28 verses)
Some translators title the chapter as Sraddhatraya-Vibhaga
yoga, Religion by the Threefold Kinds of Faith, The Power of
Faith, or The Yoga of the Threefold Faith.
Chapter 18 (78 verses)
Some translators title the chapter as Moksha–Sanyasa
yoga, Religion by Deliverance and Renunciation, Freedom and Renunciation,
or The Yoga of Liberation and Renunciation.
Translations
The first English translation of the Bhagavad
Gita was published by Charles Wilkins in
1785. Soon the work was translated into other European languages such as French
(1787), German, and Russian. In 1849, the Weleyan Mission Press, Bangalore
published The Bhagavat-Geeta, Or, Dialogues of Krishna and Arjoon in
Eighteen Lectures, with Sanskrit, Canarese
and English in parallel columns.
The Gita in other languages
The Gita has also been translated into
European languages other than English. In 1808, 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 most significant
French translation of the Gita, according to J. A. B. van Buitenen, was
published by Emile Senart in 1922. Swami
Rambhadracharya released the first Braille
version of the scripture, with the original Sanskrit text and a Hindi
commentary, on 30 November 2007.
The Gita Press
has published the Gita in multiple Indian languages. R.
Raghava Iyengar translated the Gita into Tamil in sandam metre
poetic form. The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust
associated with ISKCON has re-translated and published A. C. Bhaktivedanta
Swami Prabhupada's 1972 English translation of the Gita in 56 non-Indian
languages. Vinoba Bhave written the Geeta in Marathi language as Geetai
i.e. mother geeta in the similar shloka form.
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