Bhagavad Gita

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Bhagavad G?t?

The Bhagavad G?t? (Sanskrit, "The Song of the Lord") is the single most popular and influential religious text of the Hindu tradition. The exact dating of its writing is difficult; the best estimates are between 400 b.c.e. and 400 c.e. (Indian scholars generally prefer earlier dates than those of their Western counterparts.) Though it is self-contained and reads as an independent work, its seven hundred Sanskrit verses (divided into three sections and eighteen chapters) are placed in the sixth major book (Bhi?maparvan) of the Indian national epic the Mah?bh?rata, attributed to the sage Vyasa. This epic, an enormous collection of Indian legends, romances, royal history, theology, and philosophy, tells the story of a great Indian civil war (ca. 1200 b.c.e.?) between two royal factions, the Pandus and the Kurus. The G?t? begins as the leader of the Pandus, Arjuna, and his four brothers mass their troops to confront the evil forces of their usurping cousins and reclaim the kingdom that is rightfully theirs. In the face of the impending mass slaughter of relatives and friends on both sides, Arjuna, confused as to his true duty (dharma), refuses to begin the bloody conflict. His charioteer, Lord K???a (Krishna) who happens to be the supreme God incarnate, resolves his perplexity in an ongoing dialogue that clarifies and summarizes not only Arjuna's duty but also the nature of life, God, and the three paths to spiritual liberation.

The Message

K???a urges Arjuna to uphold his caste duty as a warrior and fight. Arjuna's confusion reflects a transition in Indian society from a tribal level whose worldview, the karma or action path, is focused on caste duty and priestly rituals, to a more complex society focused on growing feudal kingdoms and their expanding commerce and warfare. This social revolution helped to engender new religious movements: on one side a retreat into introspective, impersonal (and often nontheistic) mysticism, the jñ?na Yoga or knowledge path, and on the other the rise of personal devotion to a single chosen deity, the bhakti or devotional path. In advising Arjuna, K???a reinterprets the ancient karma Yoga path; while acknowledging the path of jñ?na Yoga that threatens to divert Arjuna from his social duty. He steers Arjuna, and Indian society as a whole, toward an active engagement with life, fulfilling traditional social duties with heartfelt bhakti to the supreme personal God. Any action, according to K???a, not just sacrificial rituals, performed as duty and without attachment to the results, can be a path of spiritual discipline (Yoga) that brings salvation. "Your claim is to action alone, never to its fruits; don't let the fruits of action be your motive, nor attach yourself to inactivity" (II.47). The easiest path to attain this equanimity in action is the discipline of devotional surrender (bhakti Yoga) to the Lord. "With mind fixed on Me you shall pass over all problems through my grace. . . ." (XVIII.58). Although three main paths to liberation are put forward, it is the bhakti path, supplemented by action and knowledge, that K???a emphasizes. Certainly K???a's awesome revelation to Arjuna of his "universal form" in chapter XI is a vision of the divine unique in world religious literature in its sheer intensity. Even so, the Bhagavad G?t?'s interpreters have never agreed on its fundamental message, either in India or in the West. The text is poetic, unsystematic, and filled with philosophical ambiguity and a variety of viewpoints drawn (sometimes verbatim) from the Upani?ads (Upanishads), early S??khya philosophy, and the devotional Bh?gavata movement. The genius of the text is just this mix, which appeals to different inclinations and social strata, opening Hindu religion to all, whether in the village or the city, male or female, high caste or low. The ambiguity and variety of viewpoints bolster reconciliation and acceptance of diverse paths to salvation. Traditionally it is read by worshipers of Vi??u (Vishnu) as well as ?iva (Shiva), the two principal deities of Hinduism. Leaders of the chief Hindu philosophical schools have each written important commentaries interpreting the G?t? for their own support. ?ankara (eighth century), whose commentary is the oldest, saw it as a bulwark of absolute nondualism emphasizing jñ?na-Yoga; Ram?nuja (eleventh century) read it as qualified nondualism, and Madhva (thirteenth century) as dualism, both emphasizing bhakti Yoga. Nationalists seized upon it as a karma Yoga path to inspire their struggle for independence from British rule. Indeed, only since 1880 and the Hindu "renaissance" has the G?t? achieved wide popularity beyond scholarly circles, often as a symbol of national unity and a prod toward political action. B. G. Tilak (1856–1920) used it to justify violence in the name of patriotic duty and defense of traditional caste structures, whereas Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) relied on it to inspire nonviolent resistance to foreign rule and abolition of caste untouchability. In Indian law courts today Hindus swear with their right hand on the G?t?.

The Bhagavad G?t? in the West

The G?t? has been translated more often than any book except the Bible. The first English translation was by Charles Wilkins in 1785. In the United States the Transcendentalists were the first to celebrate the romantic appeal of Eastern wisdom. Both Emerson and Thoreau praised the G?t? in glowing terms and found in it an apparent confirmation of their own viewpoints, valuing inner discipline and intuiting the divine spirit in nature.

With a famous speech of Swami Vivekananda in 1893 at the Chicago World's Parliament of Religions, Americans became aware of a newly invigorated Hinduism, relying on the Bhagavad G?t? as its central text. This Hindu missionary succeeded in planting several chapters of a Hindu religious organization, the Vedanta Society, in American cities. At about the same time Madame H. P. Blavatsky's Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875, began to emphasize Hindu themes and promote its own influential translations of the G?t? by William Q. Judge in the United States and by Annie Besant in Great Britain, both emphasizing the allegorical and occult dimensions of the text and little informed by the Indian context. Gandhi himself, according to Eric Sharp, first encountered the G?t? in England in this theosophical milieu and popularized an allegorical rather than a historical or critical interpretation.

Among other influential readings of the G?t? in the twentieth century is that of the poet T. S. Eliot, who found inspiration in the text's vision of time and in the selfless path of karma Yoga. However, by far the greatest surge of Western interest in the G?t? took place in the religious counterculture of the 1960s, which, dissatisfied with traditional religion and social norms, encouraged millions of young people to experiment with new forms of consciousness and new types of religious experience. In this efflorescence of religious experimentation, disciplines (Yogas) of the East became widespread and popular. The Bhagavad G?t? held pride of place—no important teacher of meditation, yoga postures, or devotional worship in the Hindu mode could ignore its authority or refrain from commenting on its interpretation. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the Transcendental Meditation movement, emphasized the jñ?na-Yoga of the first third of the G?ta to millions of followers. Likewise, Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna movement (International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON), made his literal interpretation—The Bhagavad G?t?, As It Is —the center of his own worldwide bhakti Yoga teaching. Famous stars such as the Beatles echoed and amplified these Indian movements by mixing their religious themes with psychedelic music.

From the 1970s the religious counterculture continued to blend the Theosophy and New Thought from the beginning of the twentieth century with Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu themes. These movements understood themselves as heralds of an evolutionary "New Age" of human spiritual development. Such New Age movements often found the diverse yogic paths of the G?t? congenial to their eclectic approach, harmonizing Eastern and Christian elements.

At the same time, starting with a liberalization of U.S. immigration laws in 1965, an increasing number of Indians immigrated to the United States and soon made their own ethnic religious identities felt. More than a million strong by 1999, Hindu groups now have multiple temples, most with regular G?t? study classes, in all major American cities.

The growth of interest in Eastern philosophy and religion that burgeoned in the late 1960s also promoted the academic study of non-Western religions. Today more than four hundred institutions of higher learning feature religious studies programs, and the Bhagavad G?t?, because of its beauty and accessibility, continues to be one of the most widely read and studied of world scriptures.