Welcome To HVBARI'S World of Knowledge: What is Bhagavad-Gita

What is Bhagavad-Gita

|| Yada Yada Hi Dharmasya, Glanir Bhavathi Bharatha,
Abhyudhanama Dharmasya,Dhatatmanam Srijamyahan,
Paritranaya Sadhunam,Vinashaya Cha Dushkrutam,
Dharmasansthapanarthaya, Sambhavaami Yuge Yuge ||

Meaning:
Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligious--at that time I descend Myself.

                 The Bhagavad-Gita or the sacred song, is a Hindu poem with deep philosophy, spirituality and divinity embodied in it. It primarily is a wartime counsel between Krishna and his disciple/relative warrior Arjuna.The Mahabharata war in this great book was only a pretext, he felt. It was an allegory. In fact, it represented a battle going on, within every individual. Mahabharata war might not be historical as it exists today. Poet Vyasa, used it as background to preach real dharma. Even winning the war did not bring happiness. Along with tremendous losses, it brought only regret and remorse to all. It proved that mere material gains never brought peace within. Bhagavad Gita is one of the most revered of Indian scriptures. Though it is much later than the Vedas, and does not constitute part of the revealed literature of the Hindus, it occupies a distinct and in some respects unrivaled place in Indian philosophical and religious literature. While it is almost conventional to view it is a separate text, it is in fact a part of the Mahabharata, and relays the teachings of Krishna to Arjuna.

                The Bhagavad-Gita," a translation, occurs as an episode in the Maha-Bharata, and is regarded as one of the gems of Hindu literature. The poem is a dialogue between Prince Arjuna, the brother of King Yudhisthira, and Vishnu, the Supreme God, incarnated as Krishna, and wearing the disguise of a charioteer. The conversation takes place in a war-chariot, stationed between the armies of the Kauravas and Pandavas, who are about to engage in battle.

The occasion for these teachings was furnished by the Great War between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, who are also related to each other. As the battle is about to begin, Arjuna, one of the five Pandava princes, throws down his bow and arrow, and confesses his inability to kill his own cousins and kinsmen, as well as those revered teachers who had been the common tutors of the Kauravas and Pandavas. Krishna then delivers an oration, urging Arjuna to perform his duty, to be the warrior that he is, and it is these teachings that are encapsulated in the Bhagavad Gita, the Song of the Lord.

               The teachings of the Gita have been the subject of much interpretation. The Gita counsels us to retain our equanimity, and says unequivocally that the sthitha-prajna, or the being preserved in wisdom, is moved to neither excessive joy nor excessive sorrow. Krishna is understood as recommending that we must fulfill our duties, but never with an eye to being rewarded for our activities; and that whatever travails the flesh may be heir to, the soul is always immortal. Thus, truly speaking, we do not have it within our power to kill anyone, nor can we be killed by anyone; and if Arjuna should imagine that he has such power, he has failed to understand the nature of the divine. The Gita lays out several paths to emancipation: for those inclined towards activity or service to humankind through works, there is karma yoga, just as those inclined towards devotion can practice bhakti yoga. The intellectually inclined can veer towards jnana yoga, the path of knowledge and intellectual discrimination. The eleventh chapter contains some of the most celebrated verses of the Gita. As these teachings have been delivered by Krishna, who however appears in human form, and that too as as the humble charioteer of Arjuna, the Pandava prince must be brought to the realization that he is in the presence of the Lord himself. Krishna consequently reveals to Arjuna his cosmic form, and Arjuna is dazzled by the vision of the Supreme Deity.

             The Bhagavad-Gita contains divine words emanating from the lips of God Himself. Its glory is infininte, unlimited. None can really describe it. Even Sesa, the thousand headed serpant-god, whose back forms the couch of God Vishnu, and Siva and Ganesa, cannot fully depict this glory. How can a puny mortal expect to do it?

          The Epics and Puranas etc., have sung the glory of Gita at many places; but if all those words of praise are brought together, even then it cannot be declared that the praise of the Gita has been exhausted. The fact is that a full description of the glory of the Gita is never possible. For how can thing which can be fully described remain unlimited?

It at once becomes finite and limited.

As a scripture, the Gita embodies the supreme spiritual mystry and secret. It contains the essence of all the four Vedas. Its style is so simple and elegant that after a study man can easily follow the structure of its words; but the thought behind those words is so deep and abstruse that even a lifelong, constant study does not show one the end of it.

About Vedavyasa : Vedavyasa is the divine saint and incarnation who authored the Srimad Bhagavatam, Vedanta Sutra, the 108 Puranas, composed and divided the Vedas into the Rik, Yajur, Artharva and Sama Vedas, and wrote the the great historical treatise Mahabharata known as the fifth Veda. His full name is Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa and he was the son of sage Parasara and mother Satyavati.

It is revealed in the Vedic scripture Bhavisya Purana III.VII.II that the fifth Veda written by Vedavyasa is called the Mahabharata.

Some quotes from famous personalities across the world on the Bhagavad Gita:

Mahatma Gandhi
    "When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagavad-gita and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. Those who meditate on the Gita will derive fresh joy and new meanings from it every day."

Albert Einstein
    "When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous."

Dr. Albert Schweitzer
    "The Bhagavad-Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of mankind by its devotion to God which is manifested by actions."

Henry David Thoreau
    "In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial."

Aldous Huxley
    "The Bhagavad-Gita is the most systematic statement of spiritual evolution of endowing value to mankind. It is one of the most clear and comprehensive summaries of perennial philosophy ever revealed; hence its enduring value is subject not only to India but to all of humanity."

Carl Jung
    "The idea that man is like unto an inverted tree seems to have been current in by gone ages. The link with Vedic conceptions is provided by Plato in his Timaeus in which it states 'behold we are not an earthly but a heavenly plant.' This correlation can be discerned by what Krishna expresses in chapter 15 of Bhagavad-Gita."

Herman Hesse
    "The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life's wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion."

Ralph Waldo Emerson
    "I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavad-gita. 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."

Selected Best Of Bhagavad-Gita Quotes : Read Here

~HVBARI~

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