LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
| |
Bhagavadgītā |
Gītā or B.G. |
| |
Indian Philosophy by Radhakrishnan |
I.P. |
| |
Mahābhārata |
M.B. |
| |
Śaṁkara |
S. |
| |
Śaṁkara's Commentary on the Brahma Sūtra |
S.B. |
| |
Śaṁkara's Commentary on the Bhagavadgītā |
S.B.G. |
| |
Rāmānuja |
R. |
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Upaniṣad |
Up. |
9
CONTENTS
| |
|
PAGE |
| |
Preface |
5 |
| |
List of Abbreviations |
8 |
| |
The Bhagavadgītā |
10 |
| |
Introductory Essay |
11 |
| CHAPTER |
|
|
| I. |
The Hesitation and Despondency of Arjuna |
79 |
| II. |
Śaṁkhya Theory and Yoga practice |
98 |
| III. |
Karma Yoga or the Method of Work |
131 |
| IV. |
The Way of Knowledge |
151 |
| V. |
True Renunciation |
174 |
| VI. |
The True Yoga |
187 |
| VII. |
God and the World |
212 |
| VIII. |
The Course of Cosmic Evolution |
226 |
| IX. |
The Lord is more than His Creation |
237 |
| X. |
God is the Source of All; to know Him is to know all |
256 |
| XI. |
The Lord's Transfiguration |
269 |
| XII. |
Worship of the Personal Lord is better than Meditation of the Absolute |
291 |
| XIII. |
The Body called the Field, the Soul called the Knower of the Field and Discrimination between Them |
300 |
| XIV. |
The Mystical Father of All Beings |
314 |
| XV. |
The Tree of Life |
326 |
| XVI. |
The Nature of the Godlike and the Demoniac Mind |
334 |
| XVII. |
The Three Modes applied to Religious Phenomena |
342 |
| XVIII. |
Conclusion |
351 |
| |
Bibliography |
384 |
| |
Index |
385 |
THE BHAGAVADGĪTĀ
Taught by the blessed Nārāyana Himself to Arjuna, complied by Vyāsa, the ancient seer, in the middle of the Mahābhārata, I meditate on Thee, O Mother, O Bhagavadgītā, the blesses, of eighteen chapters, the bestower of the nectar of non-dualistic wisdom, the destroyer of rebirth.1
"This famous Gītāṡāstra is an epitome of the essentials of the whole Vedic teaching. A knowledge of its teaching leads to the realization of all human aspirations."2
"I find a solace in the Bhagavadgītā that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount. When disappointment stares me in the face and all alone I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagavadgītā. I find a verse here and a verse there and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies-and my life has been full of external tragedies-and if they have left no visible, no indelible scar on me, I owe it all to the teachings of the Bhagavadgītā." M. K. Gandhi, Young India (1925), pp. 1078-1079.
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1 auṁ pārthāya pratibodhitāṁ bhagavatā nārāyaṇena svayam
vyāsena grathitāṁ purāṇamuninā madhye mahābhāratām
advaitāmṛtavarṣiṇīm bhagavatīm aṣtādaṡādhyāyinīm
amba tvām anusandadhāmi bhagavadgīte bhavadveṣiṇīm.
2 samastavedārthasārasaṁgrahabhūtam…samastapuruṣārthasiddhim.
S.B.G. Introduction.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
1. Importance of the Works
The Bhagavadgītā is more is more a religious classic than a philosophical treatise. It is not an esoteric work designed for and understood by the specially initiated but a popular poem which helps even those "who wander in the region of the many and variable." It gives utterance to the aspirations of the pilgrims of all sects who seek to tread the inner way to the city of God. We touch reality most deeply, where men struggle, fail and triumph. Millions of Hindus,1 for centuries, have found comfort in this great book which sets forth in precise and penetrating words the essential principles of a spiritual religion which are not contingent on ill-founded facts, unscientific dogmas or arbitrary fancies. With a long history ...
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1 The Gītā has exercised an influence that extended in the early times to China and Japan and latterly to the lands of the West. The two chief works of Mahāyāna Buddhism, Mahāyānaṡraddhotpatti (The Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna) and Saddharmapuṇḍarīka (The Lotus of the True Law) are deeply indebted to the teaching of the Gītā. It is interesting to observe that the official exponent of “the German Faith,” J. W. Hauer, s Sanskrit scholar who served for some years as a missionary in India, gives to the Gītā a central place in the German faith. He calls it “a work of imperishable significance.” He declares that the book “give us not only profound insights that are valid for all times and for all religious life, but it contains as well the classical presentation of one of the most significant phases of Indo-Germanic religious history…. It shows us the way as regards the essential nature and basal characteristic of Indo-Germanic religion. Here spirit is at work that belongs to our spirit.” He states the central message of the Gītā in these words: “We are not called to solve the meaning of life but to find out the Deed demanded of us and to work and so, by action, to master the riddle of life.” (Quote in the Hibbert Journal, April 1940, p. 341.) The Gītā, however, bases its message of action on a philosophy of life. It requires us to know the meaning of life before we engage in action. It does not advocate a fanatical devotion to the practical to the disparagement of the dignity of thought. Its philosophy of the practical is derivative from its philosophy of spirit, brahmvidyāntargatakarmayogaṡāstra. Ethical action is derived from metaphysical realization. Ṡ. urges that the essential purpose of the Gītā is to teach us a way out of bondage and not merely enjoin action, ṡokamohādisaṁsārakarmanivṛtyarthaṁ gītāṡātram, na pravartakam.
12
...of spiritual power, it serves even today as a light to all who will receive illumination from the profundity of its wisdom which insists on a world wider and deeper than wars and revolutions can touch. It is a powerful shaping factor in the renewal of spiritual life and has secured an assured place among the world's great scriptures.
The teaching of the Gītā is not presented as a metaphysical system thought out by an individual thinker or school of thinkers. It is set forth as a tradition which has emerged from the religious life of mankind. It is articulated by a profound seer who sees truth in its many-sidedness and believes in its saving power. It represents not any sect of Hinduism but Hinduism as a whole, not merely Hinduism but religion as such, in its universality, without limit of time or space,1 embracing within its synthesis the whole gamut of the human spirit, from the crude fetishism of the savage to the creative affirmations of the saint. The suggestions set forth in the Gītā about the meaning and value of existence, the sense of eternal values and the way in which the ultimate mysteries are illumined by the light of reason and moral intuition provide the basis for agreement in mind and spirit so very essential for keeping together the world which has become materially one by the universal acceptance of the externals of civilization.
As the colophon indicates, the Bhagavadgītā is both metaphysics and ethics, brahmavidyā and yogaśāstra, the science of reality and the art of union with reality. The truths of spirit can be apprehended only by those who prepare themselves for their reception by rigorous discipline. We must cleanse the mind of all distraction and purge the heart from all corruption, to acquire spiritual wisdom2. Again, the…
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1 Cp. Aldous Huxley: “The Gītā is one of the clearest and most comprehensive summaries of Perennial Philosophy ever to have been made. Hence its enduring value, not only for Indians, but for all mankind…. The Bhagavadgītā is perhaps the most systematic spiritual statement of the Perennial Philosophy.” Introduction to the Bhagavadgītā by Svāmi Prabhavānanda and Christopher Isherwood (1945).
Svāmi Prabhavānanda, Indian philosopher, monk of the Ramamkrishna Order,
(Dec.26, 1893 - July 4, 1976) (source: picture: vedanta.org, text: en.wikipedia.org, Retrieved date: July 2, 2017)
Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood (Aug.26, 1904 - Jan.4, 1986)
(source: picture: www.azquotes.com, text: en.wikipedia.org, Retrieved date July 2, 2017)
Aldous Leonard Huxley (Jul.26, 1894 - Nov.22, 1963), Writer, Novelist
(source: picture: www.returnofkings, text: en.wikipedia.org, Retrieved date July 3, 2017)
2 Cp. Jyotir ātmani nānyatra samaṁ tat sarvajantuṣu sayaṁ ca śakyate draṣṭuṁ susamāhitacetasā.
“God’s light dwells in the self and nowhere else. It shines alike in every living being and one can see it with one’s mind steadied.”
