[Assam] SrimadBhagabat by XoncorDev of Oxom(Assam) is Based on the Gita. The Gita was supposed to be initially spoken by the Sun God to King Parixkhit. This article says otherwise ie. Human kind penned this one also, incorporating pre-existing philosophies!

[Bartta Bistar]

The Historical Context of *The Bhagavad
Gita*<http://eawc.evansville.edu/anthology/gita.htm>
and Its Relation to Indian Religious Doctrines

Soumen De

http://eawc.evansville.edu/essays/de.htm

*The Bhagavad Gita* <http://eawc.evansville.edu/anthology/gita.htm> is
perhaps the most famous, and definitely the most widely-read, ethical text
of ancient India. As an episode in India's great epic, the Mahabharata, *The
Bhagavad Gita* now ranks as one of the three principal texts that define and
capture the essence of Hinduism; the other two being the Upanishads and the
Brahma Sutras. Though this work contains much theology, its kernel is
ethical and its teaching is set in the context of an ethical problem. The
teaching of *The Bhagavad Gita* is summed up in the maxim "your business is
with the deed and not with the result." When Arjuna, the third son of king
Pandu (dynasty name: Pandavas) is about to begin a war that became
inevitable once his one hundred cousins belonging to the Kaurava dynasty
refused to return even a few villages to the five Pandava brothers after
their return from enforced exile, he looks at his cousins, uncles and
friends standing on the other side of the battlefield and wonders whether he
is morally prepared and justified in killing his blood relations even though
it was he, along with his brother Bhima, who had courageously prepared for
this war. Arjuna is certain that he would be victorious in this war since he
has Lord Krishna (one of the ten incarnations of Vishnu) on his side. He is
able to visualize the scene at the end of the battle; the dead bodies of his
cousins lying on the battlefield, motionless and incapable of vengeance. It
is then that he looses his nerve to fight.

The necessity for the arose because the one hundred cousins of the Panadavas
refused to return the kingdom to the Pandavas as they had originally
promised. The eldest of the Pandav brothers, Yudhisthir, had lost his entire
kingdom fourteen years ago to the crafty Kaurava brothers in a game of dice,
and was ordered by his cousins to go on a fourteen-year exile. The conflict
between the Pandavas and the Kauravas brewed gradually when the Kauravas
refused to return the kingdom to the Panadavas and honor the agreement after
the fourteen-year exile, and escalated to a full scale war when the Kauravas
refused to even grant Yudhisthir's reduced demand for a few villages instead
of the entire kingdom. As the battle is about to begin, Arjuna, himself an
acclaimed warrior, wonders how he could kill his own blood relatives with
whom he had grown up as a child. He puts the battle on hold and begins a
conversation with Krishna, one of the ten but most important incarnations of
the Universal Hindu God, Vishnu. *The Bhagavad Gita* begins here and ends
with Krishna convincing Arjuna that in the grand scheme of things, he is
only a pawn. The best he could do is do his duty and not question God's
will. It was his duty to fight. In convincing Arjuna, the Lord Krishna
provides a philosophy of life and restores Arjuna's nerve to begin the
battle -- a battle that had been stalled because the protagonist had lost
his nerve and needed time to reexamine his moral values.

Even though *The Bhagavad Gita* (hereafter referred to as the *Gita*) is one
of the three principal texts that define the essence of Hinduism, and since
all over the world Hindus chant from the *Gita* during most of their
religious ceremonies, strictly speaking the *Gita* is not one of the Hindu
scriptures. In light of its inseparable links to one of the two great Hindu
epics (Mahabharata and Ramayana) which most Indians hold very dear to their
hearts, and because Krishna, the most venerated and popular of the
incarnations of Lord Vishnu, figures so prominently in it, the *Gita* over
the years has not only become very popular but has ascended to spiritual
heights that are afforded only to the Vedas (and the subsequent
reinterpretive philosophies that followed them) and the Upanishads in the
ancient Indian literature. The concept and symbol of God were extremely
complicated issues (see below) in the ancient Hindu religious literature
prior to the writing of the *Gita*. The notion of God and the paths to
salvation are integral parts of all religions. The manner in which Hinduism
originally dealt with these two fundamental issues was very complex and
appeared to be too speculative at times. This was one of the reasons for
which Buddhism branched out as a separate religion. When Buddhism was
beginning to grow in popularity, Hinduism met with its first challenge: To
provide a clear-cut, easy-to-worship symbol of God to its followers. For a
variety of reasons, Lord Krishna was the obvious choice. Many have even
suggested that it was one of the most pivotal choices ever made by ancient
scholars to `humanize' the concept of God in the Hindu religion. Molded in
the original image of Lord Vishnu, Krishna is an affable Avatar
(reincarnation of God) which for the first time provided concrete guidelines
for living to all mortals. The average Hindu might not know much about
Brahma, but every one knows who Lord Krishna is. Mahatma Gandhi read the *
Gita* often when he was in seclusion and in prison.

But, the universal popularity of the *Gita* has not detracted Indian
scholars from deviating from the fundamental truth about Hinduism. The *Gita
* is not the Hindu scripture even though the literal translation of
"Bhagavad Gita" is "The Song of God". The Nobel laureate Indian poet,
Rabindra Nath Tagore, rarely quoted from the *Gita* in his philosophical
writings; instead, he chose to refer to the Upanishads, to quote from it,
and to use its teachings in his own works. Of course, the teachings of the
Upanishads are included in the *Gita*; they are visible in multiple chapters
of the *Gita*. The kinetic concepts of karma and yoga, which appeared for
the first time in the Upanishads (explained below), appear repeatedly in the
*Gita*, often in disguised forms.

As with almost every religious Indian text, it is difficult to pinpoint when
exactly the *Gita* was written. Without a doubt, it was written over a
period of centuries by many writers. From the contents of the *Gita*, it is
abundantly clear that both the principal teachings of the Upanishads and of
early Buddhism were familiar to the writers of the *Gita*. So, it has been
approximated that the *Gita* was written during the period
500<http://eawc.evansville.edu/chronology/time.cgi?-500>
-200 BCE <http://eawc.evansville.edu/chronology/time.cgi?-200>. Even though
India is one of the few nations which has a continuous documented history,
very few Indian religious texts exists for which the exact date of
publication is established without controversy.

Despite its universal appeal, the *Gita* is replete with contradictions both
at the fundamental level and at the highest level of philosophical
discourse. To the discerning eye, it would seem that what has been said in
the previous chapter, is contradicted in the very next chapter. This is the
fundamental complaint against the *Gita*, and this fact would appear to be
ironic given the fact that the *Gita* was originally written to reconcile
the differences between two of the six major ancient Indian philosophies
(Darshans) that evolved over the early years of Hinduism and became integral
parts of ancient Indian religious literature. The irony disappears however
when one understands what the *Gita* purported to achieve at the level of
philosophical and religious discourse. This fact is crucial not only for the
understanding of the principal themes of the *Gita* but also to locate the
essence of the *Gita* in the overall picture of ancient Indian doctrines.
The *Gita* attempted, for the first time, to reconcile the teachings of two
very abstract Indian religious doctrines into one whole. The task was a
formidable one.

The *Gita* tried to include the fundamentals of two ancient Indian
philosophies into one document and reconcile the principal differences
between them. At the outset, one must note that the two doctrines (Darshans)
were often extremely difficult to understand. Hence the inevitable
contradictions or duality of interpretation. The Six Darshans of ancient
India were actually of differing origin and purpose, but all were brought
into the scheme by being recognized as viable ways of salvation. They were
divided into three groups of two complementary schools of thought (Darshans)
or doctrines: Nyaya and Vaisesika; Sankhyya and Yoga; and Mimamsha and
Vedanta. *The Bhagavad Gita* attempted to reconcile the Sankhyya philosophy
with those of the Vedanta doctrine. One must note in passing that the
Sankhyya school of thought led to Buddhism while the Vedanta philosophy is
at the root of modern Hinduism. In this article, we are only going to
discuss briefly the two Darshans -- the Sankhyya and the Vedanta -- the *
Gita* attempted to reconcile.

The Sankhyya is the oldest of the six Darshans while the Vedanta is the most
important of the six systems. The various subsystems of the Vedanta doctrine
has led to the emergence of modern intellectual Hinduism. The primary text
of the Vedanta system is the Brahma Sutras, and its doctrines were derived
in great part from the Upanishads, which marked the beginning of Hinduism as
is understood and practiced today. Even though the Vedas are India's ancient
sacred texts, modern Hinduism begins with the Vedanta (end of Vedas) and
attains its zenith with the Brahma Sutras.

The Sankhyya philosophy traces the origins of everything to the interplay of
Prakriti (nature) and Purusha (the Self, to be differentiated from the
concept of the soul in the latter Indian philosophies). These two separate
entities have always existed and their interplay is at the root of all
reality. The concept of God is conspicuous by its absence. There is no
direct mention of God but only a passing reference as to how one should
liberate himself to attain the realization of Is war (a heavenly entity). A
very significant feature of Sankhyya is the doctrine of the three
constituent qualities (gunas), causing virtue (sattva), passion (rajas), and
dullness (tamas). On the other hand, the Vedanta school of thought deals
with the concept of Brahman the ultimate reality that is beyond all logic
and encompasses not only the concepts of being and non-being but also all
the phases in between. It is one of the most difficult concepts in the
entire Indian philosophy. At the highest level of truth, the entire universe
of phenomena, including the gods themselves, was unreal -- the world was
Maya, illusion, a dream, a mirage, a fragment of the imagination. The only
reality is Brahman.

One can see quite clearly the sources for the *Gita's* contradictions. It
was dealing with not only two widely-differing Darshans but also with two of
the most abstract philosophical systems. We know that the *Gita* was written
long after the emergence of modern Hinduism. So it was able to draw on a
wide variety of philosophical themes -- both ancient and relatively modern
by comparison, and often opposing -- still present in modern Hinduism. Yet,
to consolidate the two schools of thoughts proved to be an extremely
difficult task -- a fact which the lyricism of the *Gita*, in the words of
Lord Krishna himself, could not camaflouge. Any serious reader would arrive
at the conclusion that even though the *Gita* mentions the Sankhyya, it more
or less elaborates on ideas that originated with the Upanishads.

The fundamental tenets of Hinduism took shape during the period
800<http://eawc.evansville.edu/chronology/time.cgi?-800>
-500 BCE <http://eawc.evansville.edu/chronology/time.cgi?-500>. They were
set down in a series of treaties called the Upanishads. The Upanishads arise
at the end of the Vedas, which earns it the name Veda-anta, which literally
means "end (anta) of the Vedas." Almost all philosophy and religion in India
rests upon the wealth of speculation contained in these works. The
Upanishads center on the inner realms of the spirit. Encompassing the
meaning of spiritual unity, the Upanishads point directly to the Divine
Unity which pervades all of nature and is identical to the self.

There are four "kinetic ideas" -- ideas that involve action or motion --
that represent the core of Indian spirituality. The ultimate objective is
control of the passions and to realize a state of void -- a concept very
similar to that of Buddhism. The four kinetic ideas are "karma, maya,
nirvana, and yoga" and they appear in the *Gita*. But one must remember that
they appeared for the first time in the Upanishads. A brief summary of the
four ideas are provided below.

Karma: The law of universal causality, which connects man with the cosmos
and condemns him to transmigrate -- to move from one body to another after
death -- indefinitely. In the *Gita*, Krishna makes an allusion to the
eternal soul that moves from body to body as it ascends or descends the
ladder of a given hierarchy, conditioned on the nature of one's own karma --
work of life or life deeds.

Maya: refers to cosmic illusion; the mysterious process that gives rise to
phenomena and maintains the cosmos. According to this idea, the world is not
simply what is seems to the human senses -- a view with which the 20th
century western scientists wholly agree. Absolute reality, situated
somewhere beyond the cosmic illusion woven by maya and beyond human
experience as conditioned by karma. Both Tagore, the renowned Indian poet
and Albert Einstein, the famous scientist, agreed on this conclusion.
Absolute reality, in their minds, was beyond human perception.

Nirvana: The state of absolute blessedness, characterized by release from
the cycle of reincarnations; freedom from the pain and care of the external
world; bliss. Union with God or Atman. Hindus call such mystical union with
ultimate reality as Samandhi or Moksha.

Yoga: implies integration; bringing all the faculties of the psyche under
the control of the self. Essentially, the object of various types of yoga is
mind control, and the system lays down the effectual techniques of gaining
liberation and achieving divine union. The word yoga is loosely applied to
any program or technique which leads toward the union with God or Atman.
There are five principal kinds of yoga: Hatha(physical), jnana (the way of
knowledge), bhakti (the way of love), karma (the way of work), and rajah
(mystical experience).

The Western world's interest in *The Bhagavad Gita* began around the end of
the eighteenth century when the first English translation of the *Gita* was
published. All religious texts of ancient India were written in Sanskrit. In
November 1784, the first direct translation of a Sanskrit work into English
was completed by Charles Wilkins. The book that was translated was *The
Bhagavad Gita*. Friedreich Max Mueller (1823-1900), the German Sanskritist
who spent most of his working life as Professor of Comparative Philology at
Oxford University, served as the chief editor of the Sacred Books of the
East. (Oxford University Press). The *Gita* was included in this famous
collection. Since then, the *Gita* has become one of the most widely-read
texts of the world. True, there are unexplained contradictions and paradoxes
in this brief book, but its wide-ranging implications based on the two
ancient Darshans of India and its allegorical meanings are still being
examined and reinterpreted.
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Copyright (c) 1996. Soumen De. This file may be copied for educational and
personal use
on the condition that the entire contents, including the header and this
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It may not be sold for profit without the written permission of the author.
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