[58], Some Hindus give it the status of an Upanishad, and some consider it to be a "revealed text". [63][64][65], The Bhagavad Gita is the sealing achievement of Hindu Synthesis, incorporating its various religious traditions. [18][112][113] In this chapter, Krishna glorifies the path of love and devotion to God. [182] However, this action should "not simply follow spiritual injunctions", without any attachment to personal rewards or because of craving for fruits. I suppose we all thought that, one way or another. [108][web 3] 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". [225] Several modern Indian writers have interpreted the battlefield setting as an allegory of "the war within". One who is born is bound to die , and one who is DYING is bound to be reborn, unless one is able to get God 's grace to get liberated or attain Moksham. [120] Those who act selflessly for the right cause and strive to do their dharmic duty do God's work. According to Deutsch and Dalvi, the Bhagavad Gita attempts "to forge a harmony" between these three paths. According to Fowler, the bhakti in the Gita does not imply renunciation of "action", but the bhakti effort is assisted with "right knowledge" and dedication to one's dharma. [97] While the shloka is the principal meter in the Gita, it does deploy other elements of Sanskrit prosody. [233][note 17], Other scholars such as Steven Rosen, Laurie L. Patton and Stephen Mitchell have seen in the Gita a religious defense of the warrior class's (Kshatriya Varna) duty (svadharma), which is to conduct combat and war with courage and do not see this as only an allegorical teaching, but also a real defense of just war. [222] War is depicted as a horror, the impending slaughter a cause of self-doubts, yet at stake is the spiritual struggle against evil. [83][84] The guna premise is a synthesis of the ideas from the Samkhya school of Hinduism. The Bhagavad Gita is the story of an ancient battle in the 3D matrix of the mind, and foundation of Hindu philosophy. [82], The Gita synthesizes several paths to spiritual realization based on the premise that people are born with different temperaments and tendencies (guna). and land for the sake of acquiring merit, both are guided by the presiding For Dnyaneshwar, people err when they see themselves distinct from each other and Krishna, and these distinctions vanish as soon as they accept, understand and enter with love unto Krishna. [40] According to the Indologist Arvind Sharma, the Gita is generally accepted to be a 2nd-century-BCE text. 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. 3. [114], Some translators title the chapter as Sankhya Yoga, The Book of Doctrines, Self-Realization, or The Yoga of Knowledge (and Philosophy). [347] According to Jimmy Klausen, Ambedkar in his essay Krishna and his Gita stated that the Gita was a "tool" of Brahmanical Hinduism and for its latter-day saints such as Mahatma Gandhi and Lokmanya Tilak. [159], Some translators title the chapter as Shraddhatraya-Vibhaga yoga, Religion by the Threefold Kinds of Faith, The Power of Faith, or The Yoga of the Threefold Faith. [137] This chapter contains eschatology of the Bhagavad Gita. This legend is depicted with Ganesha (Vinayaka) iconography in Hindu temples where he is shown with a broken right tusk and his right arm holds the broken tusk as if it was a stylus. further. Moksha is final and a major accomplishment. https://www.facebook.com/perfecthealthmela/videos/405689647183157 He describes the difference between transient perishable physical body (kshetra) and the immutable eternal soul (kshetrajna). [18][112][113] The chapter opens with Krishna continuing his discourse from the previous chapter. [web 5], In Douglas Cuomo's Arjuna's dilemma, the philosophical dilemma faced by Arjuna is dramatised in operatic form with a blend of Indian and Western music styles. [187], According to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the object of the Gita is to show the way to attain self-realization, and this "can be achieved by selfless action, by desireless action; by renouncing fruits of action; by dedicating all activities to God, i.e., by surrendering oneself to Him body and soul." Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, commented on the Gita: The Bhagavad-Gita deals essentially with the spiritual foundation of human existence. [120] Those who act without craving for fruits are free from the karmic effects, because the results never motivated them. But they cross over this Maya who takes refuge in me. and various types of beans. [204] Some, such as Adi Shankara, have considered its discussion in the 13th chapter of the Gita and elsewhere to be an integral part of the Jnana yoga. Krishna identifies these human traits to be divine and demonic respectively. 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. [246]:514 According to Larson, there is "a massive translational tradition in English, pioneered by the British, solidly grounded philologically by the French and Germans, provided with its indigenous roots by a rich heritage of modern Indian comment and reflection, extended into various disciplinary areas by Americans, and having generated in our time a broadly based cross-cultural awareness of the importance of the Bhagavad Gita both as an expression of a specifically Indian spirituality and as one of the great religious "classics" of all time. [266] 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. [5], Bhagavad Gita comprises 18 chapters (section 23 to 40)[107][web 2] in the Bhishma Parva of the epic Mahabharata.