Bhagvad-Gita: Treatise of self-help
By
BS Murthy
Introduction
The spiritual ethos and the philosophical outlook that the
Bhagvad - Gita postulates paves the way for the liberation of man, who, as
Rousseau said, ‘being born free, is everywhere in chains’. But equally it is
a mirror of human psychology, which enables man to discern his debilities
for appropriate redressal. All the same, the
boon of an oral tradition that kept it alive for over two millennia became
its bane with the proliferation of interpolations therein. Besides muddying
its pristine philosophy, these insertions affect the sequential conformity
and structural economy of the grand discourse. What is worse, to the chagrin
of the majority of the Hindus, some of these legitimize the inimical caste
system while upholding the priestly perks and prejudices.
This rendition seeks to
restore to the Gita, its original character by ridding it of hundred and
ten interpolations, which tend to keep the skeptics away from it. And
ironically these muddle the understanding as well. In
the theatre of man as nothing surpasses the drama of war, the stage for
unveiling the Gita’s unrivalled philosophy was set on the battleground of
Kurukshetra at the threshold of the battle of Mahabharata.
Awe Unfounded
The Bhagvad Gita, popularly known as Gita,
with its twin tracks of spiritual ethos and philosophical outlook, helps man
commute to the destination of human excellence on the broad gauge of life.
The unsurpassed art of living that the Gita expostulates, paves the way for
the ‘liberation of man’, and that’s what makes the Gita, which probably is around for over two
millennia now, the treatise of self-help.
Nonetheless, all along, its spiritual track
has come to acquire primacy what with its protagonists being the
religiously inclined men and women for most part. Even Mahatma
Gandhi, the most famous and ardent advocate of Gita of our times, was
eloquent about the spiritual solace that it afforded him. Needless to say,
the innumerable commentaries on the Gita that appear in print or get voiced
in discourses, invariably come from people with religio-spiritual
orientation. Insensibly, all these led to the public perception of the Gita
as a spiritual tome, and that has brought about a situation where everyone
swears by it but few venture to approach it. That is due to, either the
general lack of spiritual inclination in man, or his palpable apprehension
that, anyway, it might be beyond one’s comprehension. And those who attempt
to read any of the commentaries give up soon enough – bowled either by the
spiritual spin in theological jargon or tired of those lengthy commentaries.
Oh, don’t these texts tend to exhibit the commentator’s own scholarship in
Vedanta! In the bargain, hardly any reach the end, which would have helped
them understand themselves better. What an irony in that having been bogged
down in the semantics, one fails to grasp Krishna’s message that’s tailor
made for him! And it is all about realization made difficult.
The public or private discourses on the Gita
relatively fare better for they enthrall the audience by the eloquence of
the speaker besides the interest the interspersed anecdotes elicit. However,
amidst all this verbiage, the profundity of Krishna’s message would
seldom register in the minds of those who try to seek it. Of course, the
commentary-discourse route misses on the essential ingredient of
understanding - contemplation. After all, Krishna himself recommends to
Arjuna at the end of his talk, s63, ch.18, ‘That thee heard of this
wisdom / For task on hand now apply mind’.
If only Sanskrit, the deva bhaasha,
the language of the gods for the Hindus, and for the 18th Century
British intellectual Sir William Jones, ‘is of wonderful
structure, more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin and more
exquisitely refined than either’ were in currency now, it would have been a
different proposition. Thus, the average person needing no interpretative
crutches might have read the Gita in its pristine beauty, speculating about
the profound wisdom lying in the sophisticated philosophy it postulates.
That would have afforded one to view human nature, including his or her own,
in that contemplative mirror enamelled by the Gita. But that might be if and
when Sanskrit, by the will of the gods, becomes a language of the masses in
times to come.
But for the present, English, which
many proud British linguists humbly held as the second best language in the
world, is the right medium for contemplating the Gita even in the native
land of Sanskrit. Of course, in verse sans commentary, and this is an
attempt with that objective, needless to say, with divine inspiration.
What is the Gita all about that made many
western intellectuals, though alien to the Hindu philosophy sing its
praises? It is owing to its emphasis on human emancipation as opposed to the
religious conditioning of man. Thus, its universal appeal jells with the
hearts and minds of people, irrespective of their religious beliefs and
cultural sensitivities. Simply put, the philosophy the Gita portrays is
meant to help one imbibe the right attitude to lead life, but not to
buttress his religious dogma of God. How this was achieved is the wonder
that is Gita, cast in the Hindu mould but shaped into the secular form!
After all, it might have been in the realms of human genius aided by some
divine metallurgy.
The stage chosen for unfolding the grand
philosophy is in itself reflective of the brilliance of the Gita.
Nothing ever surpasses the drama of war in the realms of life and so is the
case with the accompanying debate about its rights and wrongs. At the
threshold of the epic battle of Mahabharata, on the sacred grounds of
Kurukshetra, Arjuna, the Pandava Prince, suffers from qualms at the prospect
of killing kith and kin in the Kaurava camp besides all those whom he adores
therein. It has always been in the nature of man to worry about the prospect
of his death besides that of his near and dear. Thus Lord Krishna, a friend
of the Pandavas who happened to be Arjuna’s charioteer, opens this classic
discourse in s11, ch..2 by chiding his disciple and setting its trend as
well, 'Averring as knowing / Worried over trivia! / Reckon never wise /
Dead and alive both'.
What follows in the best part of the
remaining 643 verses spread over 17 chapters can be summarized thus: The
Supreme Spirit through Nature causes the birth of all beings. Thus, the
indwelling spirit in the beings is a divisible part of the same Indivisible
Supreme Spirit. The spirit lying within beings is subject in degrees to
virtue, passion and delusion, the three attributes of Nature. It should
remain the human endeavor to free the indwelling spirit from these
nature-induced influences. This, however, is not possible for any in a
single birth, and indeed, it would take the sustained effort of lot many
births for that. Thus, in the end, the soul could be tended towards that
state of purity, which matches with that of the Supreme Spirit. As and when
this happens, the indwelling spirit merges with the Supreme Spirit which is
nothing but moksha. Understandably, from that state of unison with
the Supreme, man never returns to be born again. This is about the spiritual
goal of man in this world. In short, it’s in the nature of the Supreme
Spirit to separate the wheat from the chaff by bringing beings for dalliance
in the domain of the Nature. While a pass ensures merger with the Supreme
Spirit, failure keeps man ever in limbo. It is thus left for man to
reach the Supreme, and the Gita shows him the way.
In the Gita lie the tools that
tend one’s spirit to that pristine purity, and that makes it the kitbag of
moksha. Were it to postulate reaching that state through devotion alone, it
would have been no more than a Hindu religious scripture, though of immense
quality. In this, it is to be appreciated; the one thing that is common with
the Oriental as well as the Semitic religions is the stress upon good human
conduct. Nevertheless, the commonality seems to fork at some length, what
with the Semitic religious precepts having their own caveat conditional.
Well, Hinduism and its derivatives, Buddhism, Jainism etc., advocate virtue
per se as
the ideal human condition. But
at the other end of the religious tunnel, Judaism, and its siblings,
Christianity and Islam, obliging the faithful to uphold their dogmas,
provide a religious code to human virtue.
It is thus, the Gita, without any religious dogma, deals
with all aspects of human nature, and what is more, proposes corrective
approaches for a peaceful, purposeful and realized life. And this makes it
the Treatise of Self- help for one and all, irrespective of his or her
religious orientation and social background. Figure it out for yourself as
Arjuna could do.
Now back to where it all began - the misleading image of
the Gita as something that cannot be comprehended, even by the spiritually
oriented, leave alone the mundane minded, without the guidance from a guru,
well versed in the nuances of theology. Nothing could be farther from truth
considering what Arjuna averred after having heard Krishna, ‘Glad O Lord
/ Gone are doubts, / Sense I gained / With Thy words.' (s73, ch.18).
And consider this. Arjuna was an educated prince and an
exemplary warrior but with no specialized knowledge or training in theology.
Yet he found no difficulty in grasping the centrality of Krishna’s advice
that helped dispel his doubts. After all, it could be expected that Krishna
who knew his friend’s limitations on that count would have fashioned
his discourse suitably. And won’t that bring the Gita into the orbit of
average human understanding? More so, Krishna’s discourse was intended to be
a ready reckoner for Arjuna and not an assignment in spirituality to be
attended to as homework, with reference books and all, leaving the
battlefield for the day.
But then why all this spin of spiritual intricacy on such
a straightforward man-to-man talk! We must appreciate that the philosophy of
the Gita is the apogee of the Hindu thought process that evolved through the
Vedas, the Brahmasutras and finally the Upanishads. In a way, the Gita is
the Seal of the Hindu Wisdom, for it separates the ritualistic chaff from
the spiritual grain in the granary of sanaatana dharma. For those
well versed in these and other such works, it is a tempting proposition to
delve into the conceptual origins of a given sloka of the Gita in
those ancient classics. But to what avail all that, and what is sought to be
proved after all! That the Gita was a plagiarized work of Vyasa?
Well, didn’t Vyasa place the
Gita in proper perspective with ‘the end of the chapter averment that it is
the quintessence of the Upanishads and the Brahmasutras’. Yet this futile
exercise of backward integration of the Gita with the Upanishads and others
continues, giving raise to myriad interpretations to what is essentially a
simple and straightforward message that Krishna intended for average human
comprehension. In modern parlance, Bhagvad-Gita is like the Board Note, and
it does not behove the board members to pore over the relevant files.
Though some well-meaning men and women have all along
tried to straightjacket the Gita as a ‘Book of Work’, still it is the
scriptural tag that sticks to it. Admittedly, this is not only detrimental
to the Great Gita but also the misfortune of the common man who would have
otherwise ventured to read it, and benefited as well. Thus, this work should
be viewed as the outcome of an urge to place the Gita in its proper
perspective for the utmost common good. On the degree of its success could
depend how it would have served the cause of the Lord and that of man for
whose benefit the Gita, the Treatise of Self-help, was
fashioned, though not as scripture. It pays to recall the words of
Krishna, ‘That thee heard of this wisdom / For task on hand now apply
mind’.
Now it is left for all to deliberate and decide whether
the Gita per se was Krishna’s unrivalled divine revelation, or
Vyasa’s philosophical discourse nonpareil. It is noteworthy that
each of the eighteen chapters of the Gita has this post script - this
chapter, with so and so designation, has the bearing of the
Upanishads, possesses the knowledge of the Brahmasutras and deals with the
science of its application. And the Upanishads, as we all know, were but the
works of man, though of divine proportion.
Thus, if we were to concede that the Gita was a divine
disclosure, then that would suggest that Krishna borrowed from the
Upanishadic philosophy to fashion his discourse! Won’t that mean Lord Vishnu
in His avatar as Krishna, relied on the works of man to formulate
moksha for him! That is an absurd proposition, at any rate that is,
isn’t it? Well, it’s a matter for man to deliberate and decide.
Last but not the least is the sectarian twist some
interpolations give to the Gita to the hurt of the
majority of the Hindus. Understandably, the offended sections view this
secular text with suspicion, and thus keep away from it altogether, missing
so much as a consequence of the same. In ‘All About Interpolations’ that
follows, this aberration is sought to be corrected, and it is hoped that for
the general good of the Hindus this aspect of the Gita would be set right
for all times to come.
All about Interpolations
It
was long suspected there could be interpolations in the Gita as it was being
received down the ages through oral tradition. One way to scent the nature
of these, if not zero in on every one of them, is to subject the
text to the twin tests of sequential conformity and structural economy.
Sequential conformity is all about uniformity of purpose sans digression and
structural economy but represents the absence of repetitiveness. If the body
Bhagvad Gita of 700 slokas
were to be scanned for
possible fault lines on the above lines, the result would be but positive.
It must be realized that Bhagvad-Gita is the quintessence
of the Brahmasutras and the Upanishads, themselves the offshoots of the
Vedic spiritual roots. Those esoteric portions that relate to spiritual
knowledge apart, the Vedas contain ritualistic nuances of religious
ceremonies. It is the latter that has been the source of the temporal power,
which the priestly class of Brahmans came to exert on the Hindu religious
mind. And these very people happened to be the principal protagonists of the
Gita.
It is pertinent to note that while postulating
nishkaama karma, the theory of disinterested action, Krishna is
critical of the ritualistic aspects of and expectations from the Vedas
(s42 - 45 and s53 of ch.2.). Indeed, the guiding philosophy of the Gita is
all about action, pure and simple, to tend one on the path of duty without
attachment. Were the message to be allowed to percolate down, wouldn’t it
have hurt the Brahmans, the gods’ own angels on earth as the Narayana
Upanishad proclaims, where it hurts most? Herein lies the provocation for
them to dilute the philosophy, and the opportunity was theirs, being the
repositories of the very message. Won’t the priestly perks associated with
the rituals of death do, to cite an example?
If upon its death, as Krishna avers, the soul were to
transmigrate into another body, what for are the elaborate rituals for the
dead! It is against this background that we might appreciate those
interpolations that tend to advocate the ritualism on one hand, and the
Brahman preeminence on the other. However, the non application of mind on
part of the Hindus who vouchsafe for these aspects of the Gita is indeed
saddening.
Nevertheless, such interpolative slokas that are
at variance with the avowed purpose of the Gita would show themselves up for
ready pickings. In a seemingly about turn from s42- s45 and s53 of ch.2,
s9-s16 of ch.3 formulate the procedural aspects of the rituals and the
divine backing they enjoy. These, and such other aberrations highlighted in
the prefaces of the chapters in this work were clearly the handiwork of the
priestly interests to obfuscate the impact of the anti ritualistic thrust of
the Gita.
On one hand, these interpolations were meant to impart
legitimacy to their creed by advocating the same through the revered text.
And on the other, these were meant to stall the threat the Gita might
pose to their calling in the long run. Likewise, the sprinkling of slokas
that seek to confirm the prominence of the priestly class or affirm their
prejudices cannot be anything but interpolations. To cap it all, are the
s23-s27 of ch. 8 which literally mean that if a person dies when the moon is
on ascent he would attain moksha, other way round were it in descent, and
such like. These slokas espousing superstition, simply put are out of
tune. Nevertheless, when interpreted figuratively they jell with the overall
message of the Gita as if to prove that the discourse of reason cannot be
polluted even by superstitious insertions. Be that as it may, there is an
uncanny element in these artful interpolations in that they were inserted in
the narrative in such a manner that if read casually they effectively merge
with the text. More so for the religiously conditioned Hindu whose
upbringing conforms to the ritualistic regimen.
Next comes the aspect of
structural economy. One finds similitude of a given content in many a
sloka
in the same or in a different context throughout the text. Obviously, some
of them are interpolations but which were the originals and which are the
imitations, may be impossible to find out for they smugly fit into the
overall structure. Be that as it may, save lengthening the discourse, they
do not belittle the same and fortunately not even tire the reader, thanks to
the exemplary charm of Sanskrit as a language. In this context, it is
relevant to note that Krishna indicated in s19, ch.10 that he would
reveal a few of His Glories, but what we have is a twenty-two
sloka
block of the same, s 20-42, in the same chapter and another twenty, s15-s31
in the next. One can be certain that many of the
slokas in them contain
interpolative padding. Nevertheless, these slokas
make an exciting reading notwithstanding the faux pas in s36 ch.10 where
fraud in gambling is described as the Glory of the Supreme. However, s12
-s15 of ch 15 in similar vein are interpolations being digressions.
If after
deliberating, one decides that the Gita is more a work of Vyasa’s genius
than any divine revelation by Lord Krishna, then he or she might come to the
conclusion that the concluding s78 of the last chapter meant to impart
divinity to the discourse is an interpolation.
However, no
exercise of this kind would be complete unless the four pairs of
slokas that have the
same first lines are scrutinized. With the common first line,
sreyaan sva-dharmo vigunah, s35,
ch.3 and s47, ch.18, seek to perpetuate caste oriented duties by
discouraging any switch over, and thus are clear interpolations. S15 and s
28 of ch.6 both open with yunjann evam
sadaatmaanam and the
message too remains more or less the same though contextually different. Yet
it appears that the former could be an interpolation. S34, ch.9 and s65,
ch.18 not only start with man-manaa bhava mad-bhakto
but also mean same thing. In the ninth chapter as discussed in the
introduction therein, s32 and s33 are clear interpolations. It also need be
noted that s31 has the chapter closing character about it. Now follows this
repetitive chapter-concluding sloka
after two interpolations, s32
and s33. Logically speaking s34 is but an interpolation to help a proper
chapter closure by slightly altering s65, ch.18. S7, ch.16 and s30, ch.18
both start with pravrurttim cha nivruttim cha
line but are contextually different and thus remain above suspicion.
Identified here in this third edition are
110 slokas of deviant nature in the entire text that could be taken
as interpolations with reasonable certainty. However, so as not to besmirch
the general tenor of the discourse in this Treatise of Self-help, the same
are interpreted in a broader perspective, but not in their narrow sense
intended by the interpolators. Be that as it may, there naturally arises a
hypothetical question - What if the priestly interests of yore had seen to
it that the said philosophy defining slokas of the second chapter
that are inimical to their creed were omitted altogether? In that case we
would have been left with no option but to take the perplexing
interpolations with a pinch of salt in the absence of any clue to negate
them as such.
(cont...)
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Hinduism
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