Shrimad Bhagvad-Gită

The Gită is a part of the Indian epic called Mahăbhărat which consists of about one lac verses conferring on it the honour of the world’s longest poem. Mahăbhărat has a heterogeneous character with so many narratives, skilfully woven round the central story of the descendants of king Bharata and of ancient India. It is also full of philosophical, religious, and ethical discourses, strewn intermittently, to throw discerning lights, on various human problems, posed to men of wisdom from time to time. As a culmination of this thinking process the Gita emerges at the most appropriate moment and becomes a lighthouse for entire humanity on account of its universally accepted, Perennial Philosophy.

Bhagvad-Gită means the song of the Divine. Herein speaks the God incarnate to man face to face and heart to heart. The fundamental doctrines revealed earlier in Vedas Brahmanas and Upanishads and which formed the basic tenets of Indian religion called Hinduism found their way in the holi utterances of Lord Krishna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra in its entirety and most comprehensive manner.

The Gită is in a dialogue form and king Dhritarăshtra, Sanjay, his charioteer, Arjuna and Lord Krishna are the main speakers. Sanjaya is endowed with psychic power of clairvoyance and clairaudiance obtained through the grace of sage Vyăsa, the author of Mahăbhărata. In his answers to Dhritarashtra’s questions Sanjaya is reporting to his master everything that he sees and hears on the distant battlefield. The conversation between Lord Krishna and Arjuna which contains Gita’s main philosophical discussion is reported through the medium of Sanjaya only. Occasionally Sanjaya takes freedom in the midst of his reporting, to add descriptive comments of his own.

The Sanskrit in which Gita is written has its own simplicity, music and poetic diction, not withstanding its effective use of compressed philosophical terminology earlier developed by the Indian religious tradition.

The Gita reiterates its faith in no uncertain terms in the universal ethical principles and moral virtues properly fitting them into it’s own system of cosmology, having a typical Indian character borrowed from the then available scientific view of the universe, known as Sankhya Darshan .

At the same time one should not forget the transcendental aspect of the prophetic utterences of Lord Krishna.They cross the barriers of phenomenal world of matter(prakriti) and the individualised consciousness and untiringly speak for the all pervading ultimate called Brahman .Gita categorically states the limit of discersive reasoning in knowing the Divine power of the Godhead, through intellectual discussions . Gita’s emphasis on direct , immediate and intuitional experience of the Divine needs to be properly understood through the ecstatic mystical expressions so profusely spread throughout the gita text while describing the nature and attributes of god .

Many great thinkers of the world have agreed upon the greatness of the Gita for it’s perrenial philosophy of enduring value not only for Indians but for all mankind . The Gita has become a universal Gospel because of it’s eternal message to everyone irrespective of land , race, language or time .It wonderfully combines scriptural poetry and logical reasoning of high order .