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The Bhagavad Gita is a text with a definite context. And this context can be found in the labyrinthine known as Mahabharata, one of India’s greatest epics. In a sense, looking at Bhagavad Gita without reference to the larger epic is like walking into a room in the middle of a conversation, when someone is halfway through telling a story. In fact, this is precisely what it is—the Gita appears in the middle of the larger work. It can be found in the Mahabharata, Bhishma-parva, chapters 23 - 40, to be exact. Thus, as indicated above, any attempt to unravel the truth behind the Gita’s “violence” will fall short without recourse  to the larger epic. The Mahabharata begins with a detailed genealogy that helps answer the question of why the war took place.

 

Indian sages have carefully preserved the details of the civil war that took place at Kurukshetra.  The entire story is preserved in the Mahabharata, which Guinness calls "the longest poem ever written" - over 110,000 couplets. The Gita begins about one-third into the larger epic, the Mahabharata and is arguably its most popular section.  While the date of the Mahabharata war is debated among Western scholars, tradition says it occurred 5000 years ago and that the great sage Vyasodeva put the Gita and the rest of the Mahabharata into written form at that time.

 

Setting the scene

The main focus of the Mahabharata involves courtly intrigue, all centering on an important political family of the time. This family consisted of the Kauravas and the Pandavas, two groups of feuding cousins. King Dhritarashtra, the father of the Kauravas (headed by Duryodhana), was congenitally blind. Thus, the throne that would have been his, was instead given to his younger brother Pandu, father of the Pandavas (Yudhishthira, Arjuna, Bhima, Nakula, and Sahadeva).

 

Duryodhana acquired the entire kingdom by deceptive means and denied any peace of land to Pandavas thus instigating a devastating battle between the two parties. Although peace was preferred by the Pandavas - and the Mahabharata makes careful record of this - war was unavoidable. Indeed, the Udyoga-parva interestingly, “the Book of Effort,” highlighting the intense endeavor made by the Pandavas to avoid the war, cites several instances in which both Krishna and the Pandavas pleaded for an end to the senselessness that lay before them.

 

Lord Krishna offered Himself and His entire army to the cause of the upcoming battle. Krishna stipulated that He would do no battle-the side that chose Him would have to be content with his moral support. The opposing side would have His nearly endless group of warriors, all highly trained.

Materialistic Duryodhana quickly chose the armed battalions. The righteous Pandavas, on the other hand, asked for Krishna alone, confident that God's grace is more significant than all material facility.

 

Thus, with Krishna as Arjuna's charioteer, the Bhagavad-gita begins.

 

about the website

This website is dedicated to presentations and discussions on the process of yoga as elucidated in the 18 chapters of the indian classic - Bhagavad Gita. This is a humble attempt to share the core themes of the Bhagavad Gita and how they apply to the modern individual. To take part in online discussions, you could join our google group

 

The 18 Self-help Yogas from the Bhagavad Gita potentially offer:

• Comprehensive grasp on rich philosophical work
  
• Practical wisdom from experienced practitioners
  
• Sharing of experience between spiritual seekers
  
• Strong habits that foster internal growth

 

what scholars say

 

Thomas Merton, one of the twentieth century's best-known pacifists, writes in his essay "The Significance of the Bhagavad-gita":

"The Gita is not a justification of war, nor does it propound a war-making mystique .... Arjuna has an instinctive repugnance for war, and that is the chief reason why war is chosen as the example of the most repellant kind of duty. The Gita is saying that even in what appears to be most "unspiritual" one can act with pure intentions and thus be guided by Krishna consciousness. This consciousness itself will impose the strictest limitations on one's use of violence because that use will not be directed by one's own selfish interests, still less by cruelty, sadism, and mere blood lust. (p. 20) ".

 

	"When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous." ~ Albert Einstein
	"The Bhagavad-Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of mankind by its devotion to God which is manifested by actions." ~ Dr. Albert Schweizer
	"The Bhagavad-Gita is the most systematic statement of spiritual evolution of endowing value to mankind. It is one of the most clear and comprehensive summaries of perennial philosophy ever revealed; hence its enduring value is subject not only to India but to all of humanity." ~ Aldous Huxley
	"The idea that man is like unto an inverted tree seems to have been current in by gone ages. The link with Vedic conceptions is provided by Plato in his Timaeus in which it states..." behold we are not an earthly but a heavenly plant." ~ Carl Jung
	"In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonical philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seems puny and trivial." ~ Henry David Thoreau
	"The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life's wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion." ~ Herman Hesse
	"When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagavad-Gita and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. Those who meditate on the Gita will derive fresh joy and new meanings from it every day." ~ Mahatma Gandhi
	"The Bhagavad-Gita deals essentially with the spiritual foundation of human existence. It is a call of action to meet the obligations and duties of life; yet keeping in view the spiritual nature and grander purpose of the universe." ~ Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
	"The Bhagavad-Gita is an empire of thought and in its philosophical teachings Krishna has all the attributes of the full-fledged monotheistic deity and at the same time the attributes of the Upanishadic absolute." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
	"In order to approach a creation as sublime as the Bhagavad-Gita with full understanding it is necessary to attune our soul to it." ~ Rudolph Steiner
	"From a clear knowledge of the Bhagavad-Gita all the goals of human existence become fulfilled. Bhagavad-Gita is the manifest quintessence of all the teachings of the Vedic scriptures." ~ Adi Sankara