A Comprehensive Guide to Bhagavad-Gita with Literal Translation

H.D. Goswami

• Publisher: Krishna West, Inc.
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780986240379
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Hinduismus

In the late 18th century Bhagavad-gita became the first Sanskrit work to be rendered in a European tongue, and since that time it has generated countless translations and secondary analyses.Among these, however, H.D. Goswami's Comprehensive Guide with Literal Translation excels in its capacity to schematize and summarize the Gita 's powerful appeal as a source of perennial wisdom.With its sophisticated thematic approach, this Comprehensive Guide brings clarity to the Gita's content in a most thorough and systematic way, inviting both first-time and seasoned readers to vigorously engage with the text while enjoying the rewards of deep understanding. Especially impressive is the fact that this volume not only provides the reader with a stimulating learning experience, but also serves as an exceptional reference book for specific topics.Concise yet thorough, this skillful exposition, containing hundreds upon hundreds of key Gita references, affords a conceptual window into the core elements of Krishna's teachings to Arjuna. Throughout this work we are graced by the knowledge, Sanskrit expertise and personal illuminations of one who is not only a highly trained scholar, but also a widely experienced spiritual teacher.

Comprehensive Guide to

Bhagavad-gītā

PART I
Introduction

The words Bhagavad-gītā literally mean The Lord’s Song, and today a billion people around the world accept it as such. This elegant, ancient text addresses life’s biggest issues: Who am I? What is the universe? How can I be happy? Where does it all come from? Where is it all going? Who are real teachers and how do we recognize them? The Gītā, as it is often called, excels in its calm, reasonable, satisfying responses to these perennial questions.

A brief Sanskrit work of seven hundred verses, Bhagavad-gītā forms part of the Bhīṣma-parva, the sixth book of Mahā-bharata, a vast sacred history. The Gītā shines as the spiritual beacon and summit of that far larger work, which for untold centuries has played a central cultural role in South Asia and beyond.

Originally, this comprehensive guide to the Gītā’s content was intended to be only a short introduction to my literal Gītā translation. But like Kṛṣṇa’s fabled fish incarnation, which appeared in tiny form and then grew to vast proportions, what began as a mere introduction, grew by necessity to become a book in itself. Having read, studied and cherished the Gītā for decades at the feet of my teacher Śrīla Prabhupāda, I could not help but share the profound conceptual connections that make this Sanskrit text so magical. The Gītā is widely recognized as a work of spiritual and philosophical genius, and early on I fell in love with its Sanskrit text. My sincere wish here, through explication and translation, is to bring the general reader deep within that original Sanskrit. I hope you enjoy the journey.¹

Historical Context

Bhagavad-gītā opens on a battlefield moments before justice and injustice (dharma and a-dharma), personified by Pāṇḍava and Kuru warriors, burst into war.² Kṛṣṇa drives the chariot of Arjuna, His close friend and cousin, who fights for right. But just as the battle is about to begin, Arjuna falls into confusion. Claiming compassion for cruel usurpers with whom he shares family bonds, he refuses to fight for justice. Arjuna recognizes this emotion as weakness [2.7],³ yet it paralyzes him. He cannot act. After trying to defend his retreat with socio-moral arguments and pleas, Arjuna nearly collapses in anxiety, and here ends the Gītā’s first chapter.

In Chapter Two, Kṛṣṇa begins to revive, teach and enlighten Arjuna, insisting on moral, social and spiritual grounds that Arjuna should indeed fight. Some readers question the spirituality of Kṛṣṇa urging Arjuna to battle. To understand what is going on, we must turn to the Gītā’s historical setting within the epic Mahā-bhārata.

Imagine you awake one day to shocking news: usurpers have seized your government, suspended the constitution, driven out the legitimate rulers and violently imposed martial law. You pray that the legitimate government, the military and all loyal citizens will oppose the aggressors and restore the rule of law and tradition.

Mahā-bhārata teaches that a similar crisis erupted in India thousands of years ago. Kṛṣṇa, God, came to Earth to help His devotees—Arjuna, his brothers and others—to restore dharma (justice, Law, legitimate rule) on earth. Thus, in Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa urges Arjuna to oppose the Kurus, led by Duryodhana, who unjustly usurped power. Kṛṣṇa states that He expressly comes to earth to restore dharma [4.7–8], and here we see Him in action.

Legitimate rulers expect their generals to defend the law. So Kṛṣṇa expected Arjuna to fight at Kuru-kṣetra rather than to allow rule by fraud, coercion and usurpation.

The events of this sacred history occur on three levels: earthly, cosmic and spiritual:

1.Earthly: we briefly spoke of this above.

2.Cosmic: the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā, and the encompassing history of Mahā-bhārata, unfold within a personal, multi-layered cosmos of upper, middle and lower worlds. Justice and injustice (dharma and a-dharma) contend in higher worlds as they do on earth. On the Kuru-kṣetra battlefield, where Kṛṣṇa speaks Bhagavad-gītā, the Kurus, Pāṇḍavas and all other leading warriors fought as empowered incarnations of cosmic heroes and villains (Devas and Asuras). Earth had become a battleground for a cosmic struggle.

3.Spiritual: when Kṛṣṇa, God, descends to this world, He designs His deeds, such as speaking Bhagavad-gītā, to awaken sleeping souls to their eternal, blissful nature and ecstatic relationship with Him. The entire history that frames the Gītā is a planned spiritual drama wherein Kṛṣṇa saves the virtuous, removes the wicked and restores dharma, the sacred Law that sustains the universe [4.8].

The Origins of the Gītā

What has scholarship said about the origin of Bhagavad-gītā? About fifteen hundred years ago, the great mathematician-astronomer Arya-bhata⁴ concluded from archeo-astronomical data in the Mahā-bhārata that the Kuru-kṣetra War, the setting of Bhagavad-gītā, took place approximately 5,100 years ago.

Some modern scholars, especially from the West, have resisted such antiquity, speculating that the Gītā was composed roughly between the fifth and second centuries BCE.⁵ Such scholars also often doubt the historicity of most Mahā-bhārata events, whereas other scholars (East and West), and most Hindus, accept both their antiquity and historicity⁶. Who is right?

Limited empirical evidence does not allow worldly scholarship to definitively affirm or deny such claims, and much less to speak authoritatively about Kṛṣṇa’s divinity. Just as declaring an algebraic equation right or wrong is to make an algebraic claim, so also declaring a metaphysical statement right or wrong is to make a metaphysical claim. And the ground rules of worldly scholarship do not smile upon metaphysical claims.

The conclusion is that despite the plethora of learned best guesses, worldly scholarship lacks sufficient evidence to prove the date and origin of Bhagavad-gītā beyond reasonable doubt. Other extraordinary claims, such as Kṛṣṇa’s assertion that He originally spoke the Gītā to a sun deity [4.1], entail no internal contradiction or other logical absurdity, and thus must remain sacred claims, also beyond the power of worldly scholarship to mark right or wrong.

Scholars often wonder whether the Gītā formed part of the original Mahā-bhārata or was added later. Again, a lack of historiographic evidence precludes a definitive academic response. In the twentieth century, the world’s most distinguished Sanskritists attempted to reconstruct the original Mahā-bhārata from dozens of surviving recensions. After a half-century of brilliant assiduous study, they admitted that it is beyond the powers of worldly scholarship to recreate, and thus conclusively identify, an original version of this text. Thus scholarship can hardly determine whether the Gītā is part of an original text that no one can clearly reconstruct.

Scholarly controversies often burn hottest precisely where evidence is weakest and leaves the largest space for conf...