Bhagavad Gita (eBook)

Introduction

‘O Krishna, tell me again of your mystic opulences,
for I never tire of hearing your sweet words.’
Bhagavad Gita, 10.18

rishna’s words in the Bhagavad Gita are the finest introduction to the spiritual tradition of India. Yet like the sun which rises in the East and shines everywhere, they belong to the whole world. When I first heard Krishna’s voice, it reached me as an echo from a distant land, from a civilisation that remembered truths lost in our divided and confused age. I had been brought up to revere the voice of God in the Bible, and until then I had not heard about Krishna’s words in the Gita. Here was the same unmistakable voice of the universal God; I indeed felt the book fulfilled its name: Bhagavad Gita means ‘Song of God.’

The Gita is special among Eastern spiritual teachings because it shows how the experience of God can be found in the ordinary actions of everyday life. This sense of the mystical presence was often supposed to be only for those who foresook the world for a life of prayer and meditation, who lived apart from the rest of us in privileged seclusion. The Gita, however, offers this experience to us all, encouraging us to remain in the world and to find God in the practice of our daily work. Such awareness calls us to live in the sanctity of every moment and brings with it the possibility of finding great spiritual joy.

The Gita is arranged as a conversation between the soul and God, who appear to us as Arjuna and Krishna. In life they were friends, and the Gita makes great play of this: spiritual understanding is found through friendship and trust, and ultimately through love. The dialogue of these two friends invites exploration and deep reflection; it is always ready to tell us more, even after many readings. One of the Gita’s best-known proponents of the twentieth century was Mahatma Gandhi. He wrote, ‘When doubts haunt me and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to the Gita and find a verse to comfort me.’

How old is the Gita? For the spiritual seeker it matters little, for its knowledge is born of eternity, and it is as alive today as it was when it was first spoken. Most modern scholars suppose it achieved its present Sanskrit form around 500 BC, but the Vedic tradition tells us it is much older, and that Krishna originally spoke the Gita five thousand years ago.

The Gita occupies a unique place as the one universally accessible text acknowledged by all Hindus. Krishna’s message of love, based upon the teachings of the world’s earliest body of philosophical writings, the Vedas and Upanishads, draws together the sublime philosophy of the Upanishads with the practical path of yoga. It unites the outer world, in which the soul is immersed in the inconceivable energies of God, with the inner world where the soul sits side by side with the divine person. So the Gita brings us to the ultimate conclusion of surrender to a loving God.

By the middle of the first millennium AD, the Gita was adopted by Hindu teachers as their standard popular text. In around 800 AD it was singled out by the great Shankara for his famous commentary. All the principal Hindu teachers later commented on it, each according to their particular viewpoint. It was first translated into English by Charles Wilkins in 1785, and has since been published in numerous English editions. Henry David Thoreau wrote in 1854 of the ‘stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita.’ Thomas Merton in the 1960s saw the Gita ‘like the Gospels, teaching us to live in awareness of an inner truth. In obedience to that inner truth we are at last free.’ Aldous Huxley described the Gita as ‘one of the clearest and most comprehensive summaries of the Perennial Philosophy ever to have been made. Hence its enduring value, not only for Indians, but for all mankind.’

Spirit of humility

The speaker of the Bhagavad Gita is Krishna, who reveals himself to be the supreme godhead. Krishna is the central figure in the vast Mahabharata, the epic history of ancient India, of which the Gita is but one episode. Krishna’s teaching opens on the brink of a cataclysmic battle, the events of which are recounted in the Mahabharata. Krishna is asked by his personal friend, the warrior Arjuna, to drive his chariot into the space between the two opposing armies. Once he finds himself in the midst of both armies Arjuna despairs and lays down his arms. He turns to Krishna for spiritual help.

Arjuna’s despair is due to the awful prospect of having to kill his own friends and family members, who stand in the opposing army. It is said that Arjuna is an enlightened soul placed in illusion by Krishna, and his experience thus parallels our own: God allows us to fall into the illusion of material life, so that we can better learn who we really are and who we wish to be. The physical site where the Gita was spoken is Kurukshetra, eighty miles north of Delhi; but the spiritual place where it can be heard, that inner space of emptiness and doubt, is one we all know.

We all have our battles to fight, brought on by illusion. The most difficult battle is the one we wage daily with our own mind and senses. But even in the midst of adversity we must find the time to pause, as Arjuna did between the opposing armies, to contemplate the mysteries of life and what it is we really seek, opening ourselves to hear the voice of the spirit. In order to do this, to make this radical shift in awareness, we need help. When reading the Gita we should remember that it is spoken in such a rare moment to one who has put aside certainty and pride. The spirit of humility that allows us to ask for help is easier to speak of than to practice; yet to learn spiritual truths it is essential to open the heart.

Dialogue of the spirit

Having asked for help, Arjuna enters a dialogue of the spirit. He places his earnest questions, and Krishna patiently answers them. One way that this dialogue arises in the life of the spiritual seeker is through learning from a teacher. Since ancient times aspirants began their search by finding a guru. Whether one is fortunate enough to find a guru or not, the dialogue of the spirit ultimately takes place on the inner plane. All of life is a conversation in which God and the individual soul respond to each other. God responds to our desires, allowing us to discover more of himself and his energies. In this process of discovering God, I discover myself. The connection between the soul and God is a gift, and this is the heart of Krishna’s teaching. Once this is understood, all actions become expressions of this inner link with God.

The shape of the Gita

The first six chapters begin with an analysis of the self, which establishes each of us as an eternal being, reincarnated from one body to another in the search for liberation from the cycle of birth and death. Then comes the art of yoga: how to live and act in a way that leads to liberation and to union with God.

Krishna teaches three paths of yoga. Karma yoga, the path of action, means to work without attachment to the results of one’s work. Jnana (pronounced gyana) yoga is the path of knowledge of the spirit through study and contemplation. Bhakti yoga is the path of devotion to God. Krishna says that all three of these paths lead to the same goal, yet he concludes by recommending the path of Bhakti yoga.

The middle six chapters describe the transcendent Supreme Being. They contain the heart of the Gita: four seed verses in chapter ten, verses 8–11, which describe Krishna as the source of all, and the divine life shared by his devotees. This life transforms every act into a sacred offering of devotion leading to Krishna. Chapter eleven—one of the greatest mystical passages in world literature—contains the famous vision of the Universal Form. This central section of the Gita concludes with devotion to Krishna, described in poetic detail in chapter twelve.

The final six chapters further elaborate these themes, adding a detailed explanation of the three material qualities of goodness, passion and darkness, showing how these qualities manifest in daily life. They include, in chapter sixteen, an intense and cautionary account of the effects of the quality of darkness. The last chapter concludes, from verse 55 onward, with a glorious affirmation of Krishna’s love, and his final assurance to the traveller on the path: ‘Abandon all kinds of religion and surrender to me alone. I will free you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.’

Who is this book for?

This edition of the Bhagavad Gita is for anyone exploring the spiritual path, of whatever faith or persuasion. I have made a completely fresh translation from the Sanskrit, aiming at simplicity and clarity, and I have added the short commentary of a seeker of truth in the modern world. The Gita is extremely condensed: each Sanskrit verse is a pithy statement that builds upon the last, developing complex and...