This edited book, by several authors and academics, touches upon diverse topics that include key concepts of Gita, various commentaries and interpretations, Gita's influence on Indian and European thinkers, the poetry of Gita, Japanese translations, and the impact on Buddhism and Christian thought.
The chapter by B.K. Matilal on the discussion of caste system, and the chapter drawing the parallels in the works of Greek & German philosophers and Gita by K.P. Bahadur are some of the best chapters of the book. There are four chapters describing the influence of Gita in the works of T.S. Eliot; this could have been limited to one chapter, and the editor could have included a separate chapter for the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
The summary of the book is as follows: Gita is like a crown jewel that describes various Hindu philosophical systems and provides several paths for the union with Paramatman or Purushottama. Shankara believed that Gita teaches Advaita Vedanta, but Ramanuja suggested that Gita represents Vishistadvaita; Madhva was convinced it teaches Dvaita; and Bhaskara found Bhedabheda Vedanta. They all believed that Gita is univalent but Vivekananda observed that it teaches many paths and all of them are equally feasible. Jnaneswara, Aurobindo and Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada inculcated bhakti yoga; but Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi preached selfless action and a dedication to duty as the principal elements of this poem. However, most modern interpreters suggest that Gita is multivalent that supports three major Hindu philosophical systems; Sankhya, Vedanta and Bhakti Yoga philosophies
T.S. Eliot was most influenced by Bhagavad-Gita. The kinds of images and motifs found in "Four Quartets" are reminiscent of Hindu literature, especially Gita. In one of his lectures, he refers to his studies at Harvard as leading him into a state of "enlightened mystification." As Elliot explains; "A good half of the effort of understanding what the Indian philosophers were after-and their subtleties make most of the great European philosophers look like school boys-lay in trying to erase from my mind all the categories and kinds of distinction common to European philosophy from the time of Greeks time" - (from "After strange Gods," pages 43-44, 1933.) Eliot's "Waste Land" is also another book strongly influenced by Gita. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hermann Hesse, Aldous Huxley, T.S. Eliot, and Christian Heine critically evaluated the Christian traditions in light of Indian thought. Emerson refused to administer holy sacrament and questioned key Christian dogma in his Harvard Divinity School address. Harvard, his alma mater, disowned him and he remained persona-non-grata for thirty years. The underlying view of the universe in Walt Whitman's poetry and the Vedantic cosmology are similar, and the Emerson's description of the Whitman's poetry "as a blend of Bhagavad-Gita and the New York Herald" is well known. Henry David Thoreau also recognized that Whitman's poetry is "wonderfully like Orientals". Discovering transcendental philosophy came naturally to Whitman, like it did for Emerson and Thoreau. The body of the mystical verses from "Leaves of Grass" and poems from "In Cabin's Ships at sea", "Eidolans," and "Starting from Paumanok" all reflects the basic thoughts of Vedanta. Whitman believed the immortality of the soul, transmigration, transcendental awareness and the concepts of detachment are key to the ultimate liberation of the soul in bondage (through yoga of Jnana, bhakti and karma). Devotion and love for God is also central in the philosophy of Meister Eckhart. Reiterating the renunciation of Gita, Meister Eckhart says the riddance of goods, riddance of friends and the ego of the self must occur prior to attainment of unselfish devotion. Omar Khayyam's book "Rubaiyat" also had a definite and discernable influence of the Gita.
Immanuel Kant's doctrine of categorical imperative which speaks of work as duty also approximates to the view of Gita that should perform one's duty according the well being of all. However, Kant doesn't believe in Gita's view of self. He proposes that soul doesn't outlast the body and death is the end of all experience. Hence soul is regarded as an object of experience. Kant's thought of reality is the same as that of Maya (illusion) of Vedanta philosophy, and the physical reality according to quantum physics. He states that we can not know an object because it is unreal. It appears to us through our senses and they are mere representatives in our thoughts, just illusions in spacetime. Schopenhauer proposes that the world is an idea which has two halves; the object that consists of forms, space and time; and the other half is the subject which is not in space and time. But both are present in its entirety in undivided halves in every percipient being. The two halves are complementary in defining physical reality.
Socrates had the clear concept of soul, and he believed that soul has to be as good as possible through good deed, which compares well with Gita 3.25. His belief in soul's immortality is also similar to Krishna's teaching in verse 2.20. Egyptians also believed in immortal soul and so did Plato who also thought of reward and punishment in the next world in agreement with Krishna's teachings about sad fate of demonic souls (Gita 6.34). Plato's famous doctrine of Anamnesis or Recollection is parallel to the doctrine of Sanskara of Gita and Vedanta. According Plato, Forms or Ideas are eternal realities entirely separate from the world. They can be gasped by pure intellect. The soul is known the Form in its divine existence before rebirth in a body and the senses of current existence can perceive them. Unlike Gita which teaches the existence of Atman that remains untouched by worldly existence although it participates in life, like lotus untouched by dirty water, Plato divides soul into three compartments; reason, emotions and carnal desires.
The Gita's concepts are also found in the thought of Plotinus who ranks with Plato and Aristotle of Hellenic thought. He uses the term One or Good and places beyond mind and being, and it doesn't diminish by its own creation (remains unaltered.) The Gita teaches that a man must be elevated from a lower to a higher state culminating in the union of the Atman with Paramatman. According to Plotinus, soul exists in the body but passes from material existence to the universality of the transcendental soul, passing even higher beyond the divine mind to achieve the ecstatic union with the One. His philosophy makes a slight departure from Gita in that he proposes that only a philosopher (jnani) and not an ordinary man can achieve this union. Gita advocates that anyone can achieve this union with Paramatman or Purushottama through the practice of bhakti yoga.
Caste system is discussed in at least four different places; verses II.31-37; III.35; IV.13, 18, and XVIII.41-48, and this is based on merits and capabilities of a person and not his heredity. This was not created by the divine will but by the distribution of merit according the law of karma. In the verses XVIII.41-48, Krishna explains that caste duties are assigned according to their own nature. Shankara in his commentary on verse 41 relates the nature of castes with the three Sankhya gunas; sattava, rajas and tamas. The first one is linked to good and pious nature, the second to dynamic activities and action, some good and some bad, and the third is linked to ignorance, darkness and confusion. Shankara connects Brahmin with sattva, and Kshatriya with sattva mixed with rajas, the vaishya with rajas mixed with tamas and shudra with tamas. This is clearly understandable since it acknowledges different natures, but the origin of this variety is attributed to the karma of their former lives. It essentially says that your former karma is responsible for what you are today. If this is the case then there is no freedom or autonomy in establishing one's destiny. It is the karma that determines the destiny. The physical reality described by quantum physics is eerily similar to this where everything in the universe appears to be preordained.
Reference: The Gita in World Literature by C. D. Verma
The chapter by B.K. Matilal on the discussion of caste system, and the chapter drawing the parallels in the works of Greek & German philosophers and Gita by K.P. Bahadur are some of the best chapters of the book. There are four chapters describing the influence of Gita in the works of T.S. Eliot; this could have been limited to one chapter, and the editor could have included a separate chapter for the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
The summary of the book is as follows: Gita is like a crown jewel that describes various Hindu philosophical systems and provides several paths for the union with Paramatman or Purushottama. Shankara believed that Gita teaches Advaita Vedanta, but Ramanuja suggested that Gita represents Vishistadvaita; Madhva was convinced it teaches Dvaita; and Bhaskara found Bhedabheda Vedanta. They all believed that Gita is univalent but Vivekananda observed that it teaches many paths and all of them are equally feasible. Jnaneswara, Aurobindo and Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada inculcated bhakti yoga; but Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi preached selfless action and a dedication to duty as the principal elements of this poem. However, most modern interpreters suggest that Gita is multivalent that supports three major Hindu philosophical systems; Sankhya, Vedanta and Bhakti Yoga philosophies
T.S. Eliot was most influenced by Bhagavad-Gita. The kinds of images and motifs found in "Four Quartets" are reminiscent of Hindu literature, especially Gita. In one of his lectures, he refers to his studies at Harvard as leading him into a state of "enlightened mystification." As Elliot explains; "A good half of the effort of understanding what the Indian philosophers were after-and their subtleties make most of the great European philosophers look like school boys-lay in trying to erase from my mind all the categories and kinds of distinction common to European philosophy from the time of Greeks time" - (from "After strange Gods," pages 43-44, 1933.) Eliot's "Waste Land" is also another book strongly influenced by Gita. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hermann Hesse, Aldous Huxley, T.S. Eliot, and Christian Heine critically evaluated the Christian traditions in light of Indian thought. Emerson refused to administer holy sacrament and questioned key Christian dogma in his Harvard Divinity School address. Harvard, his alma mater, disowned him and he remained persona-non-grata for thirty years. The underlying view of the universe in Walt Whitman's poetry and the Vedantic cosmology are similar, and the Emerson's description of the Whitman's poetry "as a blend of Bhagavad-Gita and the New York Herald" is well known. Henry David Thoreau also recognized that Whitman's poetry is "wonderfully like Orientals". Discovering transcendental philosophy came naturally to Whitman, like it did for Emerson and Thoreau. The body of the mystical verses from "Leaves of Grass" and poems from "In Cabin's Ships at sea", "Eidolans," and "Starting from Paumanok" all reflects the basic thoughts of Vedanta. Whitman believed the immortality of the soul, transmigration, transcendental awareness and the concepts of detachment are key to the ultimate liberation of the soul in bondage (through yoga of Jnana, bhakti and karma). Devotion and love for God is also central in the philosophy of Meister Eckhart. Reiterating the renunciation of Gita, Meister Eckhart says the riddance of goods, riddance of friends and the ego of the self must occur prior to attainment of unselfish devotion. Omar Khayyam's book "Rubaiyat" also had a definite and discernable influence of the Gita.
Immanuel Kant's doctrine of categorical imperative which speaks of work as duty also approximates to the view of Gita that should perform one's duty according the well being of all. However, Kant doesn't believe in Gita's view of self. He proposes that soul doesn't outlast the body and death is the end of all experience. Hence soul is regarded as an object of experience. Kant's thought of reality is the same as that of Maya (illusion) of Vedanta philosophy, and the physical reality according to quantum physics. He states that we can not know an object because it is unreal. It appears to us through our senses and they are mere representatives in our thoughts, just illusions in spacetime. Schopenhauer proposes that the world is an idea which has two halves; the object that consists of forms, space and time; and the other half is the subject which is not in space and time. But both are present in its entirety in undivided halves in every percipient being. The two halves are complementary in defining physical reality.
Socrates had the clear concept of soul, and he believed that soul has to be as good as possible through good deed, which compares well with Gita 3.25. His belief in soul's immortality is also similar to Krishna's teaching in verse 2.20. Egyptians also believed in immortal soul and so did Plato who also thought of reward and punishment in the next world in agreement with Krishna's teachings about sad fate of demonic souls (Gita 6.34). Plato's famous doctrine of Anamnesis or Recollection is parallel to the doctrine of Sanskara of Gita and Vedanta. According Plato, Forms or Ideas are eternal realities entirely separate from the world. They can be gasped by pure intellect. The soul is known the Form in its divine existence before rebirth in a body and the senses of current existence can perceive them. Unlike Gita which teaches the existence of Atman that remains untouched by worldly existence although it participates in life, like lotus untouched by dirty water, Plato divides soul into three compartments; reason, emotions and carnal desires.
The Gita's concepts are also found in the thought of Plotinus who ranks with Plato and Aristotle of Hellenic thought. He uses the term One or Good and places beyond mind and being, and it doesn't diminish by its own creation (remains unaltered.) The Gita teaches that a man must be elevated from a lower to a higher state culminating in the union of the Atman with Paramatman. According to Plotinus, soul exists in the body but passes from material existence to the universality of the transcendental soul, passing even higher beyond the divine mind to achieve the ecstatic union with the One. His philosophy makes a slight departure from Gita in that he proposes that only a philosopher (jnani) and not an ordinary man can achieve this union. Gita advocates that anyone can achieve this union with Paramatman or Purushottama through the practice of bhakti yoga.
Caste system is discussed in at least four different places; verses II.31-37; III.35; IV.13, 18, and XVIII.41-48, and this is based on merits and capabilities of a person and not his heredity. This was not created by the divine will but by the distribution of merit according the law of karma. In the verses XVIII.41-48, Krishna explains that caste duties are assigned according to their own nature. Shankara in his commentary on verse 41 relates the nature of castes with the three Sankhya gunas; sattava, rajas and tamas. The first one is linked to good and pious nature, the second to dynamic activities and action, some good and some bad, and the third is linked to ignorance, darkness and confusion. Shankara connects Brahmin with sattva, and Kshatriya with sattva mixed with rajas, the vaishya with rajas mixed with tamas and shudra with tamas. This is clearly understandable since it acknowledges different natures, but the origin of this variety is attributed to the karma of their former lives. It essentially says that your former karma is responsible for what you are today. If this is the case then there is no freedom or autonomy in establishing one's destiny. It is the karma that determines the destiny. The physical reality described by quantum physics is eerily similar to this where everything in the universe appears to be preordained.
Reference: The Gita in World Literature by C. D. Verma
No comments:
Post a Comment