Book Reviewed: Lectures on the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Vivekananda

The wisdom of Bhagavadgita Bhagavadgita is the essence of Vedas that expounds knowledge and remedy the challenges of life. Swami Vivekananda offers a concise interpretation of teaching of Lord Krishna in three consecutive lectures in San Francisco, California. Vivekananda infuse vigor into Hindu thought, placing less emphasis on the prevailing pacifism but more on Hindu spirituality. There are three lectures in this short book of 40 pages. In the first chapter, Vivekananda presents a bird’s eye view of Vedas and what it meant to orthodox and non-orthodox Hindus. But he calls Upanishads equivalent of Bible, which proposes one God (Brahman), and Bhagavadgita as the commentary on the Upanishads. The law of karma gives humans a way out of for happiness, but Vivekananda argues happiness and the concept of heaven are too materialistic in nature. One must go beyond the law of karma and seek unification with Brahman, the Supreme Consciousness. Brahman has no attributes, but it is an entity that encompasses omniscience (infinite knowledge), omnipotence (unlimited power), omnipresence (present everywhere), Omni benevolence (perfect goodness), immutable, divine simplicity, and eternal existence. Brahman’s qualities are personal and impersonal which exists in spaceless and timeless dimensions in an unchanging reality amidst and beyond the realm of a universe. The Pure Consciousness (True Self) can transcend all possible laws of physics, all dimensions, and all physical realities. Swamiji refers to verses in Chapter 2 in which Arjuna request Krishna to guide him on how to overcome his grief at the idea of killing his own family members and teachers. Krishna explains that the cause of all grief is due to ignorance that results from the lack of understanding about the True Self. He explains the Yoga of discipline of selfless action without being attached to its fruits is essential. Vivekananda was known for his prodigious memory and the ability at speed reading. He was responsible for bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion and a force in its revival in India and raising interfaith awareness in Western hemisphere. This is one of the numerous lectures Swamiji offered about Gita and the Upanishads during his lifetime.