Bhagvad-Gita: Treatise of Self-help

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Status: Finished  |  Genre: Religion and Spirituality  |  House: Booksie Classic

Bhagavad-Gita is the most beautiful, perhaps the only true philosophical song existing in any known tongue’ – so opined William von Humboldt.
Though it is a matter of consensus that Bhagvad-Gita in the present length of seven hundred verses has many an interpolation to it, but no meaningful attempt has ever been made to delve into the nature and extent, not to speak of the effect of these on the Hindu society at large.
The moot point that has missed the attention of all, all along, is that if the Sudras were to be so lowly in the Lord’s creation, how come then the Gita’s architect Krishna, His avatar, and Vy?sa, its chronicler, happen to be from the same lowly Hindu caste fold. Moreover, is it not absurd to suggest that either or both of them had deprecated the station of their own varna (caste) on their own in their very own Gita?
The methodical codification of interpolations carried out here, for the first time ever, puts the true character of Gita in proper perspective. Identified here are hundred and ten slokas of deviant nature and or of partisan character, the source of so much misunderstanding about this book extraordinary, in certain sections of the Hindu fold.
Thus, in the long run, exposing and expunging these mischievous insertions is bound to bring in new readers from these quarters to this over two millennia old classic besides altering the misconceptions of the existing adherents.
In this modern rendition, the beauty of the Sanskrit slokas is reflected in the rhythmic flow of the English verses of poetic proportions even as the attendant philosophy of the song that is the Gita is captured in contemporary idiom for easy comprehension.

Author's audio rendition of this philosophical discourse in free English verses can be heard at Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vFU3-LD4iM

This discourse spreads over

Contents
1. Introduction
2. Awe Unfounded
3. All about Interpolations

Chapters
1. Arjuna’s Dilemma
2. All about Life
3. Theory of Action
4. Practical Wisdom
5. Art of Renunciation
6. Practice of Restraint
7. Know the Spirit
8. Cycle of Creation
9. The Sacred Secret
10. Discern the Divine
11. Nature of Omnipresence
12. Doctrine of Faith
13. Field and Farmer
14. Proclivities to Know
15. Art of Liberation
16. Frailty of Thought
17. Science of Devotion
18. Thy Looking-glass

Table of Contents

Chapters I - III

The spiritual ethos and the philosophical outlook that the Bhagvad - Gita postulates paves the way for the liberation of man, who, as Rousseau said, ‘being born free, is everywhere in chains’. But equally it is a mirror of human psychology, which enables man to discern his debilities for appropriate redressal. All the same, the boon of an oral tradition that kept it alive for over two millennia became its bane with the proliferation of interpolations therein. Besides muddying its pristine philosophy, these insertions affect the sequential conformity and structural economy of the grand discourse. What is worse, to the chagrin of the majority of the Hindus, some of these legitimize the inimical caste system while upholding the priestly perks and prejudices. This rendition seeks to restore to the Gita, its original character by ridding it of hundred and nine interpolations, which tend to keep the skeptics away from it. And ironically these muddle the understanding as well. In the theatre of man as nothing surpasses the drama of war, the stage for unveiling the Gita’s unrivalled philosophy was set on the battleground of Kurukshetra at the threshold of the battle of Mahabharata.
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Chapter - IV - IX

  Chapter -4: Practical Wisdom   This chapter of 42 slokas, known as gjnaana yoga, Spiritual Knowledge, is replete with pra... Read Chapter

Chapter X -XV

Chapter-10: Discern the Divine This intriguing chapter of 42 slokas, known as vibhooti yoga, Glories of the Supreme, characterizes th... Read Chapter

Chapter s- XVI - XVIII

Chapter-16: Frailty of Thought This chapter of 24 slokas, known as daivaasura sampad vibhaaga yoga, The Characteristics of Virtuous a... Read Chapter