gItAsatsang: Atha Shrimad Bhagwad Gita

[Guest guest]

01032001

Hello EveryBody

 

Every time Gita is dissussed it is usually belived that it is an Historical

account of ancient India. I strongly belive otherwise. The entire Mahabharat

and Ramayan is full of some unbeliveable stories and one has to understand

them in some different persepctive rather than the usual one. I wanted to

share my thoughts about Gita that make it to be non-historical. It is may

humble and sincere effort towards that and hope that you will give a thought

to it as well.

 

In Mahabharat and as well in Ramayan there are instances about Buddha

Bhikkus and Buddha Shramanas. That clearly shows that there must be such

Bhikkus or Shramanas present that time when these two epics were written.

This also means that Bhuddha philosophy and traditions thereto must be

present for some ample peroid before the creations of Ramayan and

Mahabharat.Actually it can be said that mental rejection of Arjun in the

middle of the battle field skillfully depicted by Ved Vyas to show the

genaral way of thinking prevailing at that time.Dejection and sarrow are

key concepts in Buddha philosophy. Initial mental frame of Arjun is clear

indication of the Buddha thought.So Gita basically starts with the strong

influenced of the thinking of the Buddha.Keeping this historical account of

the social status of the time when Gita was written we may require to go

through Gita again with different angle.

This I am doing with the appeal made by Shri Gummuluru Murthy, Chief

Moderator.

 

 

With Your permissions.........

 

 

Atha Shrimad Bhagwad Gita(First Canto)

 

Before starting to understand the purport of the first stanza of Gita we

have first to understand the meaning of the initial heading, "Atha Shrimad

Bhagwad Gita". The very first 'Atha' word suggest that there must be some

such philosophical approch to the problem Gita has tried to expalin and

tackle. Ved Vyas starts with the word 'Atha' because he kept the philosophy

of life in a different way than the previous ones(Budhha). The word 'Atha'

points to some other school of philosophy which was that of Upnishadas and

hence at the end of every canto of the Gita the word 'Upnishadsu' has been

written. Gita is also an Upanishad. Upnishadas were written to explain the

difficult knowledge of the Vedas written in short aphorisms of the original

divinity. Time passed and the knowledge written in the Upnishads also became

difficult for the common man to understand. It is through that Badarayana

wrote his 'Vedantra Sutra' or 'Brahma Sutra' which tried to reconcile the

philosophical thoughts written in many Upnishads. The Upnishads are mostly

of renunciation thoughts to make them more wordly and practical Ramayan and

Mahabharat epics were written. These two epics because of their fictional

type of description, became very popular. Again we belive that Ramayan and

Mahabharat are historical events where as if analysed properly turns out to

be classical poetical work of Maharishi Valmiki and Ved Vyas. This whole

social and spiritual picture was clear to Ved Vyas and hence he writes

'Atha' in very begining of the Gita.

Then comes the word 'Shrimat'. 'Shri' means opulant and 'Mat' means opinion

or intelligence which is needed in practical philosophy. The word 'Bhagwat'

comes next. 'Bhag' means Wel-being and 'Vat' means the state accordingly.

Hence Bhagwat means a state of complete well-being. The last word is

'Gita'verbally meaning a poem that is to be sung. There is an alphabet 'Ga'

in Gita. 'Ga' means speed and 'Git' means momentum towards the desired end.

Such speed towards the desired end is called 'Gita'.

Thus 'Shrimat Bhagwat Gita' means opulant intelligence speeding towards the

desired end of wel-being. The process of 'Git' is two fold. The person can

individually go towards the effect of the song he sings and secondly he can

take with him the persons emmotionally towards the same desired end of the

song who hear him.This is the meaning of 'Git' and such an advancing stage

towards welfare is termed as 'Gita' by Ved Vyas. Hence Gita is a social

science of behaviour leading towards the desired end of wel-being.

 

It is belived that metre of Gita is 'Anustubha' which is even today is

greatly lulling,melodious,gracious and profound. A person who hears the

'Anustubha Chhand' loses himself in a deep profound ecstacy though he may be

of any school of melody. And that may be the inner urge of Ved Vyas.

Anustubha is coined through two subwords one 'Anu' and second 'Stubha'.

'Anu' means to follow and 'Stubha' means that desired stage of pursuit.

Every canto of Gita begins with Atha and ends with 'Om tat sat eti' meaning

that is true in this way only. The begining is made through Atha and end

with Eti meaning in this way or like this. By 'Eti' Ved Vyas wants to

suggerst that it is the only way of salvation and wel-being if one goes by

that way. Gita is no historical account or individual chivalry.Every canto

begins with 'Atha' and ends with 'Eti', 'Atha' means the teachings of

previous thinkers and 'Eti' means his own opinion. And whatever has been

said in the canto is totally surrendered to the Brahma and hence the end is

glorified with the words 'Om tat sat eti'.

 

Hence we may say that Gita is a practical philosophy of life that requries a

soar of tendencies as displayed by Ved Vyas through Mahabharat. With this

context only we may require to re-examine some cantos of Gita. If permitted

I shall be very glad to do that.

 

 

Thanks a lot for your Time and Space.

 

Prabodh Vekhande

[Guest guest]

Namaste Prabodhji,

 

Thank you for the novelty of your approach to the study of

Gita. No permissin is required on this open forum to continue your

explication! Please proceed.

 

I am somewhat confused by your statements about Gita being

non-historical, and yet mixing it with historical events of Buddhist

philosophy.

 

The word 'atha' also may simply indicate an auspicious

beginning, and 'iti' mean the end of the Canto. Of course one can

look for other meanings also as you have done.

 

'Stubha' literally means 'praise'. anu-Stubh a meter with

4 'feet' used in praise of Gayatri [with three 'feet' in the meter],

was thus called [anu = following], Ref. RigVeda X:130:4, according to

Monier-Williams dictionary. If you happen to have any other

references, please let us know.

 

Sri Aurobindo's Essays on the Gita, Chapter 1, makes a good

case for the universality of appeal of the Gita. Some other chapters

are now on-line at URL:

 

http://intyoga.freeservers.com/arya-lit.htm#eog

 

 

Regards,

 

s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

advaitin, "softbit" <softbit@n...> wrote:

> 01032001

 

 

I wanted to

> share my thoughts about Gita that make it to be non-historical. >

 

So Gita basically starts with the strong

> influenced of the thinking of the Buddha.

 

Keeping this historical account of

> the social status of the time when Gita was written we may require

to go

> through Gita again with different angle.

>

> It is belived that metre of Gita is 'Anustubha' And that may be the

inner urge of Ved Vyas.

> Anustubha is coined through two subwords one 'Anu' and

second 'Stubha'.

> 'Anu' means to follow and 'Stubha' means that desired stage of

pursuit.

> Every canto of Gita begins with Atha and ends with 'Om tat sat eti'

meaning

> that is true in this way only. The begining is made through Atha

and end

> with Eti meaning in this way or like this. By 'Eti' Ved Vyas wants

to

> suggerst that it is the only way of salvation and wel-being if one

goes by

> that way. Gita is no historical account or individual

chivalry.Every canto

> begins with 'Atha' and ends with 'Eti', 'Atha' means the teachings

of

> previous thinkers and 'Eti' means his own opinion. And whatever has

been

> said in the canto is totally surrendered to the Brahma and hence

the end is

> glorified with the words 'Om tat sat eti'.

>

> Hence we may say that Gita is a practical philosophy of life that

requries a

> soar of tendencies as displayed by Ved Vyas through Mahabharat.

With this

> context only we may require to re-examine some cantos of Gita. If

permitted

> I shall be very glad to do that.

>

>

> Thanks a lot for your Time and Space.

>

> Prabodh Vekhande

[Guest guest]

Namaste Prabodhji:

 

First, I want to congratulate you for your willingness to contribute

to Gitasatsang and I hope others will follow your with the same

entusiasm and interest.

 

You have made several observations and your own inferences which are

quite contradictory to the views held by majority of known scholars

and philosophers and saints. I believe that you have a challenging

task ahead of you to bring substantial evidence and references to

support your observations.

 

Finally, I am also wondering whether it is wise on our part to focus

our attention on issues such as:

 

Did Ramayan or Mahabharat has any historical relevance?

Did Buddhism have strong influence in Ramayan, Mahbharat and Gita?

 

I am sure that you will agree that as a philosophical discussion

group, our focus should be to look for insights and guidance from

Ramayan, Mahabharat and Gita. Great spiritual and political leaders

such as all the Acharyas (Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhava), Swami

Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak and so many others have

demonstrated how much the manking can gain from the stories of Ramayan

and Mahabharat. Also, sages Valmiki and Vyasa were also poets and they

have applied their poetic and dramatic ability while narrating Ramayan

and Mahabharat. It is quite conceivable that some of the incidents

described in Ramayan and Mahabharat may not be believable by looking

with our modern vision. On the otherhand, there is substantial

archeological evidence to support the historical background of Ramayan

and Mahabharat.

 

Finally, your previous posts strongly suggest that you have high

potential to help me and other list members with scholarly articles

with more focus on the message of Gita and its utility in enriching

our daily life.

 

Thanks again for expressing your keen interest in participating in

Gitasatsang.

 

warmest regards,

 

Ram Chandran

[Guest guest]

The sages who wrote the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana

probably expected that in the far future, people are

not going to believe them. Thats why they called the

epics as "IthiHaasas". Iti -Like this, Ha - Indeed,

Aasa - It happened. Ithihaasa - "Indeed it happened

like this". !

 

Anand

 

>

> What I mean by non-historical is that Mahabharat (of

> which Gita a part) is a

> Fictional work rather than Historical account of

> Hastinapur. It is written

> by clair intelligence of Ved Vyas to counter the

> effect of Buddha on the

> society at large. It means that contents of

> Mahabharat are not factual

> representation of the History of HASTINAPUR. All the

> characters in

> Mahabharat are creation of Ved Vyas. It as well

> means Mahabhart never

> happened and hence Gita as well never actually told

> in the actual battel

> field but entire creation is clair intelligence of

> Ved Vyas. Why Ved Vyas

> wrote a poem that looks like an account of History?

> This is because to

> capture the masses and tell them the actual path of

> truth in the manner in

> which masses would appriciate and enjoy. It must be

> clear that the time when

> Mahabhart and hence Gita was written society had

> great impact of Buddha.

> Buddha strongly opposed the Ved and Upnisidhas and

> Buddha chose the medium

> of his teachings not as Sanskrit. This made masses

> to follow him and hence

> entire Vedic culture was seriously threathed. The

> first attempt to stop the

> onslaught of Buddha was made by Maharishi Valmiki.

> It is belived that

> Mahabharat was written after 70-100 years of

> Ramayan. So my point was that

> Mahabharat did not happen. It is a great poetic work

> of Ved Vyas.

>

 

 

 

 

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