The
Bhagavad-gita
is the best known and the most frequently translated of Vedic religious
texts. Why it should be so appealing to the Western mind is an interesting
question. It has drama, for its setting is a scene of two great armies,
banners flying, drawn up opposite one another on the field, poised for
battle. It has ambiguity, and the fact that Arjuna and his charioteer Krsna
are carrying on their dialouge between the two armies suggests the indecision
of Arjuna about the basic question; should he enter battle against and
kill those who are friends and kinsmen? It has mystery, as Krsna demonstrates
to Arjuna His cosmic form. It has a properly complicated view of the ways
of the religious life and treats of the paths of knowledge, works, discipline
and faith and their inter-relationships, problems that have bothered adherents
of other religions in other times and places. The devotion spoken of is
a deliberate means of religious satisfaction, not a mere outpouring of
poetic emotion. Next to the Bhagavata-purana, a long work from South
India, the Gita is the text most frequently quoted in the philosophical
writings of the Gaudiya Vaisnava school, the school represented by Swami
Bhaktivedanta as the latest in a long succession of teachers. It can be
said that this school of Vaisnavism was founded, or revived, by Sri Krsna-Caitanya
Mahaprabhu (1486-1533) in Bengal, and that it is currently the strongest
single religious force in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent.
The Gaudiya Vaisnava school, for whom Krsna is Himself the Supreme God,
and not merely an incarnation of another deity, sees bhakti as an
immediate and powerful religious force, consisting of love between man
and God. Its discipline consists of devoting all one's actions to the Deity,
and one listens to the stories of Krsna from the sacred texts, one chants
Krsna's name, washes, bathes and dresses the murti of Krsna, feeds
Him and takes the remains of food offered to Him, thus absorbing His grace;
one does these things and many more, until one has been changed: the devotee
has become transformed into one close to Krsna, and sees the Lord face
to face.
Swami
Bhaktivedanta comments upon the Gita from this point of view, and
that is legitimate. More than that, in this translation the Western reader
has the unique opportunity of seeing how a Krsna devotee interprets his
own texts. It is the Vedic exegetical tradition, justly famous, in action.
This book is then a welcome addition from many points of view. It can serve
as a valuable textbook for the college student. It allows us to listen
to a skilled interpreter explicating a text which has profound religious
meaning. It gives us insights into the original and highly convincing ideas
of the Gaudiya Vaisnava school. In providing the Sanskrit in both Devanagari
and transliteration, it offers the Sanskrit specialist the opportunity
to re-interpret, or debate particular Sanskrit meanings--although I think
there will be little disagreement about the quality of the Swami's Sanskrit
scholarship. And finally, for the nonspecialist, there is readable English
and a devotional attitude which cannot help but move the sensitive reader.
And there are the paintings, which, incredibly as it may seem to those
familiar with contemporary Indian religious art, were done by American
devotees.
The scholar, the student
of Gaudiya Vaisnavism, and the increasing number of Western readers interested
in classical Vedic thought have been done a service by Swami Bhaktivedanta.
By bringing us a new and living interpretation of a text already known
to many, he has increased our understanding manyfold; and arguments for
understanding, in these days of estrangement, need not be made.
Professor Edward
C. Dimock, Jr.
Department of South
Asian Languages and Civilization University of Chicago
The
Bhagavad-gita
is the best known and the most frequently translated of Vedic religious
texts. Why it should be so appealing to the Western mind is an interesting
question. It has drama, for its setting is a scene of two great armies,
banners flying, drawn up opposite one another on the field, poised for
battle. It has ambiguity, and the fact that Arjuna and his charioteer Krsna
are carrying on their dialouge between the two armies suggests the indecision
of Arjuna about the basic question; should he enter battle against and
kill those who are friends and kinsmen? It has mystery, as Krsna demonstrates
to Arjuna His cosmic form. It has a properly complicated view of the ways
of the religious life and treats of the paths of knowledge, works, discipline
and faith and their inter-relationships, problems that have bothered adherents
of other religions in other times and places. The devotion spoken of is
a deliberate means of religious satisfaction, not a mere outpouring of
poetic emotion. Next to the Bhagavata-purana, a long work from South
India, the Gita is the text most frequently quoted in the philosophical
writings of the Gaudiya Vaisnava school, the school represented by Swami
Bhaktivedanta as the latest in a long succession of teachers. It can be
said that this school of Vaisnavism was founded, or revived, by Sri Krsna-Caitanya
Mahaprabhu (1486-1533) in Bengal, and that it is currently the strongest
single religious force in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent.
The Gaudiya Vaisnava school, for whom Krsna is Himself the Supreme God,
and not merely an incarnation of another deity, sees bhakti as an
immediate and powerful religious force, consisting of love between man
and God. Its discipline consists of devoting all one's actions to the Deity,
and one listens to the stories of Krsna from the sacred texts, one chants
Krsna's name, washes, bathes and dresses the murti of Krsna, feeds
Him and takes the remains of food offered to Him, thus absorbing His grace;
one does these things and many more, until one has been changed: the devotee
has become transformed into one close to Krsna, and sees the Lord face
to face.
