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THE BHAGAVAD GITA IN THE TIME OF ITS COMPOSITION
In the BG Krishna powerfully reveals the full extent of his divine nature to Arjuna. Arjuna crisis, the main causes are: Psychological: how can he compensate the losses from a war involving kin? Moral: he is confused as to his duty (dharma) in this situation. He should engage in appropriate battle, but he also should owe a duty of protection to his own family members when family obligations are not observed the entire social order collapses. Krishna persuasion starts arguing about thinking that the dead do not cease to exist (the premise of transmigration or metempsychosis) because the soul of a person exists before birth and after death. So, the challenging part for Arjuna is to apply this radical redefinition of death to the situation of war. “The only thing is going to die is the body, cause the souls will just move to another body”. If Arjuna can fully accept this philosophical perspective, then he has no reason to grieve over war casualties. to fight in a righteous battle trumps any obligation you may feel toward other members of your family “It’s better to do your own duty than to perform the duty of someone else well”. “Bondage of action”: Krsna refers to some of the prevalent theories of action in classical India; Religious philosopher identified desire, the primary motivation of actions, to be a fundamental problem. Undertaking an act out of desire leads to bondage. The key term here is Karman, which in its primary usage simply denotes action. The way to avoid this bondage is to avoid all desire – based actions; and to accomplish this, it’s necessary to leave behind one’s family and social responsibilities and become a renouncer. “One can act without being driven by desire; the key is to avoid any attachment to the results (or fruits) of your action. This is one of the primary arguments of the BG: one need not to avoid worldly action: to avoid the bondage that results from action driven by desire, one must avoid any attachment to the ends or fruits of that action. Arjuna should fight in the war and if he does this without any concern for success or failure, no “bondage of action” will attach to him. Arjuna ask Krsna to describe the right person. To gain this sort of mastery over the self, one must employ discipline: the term here is yoga , word that has come to enjoy a complex and expansive life in modern global culture. To become a person whose wisdom is firm, one must first gai control over the senses. From this description raises another question from Arjuna: what is the best way to reach such a state of good person? (Thinking about the numerous religious school in India during that time). Three overreaching means of paths (marga):
- Discipline of action (karma yoga)
- Discipline of knowledge (jnana yoga)
- Discipline of devotion (bhakti yoga)
Krsna praises all of them as worthy and discusses the patch of action most often in relation to the Vedic practice of sacrifice (yajna). Sacrifices that are undertaken with true mental equanimity will lead to the superior spiritual ends. Arjuna has to do the same thing on the battlefield: he should engage in battle as his duty, without any attachment to the outcome, as kind of sacrificial act. For the discipline of knowledge Krsna surveys different philosophical system that aim to present full analyses of the underlying structure of the world. The proper knowledge of this structure has liberating power. The most important of these systems for Krsna’s discussion are early forms of the schools known as Samkhya (enumeration) and Vedanta (culmination of Veda). dualism of the soul and substance. While the paths of action and knowledge draw on familiar religious practices or school of thought, the path of devotion is something new within Sanskrit literature. In religious usage the term Bhakti denotes a vital living relationship between a human devotion and a God. The BG provides a very fertile field for the upcoming religions as Hinduism and other Indian religions, cause Krsna places this disciplinary newcomer on an equal footing with the other disciplines, and even at times elevates it above them. Cultivate an attitude of loyalty and adoration to involve a subordination of the ego, and to eliminate the self – interest. Incarnation: Krsna didn’t reincarnate himself again, because he was able to cut the bondage of action. 4.7 – 8: here in its first explicit appearance is the concept of Krsna’s (or Visnu’s) avatara. His incarnation, or more literally, “crossing down” into human or other physical form. Krsna reveals two key elements in his own theology: he is transcendent deity (lord of all beings) and he does so in order to intervene in worldly affairs and support righteousness. He is the source, the atman, the brahman, the one (all terms the philosopher used to declinate the concept of the absolute). The theology of the Gita requires the double recognition: Krsna is the supreme Being who is both transcendent and physically present. Supremacy and easy accessibility of the Lord. Even the gods are unable to know Krsna’s full extent, since he is the one and only Original God. The discipline of devotion can involve both action and knowledge. Devotion as a new way of cutting away the bondage of any act. Devotion become a discipline that is not simply one among several paths bur rather enters into and transform other disciplines: Krsna judges the person who practices the discipline of devotion as superior to others. The yogin (person who practices bhakti yoga) superior to ascetics. Absorption in Krsna. “Finding yourself is to join yourself to me”. The other side of Krsna: if he is the agent of all creation, he is also god of destruction. (thinking about the war Arjuna is going to handle). “To conquer your enemies and rule a prosperous kingdom. You will be my mere instrument, Arjuna” Action as an instrument of the divine will. Opening with a warrior’s crisis of grief and indecision it proceeds through a rising action of teachings, as Krsna guides Arjuna through issues of morality, soteriology and theology.
In fact, usually, Indological scholars postulate that the epic began with oral storytellers and performers relating heroic tales that perhaps looked back to some long – past historical dispute. Indological scholars have debated the compositional relationship between the BG and the M. Some have viewed the BG as an extrinsic interpolation into the epic story. Franklin Edgerton “Dramatic Absurdity” of this long conversational pause at the onset of a battle. Most recent scholars, however, see the BG an integral portion of the M. Van Buitenen BG conceived and created in the ontext of the M. It was not an independent text that somehow wandered into the epic. It was conceived and developed to bring to a climax and a solution the dharmic dilemma of war which was both just and pernicious. BG unique religious and philosophical context in which it can be faced, recognized and dealt with. Attraverso un colloquio in campo di guerra, oltre a dare una giustificazione ad una guerra comprendente anche un fratricidio e non solo, i Brahmani fautori del testo hanno saputo anche presentare una nuova visione di Krsna come Divinità Suprema e fuori da qualsivoglia forma di pratica religiosa devozionale. KRSNA AND HIS GITA IN MEDIEVAL INDIA Doubleness of Krsna, as a human friend and a charioteer as a God, who will let Arjuna see the full extent of his divinity. In medieval India Krsna became the center of a widespread and vigorous devotional cult. Hindu devotion toward Krsna focused primarily on his early life. Over the succeeding centuries, the life of Krsna would be retold in numerous works such as the Visnu Purana and the Brahma Purana. The most influential is the Bhagavata Purana. Bhagavata Purana: scripture of paraphs the ninth century, which retells the Krsna biography with a potent combination of theological sophistication and devotional fervor. The poem solidifies the legendary biography of Krsna and provided a point of departure for myriad further developments in Krsna devotionalism. The BP in its telling of the early life of Krsna, illustrate and simplifies many of Krsna’s key points in the BG, but also pushes some of these teachings in new directions. Krsna grows up among the Vraja pastoralist doubly disguised: as a prince among cowherds and a god among humans. Krsna takes a human form in order to restore dharma. The BP also focused on another side of is life. The poem describes in loving detail:
- The maternal love that foster mother Yashoda feels for her baby Krsna
- The loving friendship that his boyhood playmates come to share with Krsna
- The charged passionate love that the overwhelms the Gopis as Krsna grow into adolescence. Even without recognizing Krsna’s divinity, they come to feel an intense motional devotion to the human Krsna living in their midst. They give a new dimension to bhakti.
The BP forcefully reiterates the superiority of bhakti over other forms of religious practice: by placing Krsna in a village of cowherders, in a marginal community clearly inferior in the social hierarchy. The BP dramatically portrays the social inclusiveness of bhakti and grants the greatest devotional roles of female and thereby gives emphatic support to Krsna statement in the BG that bhakti is a path available to all. The style of bhakti that Krsna advocates in the BG is quite different from the one of the BP. The “Intellectual Bhakti” of the BG differs significantly from the “Emotional Bhakti” of the BP. BG 1) Recognition of Krsna’s divine nature as the foundation of the devotion,
- Krsna tells Arjuna that he will liberate him if Arjuna would fix him in his heart.
- Krsna observes that devotion has the capacity to rehabilitate even criminals and sinners. BP 1) Devotion to Krsna arises whether or not they apprehend his divine character. The love they direct toward the Krsna that the think human child, friend or love is qualified as bhakti. By recognizing Krsna to be god may even acts as a deterrent to devotion, cause it might create an emotional distance between human and divine, waken the intimacy of the human to human relationship. A lack of recognition enables the cowherders to experience the highest bliss of direct and loving participation in Krsna being.
- The BP takes really seriously the last discussion between Arjuna and Krsna, when he told him that “to hold Krsna firmly in his heart and to take refuge in him, to abandon all the duties, God will liberate him from all sins” and dramatizes it in the persons of the Gopis. The Gopis’ willingness to transgress all worldly bonds in order to gain full intimacy with Krsna should be taken as a devotional paradigm. In the BP’s scale of values, we should all aspire to be Gopis 3 ) The BP dramatizes the great salvific power of bhakti. Not just who direct their love toward Krsna, but even those who focus with animosity or hatred also find themselves delivered. Any immersion in Krsna, even with hostile intent, is good bhakti. The BP presents itself as a substitute for Krsna’s incarnate presence. Anyone born after the departure of Krsna from his incarnation who interacts with the BP with an attitude of devotion can gain the same salvation as those who lived with him during his earthly life. The story of Krsna is not just a historical narrative, the BP claims that it has a permanent resonance. The BP’s narration formed the basis for a profusion of devotional literature as well as religious activity throughout the subcontinent.
Nella BG è contenuto l’essenza concentrata del Veda. Gli insegnamenti della BG devono essere letti in modalità che non contraddicano ciò che nelle Upanishad e nel Brhama Sutras è contenuto. The truth taught by Krsna to Arjuna is not a transient or historical one, but instead a permanent and universal, according to the Vedantins. Importante pensare anche alla molteplicità del lettore: ognuno avrà un punto di vista differente, e farà proprio l’insegnamento. il testo nel contesto. Krsna’s teaching in the BG are not simply descriptive of the world. They are practical. They are intended to enable qualified humans to act in such a way that they gain maximum benefits. The highest aim for all human is a state of freedom or liberation from all bonds that inhibit one’s full attainment. This also entails a freedom from all future transmigration in the cycle of existence (Moksha). All Vedanta commentators accept that Krsna is not merely a human character in the M., but rather a divine being. Krsna identifies himself in BG as the Brahman (the Absolute). Ramanuja this poses no difficulty. He introduces his commentary on the BG with an extended celebration of Vishnu Narayana as the supreme Being. This great being is the “ ocean of innumerable beautiful qualities, such as boundless supreme knowledge, power, force, sovereignty, fortitude, master and like ”. He is the Supreme brahman and the highest person. In his highest form Vishnu is accessible to the meditation or worship of humans or even other deities. Vishnu repeatedly and generously assumes worldly shapes of all sorts, without changing his essential nature. In the BG Krsna doesn’t specify he is an incarnation of Vishnu, so Ramanuja writes that Krsna is an avatara much as he describes himself in the BG. Il non - dualismo lo si nota qua: Vishnu come trascendentemente supremo ed accessibile allo stesso tempo. Shankara He is a strict nondualist. Krsna assertions in the BG are not so easy to accept. For him, as the Upanishad said, the brahman is an underlying, eternal, unitary Absolute without attributes. The brahman cannot be qualified by any positive or negative attribute. A human - formed being like Krsna could not be the brahman, as defined in this way; it can only be a secondary o functional appearance of that brahman. All Vedantins accept that human existence is in some basic way unsatisfactory. They begin from the premise that the central drama of human life revolves around the personal soul, living in the world in seeming alienation (not fundamental or permanent) from the supreme. Both Shankara and Ramanuja affirm an underlying unity of human souls and the Absolute, and the unity is what must be regained. But, the path toward recovery differs for the two Vedantin commentators, and this leads them to emphasize differing parts of Krsna’s complex message in the BG. Shankara he rejects the idea that Krsna advocates a path leading to the Highest of “combined knowledge and action”. For him the only truly efficacious path is that of knowledge.
The basic problem is the ignorance: a failure to recognize the true identity of oneself with the brahman. Moksha must come about through recognition of an already – existing state of affairs, an epistemological shift rather than any ontological transformation. True knowledge consists not in knowing many things, but instead in fully realizing just that one thing. Knowledge is superior to action as a means to religious attainment, and true knowledge involves an abandonment of action. become a renouncer. Ma Krsna ha adattato il suo messaggio a colui che ascoltava, quanto parlava con Arjuna, un guerriero e householder, quindi attivo negli affari mondani. In questo quadro, Arjuna non si trova nella posizione adatta per seguire la via di salvezza della conoscenza altissima, che richiederebbe un atto di rinuncia. Come membro della Kshatriya, Arjuna non deve diventare un rinunciante, ma deve solo adempiere al compito della sua classe: combattere una guerra giusta e nella giusta maniera. Taking into account his fiend’s options, Krsna recommends methods by which Arjuna may act within his situation that will allow him to acquire the qualities necessary to eventual liberation such as mental and emotional tranquility. to gain mental purity Ramanuja the path of knowledge alone will not suffice for higher ends. He starts with a doctrine similar to the combined knowledge and action position that Shankara has earlier criticized. Knowledge and action work together: più una persona ha consapevolezza del suo essere, maggiormente le azioni con interesse divengono sempre meno d’interesse. Nel corso del tempo le azioni e la conoscenza di una persona inizieranno a lavorare sempre di più in sinergia. For him this can only be a preparation for a still – higher level of attainment: the realization of God. That can only come about through the third of Krsna’s 3 paths, the discipline of the discipline of devotion. Krsna giunge nel campo di battaglia del Kurukshetra solo per poter mostrare la nuova via di devozione come significato del concetto di “innalzamento allo stato superiore”. Full devotion of God leads to a state of oneness, but it is a different kinf of union that the one envisioned by Shankara. In both cases there is a realization of unity between a person’s individual essence and the absolute brahman, in which the individuality of the person is transcended. The final relation between the single – minded devotee and Highest Person is, one of dependence, the union with the Whole. limitless joy. Both Shankara and Ramanuja came from orthodox South Indian Brahmin families, and both remain deeply committed to the religious legacy of Vedanta, even if they articulated divergent philosophical visons, and their readings of the BG reflected their views
restores Arjuna sense of separateness, Arjuna realizes he is Arjuna, he wipes away his sweat and tears of joy and steadies hi voice to speak again to Krsna. The sense of provisional separation from God is the condition necessary for Arjuna to act in the world and carry out his services for Krsna. Comparison with the wish – granting Chintamani, cause like the famous multifaceted jewel the BG provides a wide range of meanings and satisfied the many differing desires of its varied audiences. Sankara ha cercato di sovrastare questo problema stilando dei commentari ben dettagliati. Jnanadeva remained closer perhaps to the ethos of the BG itself, where Krsna promises to share in them “whatever way people seek me”; and his idea of the Chintamani (con tutte le sue sfaccettature ed I luccichii che vanno in qualsiasi direzione) offers an apt metaphor for the contentious life of the BG in medieval India.
