Bhagavad Gita

From SJS Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search

Return to History 8 India Lecture Notes

The Bhagavad Gita is a section in the Mahabharata. It was written between 400 BCE and 200 CE. The Gita is about Krishna, the eight incarnation of God Vishnu, telling Arjuna to fight in the war even though his family is fighting on both sides. Arjuna is the great leader and archer of the Pandavas, and Krishna is his chariot driver. The war is between the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Even though Arjuna does not want to fight against his own family, Krishna still tells him to fight by giving him five reasons. The five reasons are atman (self), dharma (honor and duty), inaction (not taking action) is impossible, the source of evil is in passion and desires not in actions, and that it is possible to act and do what we have to do without getting bad karma. Krishna also says to Arjuna that there are three disciplines: discipline of action (karma), discipline of knowledge (jnana), and the discipline of love (bhakti). In the video "The Bhagavad Gita", Crawford says that the main elements laid out by the Gita is the nature of the universe, the nature of the soul, what is truth, and the attitude that we should have when we face any problems on Earth.


gita-117.jpg


Sources: [1] [2]

Katy Shafer