Related Information

           

A person new to Gita will find it hard to understand it due to lack of context of story of Mahabharat. The following information will help to some extent.

1.    Though the Gita is usually considered as an independent book, actually it happens to be part of epic Mahabharat which includes saga of war also known as  Mahabharat war. Chapters Nos. 1-18 of Bhagvad geeta are  numbered as Chapter no. 23-40 of Bhishma Parva part of Mahabharat book

2.   Chapter 1 and part of Chapter 2 of Bhagvat Geeta are in story form. The scene is of battle field of Kurukshetra where a Mahabharat was fought about a few thousand years ago. In the Mahabharat story, there are many characters like Bhishma, Arjun, Duryodhan, Karna etc. The root cause of the war and the roles of these persons can be understood by reading Mahabharat.  It is a big book of 100 000 verses in Sanskrit and so it will be a tough reading. A reader, who is keen to know the full story, may find abridged version in English or other language.

3.   The significance of the Gita is not as a war story.  You would read in Chapter 1, that Arjun, a valiant warrior who is keen to fight a war which is thrust upon his side by his cousins who were unfair and did many ghastly acts. But as Arjun sees, his kith and keens and Gurus in the opponent side in battle, he is dismayed with the prospect of killing them. His emotional attachment is so overpowering that he gets confused and refuses to fight the war. He thinks it is better even to live on Alms than kill the kith and keens to win the bloodshed kingdom. Eventually,  Arjun is so much confused that he concedes his helpless condition and surrenders to Krushna and tells him that he is is Krushna’s shishya (Student)  and Krushna  should teach him what is right for him.

In response to that Krushna, who is the incarnation of God and who has consented to be Arjun’s Charioteer teaches him about relation of Self  with  the world and divine. That teaching is  Bhagvad geeta. Arjun gets convinced and vows that he will act according to Krushna’s  telling.

4.   As you would read subsequent chapters, it will be evident to you that the teaching of Krushna which is the subject of the Gita is meant not only for the limited cause of War and Arjun but for wider cause for all of us for  leading a righteous life.

5.   Bhagvad Geeta is presented as Dialogue between Arjun and lord Krushna. The Gita is not authored by either of them. Gita is authored by Veda vyas (briefly Vyas) who is also known as Dwaipayan Krushna due o his dark body . The word Krushna in Sanskrit means black or dark..

6.  Lord Krushna is an incarnation of Supreme God but in his human life, he happens to be a relative of Arjun. Arjun’s mother Kunti is a Krusna’s aunt  (father’s sister). Also Arjun has married to the sister of Krushna. Arjun and his brothers and mother etc respects Krushna as a noble person, and a friend  but do not know him as supreme God.

7.    Krushna who himself is the powerful king of Dwarka state owns a big army.  Duryodhan and Arjun both approach Krushna for his help in the  war. Krishna offered two options. 1 His army. 2 Himself but who would not fight.

Though Arjun was given first right to choose, he asked for Krushna even if he will not fight.Durydhan  got the army, what only he wanted.

Now in this incident there are two important points.
1 Krushna has made clear that he will not fight in the war of family feud i.e. God does not join in your good or bad acts.   2. Arjun chose Krushna’s company who is God but also a symbol of righteousness.  Duryodhan is not righteous and he thinks that manpower is more powerful than the divine power. In the end Arjun’s side (Pandavas) win. Duryodhan and his 100 brothers and many other mighty warriors in his army are annihilated.

8.    There are many books on Bhagvad Geeta.

Some are claimed to be ‘As it is’ versions. They invariably include original Sanskrit Stanzas. In some others, for readers who cannot read Sanskrit, there will be transliteration in English or other language. The translation will be verbatim meaning and also words rearranged for the according to the language of translation.

Though this is described as authentic treatment, the interpretation is to be done by the readers. This has several limitations. There are specials words whose meanings are not  found even in Sankrit dictionaries. A reader will not understand or may understand differently due to the ignorance of Vedic and Upnishadic thoughts  which are inherent in Gita.

To remedy the above difficulties, many books of  Gita include commentaries.

These commentaries can be divided in different categories but for our purpose we shall consider in two categories.

i.    Those written by ascets who are concerned with abstract topics like ‘who is I’, ‘Who has created Universe’ .What happens after death. Whether there is rebirth, How to liberate from the cycle of birth and death etc.

ii.    Those written by persons who lived mundane life who are concerned with problems of this life.like ‘ What are right values’.’ How to fight with evils’, ‘How to live harmoniously and joyfully even in the stressful situations’.

This is the  Utilitarian side of Bhagvad geeta

Apart from the general meaning the, the word Utilitarianism  has a specific meaning as stated below.

9.     Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that states that the best action is the one that maximizes utility. "Utility" is defined in various ways, usually in terms of the well-being of sentient entities.  

Jeremy Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism, described utility as the sum of all pleasure that results from an action, minus the suffering of anyone involved in the action.