Bhagavad Gita and Hinduism  (Paperback, Dr. Kapil Khanna)

The Bhagavad Gita is one of the supreme works of Sanskrit and indeed of all world literature. It is the most well-known and widely translated part of the Sanskrit Mahabharata (constituting chapters 6.23 to 6.40 in the Poona edition of the Mahabharata). In the great Mahabharata war, on the battlefield of Kuruksetra (Kuru’s field), Kuru’s descendants, split into two sides, fight over the ancestral kingdom. Arjuna Pandava is the most brilliant warrior on the winning side, and his chariot driver is his maternal cousin, brother-in-law, and great friend Krishna Vasudeva, who is also, as Arjuna comes to realize, the great god Vishnu Narayana in human form. Just before the war commences, Arjuna asks Krishna to drive him out between the massed armies, and at the sight of those opposing him, he suffers an existential collapse and declares he will not fight. Hinduism, a religious custom of Indian origin, constituting the beliefs and practices of Hindus is one of the most erstwhile spiritual customs in the world. Hinduism is often compared with a giant banyan tree—in its shade a thousand faiths bloom. The word Hindu is derived from the river Sindhu, or Indus. Hindu was first and foremost a geographical term that referred to India or to a region of India (near the Sindhu) as long ago as the 6th century BC. The word Hinduism is an English word of more recent origin. The Bhagavad Gita is the sealing achievement of this Hindu synthesis, incorporating various religious traditions. According to Hiltebeitel, bhakti forms an essential ingredient of this synthesis, which incorporates bhakti into the Brahmanical fold. According to Deutsch and Dalvi, the Bhagavad Gita attempts “to forge a harmony” between different strands of Indian thought: jnana, dharma and bhakti.