Bhagavad Gita - Book 8, Volume 1

INTRODUCTION TO BHAGAVAD GITA: SONG OF GOD

This text was machine-transcribed from the printed book and may contain errors. Select the words and choose “Report a mistake”.

Śrīmad Bhagavad Gītā is the ultimate sacred scripture of yoga, Yogaśastra and the pristine glory of the Vedic culture, the eternal living tradition called sanātana-dharma. It belongs to the whole Universe for it is delivered to the Universe by the source and embodiment of Universe. We salute and bow down to Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who spoke the Bhagavad Gītā out of His infinite love and compassion for all beings.

Whenever unrighteousness, adharma becomes predominant and dharma, righteous living declines and the Yoga of Enlightenment is lost, Parabrahma Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Consciousness appears again and again to revive this sacred yoga, to protect and to enrich the devoted beings; and destroys adharma to re-establish the pure and everlasting dharma.

Gītā is also called Brahmavidyā— the Knowledge of Brahman, the supreme absolute truth; it is Jīvan Mukti Vijñāna— the Science of Living Enlightenment.

INTRODUCTION TO

BHAGAVAD GĪTĀ: SONG OF GOD

As with all scriptures, it is the knowledge and experience that is transmitted verbally as Śrī Kṛṣṇārjuna Saṁvād, an intimate dialogue between Master of the world, Jagadguru Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and His dear devotee and disciple, Arjuna. It is called śruti in Saṁskṛt, meaning something that is heard.

Gītā, as Bhagavad Gītā is generally called, translates literally from Saṁskṛt as ‘Sacred Song of God’. Unlike the Vedas and Upaniṣads, which are stand alone expressions of Truth, the Gītā is written into the greatest Hindu epic, the Mahābhārat, called a purāṇa, an ancient historical happening. It is part of the recorded history of the greatest tradition, the paramount civilization in all its Divine grandeur and its human complexity, so to speak.

No other epic or part of an epic has the special status and space of the Gītā. No other book but the Gītā gives a scientific, systematic, applied science of living joyfully in completion, while empowering the human action-field with authenticity to evolve into a responsible Divine play-field.

INTRODUCTION TO BHAGAVAD GĪTĀ: SONG OF GOD

Called the royal supreme knowledge
and the royal secret of secrets—
rājavidyā rājaguhyaṁ (9.2), this one
sacred book conveys the essence of
knowledge contained in all written and
oral vedic truths to enrich the simplest
to complex humans at all planes. It
holds within itself the direct key to
every possible human enquiry, the
solution to every dilemma of emotions,
and the sublime righteous path and
goal of every quest of rising or falling
civilizations for every age, time or
geography. As a consequence of the
presence of the Gītā, the Mahābhārat
epic itself is considered a sacred Hindu
scripture.

Illustration of Lord Krishna playing the flute

INTRODUCTION TO BHAGAVAD GITA: SONG OF GOD

Gītā arose from the super
consciousness of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the
Supreme God, the complete
Incarnation Purṇāvatār, and is
therefore considered Gītāśastra—the
essential scripture, knowing which,
one is liberated from all
incompletions, yaj jñātvā mokṣyase
asubhāt (9.1) and Gītopaniṣad—the
essence of all Upaniṣads, the purest
and highest knowledge to be ever
known and cognized because it gives
the direct experience of the Self—
pavitram idam uttamam
pratyakṣāvagaṁ dharmyaṁ (9.2).

INTRODUCTION TO BHAGAVAD GITA: SONG OF GOD

Gītā is the ultimate practical teaching on the inner science of spirituality that expresses as outer victory and success in life now and after. It is not, as some scholars incorrectly claim, a promotion of violence. It is about the impermanence of the mind and body, and the need to go beyond the mind, ego and logic.

The answers of the Divine, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, transcend time and space. Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s message is everlasting and joyfully performed, and is as valid today as it was on that fateful battlefield over five thousand years ago. The science of Gītā is the eternal technique of living in completion; the song of Gītā is the eternal life-enriching nectar, having no expiry date, time or age!