INTRODUCTION TO BHAGAVAD GĪTĀ: SONG OF GOD
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As with all scriptures, it is the knowledge and experience that is transmitted verbally as Śri 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 Saṁskṛit, meaning something that is heard.
Gītā, as Bhagavad Gītā is generally called, translates literally from Saṁskṛit 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.
INTRODUCTION TO BHAGAVAD GITA: SONG OF GOD
Gītā arose from the super
consciousness of Śri Kṛṣṇa, the
Supreme God, the complete
Incarnation Purnāvatār, 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 GĪTĀ: 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!
