Summarizing the Upanishadic conceptions of God, the Gita posits the existence of an individual self (Atman) and the supreme self (Brahman) within each being.[note 1]The dialogue between the prince and his charioteer has been interpreted as a metaphor for an immortal dialogue between the human self and God.[note 2] Commentators of Vedanta read varying notions in the Bhagavad Gita about the relationship between the Atman (individual Self) and Brahman (supreme Self); Advaita Vedanta affirms on the non-duality of Atman and Brahman, whereas Vishishtadvaita asserts qualified non-dualism with Atman and Brahman being related but different in certain aspects, while Dvaita Vedanta declares the complete duality of Atman and Brahman.[note 3]
The gita in the title of the Bhagavad Gita literally means "song". Religious leaders and scholars interpret the word Bhagavad in a number of ways. Accordingly, the title has been interpreted as, "the song of God"; "the word of God" by the theistic schools,[3] "the words of the Lord",[4] "the Divine Song",[5][page needed][6] and "Celestial Song" by others.[7]
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Theories on the date of the composition of the Gita vary considerably. The text is generally dated to the second half of the first millennium BCE.[10] Some scholars accept dates from the 5th century BCE to the 2nd century BCE as the probable range, the latter likely. The Hinduism scholar Jeaneane Fowler, in her commentary on the Gita, considers second century BCE to be the probable date of composition.[11] J. A. B. van Buitenen also states that the Gita was likely composed about 200 BCE.[12] According to the Indologist Arvind Sharma, the Gita is generally accepted to be a 2nd-century-BCE text.[13]
Kashi Nath Upadhyaya, in contrast, dates it a bit earlier. He states that the Gita was always a part of the Mahabharata, and dating the latter suffices in dating the Gita.[14] On the basis of the estimated dates of Mahabharata as evidenced by exact quotes of it in the Buddhist literature by Asvaghosa (c. 100 CE), Upadhyaya states that the Mahabharata, and therefore the Gita, must have been well known by then for a Buddhist to be quoting it.[14][note 5] This suggests a terminus ante quem (latest date) of the Gita to be sometime prior to the 1st century CE.[14] He cites similar quotes in the dharmasutra texts, the Brahma sutras, and other literature to conclude that the Bhagavad Gita was composed in the fifth or fourth century BCE.[16][note 6] According to Arthur Basham, the context of the Bhagavad Gita suggests that it was composed in an era when the ethics of war were being questioned and renunciation to monastic life was becoming popular.[18] Such an era emerged after the rise of Buddhism and Jainism in the 5th century BCE, and particularly after the semi-legendary life of Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE. Thus, the first version of the Bhagavad Gita may have been composed in or after the 3rd century BCE.[18]
In the Indian tradition, the Bhagavad Gita, as well as the epic Mahabharata of which it is a part, is attributed to the sage Vyasa,[24] whose full name was Krishna Dvaipayana, also called Veda-Vyasa.[25] Another Hindu legend states that Vyasa narrated it when the lord Ganesha broke one of his tusks and wrote down the Mahabharata along with the Bhagavad Gita.[26][27][note 7]Scholars consider Vyasa to be a mythical or symbolic author, in part because Vyasa is also the traditional compiler of the Vedas and the Puranas, texts dated to be from different millennia.[26][30][31]
Swami Vivekananda, the 19th-century Hindu monk and Vedantist, stated that the Bhagavad Gita may be old but it was mostly unknown in Indian history until the early 8th century when Adi Shankara (Shankaracharya) made it famous by writing his much-followed commentary on it.[32][33] Some infer, states Vivekananda, that "Shankaracharya was the author of Gita, and that it was he who foisted it into the body of the Mahabharata."[32] This attribution to Adi Shankara is unlikely in part because Shankara himself refers to the earlier commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, and because other Hindu texts and traditions that compete with the ideas of Shankara refer to much older literature referencing the Bhagavad Gita, though much of this ancient secondary literature has not survived into the modern era.[32]
J. A. B. van Buitenen, an Indologist known for his translations and scholarship on Mahabharata, finds that the Gita is so contextually and philosophically well knit within the Mahabharata that it was not an independent text that "somehow wandered into the epic".[34] The Gita, states van Buitenen, was conceived and developed by the Mahabharata authors to "bring to a climax and solution the dharmic dilemma of a war".[34][note 8] According to Alexus McLeod, a scholar of Philosophy and Asian Studies, it is "impossible to link the Bhagavad Gita to a single author", and it may be the work of many authors.[26][37] This view is shared by the Indologist Arthur Basham, who states that there were three or more authors or compilers of Bhagavad Gita. This is evidenced by the discontinuous intermixing of philosophical verses with theistic or passionately theistic verses, according to Basham.[38][note 9]
The Gita is one of the key texts for Vedanta,[51][52] a school of thought that provides one of the theoretical foundations for Hinduism,[53] and one that has had an enormous influence over time, becoming the central ideology of the Hindu renaissance in the 19th century.[54][note 3] Some Hindus give it the status of an Upanishad, and some consider it to be a "revealed text".[55][56][57] There are alternate versions of the Bhagavad Gita (such as the one found in Kashmir), but the basic message behind these texts are not distorted.[58][59][60]
The Bhagavad Gita draws heavily from the philosophical ideas presented in the Upanishads, incorporating and expanding upon them throughout the text. For example, in the Bhagavad Gita's second chapter, Krishna explains to Arjuna about the eternal nature of the soul, a concept echoed from the Katha Upanishad. It talks about the concept of karma yoga, mentioned in the Isha Upanishad, and ideal times for departing from life, echoing teachings from the Chandogya Upanishad.[61]
The Bhagavad Gita is the sealing achievement of the Hindu synthesis, incorporating its various religious traditions.[2][62][63] The synthesis is at both philosophical and socio-religious levels, states the Gita scholar Keya Maitra.[64] The text refrains from insisting on one right marga (path) to spirituality. It openly synthesizes and inclusively accepts multiple ways of life, harmonizing spiritual pursuits through action (karma), knowledge (jna), and devotion (bhakti).[65] According to the Gita translator Radhakrishnan, quoted in a review by Robinson, Krishna's discourse is a "comprehensive synthesis" that inclusively unifies the competing strands of Hindu thought such as "Vedic ritual, Upanishadic wisdom, devotional theism and philosophical insight".[66] Aurobindo described the text as a synthesis of various Yogas. The Indologist Robert Minor, and others,[web 1] in contrast, state that the Gita is "more clearly defined as a synthesis of Vedanta, Yoga and Samkhya" philosophies of Hinduism.[67]
The synthesis in Bhagavad Gita addresses the question of what constitutes the virtuous path that is necessary for spiritual liberation or release from the cycles of rebirth (moksha).[68][69] It discusses whether one should renounce a householder lifestyle for a life as an ascetic, or lead a householder life dedicated to one's duty and profession, or pursue a householder life devoted to a personalized God in the revealed form of Krishna. Thus Gita discusses and synthesizes the three dominant trends in Hinduism: enlightenment-based renunciation, dharma-based householder life, and devotion-based theism. According to Eliot Deutsch and Rohit Dalvi, the Bhagavad Gita attempts "to forge a harmony" between these three paths.[63][note 10]
The Gita synthesizes several paths to spiritual realization based on the premise that people are born with different temperaments and tendencies (guna).[81] Smith notes that the text acknowledges that some individuals are more reflective and intellectual, some are affective and engaged by their emotions, some are action-driven, yet others favor experimentation and exploring what works.[81] It then presents different spiritual paths for each personality type respectively: the path of knowledge (jnana yoga), the path of devotion (bhakti yoga), the path of action (karma yoga), and the path of meditation (raja yoga).[81][82] The guna premise is a synthesis of the ideas from the Samkhya school of Hinduism. According to Upadhyaya, the Gita states that none of these paths to spiritual realization is "intrinsically superior or inferior", rather they "converge in one and lead to the same goal".[83]
According to Hiltebeitel, Bhakti forms an essential ingredient of this synthesis, and the text incorporates Bhakti into Vedanta.[84] According to Scheepers, The Bhagavad Gita is a Brahmanical text which uses Shramanic and Yogic terminology to spread the Brahmanic idea of living according to one's duty or dharma, in contrast to the ascetic ideal of liberation by avoiding all karma.[85] According to Galvin Flood and Charles Martin, the Gita rejects the Shramanic path of non-action, emphasizing instead "the renunciation of the fruits of action".[86] The Bhagavad Gita, according to Raju, is a great synthesis of impersonal spiritual monism with personal God, of "the yoga of action with the yoga of transcendence of action, and these again with the yogas of devotion and knowledge".[2] According to Catherine Cornille, the Gita presented the main beliefs of Hinduism, stressing upon the importance of detachment, duty, prevalence of gunas, difference between body and immortal soul, and its transmigration.[87] The text assessed the paths of Jna, Bhakti, Karma, and Rja yogas for the purpose of Moksha (spiritual liberation) and asserted that the path of Bhakti (devotion) is the foremost and the easiest of them all.[87] 152ee80cbc
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