02-12-2007, 08:05 PM
Pioneer, 12 Feb., 2007
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The song of immortality
Pranav Kumar
<b>The Seven Commandments of the Bhagavad Gita, JP Vaswani; Sterling Publishers, Rs 250</b>
Dharma is religion. Karma is fatalism. Brahminism is Hinduism. Varna is caste. Prana is breath. Lingam is phallus. Tantra stands for sex. Moksha or nirvana is salvation. Murti is idol. Shiva is malevolent, destroyer. Shakti is energy. Akash is sky. Ishvara is god. Itihasa is history. <b>So believed our colonial masters. Even today Wendi Doniger thinks that the Gita is a "bad" book. And thanks to our Marxist scholars, colonial myths continue unabated, and we, for the most part, have been reduced to being consumers of ideas.</b>
In these troubled times, JP Vaswani's The Seven Commandments of the Bhagavad Gita comes as a pleasant surprise. Written by Veda Vyasa, who compiled the Vedas, the Mahabharata is held to be the fifth Veda. It contains the gospel of action, the Gita - the sermon delivered by Lord Krishna about 5,000 years ago at the battlefield of Kurukshetra. A part of Prasthantrayam, the Gita is a scripture of synthesis as it believes in the triple path of purification (karma), illumination (jnana) and union (bhakti) to reach the one who is reflecting in many (Ekoham Bahusyam).
The Great Teacher asserts that death is an experience, not of the atman, the real self, but of the body, which is subject to change, disease and old age (Chapter II).
What the Lord demands is not the renunciation of work, but the renunciation of selfish desire. He brings forth the doctrine of nishkama karma. Surrendering all actions unto Me, with thy thoughts resting on the Self Supreme, from desire and egoism freed, fight thou, O Arjuna! (III: 30)
Krishna does not believe in the last and final word as assumed in the traditions of Abraham. He promises to descend as an avatara, in the words of Vaswani, "to help and heal, to protect the world, to save sinking humanity". (Chapter IV)
The Lord underscores the fact that same-sightedness ensues from knowledge. Nescience creates plurality and difference among beings, whereas omniscience reveals unity behind the seeming multiplicity. He also believes in the divinity of nature. All that exist is the manifestation of the Lord Himself (Bijam mam sarvabhutanam). This is contrary to what the prophets of 'the people of the scriptures' believe.
In the Chapter IX, the Divine Teacher states that Ishwara is everything. He is the father of this world, the mother and the grandfather. Krishna, the slayer of Mur, asserts: " I am Kratu (Vedic ritual), I am Yajna (sacrificial worship), I am Svadha (offering), the medicinal herb I am, I am Mantra, I am also the clarified butter, I am fire, I am oblation." (IX: 16)
<b>With the help of parables and anecdotes, Vaswani tries to explain difficult concepts of Sanatana Dharma. But he errs in believing that the war mentioned in the Mahabharata is allegoric representation of the fight between good and evil. Though there is no doubt that the Mahabharata warfare allows itself to be viewed allegorically too, that is not all.</b> To question the historicity of the Great War is as bad an idea as the claims of some historians that there was no Jewish Holocaust during World War II.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The song of immortality
Pranav Kumar
<b>The Seven Commandments of the Bhagavad Gita, JP Vaswani; Sterling Publishers, Rs 250</b>
Dharma is religion. Karma is fatalism. Brahminism is Hinduism. Varna is caste. Prana is breath. Lingam is phallus. Tantra stands for sex. Moksha or nirvana is salvation. Murti is idol. Shiva is malevolent, destroyer. Shakti is energy. Akash is sky. Ishvara is god. Itihasa is history. <b>So believed our colonial masters. Even today Wendi Doniger thinks that the Gita is a "bad" book. And thanks to our Marxist scholars, colonial myths continue unabated, and we, for the most part, have been reduced to being consumers of ideas.</b>
In these troubled times, JP Vaswani's The Seven Commandments of the Bhagavad Gita comes as a pleasant surprise. Written by Veda Vyasa, who compiled the Vedas, the Mahabharata is held to be the fifth Veda. It contains the gospel of action, the Gita - the sermon delivered by Lord Krishna about 5,000 years ago at the battlefield of Kurukshetra. A part of Prasthantrayam, the Gita is a scripture of synthesis as it believes in the triple path of purification (karma), illumination (jnana) and union (bhakti) to reach the one who is reflecting in many (Ekoham Bahusyam).
The Great Teacher asserts that death is an experience, not of the atman, the real self, but of the body, which is subject to change, disease and old age (Chapter II).
What the Lord demands is not the renunciation of work, but the renunciation of selfish desire. He brings forth the doctrine of nishkama karma. Surrendering all actions unto Me, with thy thoughts resting on the Self Supreme, from desire and egoism freed, fight thou, O Arjuna! (III: 30)
Krishna does not believe in the last and final word as assumed in the traditions of Abraham. He promises to descend as an avatara, in the words of Vaswani, "to help and heal, to protect the world, to save sinking humanity". (Chapter IV)
The Lord underscores the fact that same-sightedness ensues from knowledge. Nescience creates plurality and difference among beings, whereas omniscience reveals unity behind the seeming multiplicity. He also believes in the divinity of nature. All that exist is the manifestation of the Lord Himself (Bijam mam sarvabhutanam). This is contrary to what the prophets of 'the people of the scriptures' believe.
In the Chapter IX, the Divine Teacher states that Ishwara is everything. He is the father of this world, the mother and the grandfather. Krishna, the slayer of Mur, asserts: " I am Kratu (Vedic ritual), I am Yajna (sacrificial worship), I am Svadha (offering), the medicinal herb I am, I am Mantra, I am also the clarified butter, I am fire, I am oblation." (IX: 16)
<b>With the help of parables and anecdotes, Vaswani tries to explain difficult concepts of Sanatana Dharma. But he errs in believing that the war mentioned in the Mahabharata is allegoric representation of the fight between good and evil. Though there is no doubt that the Mahabharata warfare allows itself to be viewed allegorically too, that is not all.</b> To question the historicity of the Great War is as bad an idea as the claims of some historians that there was no Jewish Holocaust during World War II.
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