Yogeshwar Manohar Harkare

Atha Shrimad Bhagwad Gita

Every time Gita is dissussed it is usually belived that it is an Historical

account of ancient India. I strongly belive otherwise. The entire Mahabharat

and Ramayan is full of some unbeliveable stories and one has to understand

them in some different persepctive rather than the usual one. I wanted to

share my thoughts about Gita that make it to be non-historical. It is may

humble and sincere effort towards that and hope that you will give a thought

to it as well.



In Mahabharat and as well in Ramayan there are instances about Buddha

Bhikkus and Buddha Shramanas. That clearly shows that there must be  such

Bhikkus or Shramanas present that time when these two epics were written.

This also means that Bhuddha philosophy and traditions there to must be

present for some ample peroid before the creations of Ramayan and

Mahabharat.Actually it can be said that mental rejection of Arjun in the

middle of the battle field  skillfully depicted by Ved Vyas to show the

genaral way of thinking prevailing at that time.Dejection and sarrow are

key concepts  in Buddha philosophy. Initial mental frame of  Arjun is clear

indication of the Buddha thought.So Gita basically starts with the strong

influenced of the thinking of the Buddha.Keeping this historical account of

the social status of the time when Gita was written we may require to go

through Gita again  with different angle.

Atha Shrimad Bhagwad Gita(First Canto)

Before starting to understand the purport of the first stanza of Gita we

have first to understand the meaning of the initial heading, "Atha Shrimad

Bhagwad Gita". The very first 'Atha' word suggest that there must be some

such philosophical approch to the problem Gita has tried to expalin and

tackle. Ved Vyas starts with the word 'Atha' because he kept the philosophy

of life in a different way than the previous ones(Budhha). The word 'Atha'

points to some other school of philosophy which was that of Upnishadas and

hence at the end of every canto of the Gita the word 'Upnishadsu' has been

written. Gita is also an Upanishad. Upnishadas were written to explain the

difficult knowledge of the Vedas written in short aphorisms of the original

divinity. Time passed and the knowledge written in the Upnishads also became

difficult for the common man to understand. It is through that Badarayana

wrote his 'Vedantra Sutra' or 'Brahma Sutra' which tried to reconcile the

philosophical thoughts written in many Upnishads. The Upnishads are mostly

of renunciation thoughts to make them more wordly and practical Ramayan and

Mahabharat epics were written. These two epics because of their fictional

type of description, became very popular. Again we belive that Ramayan and

Mahabharat are historical events where as if analysed properly turns out to

be classical poetical work of Maharishi Valmiki and Ved Vyas. This whole

social and spiritual picture was clear to Ved Vyas and hence he writes

'Atha' in very begining of the Gita.

Then comes the word 'Shrimat'. 'Shri' means opulant and 'Mat' means opinion

or intelligence which is needed in practical philosophy. The word 'Bhagwat'

comes next. 'Bhag' means Wel-being and 'Vat' means the state accordingly.

Hence Bhagwat means a state of complete well-being. The last word is

'Gita'verbally meaning a poem that is to be sung. There is  an alphabet 'Ga'

in Gita. 'Ga' means speed and 'Git' means momentum towards the desired end.

Such speed towards the desired end is called 'Gita'.

Thus 'Shrimat Bhagwat Gita' means opulant intelligence speeding towards the

desired end of wel-being. The process of 'Git' is two fold. The person can

individually go towards the effect of the song he sings and secondly he can

take with him the persons emmotionally towards the same desired end of the

song who hear him.This is the meaning of 'Git' and such an advancing stage

towards welfare is termed as 'Gita' by Ved Vyas. Hence Gita is a social

science of behaviour leading towards the desired end of wel-being.



It is belived that metre of Gita is 'Anustubha' which is even today is

greatly lulling,melodious,gracious and profound. A person who hears the

'Anustubha Chhand' loses himself in a deep profound ecstacy though he may be

of any school of melody. And that may be the inner urge of Ved Vyas.

Anustubha is coined through two subwords one 'Anu' and second 'Stubha'.

'Anu' means to follow and 'Stubha' means that desired stage of pursuit.

Every canto of Gita begins with Atha and ends with 'Om tat sat eti' meaning

that is true in this way only. The begining is made through Atha and end

with Eti meaning in this way or like this. By 'Eti' Ved Vyas wants to

suggerst that it is the only way of salvation and wel-being if one goes by

that way. Gita is no historical account or individual chivalry.Every canto

begins with 'Atha' and ends with 'Eti', 'Atha' means the teachings of

previous thinkers and 'Eti' means his own opinion. And whatever has been

said in the canto is totally surrendered to the Brahma  and hence the end is

glorified with the words 'Om tat sat eti'.

Hence we may say that Gita is a practical philosophy of life that requries a

soar of tendencies as displayed by Ved Vyas through Mahabharat. With this

context only we may require to re-examine some cantos of Gita.