The
Bhagavad-gita is the best known and the most frequently translated
of Vedic religious texts. Why it should be so appealing to the Western mind
is an interesting question. It has drama, for its setting is a scene of two
great armies, banners flying, drawn up opposite one another on the field,
poised for battle. It has ambiguity, and the fact that Arjuna and his charioteer
Krsna are carrying on their dialouge between the two armies suggests the
indecision of Arjuna about the basic question; should he enter battle against
and kill those who are friends and kinsmen? It has mystery, as Krsna demonstrates
to Arjuna His cosmic form. It has a properly complicated view of the ways
of the religious life and treats of the paths of knowledge, works, discipline
and faith and their inter-relationships, problems that have bothered adherents
of other religions in other times and places. The devotion spoken of is a
deliberate means of religious satisfaction, not a mere outpouring of poetic
emotion. Next to the Bhagavata-purana, a long work from South India,
the Gita is the text most frequently quoted in the philosophical writings
of the Gaudiya Vaisnava school, the school represented by Swami Bhaktivedanta
as the latest in a long succession of teachers. It can be said that this
school of Vaisnavism was founded, or revived, by Sri Krsna-Caitanya Mahaprabhu
(1486-1533) in Bengal, and that it is currently the strongest single religious
force in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. The Gaudiya Vaisnava
school, for whom Krsna is Himself the Supreme God, and not merely an incarnation
of another deity, sees bhakti as an immediate and powerful religious
force, consisting of love between man and God. Its discipline consists of
devoting all one's actions to the Deity, and one listens to the stories of
Krsna from the sacred texts, one chants Krsna's name, washes, bathes and
dresses the murti of Krsna, feeds Him and takes the remains of food
offered to Him, thus absorbing His grace; one does these things and many
more, until one has been changed: the devotee has become transformed into
one close to Krsna, and sees the Lord face to face.
Swami Bhaktivedanta
comments upon the Gita from this point of view, and that is legitimate.
More than that, in this translation the Western reader has the unique opportunity
of seeing how a Krsna devotee interprets his own texts. It is the Vedic
exegetical tradition, justly famous, in action. This book is then a welcome
addition from many points of view. It can serve as a valuable textbook for
the college student. It allows us to listen to a skilled interpreter explicating
a text which has profound religious meaning. It gives us insights into the
original and highly convincing ideas of the Gaudiya Vaisnava school. In providing
the Sanskrit in both Devanagari and transliteration, it offers the Sanskrit
specialist the opportunity to re-interpret, or debate particular Sanskrit
meanings--although I think there will be little disagreement about the quality
of the Swami's Sanskrit scholarship. And finally, for the nonspecialist,
there is readable English and a devotional attitude which cannot help but
move the sensitive reader. And there are the paintings, which, incredibly
as it may seem to those familiar with contemporary Indian religious art,
were done by American devotees.
The scholar, the student of Gaudiya Vaisnavism, and the increasing number
of Western readers interested in classical Vedic thought have been done a
service by Swami Bhaktivedanta. By bringing us a new and living interpretation
of a text already known to many, he has increased our understanding manyfold;
and arguments for understanding, in these days of estrangement, need not
be made.
Professor Edward C. Dimock, Jr.
Department of South Asian Languages and Civilization
University of Chicago
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