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I
In the Bhagvad Gta Kuruketra is considered as dharmaketra, a place for righteous conduct.
Righteousness (dharma) as a cultural vehicle at no point of time forsakes service, sacrifice, truth, character, and
purity both for the self and the society. Vedic and the epic India considers dharma as first among the four
pururthas or four ends of human life. It protects and preserves life dhriyate lokonena, dharati loka v iti
dharma dh +man (Apte 522). It promotes growth, ensures happiness and is essential for public well-being
(lokasagraha). It successfully helps to peruse the other pururthas like artha and kma meaningfully. The
Mahbhrata (III.150.28) enumerates that Dharma has its origin in good practices, and the Vedas are established
in the dharma crasambhavo dharma dharmd Ved samutthit (Pandaya 1368) cf. Manusmti (Sastri
I.108) - cra paramodharma . Kada in his Vaisesikastra also explains dharma as the means for attaining
an unsurpassed and elevated state of life - yatobhyudaya nireyasasiddhi sa dharma (1.1.1) (Chakrabarty
39). Arjunas grief, lamentation and refusal to fight out the enemy in the warfield have given impetus to the
Bhagavad Gt or the Song Divine, which got emanated from the mouth of Lord Ka. His preaching of
svadharma - the essence of righteous conduct and duty proper to ones position within the caste structure
elevated Arjuna, to give up his dejection to destroy the foe in the field. That principle of selfless action
enunciated there is known as gitdharma which prompted Arjuna from na yotsye (II.9) (I shall not fight) into
kariye vacana tava (XVIII.73) (I shall obey thy order).
II
The doctrine of selfless action is sometimes described by the term Yoga. Winternitz explains it as
the doctrine of absorption, and the methods by which man can withdraw from the sense-world and become
entirely absorbed in the deity (417). It is also called a manual of yoga or yogastra, which owes its
psychological and metaphysical foundations in skhya philosophy. Time and again the Gta explains skhya
and yoga to be one. One who is firmly established in the either, gets the ultimate fruit of God realization (Gt
5.4). Further it is said that:
yat sakhyeir prpyate sthanamTadyogeirapi gamyate I
eka skhya ca yoga ca ya payati sa payati II (V.5)
It seems that the Git attempts to reduce the minimum differences between the jnna yoga of the
Upanisads with the karma yoga of Mimasa stra (III.3-4 & V. 2-6). It also overcomes the hatred and jealousy
between various schools of sectarian worship (upsan) by prompting the prism of knowledge that leads to the
same goal of God realisation (VII. 21-22 & IX. 23-25). Various philosophical traits implicit in Vedic hymns
developed in the upaniads and such traits have been reconciled in the Bhagavad Gta. Different schools like
advaita or monistic (XIII.2); visidvaita or quasimonistic (VI . 30), dvaita or dualistic (XVIII . 66) have also
been dealt with a spirit of reconciliation. In a famous dualistic passage the Lord promises to absolve Arjuna of
all his sins if only he takes refuse in Him:
sarvadharmn parityajya mmeka sarnabraya I
aha tv sarvappebhyo mokayisymi m uca II (XVIII. 66)
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V
The cultural wisdom of the Git is communicated with simple and moving poetic utterances. Here deep
philosophy and moral musings enkindled the diminished spirit of a great warrior (Arjuna) and inured him to
perform his svadharma (duties of his caste) for the sake of keeping up the order of social life
(varramadharma). In course of his teaching Lord Ka advised Arjuna to remember him and fight
Mmanusmara yudhya ca (III.7) after relinquishing fruit of action on Him. He made clear that by performing
ones specific allotted duty with a spirit of equanimity one can attain perfection and Godspeed.
As Lokamnya Tilak states in the Gtrahasya - Gt teaches jnamlaka-bhaktipradhna-karmayoga a life of activism grounded upon knowledge and centralized around the adoration of the Lord which paves the
highest way to salvation (Radhakrishna 149). In this way the Bhagavad Gt preaches selfless action for the
common wellbeing as the principle of human life (mnavadharma) in general, and divine life in particular.
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Apte, V.S. The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass,1985. Print.
Sastri, Haragovinda ed. Manusmti. Varanasi: Chowkhambha Sanskrit Bhawan, Vikramasamvit 2069. Print.
Pandeya, Ramanarayan Dattasastri. ed. with Hindi tr. Mahbhrata. Vol.II, Gorakhpur: Gitapress, Vikramasamvit 2044. Print.
Chakrabarty, Debasis. Vaisesika-Sutra of Kanada, New Delhi: D.K. Print world (p) Ltd, 2003. Print.
Winternitz, M. A History of Indian Literature, Vol. I, Tr. V.S. Sarama, Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass, 2009. Print.
Radhakrishnan, S. et al. ed. The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol.II, Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, 2006.
Print.
Das, Swami Ramasukha. Srimad Bhagavat Gta. Gorakhpur: Gita Press, Vikramasamvit 2067. Print.
Matilal. Bimal Krishna.ed. Moral Dilemmas in the Mahabharata, Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass, 2014. Print.
Radhakrishnan, S. ed. The Principal Upanisads. New York: Harper-Collins Publishers, 2012. Print.
Minor, Robert. Modern Indian Interpreters of the Bhagavad Gita, Albany: State University of Newyork Press,1986. Print.
Agarwal. Satya P. Selection from the Mahabharata: Re-affirming Gits call for the Good of All, Columbia: U Agarwal, Motilal
Banarasidass, 2002. Print.
Shastri, Jnana Prakash and B.K.Tyagi. ed. Prasthanatrayi-Padanukrama-Kosa, Delhi: Parimal Publications, 2014. Print.
DOI: 10.9790/0837-20865660
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