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| Bhagavad Gita As It Is |
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| Foreword
by Professor Edward C. Dimock Jr.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
Copyright © 1998–2004 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Int'l. All Rights Reserved.
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