India Background

Bhagavad-Gita Background

Bhagavad-Gita Q's

Important Terms:

• Sanskrit
• ancient Indo-Aryan language
• Riga Veda
• last in series of 4 sacred hymn books, Hinduism's primary scripture
• dharma
• guiding principle of proper human conduct; sacred duty
• artha
• worldly profit, wealth, and political power
• Hinduism
• India's dominant religious tradition
• Islam
• the religious faith of Muslims including belief in Allah as the sole deity and in Muhammad as his prophet
• Buddhism
• "unique combination of radical detachment from desire, the root cause of karma, and an ethic of action directed only toward the welfare of one's fellow creatures" (Norton 840)
• guru
• personal religious teacher and spiritual guide in Hinduism
• caste
• one of the hereditary social classes in Hinduism that restrict the occupation of their members and their association with the members of other castes
• Brahman
• single, divine essence:  the soul of man is a manifestation of the Brahman; gods are seen as "personification of nature and the powers of the cosmos" (Norton 838)
• kama
• pleasure and love
• mantra
• sacred counsel, formula; a mystical formula of invocation or incantation

• originated in oral tradition, like Old Testament
• grounded in actual events, yet similar to Iliad and Odyssey.

• brahman (priest) transmitter of vedas
• ksatriya (warrior/adminstrator)
• vaisya (merchant/farmer/producer)
• sudra (laborer)

moksa: ultimate goal of life--liberation from constraints of worldly existence- denied to sudras and women
(lesser goals include dharma, artha, and kama)

Men: bound by a prescribed program of sacred duty (dharma) that is appropriate to their class (varna)

Women: "form a class in themselves, for a woman's dharma is defined as that of a wife, allowing women no identities or aspirations apart from their allegiance to their husbands" (Norton 839).

Caste system: larger number of "service" castes subordinated to a small number of elite groups.

Quatama Buddha (563-483 B.C.) & Mahavira (d. 468 B.C.)

• In Buddhism, "every person, regardless of caste, gender, or  social status, could follow the Buddha's path (the Dharma) with the ultimate aim of becoming liberated from karma  rebirth by becoming a buddha, or ‘an enlightened one'" (Norton 840).
• "The populist, egalitarian religions preached by Gautama Buddha and his near-contemporary Mahavira presented a formidable challenge to the elaborate socio-religious system engineered by the Hindu elites" (Norton 841).

• absorbed and synthesized features from its rival religions, incorporating  concepts of salvation and grace, thus allowing it eventually to triumph over competing religions in India, including Buddhism and Islam, but especially Buddhism.
• "For Hindus the terror of rebirth [and karma] is mitigated by belief in a triad of great gods who are the highest  manifestations of the divine principle underlying the universe" (Norton 841).
•  "Although there are many gods [including Brahma, the creator],Visnu, the preserver, and  Siva, the destroyer, stand out as supreme deities, for Hindus worship one or the other as God, whose grace will help deliver them from the bonds of karma rebirth" (Norton 841).

• 100,000 verses: 8 x (Iliad + Odyssey)
• Depicts war (ca. 1400-1300 B.C.) between two branches of the Bharata family, the Pandavas, the five sons of Pandu (including Arjuna, "son" of warrior god, Indra) and Kauravas,  the one hundred evil sons of Dhrtarastra, elder half-brother who's disqualified from being king because blind.
• "Every clansman in North India [allies] himself with the one or the other party" (Norton 907).

• "response of brahman thinkers who stood to lose the most from the potential disintegration of the Hindu social system" (Norton 958).
• "articulates a new doctrine that will justify the hierarchies of class and social duty. . . at the same time that it offers universal access to the ultimate goal of the emancipation of the soul from suffering and rebirth" (Norton 958).
• "In short,  social and moral law takes care of the content of action, but the individual has control over the spirit in which he performs the action and, therefore, over how his deeds will affect his soul" (Norton 959).

• Relationship b/w Gods and Humans
• Arjuna
• Krishna
• Visnu
• Sanjaya
• Women
• yoga-discipline
• karma (action)
• bhakti (devotion)
• in medias res
• Honor
• Theology
• Duty
• Family
• sacred duty (dharma):  "action performed in the spirit of sacred duty will advance him on the path to emancipation of the spirit, the Hindu's ultimate religious goal" (Norton 958).
• This is a big deal: merges karma with salvation through divine grace

• The Mahabharata describes the fighting between which two groups? Why are they fighting?
• Why does Arjuna refuse to fight? (See also 663)

• Explain:  "That which is non-existent can never come into being, and that which is can never cease to be" (663).
• If the soul is indestructible, can't kill or be killed, what then, is the purpose of life, in this system?
• What happens when you reach spiritual perfection?

• Explain: "To a man who values his honour, [shame] is surely worse than death" (665).
• Explain: "Work done with anxiety about results is far Inferior to work done without such anxiety, in the calm of self-surrender"(665).

• Explain:  "The tortoise can draw in his legs: / The seer can draw in his senses" (15-16).

• How do the conceptions of the spirit (Brahman) relate to the "Holy Spirit" of the Christian Trinity?
• Think over other similarities/distinctions between the Old and New Testament incarnations of "God" and those presented in the Bhagavad-Gita.  Does Jehovah ever call himself "the beginning, the middle, and the end in creation," as Vishnu does (670)?

•    Explain the following terms
• Vishnu
• Sama Veda
• Shiva
• Bhriga
• Kamadhenu
• Varuna
• Rama
• How does Arjuna compare to other warriors we've encountered?