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Introduction To My Edition of The Bhagav
Introduction To My Edition of The Bhagav
by
Morris Brand
and
Neal Delmonico
(Sanskrit)
Published by:
Blazing Sapphire Press
715 E. McPherson
Kirksville, Missouri 63501
Available at:
Nitai’s Bookstore
715 E. McPherson
Kirksville, Missouri, 63501
Phone: (660) 665-0273
http://www.nitaisbookstore.com
http://www.blazingsapphirepress.com
Email: neal@blazingsapphirepress.com
The Song Divine
v
Contents
Editors’ Introduction ix
The Teachings of the Gītā . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
Bhakti in the Middle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
The Translation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii
Editorial Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiv
Various Interpretations of the Gītā . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv
vii
viii CONTENTS
which means “destroy,” “go” or “reach,” or “mitigate.” It thus means: “[that which] destroys the
seeds of transmigratory existence,” “makes seekers after inal release go to the highest Brahman,”
and “mitigates multitudes of miseries such as living in the womb, birth, old age and disease.” See
Mayeda, A Thousand Teachings: the Upadeśasāhasrī of Śaṅkara, fn. 18, 106-107. These meanings
can also be applied to the teachings of the Gītā.
ix
x Śrī Bhagavad-gītā
creation through which, from the perspective of a man, one may recreate one-
self or gain immortality through progeny. Women in India are often thought
of and described as the śakti or power of their husbands. So to possess bhaga is
to possess creative power and without that power one is nothing.
The word bhagavat later becomes a technical, theological term to describe
one of the three ways in which the absolute was encountered in India. The
three ways or terms for the absolute are Brahman, Paramātman, and Bha-
gavān. Brahman is the impersonal, all-pervading absolute conceived as pure
consciousness without distinguishing traits or qualities. Paramātman is the in-
dwelling witness and regulator of the living beings, the immanent presence of
the absolute within the world. Bhagavān is the transcendent absolute under-
stood as a supreme person, who though aloof from the world comes occasion-
ally to reveal his divine sport or līlā.2 Perhaps the most detailed exposition of
the term is found in the work of Śrī Jīva Gosvāmin (16th century CE) called
the Bhagavat-sandarbha (“The Treatise on Bhagavān”), one of his six theological
treatises, the Ṣaṭ-sandarbha (“The Six Treatises”). There he draws on passages
from earlier works in which the term had been deined or at least character-
ized. He cites and comments on a passage from the Viṣṇu Purāṇa (4th century
CE), for instance, in which each syllable of the word (bha-ga-va) is character-
ized in an efort to elucidate the whole meaning of the term after the method
of the Nirukta of Yāska which does the same for Vedic gods and terms. In a
passage which, broadly speaking, runs from 6.5.66 to 6.5.79 occurs a verse
that has come to represent the accepted understanding of bhagavat. The verse
was picked up by Śaṅkara and then was cited again and again by just about
everyone who ever discoursed on the subject:
The possession of these six qualities together in their fullness indicate the stat-
ure of the one called Bhagavān. A few verses later in the same passage a slightly
diferent set of six traits is mentioned:
Fame and fortune have been dropped in favor of diferent types of power and
strength. Tejas translated here as splendor suggests a iery urgency or energy.
This group of traits implies something more along the lines of van der Leeuw’s
“highly exceptional and extremely impressive ‘Other’” with its recognition of “the
Power it generates.”5
But who is this possessor of those bhaga or powers who “sang” the secret
wisdom in the Song Divine? And, to whom did he sing? Though the word
Bhagavān has been applied to many people in Indic literature, here Bhagavān
refers to Śrī Kṛṣṇa who, according to the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, is the only one who
can truly lay claim to that title.6 Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the same as Śrī Viṣṇu, the ancient
Vedic god who appears in several of the hymns of the oldest Veda, the Ṛg Veda.
In the view of the great Vedic scholar, F. B. J. Kuiper, Śrī Viṣṇu represents
completeness or the totality of reality.7 “The same as” means diferent things
3 Viṣṇu Purāṇa, 6.5.74:
ऐय समम वीय यशसः िौयः|
ानवैराययो ैव षणां भग इतीना||
The edition of the Viṣṇu Purāṇa edited by Thāneśacandra Upraiti has dharma instead of vīrya,
complete righteousness instead of complete valor.
4 ibid., 6.5.79:
े ांशेषतः|
ानशिबलैयवीयतज
भगववाािन िवना हेय ैगणु ािदिभः||
5 G. van der Leeuw, Religion in Essence and Manifestation, trans. by J. E. Turner, vol. 1, 23.
Introduced by John Irwin, (Delhi: 1983): “Now it has long been clear that Viṣṇu’s three strides
are somehow connected with the totality of the universe, but it has never been expressly stated,
what exactly is the mythical signiicance of the third step. Its explanation must be sought in the
cosmogony, i.e., in the creation myth. In the beginning there was the undiferentiated primeval
world consisting of the waters and the beginning of the primordial hill, which the cosmological
boar had dug up out of the waters. Heaven still lay on the earth. By slaying Vṛtra, Indra rivets
the hill, opens it, and ‘props up’ (stabh) the sky: thereby the dual organization of the cosmos is
Editors’ Introduction xiii
to occur, negotiations have failed and Arjuna inds himself on the brink of a
massively destructive battle. Seeing his whole family gathered there to ight on
one side or the other and knowing that many if not most of them are bound to
die, Arjuna falls into a crisis of conscience and falters. Kṛṣṇa is there to guide
him through it.9
Naturally, Arjuna represents everybody. We have all found ourselves in
a crisis situation in which we have lost our will to act or our enthusiasm for
the tasks facing us. We have been in situations in which we either fear or
dislike the probable results of the actions we are epxected to take. The situation
facing Arjuna in the Gītā is without doubt one of the most dramatic examples of
this, an example involving life and death and the survival of one’s loved ones.
Though our crises may not seem as great as Arjuna’s, to us they can be earth-
shattering and in those moments of deep vulnerability we wish for a guide like
Arjuna’s Kṛṣṇa.
the words of the Gītā and that Sañjaya heard them, word for word, clairvoyently from the court
of Dhṛtarāṣṭra. For them, the story told in the Mahābhārata of the events leading up to the great
internecine war, of the war itself, and of its the devastating aftermath are history and occurred
around 3000 BCE, or, according a more moderate view, around 1000 BCE. Surely, however, Śrī
Krishna Prem’s evaluation of the text in his The Yoga of the Bhagavad-Gita (10) is correct: “Though
its author is unknown (for we can scarcely adopt the view that it was, as we have it, spoken by the
historical Krishna on the battleield of Kurukshetra) ... ” Perhaps he is right, too, when he says later
on: “To anyone who has eyes to see, the Gita is based on direct knowledge of Reality and the Path
that leads to that Reality, and it is of little moment who wrote it or to what school he was outwardly
ailiated.” (11) However, those of us lacking those eyes must disagree. It is important to know
who wrote it, when, for what purpose, and for whom. Although we are unable to say who wrote
the Gītā, one useful way of viewing the text is as an early (300-200 BCE) response to Buddhism
and perhaps Jainism from a defender of post-Vedic Hinduism. The caste system is justiied and
defended, as are the Vedas, though they are recognized as indeed mostly just “lowery words.”
Renunciation is redeined in ways that are compatible with the execution of caste duties and a
theistic, Hindu view of reality. It is a powerful text, one that incorporates many of the insights
and criticisms of the old Vedic sacriicial religion not only by Buddhists, but also by members of
that very tradition who no longer found the Vedic worldview compelling, except, perhaps, in a
sentimental way. It seems, at least in part, meant to keep Hindus from becoming Buddhists or
joining other heretical groups by ofering them an appealing and comparable Hindu option.
Editors’ Introduction xv
The true self of Arjuna and all the soldiers gathered there on the battle-
ield ready to ight is immortal and therefore not subject to death, but only to
repeated births.
One who knows this, however, is freed from the endless (and beginningless)
cycle of repeated birth.
10 Gītā, 4.5.
11 i.e.,the embodied Self.
12 ibid., 2.12-13.
13 ibid., 2.17.
14 ibid., 2.22
xvi Śrī Bhagavad-gītā
Theoretical knowledge of the self, however, is not enough. So, several paths
are recommended for people of diferent dispositions. The three main paths
are: detached action (niṣkāma-karma), that is, action performed without desire
for or attachment to the results of that action; the cultivation of direct knowl-
edge (jñāna of the true nature of the self, generally achieved through study of
the revealed texts and the meditative practices of classical yoga); and bhakti or
a loving, emotional engagement with, or, participation in, the being believed
to comprise or be the source of the whole show, Śrī Kṛṣṇa himself. Tradition-
ally, the irst six chapters of the Gītā are said to expound detached action, the
middle six bhakti, and the inal six knowledge, but discussions of the various
paths often appear outside their assigned sections.
In favor of detached action, we ind:
And,
Thus, while recognizing all paths and indeed all gods (they are all really
Kṛṣṇa incompletely understood),26 the path of bhakti or surrender to Kṛṣṇa is
reckoned easier and more direct. It is diicult for living beings who are used to
20 Parantap, tormentor of one’s foes, is another name of Arjuna.
21 ibid., 11.54-55.
22 ibid., 12.3-4.
23 The unmanifested.
24 I.e., the goal of the unmanifested.
25 Lit. by the embodied. ibid., 12.5.
26 As we see in verses 9.23-4:
dealing with forms, both physical and linguistic, to try to grasp and then focus
their attention on a formless, undeined, inefable absolute. It takes a good deal
of deprogramming and the result, according to the three-manifestation theory
(Brahman, Paramātman, and Bhagavān) is incomplete since it only discovers
Brahman. That the path of bhakti is more direct is made clear in a verse that
is often considered the summary verse of the Gītā since it occurs in the last
chapter as Kṛṣṇa’s last bit of advice:
Assurances from such a powerful being can certainly be counted on. This
passage contains one of the verses made famous in the United States by J.
Robert Oppenheimer, who also studied Sanskrit as a hobby, in describing the
explosion of the irst atomic bomb (“The splendor of a thousand suns ... ”).29
30 This is the process recommended in the Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad itself at 2.4.5: ātmā vā are
draṣṭavyo śrotavyo mantavyo nididhyāsitavyo maitreyi, “the self, indeed, should be seen, should be
heard of, should be thought about, should be meditated on, o Maitreyi!.”
31 Madhusūdana says:
Ritual action, worship, and knowledge are the three divisions in order. In that way
the Gītā with its eighteen chapters also has three divisions. (4) One division with
each unit of six chapters is here observed. In the irst and the last, preferences for
xx Śrī Bhagavad-gītā
for diferent reasons, with a barley corn in which the most valuable kernel is
in the middle protected on each side by halves of the hull.32 Thus, bhakti, it
may be claimed, is the real kernel of the text. And, indeed, bhakti as it has
come to be understood and practiced over the intervening centuries does in-
deed incorporate both action and knowledge and, one might argue, does tend
to unite and invigorate them. The preeminent text on bhakti, the Bhāgavata
Purāṇa characterizes bhakti in this way:
Bhakti, then, is clearly active and involves actions, even ritual actions, of
various sorts. The diference perhaps between bhakti and detached action
is that instead of remaining unattached to the results of one’s action, as in
niṣkāma-karma, one ofers those results to Kṛṣṇa. In both cases, one renounces
one’s own claim to the results of action, but in the second case, through the
inluence of bhakti, one hopes to please Kṛṣṇa with those results. The results
become an ofering of love to Kṛṣṇa.
Bhakti is also recognized as a kind of knowledge. Perhaps one of the irst to
suggest that bhakti is a form of knowledge was the great Śaṅkara (7th cent. CE)
in his commentary on the Gītā. Paraphrasing verse 12.20 of the Gītā Śaṅkara
says: “My bhaktas who are sheltered by the highest bhakti, deined as knowl-
edge of the highest truth, are extremely dear to me.”34 Śrī Rāmānuja (11th
century CE) also considers bhakti a kind of knowledge. He says: “Bhakti is a
action and knowledge are described. (5) Since there is no combination of those
two because they are highly incompatible, the preference for bhakti for Bhagavān is
proclaimed in the middle six. (6) Since it [bhakti] indeed follows both, it eliminates
all the obstacles between them. It is of three kinds: bhakti mixed with action, pure
bhakti, and bhakti mixed with knowledge. (7)
See his section of the appendix.
32 See, for instance, D. Dennis Hudson, “The ‘Barley-Corn’ Pattern of the Bhagavad-gītā,” in the
special kind of knowledge that is extremely pleasing, that has no other pur-
pose and that creates disinterest in everything other than itself.”35 Śrī Rūpa
Gosvāmin (16th century CE) writes in his Ocean of the Nectar of the Rapture of
Bhakti (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu) that bhakti is of three types: practice (sādhana),
attraction (bhāva), and love (preman).36 The irst is the active side of bhakti,
bhakti as a set of actions or practices meant to cultivate or create favorable con-
ditions for the appearance of the latter two forms of bhakti. These are forms of
cognition or awareness and thus forms of knowledge. In the next verse, which
is his deinition of bhakti as practice, Śrī Rūpa says:
् ाभावा सा साधनािभधा|
कृ ितसाा भवेत स
िनिस भाव ूाकं िद साता||
38 Śrī Jīva, Paramātma-sandarbha, para 92: kiṃca paramasārabhūtāyā api svarūpaśakteḥ sārabhūtā
equal opulence as the Lord, the same beautiful form as the Lord, closeness to the Lord and the
opportunity to merge into the Lord. See Bhāg. 3.29.11.
43 ibid., para 40: tathā ca hlādasaṃvidoḥ samavetayoḥ sāro bhaktiriti sidhyati| tatsāratvaṃ ca tan-
nityaparikarāśrayakatadānukulyābhilāṣaviśeṣaḥ
44 To reinforce the suggestion made in a previous footnote that the Gītā is a response to Bud-
dhism, one might point to the similarity between the three paths, action, knowledge and bhakti
Editors’ Introduction xxiii
The Translation
This translation of the Gītā was irst published a century ago (1911), and
does not seem to have been reprinted since then. Needless to say it is a great
joy and privilege to be involved in its reproduction. The readers sympathetic to
the theme of the poem will acknowledge certain remarkable virtues in Caleb’s
translation.
There have indeed been other metric renditions such as Sir Edwin Arnold’s
Song Celestial, which is regarded as true to the original text and is worthy as a
great poetical work in its own right. For the major portion of the text Arnold
chose to use blank verse’s unrhymed ive-footed lines. Although blank verse
may be regarded as suited to the didactic theme of the poem in English, it
strays, however, from the feel and low of the original verses of the Gītā. Caleb
on the other hand has dropped the measure to rhymed tetrameter couplets,
which more closely resemble the anuṣṭubh couplets of the original. Deciding
on the meter in coordination with the argument is a vital aspect or device of
prosody, as Ovid points out:
lisher Bathurst.
xxiv Śrī Bhagavad-gītā
There is some variation in meter of the original Sanskrit and Caleb has
followed by using blank verse to correspond to the longer triṣṭubh meter.
As well as adherence to meter in that way, Caleb has taken great care not
to interpret, which is the modern translator’s vice, but to be as literal as would
be intelligible, avoiding idiomatic usage. Of course there are faults in Caleb’s
translation, such as skipping or stumbling meter and the occasional awkward
turn of phrase. Perhaps his idelity to Sanskrit word order and his mildly ar-
chaic vocabulary will prove to be obstacles for some readers today. But we
leave sympathetic readers to judge for themselves.
chapter, but some of the readings, especially those in the irst chapter make
better sense than those in the vulgate.47 It was the intention of the Sanskrit
editor to include the variant readings wherever they were available, but in this
edition only the irst chapter has been done in this way. To do the rest would
have postponed the publication of this edition. In a later edition the rest of
the variants will be added. The version of Bhāskara seems to have been the
basis of the development of yet a third version or recension of the Gītā referred
to as the Kashmiri recension. It contains fourteen whole and four half verses
not contained in the vulgate and lacks two verses which the vulgate contains.
Perhaps in the next edition of this work, those, too, will be noted.48
The bibliography at the end of the book contains the works used for and re-
ferred to in this introduction as well as translations and editions of the Bhagavad-
gītā that were used in the production of this edition or that the editors consider
specially signiicant and worthy of note.
Where does bhakti it in, then? Anyone commenting on the Gītā must take
into account this central feature of the text. As we have seen, Śaṅkara resolves
the problem by recognizing bhakti, or rather the highest (uttamā) bhakti, as the
same as knowledge of the highest truth.50
For Yamunā Muni liberation is achieved by bhakti which is produced and
nourished by a combination of knowledge and action:
56 In his Bhakti-rasāyana, 2.1, he writes: drute citte hi praviṣṭā yā govindākāratā sthirā| sā bhaktir-
ityabhihitā, “That which enters into the melted mind and gives it the lasting shape of Govinda is
called bhakti.”
57 One is tempted to surmise that the reason the Caitanyite theologians connected bhakti so
strongly with a pleasure-giving power of Kṛṣṇa had to do with the extraordinary ecstasies Śrī
Caitanya, the founder of their tradition, was famous for. No doubt, the connection of bhakti with
pleasure was anticipated by Rāmānuja and others (niratiśayapriya) before. But it seems like much
of Caitanyite theology was aimed at making sense of the idiosyncrasies of Caitanya’s experiences.
Perhaps this is always the case with strong founding igures, however.
Editors’ Introduction xxix
The Editors