MY GITA, HIS TOO

Just read that in the Siberian court, part of the Russian State alitigation has started to ban the sale & proliferatiion of BHAGAWAD GITA there. What they are trying to ban is the Russian translation of Bhakta Prabhu Pada’s (ISKCON) commentaries of GITA. Yesterday there was a furore about this in the Loksabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament.

For Indians particularly the Hindus, GITA is the most sacred of their scriptures. GITA has the status of Bible or Koran, though it is much older than the two. Originally brought out in Sanskrit, some 3 to 4 millennia ago, it has now been translated to most of all languages of the world. So many seers, saints and learned men had written their own commentaries on the contents of Gita. In every Indian Language, you will find minimum hundred different versions of GITA commentaries done by various personas.

What actually is GITA? The epic MAHABHARATA, written by Sage Vyasa, describes the life and times of Pandavas & Kauravas, the cousins who quarrelled a lot on who will rule India and to decide the same, eventually they went into war. It was sort of an all India war with other neighbouring kingdoms joining either of the teams. Lord Krishna joined up with Pandavas based on their request with a pledge that he will not do the fighting but will act as a charioteer and thus he drove the chariot of Arjuna - the third of the Pandava brothers and the most accomplished warrior among them. On the very first day, as he reached the war zone lead by Krishna in his chariot, he saw his Godfather, Elders, Gurus, Cousins, Acquaintances and all standing on the other side. He came into deep guilt consciousness of fighting and killing them and out of sheer pain decided not to fight by letting go his weapon. At this point in time, Krishna said the words of wisdom that is contained in GITA. These words were said to motivate Arjun, to let his guilt go away and to tell him what is right and what is wrong. GITA is fairly an elaborate advice. After listening to Krishna, Arjuna let go his remorse and got charged up and motivated to fight the war. In the end, the Pandavas won the Kurukshetra war (Kurukshetra is the place where the war took place. The place exists in the Haryana State of North India)

Though it was a motivating wisdom of Lord Krishna, exhorted to his friend Arjun to fight the war, GITA is considered by every Hindu more metaphorically than as a war advice. Typically it is all about overcoming the war of life and coming out victorious in the end. It contains the fundamental definitions of everything. And also the HOWs of everything. It is indeed delivered by the ONE who had mastered everything in life. It could be considered as THE ULTIMATE UNIVERSAL ADVICE that one could get in life. That is the reason; it had been translated in every language of the world.

Let me add about the various commentaries/interpretations made on the GITA verse by various people, saints and seers included. Sanskrit today is not a spoken language. Having come out eons ago, the words in GITA does not come out with a standard set of meaning. Thus, different commentators of GITA used different meaning to the words of wisdom that contained in the original. That is why every commentary looked and meant different to people. May be cults like ISKCON has propounded its own versions of the understanding of the text. It may be possible that in some of those interpretations, it must have come out as a war cry, making certain governments of the world to look at it sternly.

Most of the epics and scriptures of the past has these challenges. The interpretations of the text become very contextual and the meaning also varies accordingly. Look at the Bible. Luke, Mathew and John had commented it differently. There are different interpretations to Koran by various sects of Muslims. So ultimately, commentaries, explanations and interpretations of the scriptures come out the way the interpreter wants it.

Therefore, I said in the caption; My GITA, HIS TOO………………