Bhagavad Gita Notes

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Bhagavad-Gita as Guide India is one of the biggest countries in the world with a long history of great Indian civilization. It contains many important historical events, the rise and decline of empires, prolonged wars, establishment of their own religion, language, social structure, own philosophy and cultural values that were passed from generation to generation. There are several world known ancient Indian texts that contain all the wisdom and teachings of the Indian civilization that were written under the influence of events through the historical change. Like Unpahidas, Vedas and Ramayana, the Bhagavad-Gita is an Indian poem, which is one of the most important texts of Hindu tradition that consist in itself 18 chapters and about 700 …show more content…
The Bhagavad-Gita is an eternal work of Hindu civilization in terms of philosophy, religious practices and literature that consist the ideas of humility, serenity, self-realization, permanency and renunciation of material possessions and physical pleasures during the time of big social and political change in India based on the historical events before and during the times the Bhagavad-Gita was written.
The idea of human serenity and permanency can be found by looking at the events occurring during the times of creation the Bhagavad-Gita. Scientists still argue about the time the Bhagavad-Gita was written: according to “The Humanistic tradition” it was recorded “some time between the fifth and second centuries B.C.E.”; however, in the “ancient History Encyclopedia” Cristian Violatti states that it was written between 400 B.C.E. and 200 C.E. Anyways during the times that match up from these two different sources India was going through many changes that influenced the creation of the Bhagavad-Gita. There are many chances that it was written during the times of Mauryan empire that starts from the reign of Chandragupta Maurya (340-298 B.C.E.)
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(Bhagavad-Gita, 86 )

The second reason shows the Indian respect towards their own duties and the importance of the natural law in their culture.
The third reason given by Krishna to Arjuna brings us back to the idea of asceticism that was very controversial during the times the Bhagavad-Gita was created. Krishna brings the idea that it is impossible to be inactive, because every human decision or a choice, whether it is action or withdraw from an action is still a choice. In comparing to other religions we can find that the idea of inaction critiques the popular world-view ideas, and move the Indian philosophy forward.
The fourth reason that Krishna explains to Arjuna is that the actions themselves are not bad, but the intentions behind those actions, passions, cravings and desires are the real evil. In the Bhagavad-Gita the idea of renouncing your cravings and desires is probably one of the biggest and most important beliefs in Hindu tradition. Krishna brings this idea many times throughout the text and here is one of the good examples:

The seer knows peace:
The man who stirs up his own lusts
Can never know peace.
He knows peace who has forgotten

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