Introduction
What is Bhagavad-Gita?
Why do people consider the Gita important?
Where and when was it spoken? What language?
Who are the main characters?
What led up to Gita being spoken?
What is the Bhagavad-Gita?
Gita is a talk about the purpose of life between Krishna and Arjuna. Krishna was the teacher and Arjuna the student. It took place just as a great war was about to begin.
Literally, it means the Song of God.
Mahabharata. The Mahabharata contains adventures, anecdotes, spiritual instructions, and history from a time before the Pharaohs. The adventures are meant to bring to life the philosophy and teachings of the Vedas and to make them easy to understand.
Why do people consider the Gita important?
- Gita is a manual on how to live and be happy without getting too stressed or discouraged with problems.
- It has information on spiritual stuff that isn’t found anywhere else.
- It is a summary of what advanced yogis know.
- It is the basic religious book of most Hindus but it applies to everyone.
- It has information coming directly from God.
What is Gita about?
- It chalks out steps to better understand who we are.
- It gives pointers on how to experience your spiritual self.
- It talks about ways to feel happy from within.
- It has information about karma and how the world works.
- It talks about what happens at the time of death, reincarnation, and our next lives.
- It gives highlights about where things come from.
- It is a guidebook about how to recognize and connect with God.
Where and when was Gita spoken? What language?
Gita was spoken in Sanskrit about 3000 BCE in a place called Kurukshetra, which is a sacred field, about 100 miles north of Delhi, India.
Who are the main characters?
Dhritrashtra: He was the eldest son of a king but was passed over for being the ruler himself because he was blind and couldn't lead an army if he needed to fight. Since he wasn't king, he wanted his sons to win in the battle that was going to take place at Kurukshetra so at least they could rule even if he couldn't.
Sanjaya: He was an assistant to Dhritrashtra. He was a clairvoyant who was able to tell Dhritrashtra what was happening on the battlefield even though both of them were miles away.
Arjuna: He was one of the most skilled fighters on either side. He was the son of Dhritrashtra's brother, Pandu, who actually took the throne when Dhritrashtra couldn't. He was a friend of Krishna.
Krishna: He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Another way of saying God is powerful is to say He has all opulences or all attractive qualities. Those qualities are knowledge, wealth, strength, fame, beauty, and renunciation. According to the Gita's teachiings, God's qualification is He has each of the opulences to a degree more than anyone else. Krishna showed His unlimited opulences while present on the earth and while he spoke Bhagavad-Gita. He took on the role of a military man and a friend of Arjuna just like an actor playing a character on a stage.
What led up to Gita being spoken?
Arjuna and his brothers, called the Pandavas, were the rightful governors of the state after their father's death. Dhritrahtra and his sons, called the Kauravas, were jealous of the Pandavas. Headed by Dhritrashtra's eldest son, Duryodhana, the Kauravas conspired against the Pandavas to take over. They first attempted to murder Pandavas by poison and then by burning down their home. The Pandavas escaped. The Pandavas then agreed to govern only the portion of the kingdom, leaving the rest for the Kauravas. Dhritashtra and his sons still were not satisfied. The Kauravas then took over the territory by presuring them to play a rigged gambling match which resulted in the Pandavas losing and being exiled to the forest for 13 years.
The agreement was that at the end of the 13 years, the Pandavas were to regain their prevoius seat in government. Duryodhana now used to being an unrivaled ruler, got carried away with his power and planned to keep the Pandavas sent an ambassador. The Pandavas then gathered their allies. War was imminent. The armies of the Pandavas and Kauravas gathered at Kurukshetra and were preparing for battle. One of the Pandava's allies was Krishna. He was an expert horseman and agreed to be the driver for thr Arjuna's chariot during the battle. As the actual fighting was just about to break out, Arjuna asked Krishna to bring his chariot to a good vantage point so he could survey the battle formations and strength of both armies in order to review his strategy. Krishna did so. while surveying the military arrangements they had a dialogue, which is the Bhagavad-Gita.