Considered by most as the authority and seminal scripture relaying together all schools of Hindu philosophy, the Bhagavad Gita, is simply one big epic poem (by Western standards), where Sri Krishna reveals himself to Arjuna, a warrior on the eve of a great war with his own family to restore the throne to its rightful heir. This epic serves as metaphor for The Path the spiritual aspirant must take to attain illumination and become one with Krishna. (http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-bhagavad-gita/). Even though this epic was written in first century B. C. E., as a matter of fact, threads of the teachings of Krishna to Prince Arjuna in The Bhagavad-Gītā have been interwoven throughout 1960’s and 1970’s popular culture. These threads helped influence a generation of artists whose works we revere to this day. These threads were essentially:
1. Krishna himself--- the swami or master of self devotion
2. Rebirth meaning reincarnation
3. The path to transcendence (Simon, pp. 770-776).
The first thread, Krishna, was perhaps the most important weave connecting popular culture with the Bhagavad Gita. Without Krishna there would have been no story and no flower children. This is evident as Krishna, who in the beginning of the story was Arjuna’s charioteer for the Kureksetra War transforms his physical self in order to prove when Arjuna, showing his mortality, hesitated to battle against his own relatives and beseeched advice from his charioteer. From that point on Krishna’s character developed into a swami; a spiritual master to Arjuna. As a swami he mentored and instructed Arjuna the ideal Hindu yogas which would help him achieve Indian spirituality. In the end Krishna was revealed to be the manifestation of...
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...edge in his quest for enlightenment. It has acted as a scripture for Hindu’s for thousands of years. By the same token, in the 60’s and 70’s the identical narrative, as nothing was modified from the original other than language, somehow had a huge hand in shaping a culture of iconic artists. These artists led by example and their devotion caught on with the youth of the generation. Without the Bhagavad Gita, the fans of popular culture would not have been entertained so memorably and enlightened religiously by our popular culture icons. In other words, it is simply amazing just amazing to imagine that a narrative written thousands of years ago helped carve out a history of awesome music, art, literature and performance for future generations to revere. To this end, transcendentalism is alive and well today. As John Lennon would say, “We all shine on”! cite?
Timpe, Eugene F. "Hesse's Siddhartha and the Bhagavad Gita." Comparative Literature 22.4 (Fall 1970): 346-357. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 196. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
...d goddess, and an array of settings across the world. Similarly, the story’s main character Gilgamesh exhibits traits of an epic hero through his quest for immortality, his noble birth, and his run ins with superhuman foes. Ajuana des embark on a conquest, but is not of Nobel birth, nor does he battle a superhuman foe. This leaves The Bhagavad-Gita without an epic hero, which is a very basic component of an epic poem. It also lacks an array of setting a multiple gods and goddess. The key word is multiple. Taking everything into consideration, “The Bhagavad-Gita” and Ajuana do not meet enough requirements to be considered an epic poem and an epic hero.
Although not looked upon as a widely popular topic in the 21st century, transcendentalism has played a role in everyone's life. Action of the tenets and values of transcendentalist people vary. Religious traditions from each generation amplify the movement along with the social and political activity.
The question of suffering comes up much when talking about, or practicing any religion. Many ask why people suffer, and what causes suffering? The various religions try to answer these questions in their own way. Pico Iyer’s editorial, “The Value of Suffering” addresses the questions of suffering and how it is handled. This article could be compared to the Bhagavad-Gita which also addresses and explains suffering through different stories of the interactions of humans and different Gods. One can specifically look at “The Second Teaching” in the Bhagavad-Gita, which explains the interaction between a man named Arjuna and the god Krishna. In it Arjuna is suffering because he does not want to fight in a war and with people whom he should be worshiping. Krishna says to fight because the souls of the people will forever live on, and because he needs to fulfill his Dharma. With what is known about the Bhagavad-Gita and how Iyer thinks about the subject, Iyer would agree with how the Bhagavad-Gita address suffering.
Stories like Bhagavad-Gita, Gilgamesh, Beowulf and so many more literary works that have survived over the many years since it was created. That are still read and are common to this day. Much like their spirits are in the books we read, watching us look at their work and seeing how we of this time view their stories and find meaning to them. As Henry James onced said is the literary form as: “... singly or together, as nothing without the posted prescence of the watcher--- without, in other words, the consciousness of the
Transcendentalism is affecting society in a good way through music and political movements that are going on today. Transcendentalism is still apart of american culture and still bringing people to nature and the connection between nature, God, and man. Transcendentalism has not died out and is still thriving in American culture through music of Twisted Sisters, Nirvana, kendrick Lamar, and The Beatles and the political movements of Black Lives
The Bhagavad-Gita, a portion of the great epic the Mahabharata, is the “most typical expression of Hinduism.” It is eighteen chapters long and was composed around the first century BCE. The sage Samjaya recites the story to the blind king Dhrtarastra, the father of the Kaurava princes. While presenting ideas of wisdom, duty, and liberation in the midst of the rivalry between the Kauravas, the Bhagavad-Gita epitomizes the teachings of Krishna. Focusing specifically on the moral struggle of the Pandava prince Arjuna, the Bhagavad-Gita’s major themes include yoga, karma, dharma, and moksa. Yoga, being discipline or the strict and “attentive cultivation of mental character and meaningful action” , is crucial to the text because it is dharma yoga, acting properly according to one’s dharma, and bhakti yoga, a disciplined life of devotion that allows one to achieve moksa, or liberation, one of the four aims of li...
Arjuna gives up now, he will be full of shame, and a man who has given up
The epic hero’s journeys hold the hopes for future of ordinary people’s lives. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written in approximately 2000 B.C.E which is highly enriched with Ancient Mesopotamian religions, and The Ramayana was written by ancient Indians in around 1800 B.C.E. The stories were written in two different parts of the world. However, these two stories etched great evidence that show people from generation to generation that different cultures and religions are interconnected; they share ideas with each other. Both Gilgamesh and Rama traveled long journeys in these tales. These epic journeys played a role in the creation of different archetypes. We can clearly see that these two tales share similarities between these archetypes. Although
A large amount of ancient texts contain themes relating to violence, power, and war, while others, such as The Bhagavad Gita and Confucius’ Analects, focus on individual and collective development through a series of selfless acts. The two texts provide an in-depth system of duties and learning created to provide direction for the betterment of the self, as well as society as a whole. The Bhagavad Gita places a greater focus on the duties of individuals that must be fulfilled to achieve an enlightened state with the divine forces. Contradictory consequences are presented for those who choose to act in an egotistical manner and deny their duties. Confucius’ Analects, on the other hand, places its main focus on collective development and responsibility
13. Timpe, Eugene F. "Hesse's Siddhartha and the Bhagavad Gita". Comparative Literature, V.22 No.4 , 1970.
...social values of rich stones resembled their higher standards of living in those days. Also, two different types of art based on Indian culture and society such as “Shiva Nataraja” and “Adios, Mahatma” depicted great religious and social perspective of Hinduism and free spirit of will, respectively. Also, “Heheya Kachina” and “The Light Inside” presented two unique forms of art which is so rare or so common in the modern society that we sometime forget to notice if these types of art exist.
More than a religion, Hinduism is a way of life and a philosophy that is most concerned with spirituality and enlightenment. The idealism of the Hindu religion comes from the Vedas, which are the Hindu religion's oldest scriptures and are considered to be a direct revelation of God. The Upanishads are writings that take their themes from the Vedas. The Upanishads, however, seem to be more along the lines of allegories that give a fleshy quality to the religion rather than a very dry and out of touch feel that can be found in other religious texts. Lastly, the Bhagavad-Gita is a collection of teachings that are based on the conversation between Arjuna, a soldier for one of two warring families, and Lord Krishna, who appears as Arjuna's charioteer. In these conversations the two discuss everything from the purpose of life to the basis of reality. Much like Christian proverbs, the teachings of Lord Krishna give advice and general good sense and...
The Bhagavad-Gita teaches many things, and amongst these, morality and moral law are developed for the Hindu religion. What Krishna, the primary Hindu god, declares in this somewhat epic poem to be the "basis of good in this world" (stanza 3, pg. 620 of text) is for people to take action. Action, as he goes on to state, is within the very nature of our beings to do. Krishna even states that "without action you even fail to sustain your own body" (stanza 8, pg. 620 of text). Thus, Krishna feels that action is very important and key. To take this concept as a relation to ethics, Krishna tells Arjuna, the warrior he is talking to in this poem, that "Action imprisons the world unless it is done as sacrifice; freed from attachment, Arjuna, perform action as sacrifice!" (stanza 9, pg. 620 of text). Thus, Krishna is prescribing that, in order for an action to be considered good, the good that he already declared to be the basis of all good in the world, one must detach himself from the action being performed and perform the action sacrificially. The detachment aspect is incredibly important to Krishna, for he proclaims that in "performing action with detachment, one achieves supreme good" (stanza 19, pg 620 of text). By doing this, Krishna believes that the world is preserved, for other people will follow the warrior's actions and imitate them in their own lives. A leader, such as a warrior or king, "sets the standard for the world to follow" (stanza 21, pg. 621 of text), as Krishna says and thus must take whatever action is necessary for the world to not be destroyed, to set examples of goodness and right in his own actions. By separating himself from these actions, thus becoming detached, he can achieve this. Another main reason that Krishna feels detachment is necessary is this: "You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty." (Bhagavad-Gita 2.47). Thus, so long as one does not profit from his own actions, the action itself is good. And, this is Krishna's prescription for leading a life of morality and duty is the moral law to follow in order to achieve this.
It is observed that even the spiritual heritage of India has lost its glory in Jhabvala’s world of fictional India because the spiritual and aesthetic seekers also face traumatic experiences. No doubts since antiquity the Indian spiritualism has been shining far above the philosophic deliberations of the