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BOOK REVIEW

PGEXP ASSIGNMENT

NAME- VIMAL KUMAR SINGH ROLL NO.-2011/48

TITLE OF THE BOOK- BHAGAVAD GITA

AUTHOR- VED VYASA

STRENGTH OF THE ISSUE- The influence of the Bhagavad Gita is not merely philosophic or academic butimmediate and living.Its ideas are actually at work as a powerful shaping factor in the revival and renewal of a nationand a culture.The ideas,conduct and behaviour of Hindus are deeply influenced by its teachings because the prevalent

Hindu cuture is foundrd on them and the Hindu moral life draws sustenance from them.Bhagavad Gita is a treasurehouse of profound knowledge and great wisdom.It contains the mysterious secrets of the spiritual life and is the bestmoral code for the guidance of a cultured society.Gita has been the most venerated scripture of Hindus.

The Bhagavad Gita, the 'Song Of The Divine',is a Sanskrit text from the Mahabharata.The Gita consists of 700

verses,and is spoken mainly by Krishna ,who has explained the purpose of life to Arjuna.The main goal of one's life isto attain enlightment, knowledgeof the universe.God is infinite,and everything and everyone is a part of his energy.In

the battlefield of Kurukshetra,Lord Krishna justifies the war by calling it a battle of sacred duty and a righteous warthat will establish justice and righteousness.In a famous scene of the Mahabharata,Lord Krishna also reveals himself as

the supreme God Vishnu to Arjuna .Furthermore, Krishna explains that he occasionally decends to Earth in humanform in order to restore dharma and to establish and protect righteousness in the world. Lord Krishna has incarnated ina human body to eliminate evil kings, the Kauravas.Bhagavad Gita discusses moral lessons,philosophical topics andthe purpose of life, explaining how one must live life.The purpose of human life is to cleanse ourselves of ties to the

material world and realize our duties to God. One may cleanse himself daily by taking a bath in water,but if one takesbath even once in the sacred Ganges water of Bhagavad Gita,for him the dirt of material life is all togethervanquished.Bhagavad Gita is the essence of all the Upanishads.It is just like a cow and Lord Krishna, who is famous asa cowherd boy,is milking this cow.Arjuna is just like a calf,and learned scholars and pure devotees are to drink the

nectarean milk of Bhagavad Gita.

WEAKNESS OF THE ISSUE- An objective stdy of the Bhagavad Gita will show that despite the extravagent claims

made on its behalf,it is not an unfailing guide to spiritual freedom or worldly advancement.Its teaching can help only tosubvert human progress and nourish social evils.It is a philosophy of the upper classes meant to be utilized by them as a

weapon for maintaining a frustrated society in some sort of stabality and equilibrium by inculcating ideas of patienceand contentment in disinherited,exploited and dowm-trodden millions.Bhagavad Gita, in the past was studied andexplained by Brahmin intellectuals.No efforts have been made to present commons man's viewpoints in it.The changefrom the Brahmin stance to the common man's stand in the study of our past makes every event in Indian History

entirely different.Othewise, why the Indians lost freedom and suffered for centuries after they had given unstintedallegiance for the doctrines of the Bhagavad Gita?Why this dismal fate overtook the country ,when it had welcomedand chosen for its guide the exalted doctrines of the Bhagavad Gita?The Bhagavad Gita represents only the idealisticand religious aspect of Hindu culture and mostly ignores other aspects of Indian thoughts.Bhagavad Gita has a casteist

and sectarian agenda as the most realistic basis of its composition beneath all its specious and pretentious gloss anddross of philosophy,metaphysics and devotional appeals.A comparative study of the current state verses of the Gita,devoid of religious blinkers,will find the character of Krishna coming across as very cynical, evasive,inconsistent,shifting philosophical stances according to convenience,mixing ideas of different schools of thoughts

(Sankhya,Yoga,Vedanta) without any care or regard for their cogency and coherence.How such an opportunistic andwilful entity be passed off as a God and that too raised to the towering heights of the religious and devotional frenzy.

AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT IN THE ISSUE-Any book to have become so popular and powerful in shaping thedestiny of a nation and its people must respond to their inner urges and fulfill their vital social needs.Popular literature

is an echo of national life.Bhagavad Gita is originally written in Sanskrit language which is no longer a popularlanguage of the masses in the 21st centuary.Therefore,the original book should be translated and edited in modern daylanguages.While editing the book,some outdated ideas may be left out and topics related with current day affairs should

be highlighted.Indian idealist philosophy has developed more from mysticism than common sense,and is genrally

beyond the comprehension of the average intelligent person.Therefore,philosophy of Bhagavad Gita should beredrafted in simple and common man's language so that the sacred poem can help the world,especially westernnations,now plagued by intractable social and moral problems born of scientific advances and technological progress.

RELEVANCE OF THE ISSUE FOR SOCIETY OF TODAY AND TOMORROW-In the enormous Indian litterature

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from pre-historic age to contemporary times,no other book has earned such a tremendous reputation as the poem of 700

verses entitled the BHAGAVAD GITA.Since times of its creation in the early centuries of the Christian Era,thephilosophy of life contained in the book has fascinated the Hindu society.With passage of time, the poem became the

subject of special study by intellectuals and,in course of time,it has become most adored scripture of the Hinducommunity.Aldous Huxley says "The Gita is one of the clearest and most comprehensive summaries of the Perennial

Philosophy ever to have been made .Hence its enduring values, not only for Indians,but for all mankind since itscreation."In modern times,Mahatma Gandhi utilized its teachings to annihilate the rising tide of secular democracy and

Gandhi was acclaimed as the the champion of democratic freedom.

Bhagavad Gita deals with Sanatan Dharma.Sanatan is something,which has neither beginning nor end.TheSupreme Lord and His transcendental abode are both Sanatan,as are the living entities.therefore,till there exists asociety,today,tomorrow or for many-many years to come,the teaching of Bhagavad Gita will remain relevant as it s the

last word is human wisdom.