Fifteen
1. Here the Bhagavad Gītā clearly reveals its disdain for the Vedas. In other passages Ka is more inclined to accept the Vedas if they are offered to him as a sacrifice, or if they are performed as required by dharma, without any interest in the fruits.
2. Vedānta literally means “the culmination of the Vedas.” In classical India it is the name of a school of philosophy that is most strongly associated with the philosopher Śakara, a proponent of Advaita Vedānta, a philosophy of “nondualism” (Sanskrit, advaita) that recognized the ultimate religious authority of the Vedas. Here, however, the term refers to the Upaniads, the latest texts of the Vedic tradition, which had an enormous influence on the Bhagavad Gītā. This subject is discussed in the Introduction.
Sixteen
1. This is possibly an allusion to Buddhism, which emphasizes desire as the cause of suffering. See the discussion of Buddhism, and its Four Noble Truths, in the Introduction.
2. “Lost souls”: that is, lost ātmans. This stanza and the next seem to refer not to Buddhists and others like them, but rather to materialists, cynics, or hedonists.
3. This stanza and the next deal with the traditional Sanskrit texts that codify proper conduct in all walks of life. The Sanskrit word is śāstra (also attested at 17.1). Here, since the topic is karma, the reference is to texts that are known as dharmaśāstras, that is, traditional lore, texts, or books devoted to the rules of dharma, or law. Other traditional śāstras are devoted to nonreligious matters—for example, to the rules of conduct in the sphere of politics (arthaśāstras) and even to the sphere of sex (kāmaśāstras).
Seventeen
1. Literally, “OM that is the real.”
Eighteen
1. Renunciation and abandonment: the Sanskrit terms are sanyāsa and tyāga. In general, they are synonyms (see ślokas 12.12 and 16.2, where tyāga is translated respectively as “abandonment” and “renunciation”). In this chapter, however, much care is given to distinguishing the two terms.
2. That is, physically, verbally, or mentally.
3. “Lawlessness”: the Sanskrit is adharma.
4. “Renunciation”: the Sanskrit is sanyāsa.
5. “By my grace”: the Sanskrit is matprasādāt. In what follows there is much talk of Ka’s “grace,” that is, his prasāda.
Selected Bibliography
For those who would like to pursue further study of the Bhagavad Gītā, the following books and articles may be useful.
Scholarly Translations with Sanskrit Text and Elaborate Commentary
Franklin Edgerton, The Bhagavad Gītā, Translated and Interpreted, 2 volumes. Harvard Oriental Series. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1946.
R. C. Zaehner, The Bhagavad Gītā, with a Commentary Based on the Original Sources. London: Oxford University Press, 1969.
J.A.B. van Buitenen, The Bhagavad Gītā in the Mahābhārata: A Bilingual Edition, Text and Translation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.
Edgerton’s translation is extremely literal, which makes it virtually unreadable. But it serves as a good, reliable analysis of the Sanskrit text for students. Zaehner’s text is also unreadably dense for the general student, but for serious students of Hinduism and of the Sanskrit, it is very useful, with a very detailed commentary based on native commentaries. Van Buitenen’s edition is unique because it gives both the Sanskrit and the English texts of the full section of the Mahābhārata in which the Bhagavad Gītā appears. It has a useful introduction and notes that have wisely been kept to a minimum.
See also Ludo Rocher, ed., Studies in Indian Literature and Philosophy: Collected Articles of J.A.B. van Buitenen (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1988). This collection contains many important articles, in particular “A Contribution to the Critical Edition of the Bhagavadgītā.”
General Introductions to Hinduism
J. L. Brockington, The Sacred Thread: Hinduism in its Continuity and Diversity, 1981; repr., Edinburgh: University Press of Edinburgh, 1996.
Gavin Flood, An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Gavin Flood, ed., The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. This book consists of an introduction and twenty-seven essays by leading scholars that present the current scholarship on a wide range of issues, including Sanskrit textual traditions, regional traditions, major historical developments, and traditions of science, medicine, philosophy, and theology. It also features several essays on contemporary society and politics in India.
Axel Michaels, Hinduism Past and Present. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004.
On Yoga
M. Eliade, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom. Bollingen Series. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1958.
Jean Varenne, Yoga and the Hindu Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.
There have been many translations of the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali. A reliable scholarly one, but now out of date, is J. H. Woods, The Yoga System of Patañjali. Edwin Bryant of Rutgers University is presently making a new translation, which should soon be published.
Translations of the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaa
The complete scholarly translation of the Mahābhārata, sponsored by the University of Chicago, has not yet been completed. Van Buitenen translated the first five books before he died. The project has been resumed by James Fitzgerald, and other volumes are forthcoming.
The Rāmāyaa, not so vast as the Mahābhārata, is much closer to completion. Princeton University Press has published five of the seven projected volumes, under the direction of Robert Goldman.
The recently initiated Clay Sanskrit Library, in collaboration with New York University Press (JJC Foundation), is producing bilingual editions of many classical Sanskrit texts. They are modeled on the famous Loeb editions, published by Harvard University Press, of classical Greek and Latin authors. Many more editions are forthcoming.
A brief, nicely written one-volume synopsis of the Mahābhārata is William Buck, Mahabharata Retold (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1973). Buck also produced a short one-volume summary of the Rāmāyaa: The Ramayana Retold (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1981).
Though not at all scholarly, these books retell these epic tales with vigor and sensitivity.
Related Topics
On Epic Sanskrit, see John Brockington, “The Sanskrit Epics,” in Blackwell Companion. For greater depth, see his The Sanskrit Epics (Leiden: Brill, 1998).
A brief but good collection of essays on the Bhagavad Gītā is Julius Lipner, ed., The Fruits of Our Desiring: An Enquiry into the Ethics of the Bhagavadgītā for Our Times (Calgary: Bayeux Arts, 1997).
On other epic traditions in India, including many contemporary ones, see S. Blackburn, P. Claus, J. Flueckiger, and S. Wadley, Oral Epics in India (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989).
On the important collection of Vedic dialogues and reflections, the Upaniads, see two recent translations:
Patrick Olivelle, Upaniads, Translated from the Original Sanskrit. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Valerie Roebuck, The Upaniads. London and New York: Penguin Books, 2003.
On the notion that the author of the Bhagavad Gītā impersonates both Arjuna and Ka, see George Thompson, “Ahakāra and Ātmastuti: Self-assertion and Impersonation in the Rigveda,” History of Religions 37, no. 2 (1997), pp. 141–71. While this article is focused primarily on the Rigveda, it cites passages from the Bhagavad Gītā and the Upaniads and quotes examples of this genre from other world traditions.
Two companion volumes attempt to capture the influence of the Bhagavad Gītā on subsequent audiences. One is Eric Sharpe, The Universal Gītā: Western Images of the Bhagavad Gītā: A Bicentenary Survey (La Salle, Ill.: Open Court, 1985). It gives a useful sketch of the response in the West to the Bhagavad Gītā from 1785 to 1985 and contains brief discussions of the Bhagavad Gīt
ā’s influence on Gandhi, as well as on the American Transcendentalists Emerson and Thoreau and the poet T. S. Eliot. Sharpe also discusses its influence on Western occultism (e.g., Theosophy) and the American and European counterculture. The other companion volume is Arvind Sharma, The Hindu Gītā: Ancient and Classical Interpretations of the Bhagavadgītā (La Salle, Ill.: Open Court, 1986). This useful survey of the influence of the Bhagavad Gītā on subsequent Hinduism provides a valuable outline of the classical commentaries made by such influential figures as Bhāskara, Śakara, Rāmānuja, and Madhva.
On Gandhi’s reflections on the Bhagavad Gītā, see M. K. Gandhi, MK Gandhi Interprets the Bhagavadgita (Delhi: Orient Paperbacks, n.d.).
J. Robert Oppenheimer’s quotation of the Bhagavad Gītā, and his subsequent ambivalance concerning his role in the development of the atomic bomb, are discussed in Roger Shattuck, Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996).
On the Hindu triad of supreme gods, the Trimūrti, see A. Danielou, Hindu Polytheism (New York: Pantheon, 1964), which gives ample description of these three main gods of classical Hinduism: Brahmā, Viu, and Śiva. Besides citing the relevant textual sources, this book provides a wealth of illustrations of the iconography of these gods. There is also a useful discussion of the avatars of Viu.
On Buddhism in general, see H. Bechert and R. Gombrich, The World of Buddhism: Buddhist Monks and Nuns in Society and Culture (London: Thames & Hudson, 1984). This collection of essays by leading scholars covers the entire Buddhist world. Each essay provides a good overview of its subject.
A well-informed and accessible introduction to Jainism is offered by Paul Dundas, The Jains, 2nd ed. (1992; repr., London and New York: Routledge, 2002).
On magical thinking, see Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005). On magical thinking in Vedic, see George Thompson, “On the Logic of Sacrifice in Vedic,” a paper presented at the New England Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 2006.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my editor, Jeff Seroy—always perceptive, flexible, and patient—and his colleagues at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, for the great efforts they have made to help me to improve this translation and to make the Introduction more accessible. I also wish to thank Luis Gonzalez-Reimann, Anna Dallapiccola, Robert Moses and Eddie Stern, Stephanie Rutt, my students at Montserrat College of Art, and my friends at the Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough, New Hampshire, all of whom have offered support and encouragement in so many ways. And last but not least, special thanks to Susan Prince Thompson, my best critic and my muse.
GEORGE THOMPSON
The Bhagavad Gītā
GEORGE THOMPSON, a Vedic scholar and Sanskritist, has more than twenty years of experience teaching the Bhagavad Gītā at college level. He is an assistant professor at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Massachusetts. He is currently preparing an anthology of translations from the Rigveda.
NORTH POINT PRESS
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Copyright © 2008 by George Thompson
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First edition, 2008
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bhagavadgita. English.
The Bhagavad Gita: a new translation / George Thompson. —1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-0-86547-744-5 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-86547-744-2 (pbk.: alk. paper)
I. Thompson, George, 1951– II. Title.
BL1138.62.E5 2008
294.5'92404521—dc22
2008009010
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eISBN 9781466835313
First eBook edition: December 2012
* In many passages, repetition is used for stylistic effect or to reinforce an idea. For example, at 1.12 the hero Bhīma is said to have “roared out a lion’s roar.” In the Sanskrit the noun for “lion’s roar” is immediately followed by the verb “to roar.” Likewise, 12.2 says “I consider them to be the best disciplined who focus their minds on me, who, constant in their discipline…” The repetition of “disciplined” and “discipline” reflects the emphatic repetition in the Sanskrit. A third example is 15.20, where the word “awakened” appears twice and will perhaps seem redundant to most readers. But once again the translation reflects the stylistic repetition of the Sanskrit.
* For example, the famous episode of Nala and Damayantī, or the tale of Rāma, both in the third book, the Book of the Forest, of the Mahābhārata.
* Note that although the aspirated consonants mentioned above (kh, gh, ch, jh, h, h, th, dh, ph, bh) are represented by two consonants in standard Romanized transcription, they count in Sanskrit phonology, and in the script, as only a single consonant. Thus, in a word like abhavat (“became”), every syllable is light and every vowel is followed by only a single consonant. In Sanskrit phonology, b and bh both count as a single consonant with equal phonetic weight.
* The Sanskrit word for charioteer-bard, both in the Bhagavad Gītā and in the epics in general, is sūta. Literally, the term means “charioteer,” but since the charioteer also functioned as a bard, singing the praises of his heroic chariot-mate, the Sanskrit word refers to both functions. Note that the Bhagavad Gītā’s frame narrator, Sajaya, is a sūta. So too is Ka. In the Mahābhārata, Ka is generally recognized as an adviser to the Pāavas. Only in the war episodes does he also take on the role of Arjuna’s charioteer and bard. It is noteworthy that in the Mahābhārata Ka is a god in only a few special cases, like the Bhagavad Gītā.
* See J.A.B. van Buitenen, The Bhagavad Gītā in the Mahābhārata (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), p. 10, where the commentator Bhāskara is quoted as asserting that śūdras and the like (that is, women) may listen only to the narrative parts of the epic, but not to the passages that present the esoteric teachings of the Vedānta, such as the Bhagavad Gītā.
* See John Brockington, “The Sanskrit Epics,” in Gavin Flood, ed., The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003), pp. 116ff. For greater detail, see The Sanskrit Epics (Leiden: Brill, 1998).
* The notion of magical thinking is controversial among Vedicists and scholars of religion in general, but it is not difficult to understand. In Joan Didion’s book about her experience of the year following the sudden death of her husband, The Year of Magical Thinking, she describes her anguished, yearlong bout of magical thinking.
* This sort of equation has a long history in Vedic going all the way back to the famous Purua-sūkta (Hymn to the Primordial Man) of the Rigveda, at 10.90. In this hymn the gods sacrifice and dismember this first sacrificial victim, thus bringing about the creation of this world.
* Oppenheimer used the 1944 translation by Swami Nikhilananda, which renders these passages in this way: “If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst into the sky, that would be like the splendour of the Mighty One” (11.12); and “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds…” (11.32, only in part).
* William Buck, Mahabharata Retold (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1973), p. 71.
* The presence of the Buddha in this list of Viu’s avatars may surprise some readers. But the avatāra doctrine was a method of assimilating new religious movements, as they arose, into the tradition of Viu, thus making them a part of an endlessly unfolding Vaiava tradition. There are many traditional lists of Viu’s avatars of varying length. For a detailed summary, see A. Danielou, Hindu Polytheism (New York: Pantheon, 1969).
* See George Thompson, “Ahakāra and Ātmastuti: Self-assertion and Impersonation in the Rigveda,” History of Religions 37, no. 2 (1997), pp. 141–71.
* See Brockington, Sanskrit Epics, p. 43, in Julius Lipner (ed.), The Fruits of Our Desiring: An Enquiry into the Ethics of the Bhagavad
gītā for Our Times (Calgary: Bayeux Arts, 1997).
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