Lecture on the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita

Lecture on the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita

Clinton Bennett, PhD

Traditional date 850 BCE (probably 200 BCE - 200 CE). 18 pts.100,000 Stanzas of Sanskrit (poetry). Many vernacular translations/acted/sung/danced. Many Indians believe that the events described in the text really took place, many thousands of years before Vyasa gave his account. Others say that what is important is not the truth of, but the truth in, the text.

Mahabharata: revealed by Brahma, recited by Vyasa, written downby Ganesha (broke a tusk for a stylus). Story of the origins of Indian civilization. Also many discourses - Bhishma's on kingship (rajniti,) Krishna's on philosophy, for example.

Kingdom of Bharata; city of Hastinapur. King Shantanu marries fisher-girl, Satyavati (miraculous origin), whose son by a hermit who first exchanged her fish-smell for a beautiful one, is Vyasa.

Satyavati’s sons must succeed; Shantanu’s son by first wife, Ganga, Bhishma, vows celibacy/loyalty to throne. Given right to choose hour of death/invincibility from men.

Bhishma wins 3 princesses for King Vichitra-virya (Shantanu's second son), but he dies heirless on his wedding night, so Vyasu fathers the royal sons, Dhritarashtra (blind) and Pandu (pale) because one princess closed her eyes and one turned pale when they saw the repulsive Vyasa. Ambi, one of the three, is already betrothed and is allowed to leave. However, her fiancé spurns her. She vows to kill Bhishma.

Pandu succeeds (because of his elder brother's blindness) but accidentally kills a rishi + wife, and can not father children. If he touches a woman, he will die. Goes into voluntary exile in the forest, making Dhritarashta king.

Instead, Gods father all his sons, the Pandavas (wife Kunti has a special mantra that can invoke the presence of any God). The five Pandavas are born.

DHRITARASHTRA’S 100 sons are fathered by demons.

The cousins are rivals.

The Pandavas are sent into exile.

Dhritarashta divided his kingdom between the cousins.

Pandavas lose all to Duryodhana (common wife!) and go into 12 years exile + one in city.

Kauravas refuse to return their half of the Kingdom; battle of 18 days. Bhishma is killed by an incarnation of Amba (no man could kill him). Discourse on kingship. Yudhisthira crowned king but no one is really happy after the Battle, having killed relatives and teachers. When the Pandavas here of Krishna death, they start to walk towards Paradise. At end of epic, only Yudhisthira and his faithful dog (dharma) reach paradise. Only the Kauravas could be seen! One final test! They were really in hell.

Krishna: often compared with Christ. Born c. 3, 500 BCE

Born in Mathura to evil King’s Kansa’s sister. Kansa kills her

Children; Balarama is saved. Star at Krishna’s birth.

He is miraculously carried to foster-parents in Braj. Infant ‘cult’

Performs miracles/dances/plays-flute; ‘steals hearts’ = clothes.

Defeats Kansaadvises Arjuna against Kauravas.

Founds own ideal city, Dvarak. Died from arrow wound after a feast degenerated into mayhem.

Allegorical interpretaion of erotic element: God steals us away from earthly ties. (3 sources; Bhagavata Purana, MB, BG).

THE BHAGAVADGITA

Part of Book 6 the Mahabharata’s 18 Books. Revealed by Brahma, recited Vyasa, sribed by Ganesh. (Krishan as Vyasa; 10: 37))

Three sections of 6 chapters each.

A Dialogue - between Arjuna (a Pandava) and his divine charioteer, Krishna.

Song of the Lord.

Possibly dates from 300 BCE (well into Buddhist period)

Has Vedantic/Upanishadic flavor

Tries to reconcile apparently contradictory expressions of Hinduism - philosophical non theistic-expressions and theism by opting for a modified non-dualism.

Vaishnavite:

Vishnu = Brahma/Brahman/Shiva

Varna-ashrama-dharma is not rejected

Arjuna must fight because he is a Ksatriya: Arjuna hesitates to fight his friends/teachers/cousins. Krishna says: If you fail to fight, you will abandom your DUTY (2: 33). Karma has brought you to this moment and will determine outcome. Vishnu "manifests" whenever dharma is in danger:

For whenever Right declines and Wrong prevails, then, O Bharata, I come to birth…(4: 7) Men who put no faith in this law of dharma fail to reach Me and must return to the road of recurring death. I am the rite, the sacrifice, the oblation (9: 16)

Sacrifice through knowledge (9: 15)

Perform action for my sake (12: 10)

Men devoted to me are in me, and I in them (9: 29)

True knowledge for Arjuna = realization that all is one, and that there is no difference between his atman and that of those who stand opposed to him on the battle field - he, and they, are all

VISNU/KRISNA

Krishna = knowledge 13: 2

In all contingent being the same am I. None do I hate and none do I fondly love. But those who commune (bhaj) with me in love’s devotion (bhakti) Abide in Me, and I in them (9: 29).

Krishna has no favorites:

FOR WHOEVER MAKES ME HIS HAVEN, BASE-BORN THOUGH HE BE, YES, WOMEN TOO, AND ARTISANS, EVEN SERFS-THEIRS IS TO TREAD THE HIGHEST WAY…… (9: 32)

(though he created the classes; different in qualities, 4: 13.

The Gita is universal in outlook

EVEN THOSE WHO WORSHIP OTHER GODS WITH LOVE (bhakta) AND SACRIFICE TO THEM, FULL FILLED WITH FAITH, DO REALLY WORSHIP ME, THOUGH THE RITE DIFFER FROM THE NORM (9: 23)

By devotion alone can I, as I really am, be known (11: 53)

Krishna is all that is (17: 19)

He gifts faith and knowledge: I grant unwavering faith to any devotee (7: 21) &

Memory, knowledge, reasoning come from me (15: 15).

Not surprising that many inclusivists/universalistic Hindus are Vaisnavites.

The Gita has influenced several eminent Western writers and thinkers, such as Henry David Thoreau (1817 -62) and Thomas Eliot (1888 - 1965). M. K Gandhi drew on the Gita which he first read while a law student in London and in English translation. He regarded the Gita as a pacifist text, using allegory to interpret theWar of 18 Days.

See The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Barbara Stoler Miller (NY, Bantam, 1986).