The History of Bhagavad Gita

Sometimes it is good to get back to basics on the philosophy of Bhagavad Gita. So I think a
good place to start is the history of Bhagavad Gita. What is the Gita, where did it come from and
how old is it?
Firstly the title of Bhagavad Gita is two Sanskrit words. Bhagavad comes from the word
Bhagavan which referrers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and gita means song.
Sometimes we hear the Gita referred to in English as The Song of God, and this is a reasonable
English translation of the title and it is a fairly accurate description of what the Bhagavad Gita is.
The Bhagavad Gita was spoken by Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to His friend
Arjuna on the battlefield of Kuruksettra around five thousand years ago. The Gita has a very
unique position in the world as it is the only book that contains directly the actual words spoken
by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. You can find many religious and philosophical books in
the world but there is no book, except Bhagavad Gita, which claims to contain the direct, actual
words spoken by God. Even in the Vedic literatures the other sections of the Vedas may have
quotes from God but they are written about God, they describe God, rather than being a direct
conversation with God.
The Gita is unique in the world as it is a direct conversation between Krishna, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, and his friend Arjuna so we need to take this book very seriously and
study it very carefully.
So what were Krishna and Arjuna doing on the battlefield of Kuruksettra and how did this
conversation between them that has now become the Gita take place?
There was a royal family called the Kurus which Arjuna and Krishna were both connected to.
Although all the descendents of this family were actually Kurus there was a disagreement
between the five sons of Pandu and the other members of the Kuru family over who should be
the King. Because of this disagreement the sons of Pandu became known as Pandavas. Arjuna
was the third son of Pandu and Krishna was related to and friendly with both factions of the Kuru
family. The Pandavas wanted to settle this dispute peacefully and even suggested that the Kurus
could keep the kingdom and simply give them five small villages, one village for each of the
Pandu brothers to rule over as they were Ksatriyas and needed to have at least some land. But the
Kurus rejected this very reasonable proposal stating that they would not give the Pandus even a
piece of land the size of the head of a pin. So in this way the Kurus forced the Pandavas to fight
them and the leader of the winning group would go on to become the King.
From the point of view of military strength and the number of competent generals to lead the
battle the Kurus led by the great and expert general Bhisma were far superior to the Pandavas led
by Arjuna. Therefore it appeared that the Kurus should be able to easily defeat the army of the
Pandavas.

So this is the basic background, you can find much more detailed information in Srila
Prabhupadas Bhagavad-gita As It Isbut now you have the general idea at least. As I mentioned
Krishna was friendly with both sides and both sides belonged to the Kuru family so they all
knew each other and were related to each other in various ways. So this is a family quarrel.
Krishna did not want to be seen to be partial to either side so he met with Arjuna, the leader of
the Pandavas and Duryodhana, the leader of the Kurus, and told them both that He would offer
his army to one side and He himself would be on the other side but He said that He would not
fight. Krishna of course had a very large and powerful army and Duryodhana got the first choice
so naturally he choose Krishnas army and that left Krishna, who was not going to fight, on
Arjunas side.
So Krishna, although He had agreed not to fight, offered to drive the chariot of Arjuna. That is
how the famous image of Bhagavad-gita came about. The picture of Krishna at the front of
Arjunas chariot driving it and Arjuna behind Him riding on the chariot and fighting the battle.
Of course Arjuna wanted His friend Krishna on His side and was very happy with this
arrangement and Duryodhana wanted Krishnas powerful army on his side so he was also happy
with the arrangement.
So now you understand how Krishna and Arjuna ended up sitting on the chariot facing their
opponents and cousin brothers the Kurus on the battlefield. It was a very dramatic scene. The
two very strong armies facing each other and ready to engage in battle. Arjuna asked Krishna to
place his chariot between the two armies so that he could see both the armies and get a clear idea
of the situation before the battle commenced. So Krishna moved the chariot and Arjuna observed
the armies and seeing so many friends and family members on both sides Arjuna became
bewildered and decided that they should not fight in this battle. His logic was that even if they
were successful and ended up victorious in the fight practically all his friends and family
members would be killed in the battle. Therefore he was thinking the victory would be pointless
if all his friends were killed and there was no one for him to enjoy the victory with.
At this point Arjuna was saying to Krishna that they should just leave the battlefield. Krishna
said he was surprised by these sentiments of Arjuna and considered that Arjuna was acting in a
unmanly way and chastised him. This is the beginning of the conversation we now know as
Bhagavad Gita or Song of God.
The Gita is not a long conversation. it comprises of only 711 Sanskrit verses and it was spoken
on a battlefield as the two armies were getting ready for the war. Maybe it took one hour or a
little more and during the course of this conversation Arjuna came to he senses and realized his
duty was actually to surrender to Krishna and do what Krishna wanted, and Krishna wanted him
to fight. Actually this whole arrangement was made by Krishna so the Bhagavad Gita could be
spoken by Him. Arjuna is bewildered and appears to be in illusion but we understand this is also
Krishnas arrangement. If Arjuna was not confused and bewildered there would have been no
need for Krishna to speak the Bhagavad Gita to clear up his confusion. Krishna is not speaking
the Bhagavad Gita for Arjunas benefit only. It is for the benefit of everyone.
And you may well ask: Krishna spoke this conversation to Arjuna on a battlefield five thousand
years ago, how is it that we have that conversation in a book now? We have the Bhagavad Gita

because Srila Vyasadeva the great sage and literary incarnation of Krishna included this
conversation between Krishna and Arjuna, the Bhagavad Gita, as one of the chapters of his great
epic the Mahabharata. So Sri Vyasadeva who was a contemporary with Krishna and Arjuna after
the battle of Kuruksettra and the disappearance of Krishna compiled the Mahabharata which is
the history of the universe and in that book he included the full details and history of the Kuru
family and of course the Bhagavad Gita is included in Mahabharata.
It is not that the Bhagavad Gita was invented by Krishna 5,000 years ago when He spoke it to
Arjuna. No. Krishna says: I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun-god,
Vivasvan, and Vivasvan instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed
it to Iksvaku. The supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession,
and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken,
and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost. (Bhagavad Gita 4.1 & 4.2)
Here Krishna is giving the history of the Bhagavad Gita stretching way back to the time when
Krishna instructed the same Bhagavad Gita to Vivasvan the sun god. Srila Prabhupada estimates
in his purport that this was at least 120 million years ago and that the Gita has existed in human
society for two million years.
So the Bhagavad Gita was not a new book even when Krishna spoke it some 5,000 years ago.
Then He was simply repeating the same thing He taught the sun god Vivasvan around 120
million years ago.
Although the Bhagavad Gita is the most ancient book, it is still studied today by millions and the
teachings of Krishna in it are still very relevant to solving the problems we face in todays world.
This proves the eternal value of the timeless knowledge Krishna shares with His friend Arjuna.
My humble request is if you have not made a serious study of Srila Prabhupadas Bhagavad Gita
As It Is please purchase it at:

The Hidden Truths in the Bhagavad Gita

Excerpts from Paramahansa Yogananda's highly acclaimed two-volume commentary on the
Bhagavad Gita:
God Talks With ArjunaThe Bhagavad Gita: Royal Science of God-Realization
The Bhagavad Gita: A Universal Scripture
The timeless and universal message of the Gita is all-encompassing in its expression of truth.

Bhagavad Gita means "Song of the Spirit," the divine communion of truth-realization between
man and his Creator, the teachings of Spirit through the soul, that should be sung unceasingly.
The underlying essential truths of all great world scriptures can find common amity in the
infinite wisdom of the Gita's mere 700 concise verses.

The entire knowledge of the cosmos is packed into the Gita. Supremely profound, yet couched in
revelatory language of solacing beauty and simplicity, the Gita has been understood and applied
on all levels of human endeavor and spiritual strivingsheltering a vast spectrum of human
beings with their disparate natures and needs. Wherever one is on the way back to God, the Gita
will shed its light on that segment of the journey.

Cracking the Code of the Gita's Yogic Symbolism and Allegory

The ancient sacred writings do not clearly distinguish

history from symbology; rather, they often intermix the
two in the tradition of scriptural revelation. Prophets
would pick up instances of the everyday life and events of
their times and from them draw similes to express subtle
spiritual truths. Divine profundities would not otherwise
be conceivable by the ordinary man unless defined in
common terms. When, as they often did, scriptural
prophets wrote in more recondite metaphors and
allegories, it was to conceal from ignorant, spiritually
unprepared minds the deepest revelations of Spirit.
Thus, in a language of simile, metaphor, and allegory, the
Bhagavad Gita was very cleverly written by Sage Vyasa
by interweaving historical facts with psychological and
spiritual truths, presenting a word-painting of the
tumultuous inner battles that must be waged by both the
material and the spiritual man. In the hard shell of
symbology, he hid the deepest spiritual meanings to protect them from the devastation of the
ignorance of the Dark Ages toward which civilization was descending concurrent with the end of
Sri Krishna's incarnation on earth.

The words of Lord Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita are at once a profound scripture on
the science of yoga, union with God, and a textbook for everyday living. The student is led step
by step with Arjuna from the mortal consciousness of spiritual doubt and weakheartedness to
divine attunement and inner resolve.

The Bhagavad Gitaa comprehensive metaphysical and psychological treatisedescribes all

experiences that will come to the spiritual traveler on the path of emancipation. the positive
states the devotee is striving toward [and] the negative states that try to intimidate the devotee
and turn him from his goal. "Forewarned is forearmed!" The devotee who understands the route
he must travel will never feel unsure or dismayed at inevitable opposition.
The Spiritual Battle and Ultimate Victory in Everyday Life
The timeless message of the Bhagavad Gita does not refer only to one historical battle, but to the
cosmic conflict between good and evil: life as a series of battles between Spirit and matter, soul
and body, life and death, knowledge and ignorance, health and disease, changelessness and
transitoriness, self-control and temptations, discrimination and the blind sense-mind....
The devotee should analyze his daily mental and physical actions to determine just how much of
his life is ruled by the ego's ignorance (delusion) and body consciousness, and how much he is
able to express of the soul's wisdom and divine nature.

Yoga meditation is the process of cultivating and stabilizing the awareness of one's real nature,
through definite spiritual and psychophysical methods and laws by which the narrow ego, the
flawed hereditary human consciousness, is displaced by the consciousness of the soul.

Each person has to fight his own battle of Kurukshetra. It is a war not only worth winning, but in
the divine order of the universe and of the eternal relationship between the soul and God, a war
that sooner or later must be won.
In the holy Bhagavad Gita, the quickest attainment of that victory is assured to the devotee who,
through undiscourageable practice of the divine science of yoga meditation, learns like Arjuna to
hearken to the inner wisdom-song of Spirit.

The Gita's Balanced Path: Meditation Plus Right Activity

[Lord Krishna's] life demonstrates the ideal not of renunciation of actionwhich is a conflicting
doctrine for man circumscribed by a world whose life breath is activitybut rather the
renunciation of earth-binding desires for the fruits of action. Man should so train his mind by
constant meditation that he can perform the necessary dutiful actions of his daily life and still
maintain the consciousness of God within....
Sri Krishna's message in the Bhagavad Gita is the perfect answer for the modern age, and any
age: Yoga of dutiful action, of nonattachment, and of meditation for God-realization. To work
without the inner peace of God is Hades; and to work with His joy ever bubbling through the
soul is to carry a portable paradise within, wherever one goes.
The path advocated by Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita is the moderate, medium, golden path,
both for the busy man of the world and for the highest spiritual aspirant. To follow the path
advocated by the Bhagavad Gita would be their salvation, for it is a book of universal Selfrealization, introducing man to his true Self, the soulshowing him how he has evolved from
Spirit, how he may fulfill on earth his righteous duties, and how he may return to God. The Gita's
wisdom is not for dry intellectualists to perform mental gymnastics with its sayings for the
entertainment of dogmatists; but rather to show a man or woman living in the world, householder
or renunciant, how to live a balanced life that includes the actual contact of God, by following
the step-by-step methods of yoga.
The Eternal Science of Raja Yoga
In the beginning of creation and the advent of man, the Infinite impregnated His intelligent
creative Cosmic Energy (Maha-Prakriti or Holy Ghost) with not only the power of repulsion
the individualizing of Cosmic Consciousness into souls and a universe of matterbut also
with the power of recalling souls from their prodigal wanderings in matter back to unity with
Spirit. All things come from, are made of and sustained by, and ultimately resolve into this
intelligent Cosmic Energy, and thence into Spirit. Ascension follows in reverse the exact course
of descension. In man, that course is the inner highway to the Infinite, the only route to divine
union for followers of all religions in all ages. By whatever bypath of beliefs or practices a being
reaches that singular highway, the final ascension from body consciousness to Spirit is the same
for everyone: the withdrawal of life and consciousness from the senses upward through the gates
of light in the subtle cerebrospinal centers, dissolving the consciousness of matter into life force,
life force into mind, mind into soul, and soul into Spirit. The method of ascension is Raja Yoga,
the eternal science that has been integral in creation from its inception.

The Kriya Yoga technique, taught by Krishna to Arjuna and referred to in Gita chapters IV:29
and V:2728, is the supreme spiritual science of yoga meditation. Secreted during the
materialistic ages, this indestructible yoga was revived for modern man by Mahavatar Babaji and
taught by the Gurus of Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of India. Babaji

himself ordained me to spread this holy science of God-union....

Any devotee who will emulate Arjunaepitome of the ideal discipleand perform his rightful
duty with nonattachment, and perfect his practice of yoga meditation through a technique such as
Kriya Yoga, will similarly draw the blessings and guidance of God and win the victory of Selfrealization.
As God talked with Arjuna, so will He talk with you. As He lifted up the spirit and consciousness
of Arjuna, so will He uplift you. As He granted Arjuna supreme spiritual vision, so will He
confer enlightenment on you.
We have seen in the Bhagavad Gita the story of the soul's journey back to Goda journey each
one must make. O divine soul! like Arjuna, "Forsake this small weakheartedness (of mortal
consciousness). Arise!" Before you is the royal path.

The Bhagavad-Gita : Questions and Answers

What is the Bhagavad-Gita?
The Bhagavad-Gita is the eternal message of spiritual wisdom from ancient India. The
word Gita means song and the word Bhagavad means God, often the Bhagavad-Gita
is called the Song of God.
Why is the Bhagavad-Gita called a song if it is spoken?
Because its rhyming meter is so beautifully harmonic and melodious when spoken
perfectly.
What is the name of this rhyming meter?
It is called Anustup and contains 32 syllables in each verse.
Who originally spoke the Bhagavad-Gita?
Lord Krishna originally spoke the Bhagavad-Gita.
Where was the Bhagavad-Gita originally spoken?

In India at the holy land of Kuruksetra.

Why is the land of Kuruksetra so holy?
Because of benedictions given to King Kuru by Brahma that anyone dying in
Kuruksetra while performing penance or while fighting in battle will be promoted
directly to the heavenly planets.
Where is the Bhagavad-Gita to be found?
In the monumental, historical epic Mahabharata written by Vedavyasa.
What is the historical epic Mahabharta?
The Mahabharata is the most voluminous book the world has ever known. The
Mahabharata covers the history of the earth from the time of creation in relation to
India. Composed in 100,000 rhyming quatrain couplets the Mahabharata is seven
times the size of the Illiad written by Homer.
Who is Vedavyasa?
Vedavyasa is the divine saint and incarnation who authored the Srimad Bhagavatam,
Vedanta Sutra, the 108 Puranas, composed and divided the Vedas into the Rik, Yajur,
Artharva and Sama Vedas, and wrote the the great historical treatise Mahabharata
known as the fifth Veda. His full name is Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa and he was the
son of sage Parasara and mother Satyavati.
Why is the Mahabharata known as the fifth Veda?
Because it is revealed in the Vedic scripture Bhavisya Purana III.VII.II that the fifth
Veda written by Vedavyasa is called the Mahabharata.
What are the special characteristics of the Mahabharata?
The Mahabharata has no restrictions of qualification as to who can hear it or read it.
Everyone regardless of caste or social position may hear or read it at any time.
Vedavyasa wrote it with the view not to exclude all the people in the worlds who are
outside of the Vedic culture. He himself has explained that the Mahabharata contains
the essence of all the purports of the Vedas. This we see is true and it is also written in
a very intriguing and dramatically narrative form.
What about the Aryan invasion theory being the source of the Bhagavad-Gita?

The Aryan invasion theory has been proven in the 1990?s not to have a shred of truth
in it. Indologists the world over have realized that the Aryans are the Hindus
themselves.
What is the size of the Bhagavad-Gita?
The Bhagavad-Gita is composed of 700 Sanskrit verses contained within 18 chapters,
divided into three sections each consisting of six chapters. They are Karma Yoga the
yoga of actions. Bhakti Yoga the yoga of devotion and Jnana Yoga the yoga of
knowledge.
When was the Bhagavad-Gita spoken?
The Mahabharata confirms that Lord Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-Gita to Arjuna at
the Battle of Kuruksetra in 3137 B.C.. According to specific astrological references in
the Vedic scriptures, the year 3102 B.C. is the beginning of kali yuga which began 35
years after the battle 5000 years ago.
What is the opinion of western scholars from ancient times?
According to the writings of both the Greek and the Romans such as Pliny, Arrian and
Solinus as well as Megastathanes who wrote a history of ancient India and who was
present as an eyewitness when Alexander the Great arrived in India in 326 B.C. was
that before him were 154 kings who ruled back to 6777 B.C. This also follows the
Vedic understanding.
When was the Bhagavad-Gita first translated into English?
The first English edition of the Bhagavad-Gita was in 1785 by Charles Wilkins in
London, England. This was only 174 years after the translation of the King James
Bible in 1611.
Was the Bhagavad-Gita also translated into other languages?
Yes. The Bhagavad-Gita was translated into Latin in 1823 by Schlegel. It was
translated into German in 1826 by Von Humbolt. It was translated into French in 1846
by Lassens and it was translated into Greek in 1848 by Galanos to mention but a few.
What was the original language of the Bhagavad-Gita?
The original language of the Bhagavad-Gita was classical Sanskrit from India.
Why is Srimad often written before the Bhagavad-Gita?

The word Srimad is a title of great respect. This is given because the Bhagavad-Gita
reveals the essence of all spiritual knowledge.
Is history aware of the greatness of Srimad Bhagavad-Gita?
Historically many very extraordinary people such as Albert Einsten, Mahatma Gandhi,
Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Herman Hesse, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Aldous Huxley,
Rudolph Steiner and Nikola Tesla to name but a few have read Srimad Bhagavad-Gita
and were inspired by its timeless wisdom.
Who is qualified to read Srimad Bhagavad-Gita?
Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana a 16th century saint from the Brahma Madhva Vaisnava
Samparadaya has stated that those who are pious and reverent, those who are of
controlled senses and those sincerely performing their daily spiritual duties are
qualified to read Srimad Bhagavad-Gita.
What can be learned by the study of Srimad Bhagavad-Gita?
Accurate, fundamental knowledge about God, the ultimate truth, creation, birth and
death, the results of actions, the eternal soul, liberation and the purpose as well as the
goal of human existence.