Authority of Bhagavad Gita

[Guest guest]

Namaste ,

 

I have a question about the authority and validity of Bhagavad Gita. Somewhere I´ve read that BG is smriti and smritis are only valid for a certain time.(?)

 

hare krishna

 

 

[Guest guest]

bhagwad gita is good for life, however it should be applied more seriously during old age. ramayan should be applied more seriously during childhood and adulthood, when old age comes, look more serious at BG.

[Sephiroth 0]

Why don't you just apply both throughout the person's entire lifetime?

 

I don't see how anyone could think that they will live to be 100 when there is no proof that such person will wake up the next day. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Guest guest]

I meant like manu smriti wasn´t written for the kali yuga , is the BG "only" for the kali yuga or "valid" for ever.

 

For me the BG is "valid" for ever and any time. But on some internet sites they call the BG "smriti" and I don´t understand why it shouldn´t be "sruti".

 

 

[jay74 0]

I have to diagree that BG should be applied only during old age. That is like saying that you can live your life as a murderer, thief or a greedy person and then embrace BG in the end to become pious hindu.

 

It does not work that way. We are in the information age with tensions and pressures of daily life. BG helps us lead a very serene, contended and peaceful life. It helps us understand what is important and what is not. It has good guidance to a hermit/monk as well as to a man of action. BG should be recommended reading for kids from grades 9-12.

[ajit12 0]

Dear Jay74,

Once again we meet, can someone answer one question, why do you need any religous book be it Gita, bible or Qoran to be a good and moral human being . you can be a good human being even by reading all books and drawing conclusions based on the fact that god exists and have your own code of living.

Accepting authority of one book is limiting oneself and stopping your growth as a human being.I find Budhdha , shankaracharya,Mohd. and Jesus equally appealing.Their teachings do not apply in entirety in today's world we a have different set of problems and the same is true of Bhagwat Gita. This is nonwithstanding my personal opinion about BG.

It is like walking to Delhi from Bombay when you can fly.These greats discussed the issues based on their perceptions and society as it existed then .It can not apply blindly tyo today.

[Guest guest]

I think ajit, you have never read Bhagavad Gita. Unlike follow me or go to hell books , Bhagavad Gita stresses on morals and spiritual understandins. You can worship Allah, Krishna will not feel Jealous neither he will send you to hell because every form is form of Krishna....Which other book can teach such tolerance, open idea and freedom as taught by Bhagavad Gita. Acc. to Krishna's good Karmas ,morals and spirituality...What you have just said that you like teachings of Mohammed , Jesus as well as Krishna...its because somewhere still inside you soul of Hindu thoughts and Bhagawad Gita is alive....

 

Ask same thig to Muslims...who read Quran everyday...and see what they answer. Most Hindus are tolerant , it just because of Hindu Teachings....Most Muslims and Christians can't even respect other beliefs...it's just because of teachings of there religious schools.

[Guest guest]

"Accepting authority of one book is limiting oneself and stopping your growth as a human being".

 

You are right but when it comes to Bhagavad Gita you are wrong. Bhagavad Gita is strictly against blind followers. Bhagavad Gita encourages Questions, deep thinking ....You can ask questions all your life, you can disagree if you didn't understand without offending Krishna is Bhagavad Gita. Arjuna asked continously, Arjuna asked same questions many times...Krishna never stopped him..instead he encouraged him to ask more till he finally understand....

[maadhav 0]

<< bhagwad gita is good for life, however it should be applied more seriously during old age. >>

 

why are you telling this when krishna did not say so?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jay74 0]

Ajit,

 

Your policy is good as principle but not great in practise. In our company meetings our company president points out that a marketing campaign has to have focus. If you lose focus and dilute message it will not have its impact.

[Guest guest]

Got the answer of my question :

 

"Another known challenge is to the importance of the Bhagavad Gita, which is just a small portion of the whole Mahabharata. This comes from a certain section of the Hindu community. They claim that the Bhagavad-gita is not so relevant because it is part of the Mahabharata, which is smriti. Their point is that the sruti shastra is of a premier importance, like the Upanishads, and that we should not promote the smriti in preference to the sruti. As we do in the Hare Krishna movement, by our focus on distributing Bhagavad-gita As It Is and other small books, which are but spin offs from the Gita. The following quote from Srila Prabhupada answers this challenge.

 

Regarding your philosophical question, if the Bhagavad gita is part of Mahabharata which is considered smrti, how can we claim Bhagavad gita to be GITOPANISAD, or one of the Upanisads which are sruti?

 

Actually because the Gita is spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead it is sruti. But people take it as smrti because it is part of the Mahabharata. We take it as sruti as far as we are concerned. The purport of sruti is to make one advanced in understanding the Absolute Truth. Here the Absolute Truth is explaining personally, therefore the Gita should be taken as sruti. But they take it as smrti because it is part of the Smriti (Mahabharata). In one sense it is both sruti and smrti. "

 

http://india.krishna.org/Articles/2003/01/018.html

[ajit12 0]

1]Sruti means the one which is recited and not written down ,this has got nothing to do with god or deeper understanding.It is a popular belief that vedas are Apourusheya,however that is only a belief.Vedas were essentially a collection of hymns and yagnya procedures.They were recited and orally passed on.Broadly vedas had the following [A] Karmakaand i.e.how & when to do yagnya, which animal to sacrifice etc. Upasanakand which dealt with ways to worship a particular deity..[C] Jhanakaand which deals with metaphysical concepts like god,human existance ,after death etc.However this does not occur in veda but in Vedant i.e.end of vedas which is upanishad which were constucted much after Vedas proper.

2]Smriti essentially means memory i.e. various books such as manusmriti,yagnawalka smriti which were law books which were compiled from memory.

3]Puranas are collection of legend and stories which were compiled by various brahamins over a period of time.All puranas are full of praises of a brahmins.Recitation of puranas was by Brahmins,but any one could listen to puranas unlke vedas to which only twice born had an access .Puranas were a good tool to dupe gullible masses .

4] Itihaas in older indian context means compilation of history,songs music,Bhakti tracts such as Bahgwatgita and how to lead your life. Mahabharat also has Anushashan parva in which Bhisma is talking about a lot of things .It also has Kanak niti.Mahabharat is full of such philosophical stuff. Itihaas was recited not by Brahnins but by a tribe called Sut [Karna was raised in such a tribe]Suts used to be somewhat like Bhaands in north india.they would recite mahabharat parvas during major functions such as marriages,religious gatherings tec. Hosoever proponants of BhagvatGita might try to prove that it was revealed by Bhagwan history reveals that it was recited by sutas.

Suts used to add stories to all books continously .They did the same to mahabharata.Bhagvatgita or part thereof is one such addition.

Sadly Bhagwat Gita is neither sruti nor smriti nor puranas ,it is Itihaas.

Majority of religious books such as vedas, Gita, Qoran ,Bible which are supposed to have been revealed by god have one major flaw .They all talk about why you should worship that particular god with god giving detailed instructions about it.No god is going to lay down a detailed procedure about how to and why to worship him .God is not a political leader.

If Gita appeals to you by all means follow it.Why this futile exercise to prove that gita is Smriti?You can simply say it appeals to me & I belive in it.It is like a man trying to pretend how his family is the most ancient.

You will be ulimatly judged by your deeds in this life and not by the fact that Gita is sriti or smriti. /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Guest guest]

{Jhanakaand which deals with metaphysical concepts like god,human existance ,after death etc.However this does not occur in veda but in Vedant i.e.end of vedas which is upanishad which were constucted much after Vedas proper.}

 

I was wondering what the Vedas (Samhita's) talk about then? Is it just mantras praising the devas? I think the Vedanta has had far more influence than the Vedas.

 

{Hosoever proponants of BhagvatGita might try to prove that it was revealed by Bhagwan history reveals that it was recited by sutas.}

 

The Bhagavad Gita is heavily influenced by the Upanishads and can be seen as an extension or commentary on the Upanishads. Many of the concepts in the Gita were not new, but the Gita brought together many teachings of various Upanishads in one book.

 

{You will be ulimatly judged by your deeds in this life}

 

Are you a muslim or something? Really...you were talking some sense until you said that! So do you believe in something like judgement day then? It's absurd that children who die young will be judged on their deeds in this life don't you think? What about babies who die at childbirth? Or is it just adults who will be judged?

 

[ajit12 0]

1]No I am not a muslim, I do not particularly believe in either the judgement day or Punarjanma.What I meant was if you believe in Gita then rather than trying to prove that it is Sruti etc. admit that I believe in Gita and try and follow it.The word judgement is used in the sense of Pap-punya.

2] Veda samhitas proper deal with the following very briefly;

A] Rigveda is mainly hymns inpraise of various deities and requesting them for various boons.Rigveda ,paricularly the 2nd mandala is considered to be the oldest.

B] Yajurveda deals with karmakanda,the rituals for performing various yagnyas,thier are two versions of yajurveda,shukla & krishna[white & black]. Yajurveda also praises various gods .

C] Saam veda is hymns which are to be sung in tune and with cadence which is critical[swaraaghaat].The psalms are from Rigveda but selected again in Saam veda.

D]Atharvaveda has borrowed lot of nonaryan concepts from eastern India,such as spells for health,bad eye of an enemy,wealth,muhurat,jaaran maaran & jyotish.There are spells for every small to major ailments and disaster.Atherwaveda deals with every stupid and mundane belief.Atharvaveda also deals with Gruihasthaasram etc.

Each veda consists of Samhita, Bramhan[which is a book and nothing to do with bramha or a priest ] and upnishadas associtated with it.

C] before forming an opinion about Bhagwat Gita my suggestion is buy Iscon book 'Gita as it is'.Read only the Word to word meaning of every shloka & ignore the commentary.Go through the first reading without thinking too deeply.Once you finish the first reading ,come back and read slowly.Still ignore the commentaries and try and find if there is any meaning at all in Bhagwat gita on your own.Be open to the possibilty that there may be deeper meaning,great meaning or it is just unconnected rubbish.You have to make /images/graemlins/grin.gif your own judgement.[oops that word again]Also remember one thing ,what ever is the apparent grammatical meaning of a sloka it means precisly that.There are no hidden meanings in hindu books except perhaps Pantanjali's Yogsutra. Do this exercise & come back we then can discuss it further