Inane Interpolations in Bhagvad-Gita (An Invocation for their Revocation)
Blurb
The Manusmriti, the social doctrine of yore, and the Bhagvad-Gita, the spiritual tome in vogue that lay down the discriminatory dharma (duties) of the four social classes (castes) have been the bugbears of the Hindu backward classes. However, to their chagrin, of late, as the latter is being mindlessly promoted even though the former was constitutionally debunked, they began advocating that it too should be dumped in a dustbin.
Ironically, the improbability of their progenitor Krishna, the architect of the Gita, relegating his own ilk to the social margins failed to dawn upon these that Gita supposedly slights, even to this day! Thus, their intellectuals, instead of seeking to reclaim their priceless heritage, albeit after ridding its interpolative garbage, tend to rubbish it a la throwing the baby with the bathwater, and needless to say they must ponder.
Also, it is high time that the Gita-class stop laying store by the self-aggrandizing verses in this Vyāsa’s classic, evidently inserted by their progenitors that came to bedevil the Hindu spiritual integrity and social harmony. Likewise, the grumblers of the dalit desertions must see the need for setting the Hindu house in order to prevent the fractious poaching by the Church, if not to facilitate the ‘hoped for’ return of the prodigals. So also those who take pride that Hinduism is the only religion that reckons all faith as true, should be concerned about the ‘in vogue’ Gita that belittles some of their caste fellows. Besides, this work beckons the feminists to reckon the second of the two interpolations from it cited in the cover image that degrades them in unspeakable terms.
This ‘overdue’ work, may lead the ‘denied’ Hindu castes as well as the favored folks for an objective approach to the in vogue Bhagvad-Gita which could dispel the misgivings of the former and the delusions of the latter, thereby bridging the Hindu emotional gulf with its abridged book that restores its original form. Whether or not one concurs with its propositions, this original work could be of interest to the students of logic and reasoning as well.
Book Excerpt - Author’s Note
When it comes to my tryst with Bhagvad-Gita, I may say that one thing led to the other, but with a difference – I can share the details with the public in this invocation for the revocation of its inane interpolations from it.
When I was around twelve, my paternal grandfather encouraged me to read the Gita even as he discouraged my mother from venturing into it, voicing the then prevailing view that if women were to imbibe its philosophy, then that could undermine their emotive self in the family fold. Given the lower levels of child awareness in those village days, comparatively speaking that is, as I could neither share Arjuna’s concerns nor grasp Krishna’s response, my first brush with the Gita ended before the end of its second chapter.
However, over two score years later, as it happened, it was a human tragedy that occasioned my fortuitous reengagement with the Gita, eventually that was, as, in the wake of the 2002 Godhra-Gujarat riots, the Op-eds in the print and the debates in the idiot box exhibited the vacuity of the Indian intelligentsia. As that laid the seeds of my Puppets of Faith: Theory of Communal Strife that sought to explore the role, if any, the religions play in fomenting communal discord, and if so, in which way, which in turn compelled me to seek out the Gita that is after perusing the Semitic scriptures. When I could see that apart from sharing the highway of devotion to the God with the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran for salvation, the Gita showed a subway of devotion to Duty leading up to moksha, I found it fascinating as by disposition I am not faith-inclined for it is not a handmaiden of reason.
It’s thus, after the completion of that critical appraisal of the Islamic faith, Indian polity ‘n more, for which I transcreated some selected Sanskrit slokas of the Gita into English verses that I set out to go the whole hog for its wholesome fare. Though Glaring Shadow was in wait to come into the light for by then I had done the novelling of Benign Flame, Jewel-less Crown and Crossing the Mirage, yet this epic pulled me onto its translative course. However, when I checked out of its third post, its route diversion from the set course that I came across perplexed me no end, but nevertheless as I persevered, to my utter dismay, its sectarian pattern became increasingly apparent. Then as it dawned on me that the epic is not to be taken at its face value and it is worth subjecting it to some form of scrutiny, so I looked around for precedents for guidance, but found none save Sir Edwin Arnold’s dismissal of slokas 23 thru 28 of its eighth chapter for they imply that “if one dies when the moon is on the ascent he would be heaven bound and, to hell if it’s other way round”, as the ranting of some vedānti.
It’s thus, I ploughed my lonely furrow in the Gita’s contaminated field and in the end could manage, needless to say with great effort, to ferret out 110 inane embedments, some of which have long been the impediments to the spiritual and social amity of the Hindu polity. So, I could visualize a social purpose in going public with my discoveries through Bhagvad-Gita: Treatise of Self-help, and thanks to Michael S. Hart, it first appeared in the public domain as free eBook at Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing Press only to make its way into umpteen literary websites thereafter. It’s no less heartening that Mike Stickles has accorded the pride of place to my work among the Gita’s translations at the Great Books and Classics site, and what is more, slowly but steadily it has been gaining ground in the web world, that too to some acclaim.
Though not resting on its laurels for I was engaged in creating seven more books in varied genres, including the translation of Sundara Kānda, of Ramayana, the foremost poetic composition in the world of letters, as Hanuman’s Odyssey, in English verses, and lo, its author, Sage Valmiki, was a Shudra that the ‘in vogue’ Gita belittles! Whatever, I left the Gita at that, but not before supplementing its eBook with a demonstrative audio rendition, also in the public domain. However, owing to its philosophical imprint that got etched in my mind, all along, I have been able to fend for myself through the lows of life without seeking His succor and support.
Now, eighteen years later, fortuitously yet again, my childhood artist friend, E. Rohini Kumar, who saw my Bhagvad-Gita: Treatise of Self-help, sans 110 inane interpolations, that carried only the rest of its ‘original’ verses, as an unfinished work, goaded me to place those inanities in the public domain for a reasoned review with a rational outlook. However, it is his hunch that the ‘overdue’ work, might lead the denied castes as well as the favoured folks for an objective approach to Gita ‘as it is’ which could dispel the misgivings of the former and the delusions of the latter that clinched the issue. Thus, serving the sore social need of bridging the Hindu emotional gulf with an abridged Gita that restores its original form owes to him for having conceptualized this Inane Interpolations in Bhagvad-Gita - An Invocation for their Revocation for which he conceived the cover as well, like he did for my earlier books, and now that women too have a free rein on this masterpiece, it is hoped that the propositions herein could be well-received, if not readily, maybe in times to come.
Hindu Intellectual Apathy
Given the social mores of yore with the Vedic chores at their core that the purānic period had ushered in, the spiritual absorption of Gita’s inane interpolations in the Aryavarta of the bygone era is understandable, but what prevented its Hindu adherents in the medieval period, and prevents its Westernized votaries in the modern era, from seeing the wood for the trees?
Notwithstanding the advent of universal education that was once their exclusive domain, as the Brahmins continue to be Gita’s torchbearers, and since they are brought up on the Purusha Sukta’s false caste narrative, they tend to see nothing amiss in its caste aberrations. However, to be in sync with the times, they give politically correct hypocritical spin to its caste outrage of chātur-varṇyaṁ by feigning as if the varna (caste) is not meant to be taken literally for what was implied is that it’s one’s guna (quality) and not one’s birth (caste) that is the determinative factor in the social pecking order.
Well, well, then what was the Brahmin resistance about to the admit Vishwamitra, the redoubtable Kshatriya sage of yore, into their haloed fold despite their reverence to the Gāyatri mantra that he composed! So be it but why there has been no upward mobility even in these days of the eminent Shudras on the caste ladder, even that of Ambedkar the intellectual colossus?
Besides, not to speak of ‘the now’, in none of the purānic tales, was there ever an instance of a rogue Brahmin having been relegated to the Shudra substrata! So, the ‘caste not by birth’ innovation in circulation is nothing but insincere hogwash to mislead.
Since Sanskrit has long ceased to be in vogue, Hindus have come to rely on Gita’s translations to have a grasp of it, as is the case with their other epics, if at all that is, and the translators, for the most part, either provide a holistic meaning, wherever possible, to its offensive verses, and when not conducive for an inoffensive spin, then they tone down the inanities, and who cares any way.
Thus, by not calling a spade a spade, they not only betray their intellectual dishonesty but also preclude a public debate about the inane interpolations altogether. If anything, when it comes to pushing these toxic insertions under the caste carpet, the spiritual leaders excel as professional preachers, which is of no avail as the slighted souls desist from walking over the same.
In Gita’s myriad world, are the lazy ones content in just reciting
Ch 2, V47
karmaṇy-evādhikāras te mā phaleṣhu kadāchana
mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo ’stvakarmaṇi
Hold as patent on thy work
Reckon thou not on royalty
With no way to ceasing work
Never mind outcome but go on.
Well, if only it were as simple.
Though he too heard that, Arjuna didn’t think so.
Ch3, V36
Thus spoke Arjuna:
Why should one with right intent
Stray ever on the wayward ways!
arjuna uvācha
atha kena prayukto ’yaṁ pāpaṁ charati pūruṣhafi
anichchhann api vārṣhṇeya balād iva niyojitafi
Ch3, V37
Thus spoke the Lord:
Well, it's passion, lust ’n wrath
Drag that man on path painful.
śhrī bhagavān uvācha
kāma eṣha krodha eṣha rajo-guṇa-samudbhavafi
mahāśhano mahā-pāpmā viddhyenam iha vairiṇam
Ch3, V38
Flame ’n mirror as shrouded
Without let by smoke ’n dust
As well embryo in the womb
Wisdom is by wants clouded.
dhūmenāvriyate vahnir yathādarśho malena cha
yatholbenāvṛito garbhas tathā tenedam āvṛitam
Then again,
Ch6, V33
Thus spoke Arjuna:
Frail being man, fail I see
Yoga Thou espouse, lasting in practice.
arjuna uvācha
yo ’yaṁ yogas tvayā proktafi sāmyena madhusūdana
etasyāhaṁ na paśhyāmi chañchalatvāt sthitiṁ sthirām
Ch6, V34
Can one ever tame his mind
Like the wind that yields to none?
chañchalaṁ hi manafi kṛiṣhṇa pramāthi balavad dṛiḍham
tasyāhaṁ nigrahaṁ manye vāyor iva su-duṣhkaram
Ch6, V35
Thus spoke the Lord:
Calm ’n custom bring in ropes
Tough ask though to subdue mind.
śhrī bhagavān uvācha
asanśhayaṁ mahā-bāho mano durnigrahaṁ chalam
abhyāsena tu kaunteya vairāgyeṇa cha gṛihyate
The Gita provides those ropes that the inane interpolations sap.
But yet in blissful ignorance, besides the one-sloka wonders are the silo-readers that pick a verse here and pluck another there from the interwoven text, of course from its translations, thereby gaining nothing in the process, save earning the membership of the Gita groups that now abound in the social media.
Even the earnest ones, who religiously go through the tome, come to naught for failing to apply their ‘faith-filled’ mind to its malcontent in it that begs for attention.
Besides these are the gullible seekers in their scores that take their self-styled guru’s interpretative word of Krishna’s word as the last word, and there is no dearth either of the supply-chain translators that churn out ‘Arjuna asked this and Krishna said that’ sort of stuff by recycling the imitative material in the book world. One may say that these are nearer to those Arjuna had in mind when he asked Krishna:
Ch6, v37
What if one
Throws up all
Lacks who zeal
Hath though faith?
ayatifi śhraddhayopeto yogāch chalita-mānasafi
aprāpya yoga-sansiddhiṁ kāṅ gatiṁ kṛiṣhṇa gachchhati
However, while the enterprising compartmentalize its interwoven philosophy of life into Gita for This and Gita for That kind of commercials for the marketplace, it is the gift of the gabs with their vacuous lectures that take the cake as gita-chāryās. Whatever it is, the Bard’s words - reputation is an idle and most false imposition, oft got without merit and lost without deserving – ring true on Gita’s universal stage, and if anything, the ostentation of many of these belies their tenuous grasp of its profound philosophy.
Needless to say, all these, who swear by the Gita, are no better off than those that unerringly keep away from it by mistakenly treating the inane interpolations as its innate philosophy. In what is an unparalleled irony, Vyāsā’s progeny mindlessly shun the mischievously tampered masterpiece of his! So, as the grandstanding by the thoughtless and the indignation of the mistaken constrain the Hindu polity on either bank of its interpolated waters, it is imperative for the left-castes to remove the rubbish from their ancestral stream that muddles the understanding of the right- backers no less.
But still the question remains; can any arrogate to himself the intellectuality to point fingers at the Gita ‘as it is’ that too after Adi Shankara the philosopher vouched for it in his bhashya and Aurobindo, Gandhi, Radhakrishnan et al endorsed it in their writings? Without any disregard for their immense intellect, the short answer is that ‘one puts up with what one grows up with’ and, so to say, they all dwelled on the ‘right’ bank in the times when caste was taken as a given. Why, don’t’ we have the anecdote of Adi Shankara in which he asked an untouchable to move farther away from him, only to realize later it was none other than Lord Shiva in disguise as a dalit; that should be that.
Now it’s over to the chapter-wise interpolative detail.]
Links to the free ebook https://g.co/kgs/wc6zDwA in the Sample PDF