Bhagavad-gita ‘as it is’

Bhagavad-Gita is the crown jewel of India’s spiritual wisdom, spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna. It is both authoritative and confidential. The Bhagavad-Gita answers very clearly the most pressing questions of human life, about harmony in society and the environment, and about human beings relationship with God. Here are some of the questions and their answers:

The  Question: What are birth and death?

Answer of the Gita: “As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones. “(Bg 2.22)

Bhagavad-Gita is the crown jewel of India’s spiritual wisdom, spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna. It is both authoritative and confidential. The Bhagavad-Gita answers very clearly the most pressing questions of human life, about harmony in society and the environment, and about human beings relationship with God. Here are some of the questions and their answers:

Question: Who am I?

Answer of the Gita: “The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.” (Bg 15.7)

Question: Who is God?

Answer of the Gita: “Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all-pervading beauty. All the great sages such as Nārada, Asita, Devala, and Vyāsa proclaim this of You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.” (Bg 10.12-13)

Question: Where is God?

Answer of the Gita: “I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas. ” (Bg 15.15)

Question: How does one attain God?

Answer of the Gita: “Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, offer obeisances and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me. ” (Bg. 9.34)

Question: How can one control the mind and senses?

Answer of the Gita: “The Blessed Lord said: O mighty-armed son of Kuntī, it is undoubtedly very difficult to curb the restless mind, but it is possible by constant practice and by detachment. ” (Bg. 6.35)

Question: How can peace and happiness be attained?

Answer of the Gita: “The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries.” (Bg. 5.29)

Question: What is sin and what are its consequences?

Answer of the Gita: “My dear Arjuna, a man who does not follow this prescribed Vedic system of sacrifice certainly leads a life of sin, for a person delighting only in the senses lives in vain. ” (Bg. 3.16)

Question: What is a guru and how should one approach him?

Answer of the Gita: “Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth. ” (Bg. 4.34)

Question: Who is our greatest enemy?

Answer of the Gita: “The Blessed Lord said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material modes of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring, sinful enemy of this world. ” (Bg. 3.37)

Question: Why do happiness and suffering constantly alternate in this world?

Answer of the Gita: “The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species.” (Bg. 13.22)

Question: What is the purpose of chanting God’s holy names?

Answer of the Gita: “Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.” (Bg. 9.14)

Question: What is yoga?

Answer of the Gita: “Be steadfast in yoga, O Arjuna. Perform your duty and abandon all attachment to success or failure. Such evenness of mind is called yoga.” (Bg. 2.48)

Question: How can we reawaken our God-consciousness?

Answer from the Gita: “Being freed from attachment, fear and anger, being fully absorbed in Me and taking refuge in Me, many, many persons in the past became purifled by knowledge of Me—and thus they all attained transcendental love for Me.” (Bg. 4.10)

Question: What is the secret of all secrets?

Answer of the Gita: “This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.” (Bg. 9.2)

Question: What does Sri Krishna recommend?

Answer from the Gita: “Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.” (Bg. 18.66)

And last but not least: Why is this edition of Bhagavad-gita “As It Is”?

Bhagavad-gita As It Is, is the name of the Bhagavad-gita presented by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder and acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

Time and again, translators have neglected the personality of Krishna when translating the Bhagavad-gita into German because they wanted to make room for their own ideas and philosophies. The story of the Mahabharata is dismissed as whimsical mythology and Krishna becomes a poetic tool to portray the ideas of an anonymous genius, or at best He becomes an insignificant historical figure.

However, if one sticks to the text of this book, the person of Krishna is both the goal and the content of the Bhagavad-gita.

Lord Sri Krishna says, “I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas. ” (BG 15.15)

“Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both its origin and dissolution.” (BG7.6)

“O conquerer of wealth [Arjuna], there is no Truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.” (BG 7.7)

“Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.“(BG 18.66)

“Always think of Me and become My devotee. Worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.” (BG 18.65)

The Bhagavad-gita As It Is aims to lead the reader towards Krishna, and not away from Him. In this respect, the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, is unique. What is also unique is that the Bhagavad Gita is completely consistent and understandable in this way. Since Krishna is the speaker of the Gita and also its ultimate goal, the Bhagavad-gita As it Is presents this great scripture in its true statements and fulfills the original intent of the Bhagavad-gita, namely, to liberate humanity from the ignorance of material existence.

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