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^ "God" here denotes Krishna.[1]
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^ a b The Gita teaches that there are two selves within man--an individual self which may be identified with mind/ego/personality that is really the false or apparent self, and the supreme Self within the sheath of the individual self which is called Atman and is thus Brahman, the Supreme Self. The individual self is mutable and in a state of subjection. The supreme Self is changeless and persists throughout all the experiences of life and survives the crisis of death; it is free. This Self is not the soul in the popular Western sense, but is the Divine Lord. It is the core of inner calm where all tensions and fears cease. It is within every person.[112]
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^ a b the Self is the spectator who views the action of the empirical self. He is untouched by the experiences of the individual in which he dwells. He is in a real sense the core of inner calm, the Very Person within the mutable psychophysical self or personality. Man’s tragedy is his unawareness of this core of Reality--Self. There is some type of contact between this inner Self and the outer sheath of the thinking, feeling empirical self. When the absolute Self is in such contact it is called, as mentioned previously, jiva. Theos Bernard writes: "When a part of the Universal Breath becomes ensconced in the protoplasmic environment which it animates, it is called jiva." The body is the scene of this contact between the individual and the supreme Self. In fact some commentators interpret the scene between Arjuna and Krishna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra as a "timeless dialogue carried on in the recesses of every striving soul, the chariot being symbolic of the body of man (See Katha Upanishad 1.3.3.) The Gita thus would not disparage the physical body but would honor it as "a vehicle for the manifestation of the Eternal."[113]
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^ a b The Vedanta philosophy, as it is generally called at the present day, really comprises all the various sects that now exist in India. Thus there have been various interpretations, ...
The word Vedanta literally means the end of the Vedas — the Vedas being the scriptures of the Hindus. ... In general there are three sorts of commentators in India now; from their interpretations have arisen three systems of philosophy and sects. One is the dualistic, or Dvaita; a second is the qualified non-dualistic, or Vishishtâdvaita; and a third is the non-dualistic, or Advaita.[web 2]
Dvaitism — small circle different from the big circle, only connected by Bhakti; Vishishtadvaitism — small circle within big circle, motion regulated by the big circle; Advaitism — small circle expands and coincides with the big circle. In Advaitism "I" loses itself in God. God is here, God is there, God is "I".[web 3]
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^ The Bhagavad Gita also integrates theism and transcendentalism[web 1] or spiritualmonism,[11] and identifies a God of personal characteristics with the Brahman of the Vedic tradition.[web 1]
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^ According to the Indologist and Sanskrit literature scholar Moriz Winternitz, the founder of the early Buddhist Sautrāntika school named Kumaralata (1st century CE) mentions both Mahabharata and Ramayana, along with early Indian history on writing, art and painting, in his Kalpanamanditika text. Fragments of this early text have survived into the modern era.[26]
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^ The Indologist Étienne Lamotte used a similar analysis to conclude that the Gita in its current form likely underwent one redaction that occurred in the 3rd or 2nd century BCE.[28]
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^ This legend is depicted with Ganesha (Vinayaka) iconography in Hindu temples where he is shown with a broken right tusk and his right arm holds the broken tusk as if it was a stylus.[39][40]
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^ The debate about the relationship between the Gita and the Mahabharata is historic, in part the basis for chronologically placing the Gita and its authorship. The Indologist Franklin Edgerton was among the early scholars and a translator of the Gita who believed that the Gita was a later composition that was inserted into the epic, at a much later date, by a creative poet of great intellectual power intimately aware of emotional and spiritual aspects of human existence.[47] Edgerton's primary argument was that it makes no sense that two massive armies facing each other on a battlefield will wait for two individuals to have a lengthy dialogue. Further, he states that the Mahabharata has numerous such interpolations and inserting the Gita would not be unusual.[47] In contrast, the Indologist James Fitzgerald states, in a manner similar to van Buitenen, that the Bhagavad Gita is the centerpiece and essential to the ideological continuity in the Mahabharata, and the entire epic builds up to the fundamental dharma questions in the Gita. This text, states Fitzgerald, must have been integral to the earliest version of the epic.[48]
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^ According to Basham, passionately theistic verses are found, for example, in chapters 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14.1–6 with 14.29, 15, 18.54–78; while more philosophical verses with one or two verses where Krishna identifies himself as the highest god are found, for example, in chapters 2.38–72, 3, 5, 6, 8, 13 and 14.7–25, 16, 17 and 18.1–53. Further, states Basham, the verses that discuss Gita's "motiveless action" doctrine was probably authored by someone else and these constitute the most important ethical teaching of the text.[50]
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^ They state that the authors of the Bhagavad Gita must have seen the appeal of the soteriologies found in "the heterodox traditions of Buddhism and Jainism" as well as those found in " the orthodox Hindu traditions of Samkhya and Yoga". The Gita attempts to present a harmonious, universalist answer, state Deutsch and Dalvi.[9]
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^ This is called the doctrine of nishakama karma in Hinduism.[81][82]
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^ An alternate way to describe the poetic structure of Gita, according to Sargeant, is that it consists of "four lines of eight syllables each", similar to one found in Longfellow's Hiawatha.[104]
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^ In the epic Mahabharata, after Sanjaya—counsellor of the Kuru king Dhritarashtra—returns from the battlefield to announce the death of Bhishma, he begins recounting the details of the Mahabharata war. Bhagavad Gita is a part of this recollection.[107]
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^ Some editions include the Gita Dhyanam consisting of 9 verses. The Gita Dhyanam is not a part of the original Bhagavad Gita, but some modern era versions insert it as a prefix to the Gītā. The verses of the Gita Dhyanam (also called Gītā Dhyāna or Dhyāna Ślokas) offer salutations to a variety of sacred scriptures, figures, and entities, characterise the relationship of the Gītā to the Upanishads, and affirm the power of divine assistance.[117][118]
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^ This is the avatara concept found in the Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism.[4]
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^ For alternate worded translations, see Radhakrishnan,[136] Miller,[137] Sargeant,[138] Edgerton,[139] Flood & Martin,[140] and others.
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^ This contrasts with a few competing schools of Indian religions which denied the concept of Self.[185][186]
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^ Nikhilananda & Hocking 2006, p. 2 "Arjuna represents the individual Self, and Sri Krishna the Supreme Self dwelling in every heart. Arjuna's chariot is the body. The blind king Dhritarashtra is the mind under the spell of ignorance, and his hundred sons are man's numerous evil tendencies. The battle, a perennial one, is between the power of good and the power of evil. The warrior who listens to the advice of the Lord speaking from within will triumph in this battle and attain the Highest Good."
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^ Aurobindo writes, "... That is a view which the general character and the actual language of the epic does not justify and, if pressed, would turn the straightforward philosophical language of the Gita into a constant, laborious and somewhat puerile mystification ... the Gita is written in plain terms and professes to solve the great ethical and spiritual difficulties which the life of man raises, and it will not do to go behind this plain language and thought and wrest them to the service of our fancy. But there is this much of truth in the view that the setting of the doctrine, though not symbolical, is certainly typical.[242]
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^ Other parallelism include verse 10.21 of Gita replicating the structure of verse 1.2.5 of the Shatapatha Brahmana.[274]
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^ Sanskrit scholar Barbara Stoler Miller produced a translation in 1986 intended to emphasise the poem's influence and current context within English Literature, especially the works of T.S. Eliot, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.[284] The translation was praised by scholars as well as literary critics.[285][286] Similarly, the Hinduism scholar Jeaneane Fowler's translation and student text has been praised for its comprehensive introduction, quality of translation, and commentary.[287]
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^ Second edition in 1898
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^ Or Bhagavat-Gita, Edwin Arnold, reprinted by Dover Publications, New York, 1900
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^ Reprinted by Theosophical University Press, Los Angeles, California, 1967
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^ Reprinted by Theosophical Publishing House, Los Angeles, California, 1987
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^ Eventually published by Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, 1946.
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^ Reprint 1995
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^ Reprint 1974
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^ Only the first six chapters were translated
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^ Reprint 1996
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^ A trans-creation rather than translation
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^ Originally translated in 1933
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^ Implicitly targeted at children, or young adults
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^ Originally translated in 2005 and also based on Critical Edition by BORI
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^ Teachings of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a Gaudiya Vaishnava religious organisation which spread rapidly in North America in the 1970s and 1980s, are based on a translation of the Gita called Bhagavad-Gītā As It Is by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.[304] These teachings are also illustrated in the dioramas of Bhagavad-gita Museum in Los Angeles, California.[305]
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^ According to Edwin Bryant and Maria Ekstrand, this school incorporates and integrates aspects of "qualified monism, dualism, monistic dualism, and pure nondualism".[327]
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^ For B.G. Tilak and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as notable commentators see: Gambhirananda 1997, p. xix
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^ For notability of the commentaries by B.G. Tilak and Gandhi and their use to inspire the independence movement see: Sargeant 2009, p. xix
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^ Oppenheimer spoke these words in the television documentary The Decision to Drop the Bomb (1965).[377] Oppenheimer read the original text in Sanskrit, "kālo'smi lokakṣayakṛtpravṛddho lokānsamāhartumiha pravṛttaḥ" (XI,32), which he translated as "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds". In the literature, the quote usually appears in the form shatterer of worlds, because this was the form in which it first appeared in print, in Time magazine on 8 November 1948.[378] It later appeared in Robert Jungk's Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists (1958),[376] which was based on an interview with Oppenheimer. See Hijiya, The Gita of Robert Oppenheimer[379]
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^ This view in the Gita of the unity and equality in the essence of all individual beings as the hallmark of a spiritually liberated, wise person is also found in the classical and modern commentaries on Gita verses 5.18, 6.29, and others.[400][401] Scholars have contested Kosambi's criticism of the Gita based on its various sections on karma yoga, bhakti yoga and jnana yoga.[392]
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