Bhagavad Gita and Its Message

by Sri Aurobindo, Anil Baran Roy

This translation and commentary also analyzes the causes of problems individual and collective, and how to achieve peace, unity and bliss.

Genres: Spirituality, Religion, Hinduism, Philosophy, Classics

325 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Sri Aurobindo (Bengali: শ্রী অরবিন্দ Sri Ôrobindo) was an Indian nationalist and freedom fighter, major Indian English poet, philosopher, and yogi. He joined the movement for India's freedom from British rule and for a duration (1905–10), became one of its most important leaders, before turning to developing his own vision and philosophy of human progress and spiritual evolution.

The central theme of Sri Aurobindo's vision is the evolution of life into a "life divine". In his own words: "Man is a transitional being. He is not final. The step from man to superman is the next approaching achievement in the earth evolution. It is inevitable because it is at once the intention of the inner spirit and the logic of Nature's process."

The principal writings of Sri Aurobindo include, in prose, The Life Divine, considered his single great work of metaphysics,The Synthesis of Yoga, Secrets of the Vedas, Essays on the Gita, The Human Cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity, Renaissance in India and other essays, Supramental Manifestation upon Earth, The Future Poetry, Thoughts and Aphorisms and several volumes of letters. In poetry, his principal work is Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol in blank verse.

Reviews

[Rama Rao · Rating 4 out of 5]

The wisdom of Sri Aurobindo

The essential message of BhagavadGita according to Sri Aurobindo is the evolutionary philosophy. His principle work, Life Divine differed from the traditional teachings of Hinduism. His message was that liberation from the cycle of life & death is not the essence of creative power, but it is through the operation of physical laws that govern matter and energy in spacetime. He asserts that the creation of advanced living beings is the work of super-mind that would create values such as love, harmony, unity and knowledge to find the divine truth. The Brahman described in Vedanta philosophy of BhagavadGita and Upanishads is that He has no attributes, but It is an entity that encompasses omniscience (infinite knowledge), omnipotence (unlimited power), omnipresence (present everywhere), Omni benevolence (perfect goodness), immutable, divine simplicity, and eternal existence. His qualities are personal and impersonal. Brahman is thought to exist in space-less and timeless dimensions in an unchanging reality amidst and beyond the realm of a universe. He is the Pure Consciousness, the Supreme Lord who can transcend all possible laws of physics, all dimensions and all physical realities in the multiverse. Aurobindo suggested that the physical reality we observe, and experience is manifested as empirical reality through His līlā, or Divine Play. He did not believe that physical reality is an illusion (Maya) as Vedanta philosophy proposed but argued that world with new advanced species understand reality. He reasoned that the evolutionary theory described the process but does not explain the wisdom of creating life. According to him, our existence is a manifestation of Brahman, which imbibed life into matter, and then into mind and consciousness. Thus, all existence and the evolutionary process is due to the power of the Pure Consciousness. This is a spiritual evolution which Aurobindo understood through the practice of yoga, meditation and wisdom of yoga philosophy.

In BhagavadGita, Lord Krishna makes a distinction between Samkhya and Yoga. In addition, His teachings also focus on Vedanta philosophy that is highly colored by the wisdom of the former two philosophical systems. According to Aurobindo, Samkhya and Yoga, taught in Gita are not two different philosophical systems but differ only in their methods and starting points. Samkhya is dualistic, but it is not the same as relative dualism, referred to as Dvaita Vedanta. Samkhya claims absolute duality, and the existence is attributed to two different principles interacting in the fundamentals of creation. The Purusha, the pure consciousness is immutable, immortal and self-luminous, and Prakriti is matter and energy that confers physical reality. Pure consciousness, the Purusha is beyond the boundaries of mater, energy and spacetime, that is It is beyond the realm of physics. But all the sufferings, the cycle of birth & death, ignorance, action and inaction, happiness, joy and sorrow are due to Prakriti, says Sri Aurobindo.

This book is very well written and reads flawlessly. Readers interested in Aurobindo’s interpretation of Gita find this work interesting. I did not take time compare Aurobindo’s English translation with other works but found some of his translations illuminating.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

WHEN I FISRT WAS INTRODUCED TO SRI AUROBINDO I WAS TOLD THAT HE HAD DONE A GREAT JOB EXPLAINING THIS SACRED BOOK OF THE INDU FAITH. I CAME TO UNDERSTAND BHAKTI OR DEVOTION TO THE DIVINE. AT LEAST I CAME TO UNDERSTAND HIS INTERPRETATION.

[Santosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

i have read many translations of the Bhagavad Gita and this one stands at the forefront for its clarity, and ability to communicate difficult concepts in a straightforward and easy to read manner. In addition to the translation, there is an excellent commentary taken from the larger work by Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita.

[Danny Sargeant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic spiritual text.

[Amruta Kulkarni · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am sure your interpretation of the great Bhagavad Geeta is good, but in my opinion a book like Bhagavad Geeta must be written in a simpler manner that initiates the reader's thought process and helps in connecting it to their lives. The book miserably fails in this contexts and hence fails to keep up the intrest of the reader.

[Srinivas Nidugondi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably the way the book has been presented the explanation was quite disjointed. there were no notes and the interpretation at the end was not too coherent and I was left wondering against which verse what was being told. The

[Saskia Carusi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deep message and analysis of the Gita, with philosophical inquiry

[Salvatore Familia]

The Bhagavad Gita, literally "The Song of God," is one of the most important spiritual and religious texts of the world, and is to Hindus what the Torah is to Jews, the Bible to Christians, and the Quran to Muslems. With text, translation, and Sri Aurobindo's commentary, this is probably the finest translation and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita that we have seen.