Bhagavad Gita

[Turtle]

___I don't believe I ever have seen the Bhagavad Gita or any of the Vedas mentioned in any religious discussions here. I have to wonder why inasmuch as they predate the other major religious texts.

___Back in the 70's a Hare Krisna gave me a nice harbound copy of Bhagavad Gita As It Is. Good old Arjuna & Krisna really rocked it up I must say.

___Anyway, it seems the guys get short shrift. Discuss. ;)

[Erasmus00]

___I don't believe I ever have seen the Bhagavad Gita or any of the Vedas mentioned in any religious discussions here. I have to wonder why inasmuch as they predate the other major religious texts.

___Back in the 70's a Hare Krisna gave me a nice harbound copy of Bhagavad Gita As It Is. Good old Arjuna & Krisna really rocked it up I must say.

___Anyway, it seems the guys get short shrift. Discuss. ;)

 

I think its less known than the other major religious works, though I too have a copy given me by a Hare Krisna. I'm only a third of the way in, but thus far, it seems to me as if a movie I saw a few years ago, The Legend of Bagger Vance must have been based on this tale.

 

And I agree, they deffinately get the short shrift.

-Will

[Turtle]

___I'll keep my eye open for the movie. I have given over my copy to another library, however over the years I read it near a dozen times. Some of those reads I included the purports, & others not. I recommend it to everyone.

[Biochemist]

..it seems the guys get short shrift...

I think we ought to do our job to lengthen the shrift (whatever that is).

 

I think the issues that mitigate broader discission of the BV are that:

 

1) it is a minority religion (14% according to one chart here:http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html)

2) Hinduism is not known for prosletyzing, hence:

3) The fraction of Hindus is decreasing over time

4) Most Hindus are poor, hence they do not automatically have influence (versus, the Jews, by contrast) to broadcast their views

 

My two cents.

[Turtle]

___Shrift is an archaic form of shrive. which is the act of confession by a penitent & the absolution given. In the phrase "short shrift" it refers to the time given for confession to a condemmed prisoner.

___So you seem to say the substance of the text in regard to any truth is subjugated by economics. Very interesting.

___Maybe an informal poll here about how many have read the Gita or any of the Vedas?

[Skippy]

___I don't believe I ever have seen the Bhagavad Gita or any of the Vedas mentioned in any religious discussions here. I have to wonder why inasmuch as they predate the other major religious texts.

___Back in the 70's a Hare Krisna gave me a nice harbound copy of Bhagavad Gita As It Is. Good old Arjuna & Krisna really rocked it up I must say.

___Anyway, it seems the guys get short shrift. Discuss. :)

Never read it and don't think I ever will, not interested. BUT, in a comparative religion course years ago we had a group of Hare Krishnas come in and talk about their beliefs. Frankly it kind of struck me as a non-militaristic communism, like Marx envisioned. I suspect that their communes are more like what Orwell described in Animal Farm though, as they did talk about various heirarchical levels within their sect.

[bumab]

So you seem to say the substance of the text in regard to any truth is subjugated by economics. Very interesting.

 

Perhaps not the substance, but the influence in the world?

 

___Maybe an informal poll here about how many have read the Gita or any of the Vedas?

 

I've read it, and many of the vedas. Very interesting and informative.

[Turtle]

The truth is where you find it, & once you have found it in one place, it is still the same truth wherever you go. And when you go where you go & look around, if truth is there you recognize it. If you don't recognize it, it isn't there.

The holy texts of all cultures contain the descriptions of truths beheld. As there is at the base of 'All Truth', a single 'Truth', one has to wonder why these texts are so long. It is because seeing the truth - or knowing the truth if you will - is not the same as describing the truth.

The truth is available to everyone & they may know it without having others show it to them. We call this occurence the 'epiphany'. The child's self-relization 'hey, I can stand up', is just one such example of 'epiphany'.

Krisna is very patient in explaining to Arjuna how the truth works in order to force him to conclude he must fight.

 

:naughty:

[Turtle]

Never read it and don't think I ever will, not interested. BUT, in a comparative religion course years ago we had a group of Hare Krishnas come in and talk about their beliefs. Frankly it kind of struck me as a non-militaristic communism, like Marx envisioned. I suspect that their communes are more like what Orwell described in Animal Farm though, as they did talk about various heirarchical levels within their sect.

 

Now this is the heart of the problem. I engaged in a spirited discussion (to say the least) with a good friend on the topic of reading the Bhagavad Gita, & he took Skippy's attitude, ie. "I don't need to read it". Furthermore, the Hare Krisnas in my view do not at all reflect the heart or truth of the work. I say this because I read the work numerous times & found the Hare Krisnas interpretation lacking.

 

What kind of ground does one stand on who argues from ignorance?

 

 

:cup:

[sanctus]

Turtle, Ididn't read the bhagavad gita, but I read a book dealing very much with ....surprise... bible and the bhagavad gita. i don't know if it is translated but if anyone has read something like "new world order" by armin risi I would like to discuss it.

But anyway the bhagavad gita seemed to me one step further than the bible as all the passage he took out from the book didn't need a long interpretation.

But I can't really judge as I haven't read enough of both.

 

A part from that, I'm sure that economics plays role mainly in making a rligion known on the net in a forum.

[Turtle]

Turtle, Ididn't read the bhagavad gita, but I read a book dealing very much with ....surprise... bible and the bhagavad gita. i don't know if it is translated but if anyone has read something like "new world order" by armin risi I would like to discuss it.

But anyway the bhagavad gita seemed to me one step further than the bible as all the passage he took out from the book didn't need a long interpretation.

But I can't really judge as I haven't read enough of both.

 

A part from that, I'm sure that economics plays role mainly in making a rligion known on the net in a forum.

 

___Always nice zu spreche mit du Sanctus. :cup: Your new Diabolo photo in the Gallery is great!

___Glad to hear about a specific book that is extant of the comparative flavor. Even though I introduced the topic under Theology, my main motivation in reading these books is their age. Windows into the past for seeing the thinking of people. I hunt them for their math & logic & kernels of truth. When I read a wide variety of old works & find common threads, I know I have stumbled on some sort of Universal Truths.:cup:

[Racoon]

Haaare Krishna, Krishna Krishna,, ( sung to a tune:D )

I haven't read the Bhagavad Gita, but maybe it wouldn't hurt.

Sorry, but the image that comes to mind is the beginning of the comedy movie " Airplane ".

Besides, if they GIVE you a book for free, doesn't that say something about it?? :cup:

[Turtle]

Haaare Krishna, Krishna Krishna,, ( sung to a tune:D )

I haven't read the Bhagavad Gita, but maybe it wouldn't hurt.

Sorry, but the image that comes to mind is the beginning of the comedy movie " Airplane ".

Besides, if they GIVE you a book for free, doesn't that say something about it?? :cup:

 

___It says they think they know what the book says/means. If one doesn't read said book, one has no grounds for rooting out their mis-understanding.

___As I may have mentioned at the start of this thread, the copies of the Bhagavad Gita typically contain more text in the form of "purports" than the original work. These "purports" constitute additions over time of the interpretations of "masters' as to the meaning of the original. What makes the Bhagavad Gita worth reading is its age, ie. one of the oldest extant written works on Earth.

___Truth, like gold, is where you find it, not where someone says it is.

 

:cup:

[insight]

Never read it and don't think I ever will, not interested. BUT, in a comparative religion course years ago we had a group of Hare Krishnas come in and talk about their beliefs. Frankly it kind of struck me as a non-militaristic communism, like Marx envisioned. I suspect that their communes are more like what Orwell described in Animal Farm though, as they did talk about various heirarchical levels within their sect.

 

Do you know that Hinduism has used the word "Evolution", which can be found in Darwin's, more than 2000 years ago? Hinduism never claimed that nothing becomes something (different in God's theology).

 

Philosopher Baruch Spinoza(1632-1677) didn't believe that Creator and Created things are seperated in different worlds. Spinoza claimed to demonstrate both the necessary existence and the unitary nature of the unique, single substance that comprises all of reality. Spinoza preferred the designation "god or nature" as the most fitting name for this being, and he argued that the its infinite attributes account for every feature of the universe. In summary, Hindus believe their god is within nature.

Hindu belief = God or nature, God is within the nature.

Western belief = God and nature, God created the nature.

[UV-gap]

The only message the Bible gives us certainly is: “in the beginning was the word.” The rest is not very certain and so it might as well be fairy tales.

 

The only message the Bhagavad Gita gives us certainly is “there is no doer.” The rest is fairy tales.

 

Physics tells us that Universally the observer determines the observation which can only mean that physics, and thus life, is my hallucination, fiction. Again there is no doer.

 

Dreams tell me that there is no doer.

 

The use of meditation to study thoughts, the 5000 year old Supreme Science ( that gave us Advaita, and its Gita) tells me the exact same story: there is no doer.

 

All the different forms of fictions, like language, novels, computers, TV, movies, hypnosis, drugs, tell me that there is no doer.

So literally everything is trying to tell me that there is no doer. But my mind thinks its body is a doer.

[tarak]

Bhagavath gita is a chapter in the great epic of "MahaBharatha" and understood as a sermon from the almighty to mankind.

The basic tent is "Work incessantly,but donot get attached to the work you do"

[UV-gap]

The truth is where you find it,....

Krisna is very patient in explaining to Arjuna how the truth works in order to force him to conclude he must fight.

 

:lol:

 

 

but Krishna's message is: there is NO CHOICE.

 

There is no choice because it, choice, is just a thought. Life is also just a thought and thus illusion.... that is what "Maya" is all about.

Life is exactly like a dream, illusion... and thus all the freedom and choices we THINK we have is just illusion, the same illusion Mickey Mouse needs to appear real in the TV SET.