Tuesday, March 11th, 2014...8:44 pm
The Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita is like the Hindu bible. It shows the conversation between Arjuna the warrior and his charioteer, the God Krishna. Before the war starts it shows the two families called the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Both of these families though belong to the Bharata family and essentially these two families are cousins. But as time goes on these two families drift apart and end up going to war. And the protagonist Arjuna is faced with a decision on whether he should attack the Kauravas or not. Arjuna looks to Krishna for help or advice on what he should do. This is when Krishna begins to tell Arjuna of the three different paths. The first is Karmamarga which is the path of action. The second is Jñanamarga which is the path of knowledge. And the third is Bhaktimarga which is the path of devotion.
In K. N. Upadhyaya article The Bhagavad Gita on War and Peace, he raises the question whether the Gita enjoins violent or nonviolent means. He then goes on to talk about the three spiritual paths and finally comes to his conclusion.
Discussion Question: Out of the path of knowledge, path of action, or path of devotion. Which do you think is the most important path? Why?
4 Comments
March 11th, 2014 at 8:51 pm
The Bhagavad Gītā on War and Peace
K. N. Upadhyaya
Philosophy East and West , Vol. 19, No. 2, On Violence and Nonviolence East and West (Apr., 1969) , pp. 159-169
March 11th, 2014 at 10:23 pm
These question is very well raised. The book just explains what the paths are but it doesn’t have any hierarchy or place them in order of importance. In my opinion the most important is the knowledge path. After you gain the knowledge than you are conscious and objective on your actions and in your devotion. Another think i wanted to add about this book, beside the fact that is very complex for me since I don’t have any information about hinduism and the language used here, is that this book reminds me of Hamlet and the decision he has to make on his uncle.
March 11th, 2014 at 10:24 pm
Arsi Agolli
(I forgot to sign before)
March 16th, 2014 at 9:00 pm
I believe that devotion is most important because if people believe in god and praying, it can lift them to prosperity and lead them along the right path. If you think about a world without god, a lot of people would lose hope and their spirits would break. The thought of god gives a person to do right and if they have nothing at least they have hope.