BHAGAVAT GITA.......An interpretation

The nature of God

The Bhagavat Gita adopts the Upanishadic concept of Absolute Reality (Brahman), i.e; a shift from the earlier ritual-driven Vedic religion to one abstracting and internalizing spiritual experiences. The Gita builds on the Upanishadic Brahman theme, conceptualized to be that which everywhere, unaffected, is constant Absolute, indescribable and nirguna (abstract, without features). This Absolute in the Gita is neither a He nor a She, but a "neuter principle", an "It or That".

Chapter 11 of the Gita refers to Krishna as Vishvarupa (above). This is an idea found in the Rigveda.The Vishvarupa omniform has been interpreted as symbolism for Absolute Reality, God or Self that is in all creatures, everywhere, eternally.

Like some of the Upanishads, the Gita does not limit itself to the nirguna Brahman. It teaches both the abstract and the personalized Brahman (God), the latter in the form of Krishna.It accomplishes this synthesis by projecting the nirguna Brahman as higher than saguna or personalized Brahman, where the nirguna Brahman "exists when everything else does not".The text blurs any distinction between a personalized God and impersonal absolute reality by amalgamating the two and using the concepts interchangeably in later chapters. This theme has led scholars to call the Gita panentheistic, theistic as well as monistic.

The nature of Self

The Gita, states Fowler, "thoroughly accepts" atman as a foundational concept. In the Upanishads, this is the Brahmanical idea that all beings have a "permanent real self", the true essence, the Self it refers to as Atman (Self). In the Upanishads that preceded the Gita, such as the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the salvational goal is to know and realize this Self, a knowledge that is devoid of the delusions of the instinctive "I, mine" egoism typically connected with the body and material life processes that are impermanent and transient. The Gita accepts atman as the pure, unchanging, ultimate real essence.

The nature of the world

The Gita considers the world to be transient, all bodies and matter as impermanent. Everything that constitutes prakriti (nature, matter) is process driven and has a finite existence. It is born, grows, matures, decays, and dies. It considers this transient reality as Maya. Like the Upanishads, the Gita focuses on what it considers real in this world of change, impermanence, and finitude. To build its theological framework about the world, the text relies on the theories found in the Samkhya and Vedanta schools of Hinduism.

To conclude…According to Mahatma Gandhi, the object of the Gita is to show the way to attain self-realization, and this "can be achieved by selfless action, by desireless action; by renouncing fruits of action; by dedicating all activities to God, i.e., by surrendering oneself to Him, body and Self."