Exposition of the Gita

THE UNIVERSAL MESSAGE OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA Vol. I: Swami Ranganathananda; Advaita Asram, 5, Delhi Entally Road, Calcutta- 700014. Rs. 120.

THE AUTHOR is currently the president of the Ramakrishna Mission, whose beneficent activities all over the world have won deserved renown. Among the most beneficent and significant aspects of the Mission's world-wide activity is the exposition, especially to the West, indeed in all countries, of the saving message of Vedanta. Swami Vivekananda, the great and inexpressibly farsighted founder of the Mission, began this world-wide activity with his thrilling exposition of the message of Vedanta in his famous address to the World Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893.

Swami Vivekananda had a mind of astonishing power and intensity. His presentation of Vedanta was a modern presentation, the work of a truly modern mind which recognised the need for inter- religious dialogue on a world-wide scale. The universality of all religions regarded as parallel approaches and as a common quest for Reality is a Reality which has meaning and significance only in terms of the universal spirit which dwells in every human being. This was the message of his master Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

The great example, set by Swami Vivekananda, has been followed by a band of learned ascetics pledged to the propagation of Vedanta and among them, the foremost is Swami Ranganathananda. A most gifted and most tireless expositor of the message of Vedanta, he brings to his exposition a mind of strong modernity and power, a mind stacked with relevant knowledge in a variety of relevant fields. The Vedanta emphasises as no other philosophic or religious doctrine has done, the essential validity and vital significance to human life of its spiritual teaching. It is the unique quality of this teaching that it has an adaptive vitality, imparting its age-old and universal message to mankind to live beyond the world of phenomena, to live in terms of the spirit and to regard the knowledge of one's own self as the urgent and immediate need of all mankind. Swami Ranganathananda brings out in all his writings this unique message of Vedanta, its emphasis on the spirit and its unique relevance to problems facing mankind, throughout the ages.

In the book under review Swami Ranganathananda bases his exposition of the teaching of the Gita on the great, the superb, the transcendent masterpiece of a commentary of the great master - Adi Sankara. While differing from other commentaries previous to his, Sankara identifies two strands of dharma - Pravritti and Nivritti and the Gita covers both. Arjuna's attempt to adopt Nivritti dharma was grossly improper as he was a Kshatriya, enjoined to fight battles and seek victory for his side. The legitimacy of war as an instrument of national policy was denounced in a famous Kellogg-Brian peace pact of the early 1930s. The question nevertheless may be raised whether Lord Krishna should not have welcomed Arjuna's shirking from war in wholly unaffected horror at its manifold consequences. War is a greater evil than any it seeks to tackle. Sir Norman Angell, in a classic account of the nature and consequences of war in his book, The Great Illusion denied that war solved any problem at all. Dharmayuddha is a contradiction in terms. But Lord Krishna preaches the Dharma of his age and the Dharma of a Kshatriya to Arjuna and the latter affirms that the Lord had convinced him of the grave error of his initial despondency and disinclination for war. The Lord, as the Swamiji points out, prescribes war as the duty of the warrior caste. Today the caste system is not merely a gross anomaly but a perverse parody of what Lord Krishna intended. Birth-based caste is a total abomination though politicians exploit it for ever-increasing privileges and perquisites for the so-called backward classes. Thereby they perpetuate and strengthen the caste system in a topsy-turvy fashion.

Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak interpreted the teaching of the Lord as sanctifying war and rebellion against oppression and injustice. But the Lord Himself says that if one abandoned all the so-called Varna and Asram Dharmas and concentrated only on Brahma, the Ultimate Reality, the achievement of Brahmagnanam and the liberation from ``samsara'' would be assured. The author draws on his vast reading - his uniquely vast and varied experiences of men and affairs in his exposition of the Gita's message and the touch of modernity in his exposition, unmistakable and unerring.

We look forward to the Swamiji's interpretation of the remaining 14 chapters of the Gita. It has to be noted that the Swamiji in his edition of the text of his lectures at Hyderabad, has exerted himself rather strenuously. Odd mistakes of no great importance in themselves surface now and then. Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam occurs in the Anusasana Parva of the Mahabharata and not in Bhishma Parva as stated in the book. The title of Bertrand Russell's book is The Conquest of Happiness, not the Kingdom of Happiness.

S. R.

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