Interpreting the Gita

[Bhadraiah Mallampalli]

>Arun Gupta wrote..
>If a Doniger or Kosambi has not done the equivalent, their >pronouncements
>on the meaning of the Gita are not of value to any >serious student.

It may be a tyranny to define requirements such as meditation on academic
work. It is possible, but not easy to say any view is right or wrong,
especially with a book having so many apparently contradicting views. I do
agree that meditation can find the inner unity in the book, but it is so
slippery even an expert can skid somewhere or other. My intention was not to
disprove or disapprove Wendy or Kosambi or any one else. I just want to
check if people are consistent with their own stated intentions; and if any
texts are overlooked.

gIta is not for winning. Within Hindu society if every body follows it who
should win? It is a survival guide to find "something that works". That is
the reason why every Hindu finds oneself at least in some corner, even if
one does not find one's own self (hope you got the pun).

As for Krishna's war tactics, I thought the rules were already broken when
Bhishma started killing 10,000 soldiers a day because a mahArathi can only
fight with a mahArathi. Can someone clarify? Krishna only matched a broken
rule with another.

As for India's (gIta based) history after Krishna (but after Sankara):
whether they won any village..

Hindus hadn't learnt anything from gIta at least not until this century how
to match an Amalekite massacre which had been the template of the foreign
invaders.  Even SivAji did not try to match the methods. Now Hindus know
ofcourse - it is called the communal riot.

Gandhi knew that British were not barbaric. He understood the British legal
system. So he brought out ahimsa and satyAgraha from gIta as weapons to win
back independence. I would say Gandhi was a near success, but wasn't quick
enough to change his tactics and allowed a Nehru to monopolize the system.
Vajpayee's handling of Kargil was in the spirit of a sthitaprajJa.

But having said all this, students do get a cue from a professor how to
getter better grades or jobs.

Best,
Regards
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