Copyright
Bhagvad-Gita: Treatise of Self-help
Sans 110 interpolations in contemporary verse
BS Murthy
ISBN 81-901911-0-1
Copyright © 2006 BS Murthy
Originally published by Self Imprint in 2003 and 2005
This improved E-book edition is of 2013
Cover design by E. Rohini Kumar
and the Krishna-Arjuna illustration by Gopi,
both from Hyderabad
Self Imprint
F-9, Nandini Mansion,
1-10-234, Ashok Nagar,
Hyderabad – 500 020
Other books by BS Murthy –
Benign Flame: Saga of Love
Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life
Crossing the Mirage – Passing through youth
Glaring Shadow - A stream of consciousness novel
Prey on the Prowl – A Crime Novel
Stories Varied – A Book of Short Stories
Onto the Stage - Slighted Souls and other stage and plays
Puppets of Faith: Theory of Communal Strife (Non-fiction)
Sundara Kãnda - Hanuman’s Odyssey (A translation in verse)
Blurb
Bhagavad-Gita is the most beautiful, perhaps the only true philosophical song existing in any known tongue’ – so opined William von Humboldt.
Though it is a matter of consensus that Bhagvad-Gita in the present length of seven hundred verses has many an interpolation to it, but no meaningful attempt has ever been made to delve into the nature and extent, not to speak of the effect of these on the Hindu society at large.
The moot point that has missed the attention of all, all along, is that if the Sudras were to be so lowly in the Lord’s creation, how come then the Gita’s architect Krishna, His avatar, and Vyāsa, its chronicler, happen to be from the same lowly Hindu caste fold. Moreover, is it not absurd to suggest that either or both of them had deprecated the station of their own varna (caste) on their own in their very own Gita?
The methodical codification of interpolations carried out here, for the first time ever, puts the true character of Gita in proper perspective. Identified here are hundred and ten slokas of deviant nature and or of partisan character, the source of so much misunderstanding about this book extraordinary, in certain sections of the Hindu fold.
Thus, in the long run, exposing and expunging these mischievous insertions is bound to bring in new readers from these quarters to this over two millennia old classic besides altering the misconceptions of the existing adherents.
In this modern rendition, the beauty of the Sanskrit slokas is reflected in the rhythmic flow of the English verses of poetic proportions even as the attendant philosophy of the song that is the Gita is captured in contemporary idiom for easy comprehension.
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Awe Unfounded
3. All about Interpolations
Chapters
1. Arjuna’s Dilemma
2. All about Life
3. Theory of Action
4. Practical Wisdom
5. Art of Renunciation
6. Practice of Restraint
7. Know the Spirit
8. Cycle of Creation
9. The Sacred Secret
10. Discern the Divine
11. Nature of Omnipresence
12. Doctrine of Faith
13. Field and Farmer
14. Proclivities to Know
15. Art of Liberation
16. Frailty of Thought
17. Science of Devotion
18. Thy Looking-glass
Dedicated to grandparents,
Paternal: Bulusu Thimmaiah -Lakshmi Narasamma,
Maternal: Challa Kameswara Rao - Suramma
And parents: Peraiah Sastry and Kamakshi,
In whose care my destiny so favourably placed me.
