[Advaita-l] Gita and westerners comments

[Kripa Shankar]

Glad to help _/\_

Regards 
‎Kripa 
---‎

Vyasaya Vishnu roopaya Vyasa roopaya Vishnave 
Namo vai Brahma nidhaye Vasishtaya namo namaha 
  Original Message  
From: Sanju Nath
Sent: Wednesday 30 November 2016 3:56 AM
To: Kripa Shankar; A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Gita and westerners comments

Namaste Kripa Shankar,

Very nice quotes - will try to get that book.  Appreciate the reference.

Dhanayvaad,
Sanju

On Tue, Nov 29, 2016 at 3:41 PM, Kripa Shankar via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
‎Namaste, 

Gita occurs in the Mahabharata. So it's best to go to the source, that is the Mahabharata to clear your doubts. Fate is supremely powerful, so much so that cowards sometime become victorious and the brave ones become cheerless. Similarly fools, liars and robbers interpret the scriptures! 

Ahimsa in the Vedas is not like the Buddhist one, where the monk vehemently opposes the Vedic sacrifices on the pretext of himsa, during the day and happily e‎ats meat during the night. The Buddhist justifies it by declaring that he had closed his eyes when the meat was being grilled. 

A person who acts in such a way that causes harm should be restrained in the same manner and that is not himsa. If an innocent person who causes no harm is injured, that is violence. If a person cannot safeguard his property / family, then that is impotence not Ahimsa. If we are indeed that stupid to believe in some random 'scholar's' opinions, we will have to oppose the idea of armed forces depending upon which a society thrives. 

I suggest you read the Mahabharata translated to English by Kisari Mohan Ganguly. That is the only authentic version available. It's a humongous book. It is not dry philosophical mumbo jumbo. It is narrated from the vantage of sense-controlled sages. 

Quoting from the Mahabharata - 

Vasudeva said, 'Diverse words, worthy of being accepted and fraught with reasons, were said both by myself and the Rishis, but Duryodhana accepted them not. As regards Suyodhana and his followers, their hour is come. With thy leave now, I shall speedily repair unto the Pandavas. What should I say unto the Pandavas as thy instructions to them? Tell me that, O thou endued with great wisdom. I desire to hear thy words.'‎

"Kunti said, 'O Keshava, say unto king Yudhishthira of virtuous soul these words, 'Thy virtue, O son, is decreasing greatly. Do not act vainly. O king, like a reader of the Vedas incapable of catching their real meaning, and, therefore, truly unlearned. Thy understanding, affected by only the words of the Vedas, vieweth virtue alone. Cast thy eyes on the duties of thy own order, as ordained by the Self-create. For all ruthless deeds and for the protection of the people, from his (Brahmana's) arms was created the Kshatriya, who is to depend upon the prowess of his own arms. .......'. ‎

Regards
Kripa

---‎
‎Vyasaya Vishnu roopaya Vyasa roopaya Vishnave 
Namo vai Brahma nidhaye Vasishtaya namo namaha 

  Original Message  
From: Dinesh Patel MD via Advaita-l
Sent: Tuesday 29 November 2016 10:11 PM
To: Praveen R. Bhat
Reply To: Dinesh Patel MD
Cc: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Gita and westerners comments

Thank you Praveenji and others
The translation from Sanskrit and the translator are not giving true justice to what Lord Krishna explains to grief stricken Arjun
Can I request you and others in terms of recommendations of books on
Gita
Different authors
English
Or series of discussions on each chapter
Thank you again
Dinesh

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 29, 2016, at 6:25 PM, Praveen R. Bhat <bhatpraveen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Namaste Dineshji,
>
> Since the Professor taught Sanskrit at many Universities, including BHU, maybe he was linguistic scholar, but sorry to say, thats all he was. I know English very well, but I hardly have any say over all books written in English. Being a linguistic scholar, his opinion in scriptural works, where he has no expertise, is irrelevant. This is precisely why it is said that even if a scholar, one should not study the scriptures on his own. It will appear contradictory and one could lose whatever little shraddhA one has.
>
> People may say that Bhagavan made Arjuna fight a war which Arjuna himself was unwilling to fight, especially where in the former says: "fight" in 2.18. This seems like an order to them, because they read some translation or Sanskrit grammar which may say its a vidhi. However, it is not, as Bhashyakara explains. Bhagavan is just removing the obstacle in the form wrong thinking to Arjuna's dharma as a kShatriya. Gita is a mokShashAstra and any shloka has to be understood in the context. Giving up one's dharma is not conducive to spiritual growth. The sampradAya, teaching tradition, exists for this very reason as to teach the person willing and fit to learn.
>
> Moreover, what kind of dharma would there have been if Kauravas had ruled, instead of Pandus?! The war was also the greater good *in the long run*. That is why Mahabharata is called a dhArmika war and was dharmakArya for Arjuna. That said, the the Prof has it all wrong as is clear from his statement "The Gita is hampered by the fact that it is supposed to justify Arjuna's preparation in war... and the author seems to have it in the back of his head a large part of the time", which makes one wonder if the Prof read Bhagavan's final address to Arjuna in 18.63 so: "yathA ichChasi tathA kuru", since being a Sanskrit scholar, he couldn't have not understood it! :)
>
> shrIkRShNArpaNamastu,
> --Praveen R. Bhat
> /* Through what should one know That owing to which all this is known! [Br.Up. 4.5.15] */
>
>> On Mon, Nov 28, 2016 at 9:25 AM, Dinesh Patel MD via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> Franklin Edgerton - (July 24, 1885 – December 7, 1963) was an American linguistic scholar. He was Salisbury Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at Yale University (1926) and at Benares Hindu University (1953–4). Between 1913 and 1926, he was the Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Pennsylvania. published as volume 38-39 of the Harvard Oriental Series in 1944.
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