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The Bhagavad Gita (; Sanskrit: भगवद्गीता, romanized: bhagavad-gītā, lit. '"God's Song"'), often referred to as the Gita (IAST: gītā), is a 700-verse Hindu scripture, which is part of the epic Mahabharata. The text is dated to the second half of the first millennium BCE, and is one of the most prominent ancient Hindu texts. While Hinduism includes several denominations, the Gita holds a unique pan-Hindu influence as a sacred text. The Gita presents a summarization of key Hindu concepts of self (Atman) and the supreme self (Brahman), while also synthesizing the ideas of moral duties (Dharma), action (Karma), devotion (Bhakti), and spiritual liberation (Moksha). The Bhagavad Gita is set in a narrative framework of dialogue between the Pandava prince Arjuna and his charioteer guide Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu. At the start of the Kurukshetra War between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, Arjuna despairs thinking about the violence and death the war will cause in the battle against his kin and becomes emotionally preoccupied with a dilemma. Wondering if he should renounce the war, Arjuna seeks the counsel of Krishna, whose answers and discourse constitute the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna counsels Arjuna to "fulfil his Kshatriya (warrior) duty" for the upholding of dharma. The Krishna–Arjuna dialogue covers a broad range of spiritual topics, touching upon moral and ethical dilemmas, and philosophical issues that go far beyond the war that Arjuna faces. The setting of the text in a battlefield has been interpreted as an allegory for the struggles of human life. Summarizing the Upanishadic conceptions of God, the Gita posits the existence of an individual self (Atman) and the supreme self (Brahman) within each being. The dialogue between the prince and his charioteer has been interpreted as a metaphor for an immortal dialogue between the human self and God. Commentators of Vedanta read varying notions in the Bhagavad Gita about the relationship between the Atman (individual Self) and Brahman (supreme Self); Advaita Vedanta affirms on the non-dualism of Atman and Brahman, Vishishtadvaita asserts qualified non-dualism with Atman and Brahman being related but different in certain aspects, while Dvaita Vedanta declares the complete duality of Atman and Brahman. The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most revered Hindu scriptures, and per Hindu mythology, it was written by the god Ganesha, as told to him by the sage Veda Vyasa. It forms the chapters 23–40 of book 6 of the Mahabharata called the Bhishma Parva. The text covers Jñāna, Bhakti, Karma, and Rāja yogas, while incorporating ideas from the Samkhya-Yoga philosophy. The Bhagawad Gita is a central text in the Vaishnava Hindu tradition, and is part of the prasthanatrayi. Numerous commentaries have been written on the Bhagavad Gita with differing views on its essence and essentials. It has been noted that if there is any one text that comes near to embodying the totality of Hindu thought, it is the Bhagavad Gita. Etymology The gita in the title of the Bhagavad Gita literally means "song". Religious leaders and scholars interpret the word Bhagavad in a number of ways. Accordingly, the title has been interpreted as, "the song of God"; "the word of God" by the theistic schools, "the words of the Lord", "the Divine Song", and "Celestial Song" by others. In India, its Sanskrit name is often written as Shrimad Bhagavad Gita or Shrimad Bhagavadgita (श्रीमद् भगवद् गीता or भगवद्गीता) where the Shrimad prefix is used to denote a high degree of respect. The Bhagavad Gita is not to be confused with the Bhagavata Puran, which is one of the eighteen major Puranas dealing with the life of the Hindu God Krishna and various avatars of Vishnu. The work is also known as the Iswara Gita, the Ananta Gita, the Hari Gita, the Vyasa Gita, or the Gita. Date and authorship Date Theories on the date of the composition of the Gita vary considerably. Some scholars accept dates from the 5th century BCE to the 2nd century BCE as the probable range, the latter likely. The Hinduism scholar Jeaneane Fowler, in her commentary on the Gita, considers second century BCE to be the probable date of composition. J. A. B. van Buitenen also states that the Gita was likely composed about 200 BCE. According to the Indologist Arvind Sharma, the Gita is generally accepted to be a 2nd-century-BCE text. Kashi Nath Upadhyaya, in contrast, dates it a bit earlier. He states that the Gita was always a part of the Mahabharata, and dating the latter suffices in dating the Gita. On the basis of the estimated dates of Mahabharata as evidenced by exact quotes of it in the Buddhist literature by Asvaghosa (c. 100 CE), Upadhyaya states that the Mahabharata, and therefore the Gita, must have been well known by then for a Buddhist to be quoting it. This suggests a terminus ante quem (latest date) of the Gita to be sometime prior to the 1st century CE. He cites similar quotes in the dharmasutra texts, the Brahma sutras, and other literature to conclude that the Bhagavad Gita was composed in the fifth or fourth century BCE. According to Arthur Basham, the context of the Bhagavad Gita suggests that it was composed in an era when the ethics of war were being questioned and renunciation to monastic life was becoming popular. Such an era emerged after the rise of Buddhism and Jainism in the 5th century BCE, and particularly after the semi-legendary life of Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE. Thus, the first version of the Bhagavad Gita may have been composed in or after the 3rd century BCE. Winthrop Sargeant linguistically categorizes the Bhagavad Gita as Epic-Puranic Sanskrit, a language that succeeds Vedic Sanskrit and precedes classical Sanskrit. The text has occasional pre-classical elements of the Vedic Sanskrit language, such as aorists and the prohibitive mā instead of the expected na (not) of classical Sanskrit. This suggests that the text was composed after the Pāṇini era, but before the long compounds of classical Sanskrit became the norm. This would date the text as transmitted by the oral tradition to the later centuries of the 1st-millennium BCE, and the first written version probably to the 2nd or 3rd century CE. According to Jeaneane Fowler, "the dating of the Gita varies considerably" and depends in part on whether one accepts it to be a part of the early versions of the Mahabharata, or a text that was inserted into the epic at a later date. The earliest "surviving" components therefore are believed to be no older than the earliest "external" references we have to the Mahabharata epic. The Mahabharata – the world's longest poem – is itself a text that was likely written and compiled over several hundred years, one dated between "400 BCE or little earlier, and 2nd century CE, though some claim a few parts can be put as late as 400 CE", states Fowler. The dating of the Gita is thus dependent on the uncertain dating of the Mahabharata. The actual dates of composition of the Gita remain unreso.... Discover the Mahatma Gandhi Thomas Merton popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Mahatma Gandhi Thomas Merton books.