And I'm impressed. It is a fantastic read. One of the most interesting and poetically beautiful religious texts I've ever read in my life. I found the Upanishads more interesting and intellectually stimulating but the Gita was far more cohesive and much more poetic (even in English, Easwaran definitely captures the power of the original Sanskrit even if it isn't in Gayatri).

A basic summary of the Gita is Arjuna and his charioteer Krishna (an incarnation of Vishnu, the ultimate Godhead) are on the battlefield of Kurukshetra in Northern India, fighting over the right of the Kuru throne. As Arjuna surveys the battlefield he realizes that his enemies are his brothers, uncles and grandfathers, all his direct family members and he decides that he cannot fight this battle because he cannot kill his own kin.

Krishna throughout the Gita attempts to convince Arjuna that it is his duty (dharma) as a Kshatriya (warrior) to fight his enemies and uphold what is good for the kingdom. The majority of the Gita surrounds Krishna's methods he uses to convince Arjuna to follow the path of yoga (bhakti and jnana) which helps him realize the ultimate Self (Brahman) that exists in everything.

~~~

There was only a single part that I found both odd and quite out of place.

Chapter 16 Verse 7-16:

Krishna is describing the "demonic" (asuras)

"The demonic do things they should avoid and
avoid the things they should do. They have
no sense of uprightness, purity, or truth.

'There is no God,' they say, 'no truth, no spiritual
law, no moral order. The basis of life is sex; what else
can it be?' Holding such distorted views, possessing
scant discrimination, they become enemies of
the world, causing suffering and destruction.

Hypocritical, proud, and arrogant, living in
delusion and clinging to deluded ideas, insatiable
in their desires, they pursue their unclean ends.
Although burdened with fears that end only with
death, they still maintain with complete assurance,
Gratification of lust is the highest that life can offer.'

Bound on all sides by scheming and anxiety, driven
by anger and greed, they amass by any means they can
a hoard of money for the satisfaction of their cravings.

'I got this today,' they say; tomorrow I shall get that.
This wealth is mine, and that will be mnine too. I have
destroyed my enemies. I shall destroy others too! Am
I not like God? I enjoy what I want. I am successful.
I am powerful. I am happy. I am rich and well-born.
Who is equal to me? I will preform sacrifices and give
gifts, and rejoice in my own generosity.' This is how
they go on, deluded by ignorance. Bound by their
greed and entangled in a web of delusion, whirled
about by a fragment mind, they fall into a dark hell."

~

The way it generalizes the Godless is very unlike the rest of the Gita. It makes it seem, despite other ideas within the Gita, that if you do not seek God (or Krishna in this case) that you must be immoral and self-important. This really strikes me, not only because I am an atheist (who is not only selfless, but does not do things for a reward), but for the major fact that the rest of the Gita just doesn't share this kind of idea. I even remember passages talking about how those who devote themselves to something good, even if not seeking the Self (Brahman) or Krishna, will end up furthering their atman's evolution towards the ultimate goal.

Anyways, that's my two cents on the Gita. I could give my 10 dollars but I don't feel like writing a 10-15 page essay. I just got the Mahabharata (the epic that contains the Gita) in the mail today, but even as an abridged text, it is 800 pages long and I don't feel like digging into that yet. The next book I've decided to read is Eknath Easwaran's translation of the Dhammapada, the central text of Theravada Buddhism (which is very much based on the Upanishads). I got his "trilogy" together and since I've finished 2 of the 3, I though that I might as well read the whole thing. Its really short but has a 90-page introduction, which I am very looking forward to reading.

And I guess that's that for now. I still hope everyone is having a great summer. Cheers.