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Summary Of The Bhagavad Gita

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The Bhagavad Gita, which means the song of the lord, is a part of the Mahabharata. It is a story about the discourse between Arjuna, a prince, and Lord Krishna, who is “an incarnation of the highest of all divinity, creator of the entire universe.” In the book, Arjuna is confused about his duty, dharma, to the law of an elite warrior and kinship. It is Krishna who helps guide and encourage Arjuna to follow his true path, svadharma. The book discusses three broad ways to live: devotion to god (bhakti), karma, and jnana yoga which is practice and discipline. The Bhagavad Gita adapts and reformulates many ideas of soul, karma, and ritual from Vedic sacrifice, the Upanishads, and Buddhism. These three concepts are the major themes and are all interrelated with one another.
The Bhagavad Gita adopts and adapts the concept of karma from Buddhism, the Upanishads and Vedic sacrifice. The concept of karma means action. In Vedic sacrifice and the Upanishads, karma is associated with a ritual action. It was believed that by having rituals being performed by saints on their behalf, one could improve the quality of their rebirth in the next life. The sacrificer would “ask the gods for strength, wealth, children, and immortality.” In the Upanishads, karma is also associated to the ideas of atman, self-soul, and brahman, soul. The purpose of jnana yoga is to achieve the Upanishads core teachings of the equivalence of the atman and the brahman. The Buddha changed the concept of “karma

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