Worldview Of The Bhagavad Gita

The author Stephen Mitchell reflects on a scripture titled “Bhagavad Gita”. This scripture is a new translation based on ancient Hinduism. Throughout the scripture, it explains the teachings that can be used in an everyday life situation. Its diverse audience can learn how to face different dilemmas, and how to live in this world with happiness and peace by doings ones’ duties. It also helps the audience understand the true purpose of life. For those who go through the encounters of life educating themselves with perfection, knowledge, and intelligence, they are considered God dearest devotees. Overall, the scripture assures that God will respond to his devotees with love. Its teachings focus on those who are suffering and

The quest towards developing the ideal human character is sought after in both the Bhagavad-Gita and Confucius’ The Analects. In the Bhagavad Gita, the concept of sacred duty is prevalent throughout the text, as the warrior-prince Arjuna faces a moral dilemma throughout the story. In Confucius’ The Analects, filial piety is a virtue which impacts an individual’s character in relation to the Confucian religion. Sacred duty within the Gita requires the protection of one’s dharma, which is defined as the religious and moral law that manages an individual’s actions. Within Confucian thought, filial piety is a virtue of respect for one’s elders, ancestors, and parents within a community. Despite the differences between the contextual meanings of developing the ideal human, both the Bhagavad Gita and The Analects utilize their teachings towards developing ideal human character within the themes of sacred duty and filial piety with the goal of establishing a set of communal ethics to be maintained through different caste systems, essentially protecting the existing social structure. To argue this claim, I will begin by analyzing the similar intentions of deviating from selfish actions and thoughts to develop ideal human character. I will then express how the nature of this character leads towards the development of one’s sacred duty and filial piety. I will then connect these two ideas to show how together they work to develop a communal set of ethics aimed at maintaining order

The paths help to explain that for one to evolve they should worship more, "Men who worship me, thinking solely of me, always disciplined, win the reward I secure" (Gita 9:20 p.58) and be following and doing your duties, "Look to your own duty do not tremble before it" (Gita 2:31 p.57). These two ways of fixing the problem are explained by Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita. Arjuna is set to fight in a battle but in the last minute he twirls around the idea of retreating because of the fear of dying and killing. He believes that the act of killing will be bad in karma. Krishna is outraged with this non-sense and makes it his duty to open Arjuna's eyes to see and realize that he has a duty and that it is to be a warrior and fight. Krishna argues that by not fulfilling his duty in reality will be what brings him the bad karma that he so truly fears. In the end, Arjuna can not back down into his fears because that would be like turning your back on the God. A Hindu must follow their duties, beliefs, and many rituals in order to reach their inner peace, to receive good karma and possibly a better ranking in the caste system and stages of life.

Hinduism fully shares the idea of the life cycle and re-incarnation, as all were essentially derived from the Brahman tradition. People should spend their life in search of unity with Brahman, following the teaching of Vedas and

Arjuna is faced with an internal dilemma during the Second Discourse of the Bhagavad Gita, and although the God Krishna seeks to help guide him towards an understanding of the meaning of his life, Arjuna is still wary of making the wrong decision. This decision concerns itself with either fighting in a civil war against family relatives, having to kill those Arjuna cares most about, or abandoning his dharma as a warrior and jeopardizing fulfilling his duty the greater Self that plays such a pivotal role in his people’s culture and beliefs. While advocating for the battle and fulfilling one’s dharma, Krishna utilizes the point that the Self – an overarching force in life – is a formless, eternal entity that cannot die and is more than the mere vessels that encompass the human beings across the battlefield. It is more important to the greater vitality of one’s existence to complete a duty to the Self rather than live with the temporary benefits of living in what may appear to be a more pleasurable life, but one with no fulfillment.

Hinduism is faced with a revolving wheel of life, death and rebirth called Samsara better known as reincarnation. They believe this life cycle is a direct relation to a person’s karma of deeds done. Karma “determines the kind of body, whether human, animal, or insect, into which he or she will be reincarnated in the next

Before I read Stephen Prothero’s God Is Not One, I did not know much about Hinduism. For me, Hinduism conjured the images of bright colors, richly adorned statues, and jovial worship and dance. When we visited the Ganesh Temple in Flushing, that is exactly what I saw. Yet, now I know the reason for all these things. Although Hinduism is a largely varying tradition, it is namely about love and celebration. Given the evidence from Prothero’s book and my observations at the Ganesh Temple, Hinduism is a tradition that aims to gives purpose to human’s wandering souls through devote worship to deities and rituals.

Another key concept of Hinduism is that every individual is responsible for his or her own solution. This idea is mainly connected with the terms Karma and Dharma. Karma is this principle where actions of an individual influence the future of that individual. Karma is what feeds samsara, or your rebirth. If you have karma, good or bad, that is unresolved when you die you will be reborn again. As said before, the main purpose of life on earth for Hindu’s is to break this cycle of time and receive moksha, so every individual is responsible for taking care of his or her own karma. Dharma works oppositely, as it only brings you closer moksha faster. Dharma is one’s duty or course of conduct. Following your dharma without any personal agenda will bring you closer to your purpose in life.

Different from other religions, Hinduism presses biology and the Divine are one (48, 51). This is expressed through the following and belief of Shiva and Shakti. Shiva, is an absolute cosmic being and the sheer life force. Shakti is the absolute power of the universe the whole of the cosmic their progeny (48). Hinduism has several variations that make this religion very complex to understand; to simplify this “way of life,” simply think Dharma; while it’s a broad term in Hinduism it is very important. Summed as the moral behavior of an individual and becomes known as, rita, when this behavior is in accordance with the cosmic order (49). By practicing dharma, one upholds the social order. In dharma, one is constantly reflecting and self-correcting in any areas of opportunity for improvement. So dharma can be viewed as the saying, you reap what you sow. This “leaping out” or “skimming to a different level,” leading us then to moksha, which is a final quest in the life path of Hinduism (49). According to the Laws of Manu, dharma and moksha, are just two of the four goals of life, listed here in order of

Contrarily, Hinduism has more similarities with a marathon. A long, grueling battle to achieve the ultimate goal of Moksha, and in this marathon, death is only a short rest. Some believe Moksha is for one's soul to finally identify with being one with Brahman and the ultimate plane of being. But some more theistically inclined believers say that Moksha is only achieving a higher state of being, one without God. In any case, the achieve Moksha, one must be released from Samsara. Samsara is the repeating cycle of birth, life, and death that every living being goes through. After a death, the soul is expelled from the body, leaving it to be reborn in a new body. What body a soul receives is decided during its own day of judgment. During this time, the soul's new life is decided by its Karmic value. Karma is the energy one gets from all its decisions and actions made in a life, whether it positive or negative. If the final Karmic value is

When it comes to the subject of love and desire, it would seem that The Symposium and The Bhagavad Gita disagree as to whether those qualities are beneficial to achieving spirituality or detrimental. In the Symposium, Plato states that desire is part of the pathway to achieving spirituality. By contrast, the unnamed author of the Bhagavad Gita seems to state that desire is an obstacle in the pathway to achieving divinity. Their perspectives can seen through their texts that connect of love to the divine, Plato’s way of reaching divinity and the way of reaching divinity that is mentioned in the Hindu scripture of The Bhagavad Gita. Through the readings of The Bhagavad Gita and The Symposium, it is clear that love and desire seems to be a asset to fulfilling one’s divinity rather than an obstacle.

The Question of meaning or purpose is answered in two opposing views. The Christian Worldview believes that "Christianity is about relationship with God and not simply following the tenants of a religion" (Weider & Gutierrez, 2011). While the Hinduism Worldview sees everything around us is an illusion, and that you have to have good karma to get out of the same lifecycle.

India gave birth to Hinduism which expanded quickly. This spiritual tradition focused on finding peace and eternal tranquility rather than temporary satisfaction from the worldly pleasures. In order to transmit the idea to other people and guide them through it, they came up with different writings to illustrate this. The Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads are popular writings that exemplify the beliefs and thoughts of Hinduism. The Bhagavad Gita addresses the question about how a person can be one with Brahman, the universal soul or god, while living in this world. This document is set as a dialogue between the warrior Arjuna and his guide and charioteer Krishna. Arjuna is being encouraged by Krishna to fulfill his duty as a warrior and part of the Kshatriyas, one of the higher divisions in the caste system. Arjuna has to enter this battle and fight in order to live up to his duty and consequently live free from attachments and walk in the path of finding himself as one with Brahman. On the other hand, the Upanishads guided all kinds of people regardless of

     Hinduism and Christianity are two religions that have been around for thousands of years. These religions have developed philosophies on certain subjects that can be compared in order to show their similarities and differences. Some of the main subjects that can be reflected upon are the paths to

According to Hinduism, at the most basic level, the purpose of life is to perform one’s social duty and live the exemplary life of the householder by marrying, having children, providing for them and observing the rituals required by the gods. Later, the Upanishads claimed