The Gita according to MAHATMA GANDHI : 1.1. : Mahadev Desai
09/03/2019
The Gita according to MAHATMA GANDHI :
1.THE FUNDAMENTALS-1.
We shall now turn to a study of that Wisdom and that Art as revealed in the Gita.
Perhaps the best way to do so is to present a brief interpretative analysis of the various discourses. But before we start with the analysis, it would not be out of place to indicate what we might call the permanent background of the Gita. It starts with accepting certain "unanalysable ultimates" — the Self, the Absolute, God, and the Universe and certain fundamental postulates. It presents no philosophical treatment, as it is really addressed to those who assume these ultimates, for the simple reason that the author's purpose was to expound the ordinary man's mission in life rather than to present a philosophical system.
Thus, when Arjuna approaches Krishna with an appeal which recalls, 'What in me is dark, illumine,' He does so by a sudden flash light revelation of the Unborn, Ageless, Deathless, Everlasting, Indemonstrable Atman or Self. He uses the epithet 'Indemonstrable' indicating in a word his whole meaning. How will one demonstrate or measure Him who is the proof of all proofs and measure of all measures?
As the Kena Upanishad puts it : "He is the very hearing of the ear, the very mind of the mind, the very voice of speech, the very breath of breath and the very vision of the eye."
Or as the modern philosopher Dr Radhakrishnan puts it : " The ultimate assumption of all life is the spirit in us, the Divine in man."
Life is God and the proof of it is life itself. If somewhere in ourselves we did not know with absolute certainty that God is, we could not live. Even the sun and the moon would go out if they began to doubt. Our lives are not lived within their own limits.
We are not ourselves alone; we are God-men *( An Idealist View of Life ).
About the composition of the Universe, the Gita takes up the theory then in vogue, as any modern- thinker would start with assuming the theory of evolution. The Shankhyan cosmology was then in vogue; it was, as we have already seen, referred to in some of the Upanishads. Since the mention of it in the Gita, various Smritis have adopted it and it is referred to in various places in the Mahabharata.
The system as we know it in its complete form was not then in existence; there were probably fragments of an original of which no trace can be found; there was what we might call a torso or a skeleton. At any rate the Gita accepted it as a skeleton, put life into it, and made use of it for its philosophy and ethics.
It will be useful for our purpose to give a brief sketch of the Sankhya system in order that we may be able to see how much of it the Gita has adopted and how it has used the raw material. It will also familiarize us with certain terms which will occur over and over again in the Gita.
NEXT : A. THE SANKHYA SYSTEM (YOGAM )
To be continued ....
Gandhi made India, Mahadev Desai made Gandhi : Aug 13, 2017 : Ramachandra Guha : Hindustan Times
For 25 years, Mahadev Desai was Mahatma Gandhi’s closest associate and confidant. Through this period, Desai meant more to Gandhi than Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel (a fact that Nehru and Patel knew and acknowledged)
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