Review of the ‘Bhagavad Gita for Millennials’ by Bibek Debroy

A Great Read...

 I have just read the masterly ‘The Bhagavad Gita for Millennials’ by Sh. Bibek Debroy.  As noted in the book, it is not a translation or a commentary. Bibekda has already translated the BhagavadGita in 2005, republished in 2019 (next in line for me to read) and perhaps in his translation of unabridged Mahabharata (yet to read, sometime away).

Speaking for most people in my circle (Masters degree in various fields, upper middle class, living in Metros, Tier 1 cities), I would estimate that they would know few shlokas of Gita and think they know the essence of Gita. <5% would have read the complete Bhagavadgita (any version). More generally, <1% would have read complete Vedas and Upanishads. 90%+ would know the basic outline of Ramayana and Mahabharata. They would have seen it on TV and read abridged version in school or Amar Chitra Katha. <1% would have read unabridged Ramayana and Mahabharat. The reasons are varied – not taught in school/ doesn’t help professionally/ already know the outline/ don’t even feel the need (following rituals few days a year is easier)/ additionally too many texts to read and further too many translations to decide upon vz. 1-2 books in other religions to read etc.

But having watched so many videos of Bibekda and few live events, I just felt the need to read this book and am glad that I read it. Reading this book, before reading the actual text, helps in the following manner –

1.  Provides a background – what is a Bhagavadgita, is it the only gita, where does Bhagavadgita occur, when was it composed, who composed it

2.  Connects it with teachings of Upanishads and Puranas and which all theories does Bhagavadgita synthesizes

3.   Helps in deconstructing the Sanskrit language, so if one tries, one can connect the English words with respective Sanskit words

4.  Helps in learning about underlying basics of Hinduism – the 4 ashrams, 6 systems of darshana, 4 varnas, difference between caste/ varna, jati, 6 kinds of taste, listing of samskaras 3 Purusharthas etc.

5.  A glimpse at countering some misguided/ ill intentioned comments on Bhagavadgita

It being a brief book, with only 210 pages, there is no need for me to summarize the book. I will attempt to do that in conjuction with actual Bhagavadgita texts and it's a few translations. But reading this book leaves me with many questions – which aren’t perhaps part of scope of this book. Many questions relate to how to live Bhagavadgita in regular life, universal consciousness, God etc. But these require deeper contemplation and perhaps are a personal journey.

I will rather list more worldly/ analytical questions, which I need to find answers to...

1.   Kurukshetra war is dated to 1400 BCE and Mahabharata started getting composed in around 500 BCE and got finalized till around 500 CE. So how did people remember the events in the interim 900+ years, especially Bhagvadgita – the words (mostly) of Lord Krishna who existed in 1400 BCE. How did they transfer that knowledge to the next generation verbally?

2.   M.R. Yardi hypothesized that chapters 1-6,7 (parts of it), 10,11,12,16,18 were composed in 1400 BCE. Bibekda does not outrightly dismiss M.R.Yardi so why does he say that Mahabharat started getting composed in 500 BCE when large parts of it were composed in 1400 BCE as per Yardi.   

3.   Saraswati Sindhu Civilization is an archaeological fact, dated prior to 1900 BCE so predating atleast the main Mahabharat period. Is there any interlinkages between two.

4.   What are the implications/ inferences of dating of Great Floods, RigVeda and Ramayana.    

5. Key differences between the commentaries of gurus like Adi Shankaracharya, Abhinavagupta, Ramanuja, Madhvacharya, Vallabhacharya, Sri Aurobindo and Swami Vivekanand etc. Also, if there is a difference between the approach of ancient ones (first 5) and newer ones (last 2).

6.  Difference between Vedic and Classical Sanskrit

7.  I know few Sanskrit shloka from Bhagavadgita, that too partially. I won’t be able to remember all 700. If I have to learn and remember 10-15 which I can chant on regular basis, which will be those – 4.7, 2.47, 18.66…?

8.   Any updates of excavations of submerged Dwarka city (book mentions report till 1990, thirty year back)

List of Dates from the books

Advent of Agriculture	10,000 BCE
Mahabharat Kurukshetra War	1400 BCE
Chandogya Upanishad	800-600 BCE
Composition of Mahabharat	500 BCE – 500 CE
Ashtavakra Samhita	??
Panini	600 BCE/ 500 BCE/ 400 BCE
Patanjali	200 BCE
Jataka Stories	300 BCE – 400 CE
Bhasa	300-400 CE
Brahmasutra by Badarayana	400-450 CE
Nimbarkacharya	700 CE
Adi Shankaracharya	788-820 CE
King Bhoja	1100 CE
Ramanuja	1017-1137 CE
Madhvacharya	1238-1317 CE
Vallabhacharya	1479-1531 CE
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu	1486-1534 CE

 

Books to Further Read

1.    Gita

a.   The Bhagavad Gita with the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya – Alladi Mahadeva Sastry, Samata Books.

b.   Essays on the Gita - Sri Aurobindo

c.   Thoughts on the Gita – Swami Vivekananda

d.   The Bhagavadgita as a Synthesis – M.R. Yardi, BORI, 1991

2.   Theories pf multiple authorship of the Bhagavadgita – M.R. Yardi, Annals of BORI, 1977-78

3.   The Mahabharata: Its Genesis and Growth (A statistical Study) – M.R.Yardi, BORI, 1986

4.   ‘Krishna-Charitra’ or ‘The Character of Krishna’ – Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, 1886

5.   The Lost City of Dvaraka – S R Rao, Aditya Prakashan, 1999

6.   Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra – by Swami Vivekananda (Collected Work, 1^st Volume)

7.   Roots of Yoga – James Mallinson and Mark Singleton, Penguin, 2017

8.   Classical Samkhya: An interpretation of Its History and Meaning – Gerald James Larson, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 2001

9.   Lokayata: A study in Ancient Indian Materialism – Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, Peoples Publishing House, 1959

10. Kama Sutra – Vatsayana (which one ?)

11. Ashtavakra Samhita: Text with Word-for-word Translation, English Rendering and Comments – Swami Nityaswarupananda, Advaita Ashrama, 1940

12. The Upanishads – Swami Nikhilananda, Harper and Brothers, 1949

 

Websites:

1.   www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in

2.   www.learnsanskrit.org

3. 1492 CE Bhagavadgita manuscript - https://twitter.com/profprmukund/status/1036874809047691264