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Bhagavad Gita In The Mahabharata

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The Bhagavad Gita: "Song of the Lord" is part “of the sixth book of the Mahabharata.” This piece of scripture the Gita is a self-contained 700 verse work which has come to represent a basis of Hinduism and indeed Indian spirituality in general. For Mahatma Gandhi, The Bhagavad Gita is “the Gospel of selfless action” which helped him to fully understand “the significance of non-violence as a principle of dharma”. Non-violence is a central theme throughout the Gita as the protagonist Arjuna has to choose whether to conform to his warrior dharma and fight, or to step back and disrupt the natural and social order by adhering to Hindu non-violent tendencies. The Bhagavad Gita is held to be a pivotal piece of Hindu scripture and this essay will aim to explain why. This essay will set out the Bhagavad Gita’s place in scripture, its significance in for Hindu’s today and its themes of dharma and moksha. As previously stated, the Gita is present in the Mahabharata which is a one of two Sanskrit epics, the other being the Ramayana. The Mahabharata contains 70’000 verses and it is classified as a smriti text which translates as recollection and is typically “based on human memory” . Texts found within the smriti tradition are usually contributed to an author, which is in direct contrast to the shruti as the shruti is considered to be the literal product of divine revelation. The Gita is different than some other Hindu texts in the sense that it is classed as smriti literature

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