Bhagavad Gita
The
Bhagavad Gita, usually considered part of the sixth book of the Mahabharata
(dating from about 400 or 300 B.C.), is a central text of Hinduism, a
philosophical dialog between the god Krishna and the warrior Arjuna. This is
one of the most popular of all Hindu scriptures. The Gita discusses
selflessness, duty, devotion, and meditation, integrating many different
threads of Hindu philosophy.
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Textual Criticism Of The Gita:
Though the Gita is a beautiful peace of Sanskrit poetry, is suffering from
some severe flaws. We have classified them as I). The illogical aspects,
ii). The unscientific aspects and iii). The immoral aspect. It will be
interesting to see that the Gita which, is a very small book consisting of
just about 700 verses of about 20 words each manages to fumble in at so many
places. Some of them are as follows:
{Keep in mind; Krishna is supposed to be a god, motivating Arjuna to fight
the war. Sanjaya is watching the whole thing from a distance and conveying
to the King DritaRashtra (Emperor father of Kauravas, the enemies of
Arjuna).}
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Illogical Aspect (Errors And
Contradictions):
In our opinion, God has the
absolute knowledge. When He speaks of some thing, he speaks in absolute
terms. He would not resort to meek suggestion/opinions. He is clear,
emphatic and confident! But, what we see in the Gita is …
Gita 2:25 Krishna says to
Arjuna, “It is said
that it (the
soul) is unmanifest. This (the soul) is inconceivable; this is unchangeable…
”
Gita 6:36 Krishna says to
Arjuna, “My conviction is that
Yoga is difficult to be
attained by one of uncontrolled mind…” and at many more places like Gita
13:12 etc. Krishna (supposed to be a god) says to Arjuna that ‘it is his
opinion only’! If God speaks to a man, the statement would reflect absolute
knowledge. There is no guesswork. No opinion. For example:
1)
Holy
Quran, Ch.4: Verse 48 “Surely,
Allah forgives not that partners should be set up with Him; but He forgives
anything else, to whomever He pleases. Certainly, to set up partners with
Allah is to devise a sin most heinous indeed.”
2)
Holy
Quran Ch. 33. Verse 21
“Ye have indeed
in the Apostle of Allah a
beautiful pattern of (conduct) for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the
Final Day and who engages much in the praise of Allah.”
3)
Holy
Quran Ch.15. Verse 9 “We have
without doubt
sent down the Message; and we will
assuredly
guard it (from corruption)” And hundreds of more such examples in the Holy
Quran. We can see that Allah, the Lord of the worlds is very clear and
emphatic about the statements.
Error no.1
Gita 2: 37, “Either by being
killed you will attain heaven or by winning you will enjoy the earth.
Therefore, O Arjuna, rise up with determination for fighting.”
Gita 2: 49 Krishna says to
Arjuna, “…Those who thirst for rewards are pitiable”
Error no.2
Gita 10:3 Krishna says that
he is birthless. “He who knows me –
the birthless, the beginning
less, and the
great Lord of the worlds, he, the deluded one among mortals, becomes freed
from all sins.”
Gita 4: 9, “He who thus knows
truly the divine birth
and actions of mine
does not get rebirth after casting off the body. He attains me, O Arjuna!”
Gita 4: 5 “O Arjuna
many lives of mine have passed.
And so have yours. I know them all, (but) you know not, O scorcher of
enemies (one of the
titles of
Arjuna)!”
Error no.3
Gita 5:2 “Both
renunciation of actions
and Karma Yoga
lead to liberation…”
Gita 2:33 “On the other hand,
if you will not fight this righteous battle, then,
forsaking your own duty and
fame, you will incur sin.”
The simple question which comes to our minds is, “How can sin give
liberation?”
Error no.4
In
Mahabharata, particularly in the Bhagavad Gita, and other Hindu scriptures,
we find that Krishna is depicted having only two hands. But, at one place in
the Gita, we see a mistake mentioning four hands!
Gita 11:46 “…Appear with that
very form with four
hands!”
Error no.5
Actually, Sanjaya is watching all the
happenings including the show of Viswa Roopa that is shown to Arjuna.
And, previously, as it is reported in the Maha Bharata, some of the enemies
of Arjuna have seen this form before many others. But, strangely enough to
read, it is mentioned as :
Gita 11:47 “ Out of grace, O Arjuna, this
supreme, radiant, cosmic, infinite, primeval form – which (form) of mine has
not been seen before by anyone other than you, has been shown to you
by me through the power of my own yoga. ”
“Arjuna, by my favour, you
have seen this loftiest form by my yoga revealed! … that
none except yourself has ever
seen”
Error no.6
As we already know, Sanjaya is narrating the
whole process to the emperor Dhritarashtra, the father of Arjuna’s enemies.
Normally, if ‘A’ is speaking to ‘B’ and A wants to say that B’s brother is
coming, he would say, “Mr. B! your brother is coming.” Or, “B! your brother
is coming.” But, he would not say, “B’s brother is coming.”
Let us see the same thing in the Gita. It is
mentioned in Gita 1:19-20, “the blowing of these different couch shells
became uproarious. Vibrating both in the sky and in the earth, it
shattered the hearts of the sons of Dhritarashtra… O King, after
looking at the sons of Dhritarashtra drawn in military array, Arjuna
then spoke to Krishna these words.”
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Unscientific Aspect:
Error no.7
As we all know today that the sun, moon and
stars are all inanimate objects and cannot have wife and children like the
human beings. But, in the olden days, the Hindu brothers did not know this
fact and they used to hold the belief that these are all gods only. Further,
they used to believe that they had marital relationship and parental
relationship with human beings. Anyway, we are going to see it in detail
under the heading, “Hindu Gods”. Here, we are going to have a look at
the sample, which proves beyond doubt that even the Bhagavad Gita is not
immune from this belief!
It is mentioned in Gita 4:1, “I have given
this infinite knowledge to Sun, he taught it to his son Manu (one of
the ancestors of the mankind) and he taught it to his son Ikshwaka
(one of famous saints)”
It is surprising to see that the Gita
attributes sonship of a human to a star that is ‘the sun’.
Some scholars of Hinduism hold that the Gita
doesn’t say that Manu was a son of the sun. But, they all admit that the
Gita mentions the sun having taught a particular knowledge to Manu. Even
this is hard to defend against scientific criticism.
Error no.8
We can find many more such unscientific
points in the Gita.
It was widely believed by the Hindus of
older days that the earth is flat. And there is a mountain by the name
‘Meru Parvata’ which, surrounds the earth from all sides. The sun
circumambulates around that mount. Thus completing its rotation around the
earth. And that mountain ‘Meru’ is supposed to be the biggest mountain in
the world.
It is mentioned in the Gita that the main
speaker (supposed to be Krishna) is giving all the possible superlative
examples to express his greatness. One among them goes as follows…
Gita 10:23 “Of all the Rudras I am the Lord
Shiva, of the Yakshas and Rakshasas, I am the Lord of wealth (Kubera
{remember, the lender to god Venkateswara}), of the Vasus, I am fire (Agni),
and of mountains, I am Meru.”
As a matter of fact, Meru is a hypothetical mountain, which doesn’t exist.
If Krishna was god or if the Gita was a word of god, how came, this mistake
has crept in?
Error no.9:
Further, there was an unscientific belief among the Hindus, which we want to
expose directly with an example. In Chapter 10 Krishna commits a mistake
while boasting about himself with all possible superlative expressions.
Please go through Gita 10: 31, “Of purifiers, I am the wind; Rama of the
warriors I; and I am Makara
(crocodile)
of fishes;
of streams, Ganga I am.” No wonder, the unscientific community did not know in those days
that, Makara (crocodile) is not a fish but a reptile. Even if we give
lenience to the classification that all the creatures living in water are
fish only, none of them will be called as a reptile. Still, the crocodile is
neither the largest of the fish nor is it the most ferocious. As a matter of
fact, it makes us feel that the author of the Gita has never sailed across
the ocean. Otherwise, he is bound to know about the other ferocious,
powerful and large fishes. The reason behind assuming the absence of such
exposure to sailing is one of the basic beliefs in Hinduism that, ‘The
man who crosses the sea will become outcaste!’
In fact, some scholars opine that Rama (the hero god of Ramaayana) opted to
build a bridge to Lanka to fight with Raavana (the kidnapper of his wife),
instead of sailing across! (Please wait for Rama’s Character
Certificate to throw some good light on this guy Rama.)
Error no.10:
As
we have already seen under the article ‘beliefs’, the Hindus believe that
the moon is the husband of all the stars. They fail to realize the reality
in comparison. Here, in the Gita, we find Krishna boasting about himself, saying…
Gita 10:21 “Of Adityas, I am
Vishnu, of lights I am the radiant sun, of the Maruts, I am Marici,
and among the stars, I am
moon.” The ancient
Hindus fail to realize the fact that, the moon, no doubt appears to be very
big from the earth, but, it remains just a satellite. It is much smaller
than the earth also. Further, the earth itself is very small in comparison
to the sun about 400 times, roughly. Then, the sun is just a mediocre star.
Then, logically, saying, ‘I am moon among the stars’ is like saying, ‘I am
ant among
elephants!’
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