A Conversation on a Battlefield: Where the Bhagavad Gita Comes From and Why Readers Keep Returning

A plain-language introduction to where the Bhagavad Gita comes from, how readers have interpreted it, and what re-reading it for self-realization can mean. Few scenes in world literature are as strange as the one that opens the Bhagavad Gita. Two great armies stand ready. A warrior pauses, lowers his bow, and tells his charioteer that he cannot go on. What follows is not a battle but a conversation, one of the most widely read dialogues about duty, action, and the nature of the self. This article gives background on that text and its long afterlife. It is a general guide, not a summary of any particular book, and it makes no claim to know the contents of the title discussed below. That title is The Gita of the Awakened Self (https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=yxXsEQAAQBAJ), whose subtitle speaks of the Gita being reilluminated for self-realization. To appreciate what re-illumination might mean, it helps to know what is being re-lit. Let us begin where the text itself begins, on the field. Get the book: Google Play Books · Apple Books — The Gita of the Awakened Self by Dr. Ajarn Robert Shumake.