The Bhagavad Gita (With English Translation)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Born in 1883, Professor D. S. Sarma, scholar and educationist, had his education in the Madras Christian College, from which he graduated in 1904. Subsequently he took his M.A. degree in English Language and Literature in 1909. Starting life in Government service at the Kumbakonam College, he went over to the Presidency College, Madras, in 1913, where he remained on the English staff for twenty-two years. After a short spell of service as the Principal of the Government Arts College, Rajahmundry, he retired from Government service in 1938. After retirement he served as the Principal and Professor of English in two private colleges in Madras Panchaiyappa's College and Vivekananda College. He retired from the latter in 1949.

He has a number of books to his credit. Notable among them are: From Literature to Religion (An Autobiography), A Primer of Hinduism, Essence of Hinduism, Hinduism through the Ages, Pearls of Wisdom, Renascent Hinduism, The Bhagavad Gita all published by the Bhavan.

Among his other books, mention may be made of The Tales and Teachings of Hinduism, Lectures and Essays on the Gita, The Hindu Standpoint, Lalita Sahasranama, Gandhi Sutras. The Father of the Nation, The Prince of Ayodhya, etc.

Prof. Sarma passed away in 1970 at the ripe age of 87.

The Bhagavad Gita is not merely a dialogue that took place in the remote past between two well-known epic characters in the Mahabharata. It is much more than that. It symbolizes the eternal dialogue that goes on in the recesses of every striving soul. God speaks to us as Krishna spoke to Arjuna, if only we tune our ears and try to listen to His voice. Therefore, if every reader of the Gita brings to bear upon its sacred verses his own inward life of fears, doubts and hopes, he will see at once that it is a living dialogue between the human soul and the Divine Spirit. He will then learn to interpret many an apparently technical term used in the Gita in the plenary sense in which it was first employed by the great Teacher. This is especially true of the word Yoga which forms the key to this scripture.

Yoga has now technically come to mean thought-control. But the word is used in the Gita in its primary sense of union or fellowship with God. Accordingly the scripture itself is termed Yoga-Sastra, for it reveals to us the way which leads to that union or fellowship. What is the way? What is the way that leads the restless soul which is tossed in this world of toil and suffering to rest in God? What is the way that was revealed to Arjuna in his great sorrow, and, through him, to thousands of men and women in every age in this land of ours, which has been rightly called the land of tears and sorrow? That is the question which every earnest reader of the Gita should ask himself. The answer which the scripture gives may briefly be said to lie in four words - Buddhi, Karma, Bhakti and Jnana.

Buddhi-Yoga is the preliminary step of self-control. We have first of all to control our passions, harmonise our minds and acquire a singleness of aim. When we are able to bring the instincts and appetites of the natural man in us under the control of reason and to distinguish the higher from the lower values of life, we may be said to have entered on the path of light. The society in which we live, no doubt, imposes on us certain restrictions and forces us to be moral in spite of ourselves. But true ethical life is not merely one of external conformity, it is also one of internal purity.