Reflections on the Bhagavad Gita (Bhagavad Gita Vicara)

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Krishna Chandra Bhattacharyya (1875-1949) was the Director, Indian Institute of Philosophy, Amalner. He was also George V Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy, University of Calcutta. His Reflections on the Bhagavadgită is the English translation of his recently published essay in Bengali titled Bhagavadgită-vicāra by Professor Dilipkumar Mohanta. Krishna Chandra Bhattacharyya's independent philo-sophical reflections on the problematic of Dharma in the Gità gives us anew flash before our psychological vision with a kind of self-evident symbolism that leads to universalism. The reader will be acquainted neither with any attempt to synthesise the conflicting interpretations on the doctrine of nishkäma-karma nor to synthesise different yogas, the so-called paths of spirituality but to a pure critical reflection and analysis of the issue of Duty with reference to the first three chapters of the Gită. The Gită, for him, combines both metaphysics and ethics. It is non- sectarian, non-partisans, and above non-one-sided extremes. It is a must reading for students and teachers of philosophy and of benefits to the readers in general.

Foreword

It is venturesome on the part of Professor Dilipkumar Mohanta to translate into English the late Professor K.C. Bhattacharyya's deliberations on the Bhagavadgitā in Bengali. Not only is the idiom of Bhattacharyya's philosophic thought difficult to be grasped but also is the translation, hard put to it to transliterate-in the present case-into English Professor Bhattacharyya's understanding of the Bhagavadgita. But, if as current philosophic thinking would take translation into 'mapping'-a la Quine and Davidson-then it must be said that Professor Mohanta has been successful in the present context to 'map' Bhattacharyya's deliberations in Bengali into philosophical English. For this, the philosophic community would remain grateful to Professor Mohanta.