Abstract
The Bhagavad Gita is a philosophical Hindu scripture in which the god Krishna imparts lessons to the warrior prince Arjuna about sacred duty (dharma) and the path to spiritual liberation (moksha). This classical scripture has had a long and active interpretive life, and by the 19th century it had come to be regarded as a core text, if not the core text, of Hinduism. During the colonial period, interpretations of the Bhagavad Gita considered the relevance of Krishna’s lessons to Arjuna in the context of British colonial rule. While some Indians read a call to arms into their interpretation of this scripture and urged their fellow Indians to rise up in armed resistance, Gandhi famously read a nonviolent message into it. This article argues that equally as important as Gandhi’s hermeneutics of nonviolence is his commitment to enacting the lessons of the Bhagavad Gita as he interpreted them in the daily life of his intentional communities. When explored through the lens of daily life in these intentional communities (which Gandhi called ashrams), we see that Gandhi’s interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita emphasized not just nonviolence but also disciplined action, including self-sacrifice for the greater good.
Highlights
In the introduction to Mahatma Gandhi’s translation of and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, he writes: It has been my endeavor, as that of some companions, to reduce to practice the teaching of the Gita as I understood it
This convergence incorporated the philosophical realm of ideas about living a moral life, the theological realm of ideas about attaining spiritual liberation, and the political realm of ideas about gaining civil rights for Indians living under colonial rule
The Bhagavad Gita’s path of karma yoga, as Gandhi came to understand it in South Africa, entailed a willingness to undergo suffering in order to rise up in nonviolent action for the betterment of the community, whether that be the micro-community living at Phoenix Settlement and Tolstoy Farm, or the macro-community of Indians living in South Africa and India under colonial rule
Summary
In the introduction to Mahatma Gandhi’s translation of and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, he writes: It has been my endeavor, as that of some companions, to reduce to practice the teaching of the Gita as I understood it. In India, some prominent anticolonial activists, such as Lala Lajpat Rai, Aurobindo Ghose, and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, turned to the Bhagavad Gita to make powerful arguments that just as Krishna urged Arjuna to fight in order to fulfill his sacred duty, so should colonial Indians rise up against the British in order to fulfill their own sacred duty.1 Each of these interpretations shared in common the emphasis on karma yoga, the discipline (yoga) of action (karma), as opposed to the discipline of devotion (bhakti yoga) or the discipline of knowledge (jnana yoga). That the four primary intentional communities founded by Gandhi were the crucial environment for Gandhi’s articulation and enactment of his interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita
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