of course, i am biased to bhagavad gita as it is (quel surprise eh?) being a gaudiya vaisnava, however i have recently finished reading a wonderful translation by b.v. tripurari swami and it is a lovely translation, i would recommend it to all. it is still from a bhakti viewpoint though. which IMO is what the gita is about :)

>>Also, Abhinavagupta's commentary on the bhagavad gItA may not be the best introduction to understanding Trika Shaivism. For a general introduction, I would highly recommed 'Kashmir Saivism' by Kamalakar Mishra.

hehe. Trika and Abhinava are some deep subjects. I gave my sister who is Shakta oriented a book on Abhinava and said, "this is going to make your head hurt, so just be prepared for that" hehe! she is quite bright as well, it is not a matter of intelligence - Abhinava was simply a genius and the theology of KS is on a whole other level.

(I was going to suggest that you join the KS tribe but I see that you already have. cool.)

hey, Ven --

welcome to Goddessence, so nice to have you here! thanks for reminding us there are many 'gitas' in the Vedic tradition. my own master calls the Baghavad Gita the "message" (rather than "gita" being, as it's usually translated, 'song') of god.

I got really intrigued by your mentioning Adi Shankara's Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita and am anxious to read it. he is a cornerstone of my tradition and everything about his life and teachings blows me away.

while searching for excerpts from his Gita commentary, I found these beautiful statements from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, from HIS introduction to his commentaries on the first 6 chapters of the B.G. and thought it was worth sharing. he underscores nicely the unifying clarity that Shankara brings to exemplifying the message of the B.G. :

"It has been the misfortune of every teacher that, while he speaks from his level of consciousness, his followers can only receive his message on their level; and the gulf between the teaching and understanding grows wider with time.

The teaching of right action without due emphasis on the primary necessity of realization of Being is like building a wall without a foundation. It sways with the wind and collapses before long. Within three or four hundred years all real connection between the essential teachings of Lord Buddha and the daily life of His followers had disappeared. Insight into the principle of the integrated life was again lost. Having forgotten the prime importance of realizing Being, society became immersed once more in the superficialities of life.

Nature will not allow humanity to be deprived of the vision of Reality for very long. A wave of revival brought Shankara to re-establish the basis of life and renew human understanding. Shankara restored the wisdom of the Absolute and established It in the daily life of the people, strengthening the fields of thought and action by the power of Being. He brought the message of fulfilment through direct realization of transcendental Being in the state of Self-consciousness, which is the basis of all good in life.

Shankara’s emphasis on Self-realization stems from the eternal philosophy of the integrated life expressed by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita when He asks Arjuna first to ‘be without the three Gunas’ and then to perform actions while thus established in Being That all men should at all times live the bliss-consciousness of absolute Being, and that they should live the state of fulfilment in God Consciousness throughout all thought, speech, and action; this is the essence of Shankara’s message, as it is the essence of Lord Krishna’s and of the entire Vedic Philosophy.

The greatest blessing that Shankara’s teaching has offered to the world is the principle of fullness of intellectual and emotional development in the state of enlightenment, based on transcendental pure consciousness, in which the heart is so pure as to be able to flow and overflow with waves of universal love and devotion to God, while the mind is so refined as to enjoy awareness of the divine nature as separate from the world of action.

The spontaneous expressions of Shankara’s mind and heart in this state of freedom and fulfilment have been a source of inspiration both to those who live by the heart and those who live by the mind. His consciousness exemplified the highest state of human development; his heart expressed supreme transcendental devotion to God (Para Bhakti, while his mind expressed awareness of the Self as separate from the field of action (Gyan). This it was that led Shankara’s speech to flow into ecstasies of devotion and at the same time into clear expressions of knowledge, the dry and hard-headed truths concerning divine nature as detached from the world. These are the two aspects of the living reality of a life in complete fulfilment.

Shankara not only revived the wisdom of integrated life and made it popular in his day, but also established four principal seats of learning in four corners of India to keep his teaching pure and to ensure that it would be propagated in its entirety generation after generation. For many centuries his teaching remained alive in his followers, who lived the ideal state of knowledge with devotion (Gyan and Bhakti). But in spite of all his foresight and endeavours, Shankara’s message inevitably suffered with time the same misfortunes as those of the other great teachers.

If the occupants of a house forget the foundations, it is because the foundations lie underground, hidden from view. It is no surprise that Being was lost to view, for It lies in the transcendental field of life.

The state of Reality, as described by the enlightened, cannot become a path for the seeker, any more than the description of a destination can replace the road that leads to it. When the truth that Being forms the basis of the state of enlightenment became obscured, Shankara’s statements about the nature of the goal were mistaken for the path to realization.

This misunderstanding was increased by the very beauty of Shankara’s eloquence. His expressions of deep devotion made in the state of complete surrender and oneness with God, and his intellectual clarifications made in the state of awareness of the divine nature, are both so full and complete in themselves that, seen from the ordinary level of consciousness, they appeared to present two independent paths to enlightenment: the path of knowledge and the path of devotion."


I really appreciate that Shankara appeared to espouse more of what I ascribe to -- that the gyan AND the bhakti are super-important in terms of enlightenment, both together as levers that operate in tandem, not one over the other.

Alx

Thanks so much for the insight. My own teacher is KS, and our school is called the Trika Institute. Now I understand why this translation in particular was recommended.