The importance of Bhagavatgita in Prasthanatraya – the National Seminar held at Tirupati from September 9th to 11th 2015

The importance of Bhagavatgita in Prasthanatraya – the National Seminar held at Tirupati from September 9^th to 11^th 2015.

Prasthanatraya Seminar – ORI entrance

ORI entrance – 09 breakfast

ORI, Digital library

The Oriental Research Institute of Sri Venkateswara University (1939-1950-2015): The National seminar held on “Bhagavat Gita”, the importance of Bhavatgita in Prastanatraya was held at Tirupati on September 9^th, 10^th and 11^h 2015 under the auspices of the Oriental Research Institute of Sri Venkateswara University in collaboration with the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams. As the Institute is completing 75 years (started in 1939), the seminar was conducted to sut the occasion of “Amruotsavam”. Oriental Research Institute (ORI), considered one of the treasure troves of rare manuscripts in south India, turned 75 years. Established by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) in 1939 to promote broad perspective research by way of preparing critical editions and publishing rare manuscripts, the ORI was handed over to Sri Venkateswara University on its formation in 1956 for better coordination on the academic and research fronts. The proceedings of the seminar are given briefly as follows.

Prasthana seminar 09-KVR RAO

Prasthana seminar 09-taking lunch

Prasthana seminar 09-KVR RAO, Thukaram, PNS

The purpose of the Seminar: The invitation announced[1], “The purpose hehind the organization of this National seminaer is to help the scholar as well as students of Vedant to comprehend the subject matter and spread the message of SRI KRISHNA through his[2] (sic) Bhagavatgita which is still relevant in the present digital world of globalization and information Communication Technology”. As the Seminar was mentioned differently as Nattional Seminar on Bhagavatgita, the importance of Bhavatgita in Prastanatraya, National seminar “Bhagavat Gita”, the importance of Bhavatgita in Prastanatraya,……………..perhapa, many deviated from Prasthanatraya to “its …………relevancy in the present digital world of globalization and information Communication Technology.” The delegates were accommodated at Sri Venkateswara Guest House (Opp.East Trupati Police Station) and Guest house of Rastriyaa Sanskrit Vidhyapeeth, Tirupati.

Prasthanatraya Seminar – VRR, Chaturvedi, Rajagopal, Sathpathy, jayasankar, Devarahu – inaguration.2

Prasthanatraya Seminar – lighting lamp inaguration.3

Prasthanatraya seminar Tirupati – The Hindu

First day – 09-09-2015 (Wednesday): The inagural function was at held Senate hall on 9^th morning. It was to be held at 10.30 am, but started by 11.30am. Prof. S. A. R. P. V. Chaturvedi Swamy, Sri Ramanuja Mission, Chennai was chief guest and presented his key-note address. Prof Hare Krishna Satpathy, Vice-Chancellor, Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidhyapeetha, Tirupati was the Guest of Honour. Prof C. K. Jaya Sankar, Rector, SVU, Tirupati and Prof M. Devarajulu of SVU were special invitees. Prof K. Rajagopal, Incharge Vice-Chancellor, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati was the President. “The Hindu” reported briefly, “Marking its platinum jubilee (Amrutotsavam) celebrations, the ORI conducted a national seminar on ‘Srimad Bhagavat Gita’ at SVU Senate Hall on Wednesday on the theme ‘Importance of Srimad Bhagavat Gita in Prasthanatraya.’ S.A.R.P.V. Chaturvedi Swamy of Sri Ramanuja Mission Trust[3] hailed the ORI for its committed service to the cause of unpublished texts in its eventful journey of 75 years[4]. Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha Vice-Chancellor Hare Krishna Satapathy said any amount of research on Indology or ancient Indian literature would be incomplete without a visit to the ORI, referring to its array of manuscripts. In his introductory address, ORI Director and Organising Secretary V. Venkataramana Reddy explained that the centre had achieved the rare distinction of getting the whopping 65,000 manuscripts digitised and preserved in the form of compact discs[5]. But, when I wanted to see the manuscripts, I was not allowed. As the inagural session started by 11.30 and it went on up to 2.00 pm.

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 09-first session.4

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 09-second session audience.7

The afternoon session was started, thus, belatedly after lunch by 3.00 pm. The delegates were not provided with any details of the program, list of papers and paper prssentation etc. Five or six names were called out and they were asked to present papers.  No discussion was allowed and the paper presenters enjoyed the time in reading their papers according their wish. As there was no time-control, suddenly a bell was brought and placed before the sectional president. Thus, none could remember who presented what paper and the paper was about what, as they were read in different languages.  One file was given to paper presenter, after his presentation and it contained only one scrbbling pad and a pen. As the list of papers paresenters, etc., were not even given to the paper presenters, only some details are given, as they are collected personally from them.

Name	Title of the paper	e-mail
Dr Visalakshy	Bhasha Bhagavatgita	pvisalakshy@gmail.com
Dr Ranganayaki Krishnan	Importance of Bhagavatgita in Prasthanatraya	rankr51@gmail.com
Dr Tukaram Sharma	Bhagavata – the crest jewel of Tatvagnana	tukarambh@gmail.com
Dr Padmanabha Rao		padmanabharao.revuru@gmail.com
Dr Viroopaksha V. Jaddipal	An Unpublished text of Bhavadgita bhasgya samsksepa by Kesawasakshi Bhagavatpada	vvjaddipal@gmail.com
Dr Srininasa Sharma		srivedasharma@gmail.com
Dr Vellore Ramabrahmam	Uniqueness, Universality of Prasthanatraya with reference to Srimad Bhagavadgita	ram.vellore@gmail.com
Sri Sivakumar Challa	The Sympony of God – an introduction to life and guidance for living in contemporary age – Special reference to management professionals.	sivakumarc@gmail.com
Sri N. Narasimha Rao	The importance of Bhagavata among the Prastanatraya
Sri K. V. Ramakrishna Rao	Prasthanatraya (प्रस्थानत्रय): Origin, development and impact – A chronological Study with reference to Bhagavatgita	koppallerao@yahoo.co.uk

Prasthana seminar 09-Tirumala break Darshan

The Second day – 10-09-2015 (Thursday): Morning, some delegates were taken to Darshan at Tirumala under “VIP Break queue” system paying Rs.500/- Here also, there are three categories, L1, L2 and L3 with the darshan of Sri Venkateswara with Arati very near to Lord, very near to Lord  without Arati, and after Jaya-Vijaya entrance. These levels are decided based upon the recommendation made through phone or letters brought from VIP (From CM, Minister to MP, MLA, Government officers). Less influence means, less grace from Lord as noted from the position, though charge is same.

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 09-second session audience.7

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 10-first session audience.8

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 09-first session audience-RHS.6

The second day session started with paper presentation. There were four sessions, two each in the morning and afternoon. Though it is a “National” seminar, the papers were read in Sanskrit, Telugu and English. Most of the papers have been delved upon the devotional, spiritual and sacred aspects of Bhagavatgita and the same points were repeated again and again. They had been of the nature of discourse / sermon type rather than a research paper. They took time for reciting the slokas and singing. There was no critical study of Bhagavatgita as revealed through the paper presentation. They had not discussed the importance of Bhagavatgita at a time when it came into existence to be identified, qualified and classified as Prasthanatraya. They neither discussed it in the ancient peiod nor modern period. Though, they went on to glorify ts importance for honest, virtous and perfect society with morality and so on without caring for the reality ot what has been happening in India  in the recent past.  Some started describing about utophian and egalitarian society, when Bhagavatgita was followed.

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 10-second session audience.9

Misconceptions and ploemics about Bhagavatgita: Some papers revealed that how Bhagavatgita was / is still viewed negatively. To tell in three words, the essence of Ramayana, it is said “Katte, kotte, thetche (contstruct, kill, bring)” (in Telugu) similarly, if we want to tell, Samudrala Lakshmanayya pointed out that the essesnce of Gita was “Do not weep / masuchaha”, i.e, whatever happens, it happens and one need not worry about it. In Mahabharata, two persons weep – one Arjuna and another Uttara, and in Bhagavatgita, there are eight references that talks about weeping. But, Krishna taught Gita to Arjuna to fight.

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 10-second session audience.10

During the British period, Bal Gangadhara Tilak expounded “Gita Rahsya” and advised Indians fight against the British.  Though another person pointed out that Bhagavatgita was not at all read, as it was considered as the book for the dead. In Andhrapradesh, there has been a practice to place the Bhagavatgita book near the dead body and play “Ghantasala Bhagavatgita” cassettee / CD. Of course, whenever, there has been a national mourning to pay homage to leaders, the practice has been to play “Bhagavatgita” of Lata Mangeskar. But, he did not explain as to how and why the same book was chosen for the appellents, responsdents, accused, witnesses and other to swear on it before deposing before the judge in any court since British period. Ironically, during the British period, Bhagavatgita was also about to be banned[6], as some “nationalists” were trying to incite the “extremists” to take up arms and wage war against the British[7].

Sir Sydney Rowlett and Balagangadhara Tilak

S.A.T. Rowlett[8], the President of the Sedition Committee (1908), it was an instrument of subversion and sedition, holding that  the Bengal revolutionaries used the teachings of the Bhagawad Gita, as also the teachings of Vivekanand “to create an atmosphere suitable for the execution of their projects”. Gandhi negated the historicity of Gita and tried to interpret differently to suit the Bristish interests[9]. Unfortunately, none but one tried to point out the fact, but the moment he started to mention Tilak, he was stopped.

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 10-third session audience.11

Prasthana seminar 10-Sharma, Panduranga Rao, KVR RAO

The Dialogue between Tilak and Gandhi on Bhagavat Gita at Simhagad (near Pune) in 1920[10]: Lokamanya Bala Gangadhara Tilak wrote a commentary on the Bhagavat Gita called “Gita Rahasya”. When once there was difference of opinion, Tilak commented on Gandhian ideology: “We consider that political life of the country will become thoroughly corrupt if we import Western tactics and methods…I am sorry to see that in your article on ‘Reform Resolution’ in the last issue, you have represented me as holding that I considered everything fair in politics. I write this to you to say that my view is not correctly represented therein… Any further explanation about the difference will be found in my Gita-Rahasya”.

Bhagavatgita, sedition, Tilak

The following is Gandhi’s rejoinder to Tilak:  “With deference to the Lokamanya, I venture to say that it betrays mental laziness to think that the world is not for sadhus. The epitome of all religions is to promote Purushartha, and Purushartha is nothing but a desperate attempt to become a sadhu, i.e., to become gentleman in every sense of the term. Finally, when I wrote the sentence about everything being fair in politics according to Lokamanya’s creed, I had in mind his oft-repeated quotation ‘tit-for-tat’. To me it enunciates bad law…”. Dhananjay keer writes how Gandhi evaded the issue: “The ideological difference between Tilak and Gandhi was weighing on the minds of their disciples. A meeting between the two was arranged at Simhgad towards the end of April 1920. Gandhi stayed there from April to May 4, 1920. He was ill and had a pain in his leg. He had a most torturing and splitting headache for two days but enjoyed luscious mangoes.

Balagangadhara Tilak- Gandhi and Gita

Tilak and Gandhi met two or three times. There was discussion on some of the aspects of the Gita and Tilak put his usual interpretation on it and emphasized his point that Arjun ultimately resorted to war when the question of Good and evil was resolved by Krishna.”

Balagangadhara Tilak- Kesari issue and trial

Tilak.s trial for sedition, in the Bombay High Court, 1897- from the Illustrated London News

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 10-third session audience.12

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 10-third session KVR with sectional president.13

Prasthana seminar 09-KVR RAO, presenting paper

Sankara’s bias against Krishna as revealed in Sri Bhashya: Only few papers specifically touched upon the “Prastanatraya” aspect in the context of Bhagawatgita and vice versa. One scholar in his paper, “Sankara’s bias against Krishna as revealed in Sri Bhashya”, was pointing out that Sankara was not treating Krishna as Supreme God / God but as a God / god as compared with “Ishwara”. The works attributed to Sankara were not at all written by Adi Sankara, but Sankara of later periods. In fact, Sankara was accused of being worshipper of Govinda, Narayana etc. Of course Buddhists condemned him like anything as I pointed out in my paper. As later as during the 18^th century, the polemical writings among the Vaishnava and Saiva sects have been abundant and they cannot be taken seriously for historical reaearch. Here, as the dating, formation of different sectorial philosophy developed, the necessity of facing aliens religion and countering them during medieval period etc., were not takan into consideration, such view was / is formed eve today.

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 11- first session.14

Prasthanatraya – what it is, who found, when started to be used: Before preparing paper, I started digging into many books, research papers etc, to find out the answers for these questions.  Though, Upanishads, Brahmasutras and Bhagavatgita form Prasthanatraya and it is repeated by every author or researcher, none touch upon these aspects. When I wrote to Sringeri mutt, I got the same answer. When I asked for specific reply, they did not reply. Then I went to Sanskrit College, Sri Kuppuswamy research Institute etc., in Madras. I was advised to meet one Prof Manu Dravid, who has been expert in Advaita. He asked about my requirements, when I informed what I knew about Prastanatraya, he asked me to produce. Here, now after attendung the Seminar alaso, I could not get answer. Of course, I could muse upon the following points struck to me in different way.

 

 Upanishads, how many?[11]: According to Muktopanishad, there were 108 Upanishads, perhaps including it, but now we have more than 400 Upanishads evidently composed, preared and even manufactured during the Jaina, Buddhist, Mohammedan and British periods, just to confuse the Vedic literature. Sir Charles Eliot pointed out that the great many number of Upanishads composed at various dates were not at al equally revered and they represent different orders of ideas and some of the later are distinctly sectarian. Collections of 45, 52 and 60 are mentioned in India at the present[12]. In fact, Bjagavatgita itself was considered as an Upanishad. The 108 Upanishads contain – Rigveda – 10, Yajurveda – 50, Samaveda – 16, Adarvaveda – 32. Swami Atmashraddhananda mentions that there were 210, but 108 is generally accepted and hence more than hundred were of either recent origins or spurios[13]. As the Jaina and Buddhists manufactured many Upanishads, the Mohammedan-Mughals also manufactured such Upanishads including Allaupanishad. The production of new Puranas aided and abetted in the production of such spurious Upanishads during medieval period.

Brahmasutras contained how many Sutras / aporisms?: When I started verifying the commentaries of different acharyas, pundits and scholars, I found that the number of verses commented upon varied from Acharya to Acharya and scholar to scholar. Later I found one explanation that[14], “These commentators differ even on the actual number of the Sutras or aphorisms. For instance, while Sankara places the figure at 555, Ramanuja puts it as 545. This is because these preceptors differ in what constitutes a particular sutra — what is one sutra for one Acharya is two for another, or vice versa .” Actually, the Brahmasutras were identified differently without any rule. Thus, even the commentaries were taken as original sutras leading to the confusion of numbers.

Gita, Bhagavatgita, date and composition: There have been more than 100 Gitas listed by different researchers based on the references and manuscripts available, but 90% of them have been spurious, written during the medieval and modern periods to promote their resective sectarian theology. For example, Agastyyagita to Yamagita have been listed[15]. Few are listed for illustrative purposes.

Sl. No	Name	Who preached to who / when	Where mentioned / available
1	Anugita	Krishna preached to Arjuna after Mahabharat War
2	Uddhavagita or Hamsagita	Krishna explains wisdom to his friend Uddhava	Bhagavatapirana
3	Vyadhagita	A butchers explains to hermit about the importance of performance of one’s duty.	Mahabharat
4	Ganeshgita	Gajanana explains the truth to King Varenya	Ganeshapurana
5	Avadhutagita	Dattatreya teaches to his disciples, tantriks.
6	Gurugita	Siva explains to Parvati	Skandapurana
7	Ashtavakragita	Astavakra, a Muni explains to King Janaka about the soul etc.
8	Ramgita	Ram explains to Lakshmana after searching of Sita.
9	Rishabhagita	Rishabha teaces to his disciples	Skandapurana and Bhagavatapurana

Of which, only Bhagavatgita has been popular among the scholars and people also. Therefore, the propaganda carried against has been continuing since Jaina period. During 18^th-19^th centuries much of wilful, malicious and disparaging methods were adopted in such propaganda to reduce the antiquity of the scripture, date of Mahabharat War etc. Richard Garbe who interpreted the chief philosopical tract of Mahabharata, the famous Bhagavatgita, as a rewritten Sankya document of theistic tendency manipulated to serve the ends of Vedantic schoolmen[16]. His faithful disciple, Rudolf Otto[17] followed the path to discover “original gita”. Lorinser interpretedthat Gita was ccomposed after 500 CE , that tpp, with the Christian influence[18], though, many of the western scholars themselves placed it before 700-500 BCE period. The Gita has been interpolated between the Upanishad and the Shadh-darshana[19] periods around the 3^rd and 4^th century BCE according to one estimate[20]. Some scholars point out that original 84 verses were enlarged during different periods, reportedly by three pundits to 126, 119 and 455 verses making into fullfleged Bhagwatgita of 700 verses[21]. Thus, it is evident that Bhagavatgita has been undet attack by different groups with vested interests. Therefore, the researchers have to be careful in dating the scriptures.

Who is the author of Brahmasutras?: M. Narasimhachary says[22], “The Brahmasutra , variously known as Sariraka Sutra or Sariraka Mimamsa or Uttara Mimamsaor Bhikshu Sutra of Badarayana, is one of the three texts that are collectively called Prasthana Traya , the other two being the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita . The text of Badarayana reveals that, before him, there were a number of teachers — such as Asmarathya, Audulomi and Kasakritsna — who understood the Upanishadic import in different ways,” while reviewing the book “A Critical edition of the Brahmasutras” written by Shailaja Bapat.

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 11- puja before session.13

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 11- first session.RHS.15

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 11- first session audience.RHS.16

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 11- first session audience.LHS.17

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 11- second session .LHS.18

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 11- second session .RHS.19

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 11- third session .20

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 11.valedictory session .20

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 11- Valedictory session.22

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 11- Vale-audience .23

Prasthanatraya Seminar – 11- Valedictory session audience.22

The Third day – 11-09-2015 (Friday): The paper reading session went on till lunch and continued thereafter. The papers had been very abstract, devotional type and delved upon reciting Bhagavatgita slokas. Some ventured to stick upon the management techniques found in Bhagavatgita, deviating much from the theme of the seminar. In fact, the organizing Director himself asked one paper presenter, “Sir, tell me where is the Prasthanatrayam in your paper……how it suits the theme?”. There was a simple valedictry function that concluded by 4.45 pm. As the delegates started rushing for the evening trains, the session concluded. Some stayed back for group photo.

K. V. Ramakrishna Rao

12-09-2015

[1] Invitation, Amrutotsavam, Platinum Jubilee Celebrations, p.4.

[2] Could it be HIS or His.

[3] http://www.sriramanujamissiontrust.info/

[4] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/oriental-research-institute-turns-75/article7634810.ece

[5] The Hindu, Oriental Research Institute turns 75, Tirupati, September 10, 2015.

[6] http://www.drkavitasharma.org/pdf/Karma%20Yoga%20in%20Tilak,%20Gandhi%20and%20Sri%20Aurobindo.pdf

[7] Elleke Boehmer, Terror and the Postcolonial: A Concise Companion, Wiely

[8] Report of S.A.T. Rowlatt, 1918.

[9] For Gandhi, Bhagavatgita was not a historical work but under the guise of physical warfare , it described the duel that perpetually went on in the hearts of mankind….. the second chapter of Gita did not teach the rules of warfare but rather elucidated the characteristics of a perfected man. Its whole design was inconsistent with the rules of conduct governing the relations between warring parties… Gita According to Gandhi,” http://members.aol.com/jajnsm/anasa.html.

[10] This is just quoted varbatim from the paper as such of Sri N. Narasimha Rao of Bangalore presented in the Seminar.

[11] http://www.hinduwebsite.com/upalist.asp

[12] Sir Charles Eliot,  Hinduism and Buddhism: An Historical Sketch (Complete)

[13] Swami Atmashraddhananda, Upanishads in Daily Life, Sri RKM Mutt, Chennnai, 2008.

[14] http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-bookreview/the-brahmasutra-in-all-its-variants/article2730188.ece

[15]  Agastya, Bharata, Bhikshu, Bhishma, bodhya, Brahma, …………………………….Ribu, Rishabha, Vibishana. Vidya and so on. http://www.indianscriptures.com/scriptures/introduction-of-scriptures/type-of-gita

[16] Richard Garbe, Die Bhagavatgita, p.7, pp.13-14.

James Raoson, Cambridge History of India, Vol.I, Chap.XI, p.273.

[17] Rudolf Otto, The Original Gita, pp.10-12.

[18] Lorinser,  Indian Antiquary, Vol.II, 1873, pp.283 ff.

[19] The Six Indan philosophical systems are – Sankya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisesika, Mimamsa and Vedanta developed during different periods.

[20] Yardi, M. R. Theories of Multiple Authorship of the Bhagavadgita, in Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona, 1977, pp.1049-1054.

[21] Khaira, Gajānana Śrīpata, Quest for the original Gītā, Somaiya Publications, Bombay 1969.

Otto, Rudolph. The Original Gita, Trans, by JE Turner (1939).

[22] M. Narasimhachary, The Brahmasutras in all its variants, The Hindu, Book Review, December 20, 2011.