Gita Dhyanam
The nine Gita Dhyanam verses offer salutations to a variety of sacred scriptures, figures, and entities, characterize the relationship of the Gita to the
Verses
Selected verses with translation |
English translation
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Sanskrit verses
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Sanskrit (transliterated)
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The Gītā Dhyānam's first verse opens by affirming an act of meditation (anusandadhāmi): "Om. I meditate on the
The commonly quoted fourth verse characterizes the Gītā as a distillation of the wisdom of the Upanishads. It uses the image of the Upanishads as like cows, and Arjuna (the person to whom the Gītā is told) as like a calf who is receiving their milk. This and another selected verse are shown in the table at right, in English translation, Sanskrit original, and romanized transliteration.
The eighth verse affirms faith that God (represented in the Gītā as Kṛṣṇa) can work benevolent miracles, such as giving speech to the dumb. This verse, shown in the table, is also commonly quoted.
The remaining Gītā Dhyānam verses extoll the virtues of the Mahābhārata, the larger scripture in which the Gītā is embedded, or describe the challenges and foes overcome by Arjuna, to whom Kṛṣṇa spoke the Gītā (verses 6 and 7).
Sources
are current all over India, and now, in foreign countries also. We don't know who composed them. Some people believe it was
Srimad Bhagavatam, who lived about three or four centuries ago.[7]: 15
Influence
Hindu leaders have quoted or alluded to verses from the Gītā Dhyānam. Swami Vivekananda wrote from Chicago, following his attendance at the 1893 World Parliament of Religions, that "I am doing the Lord's work, and wherever He leads I follow. मूकं करोति वाचालं etc. - He who makes the dumb eloquent and the lame cross a mountain, He will help me."[8]: 71
Translations
- ISBN 978-81-7597-084-7(pp. 1-27)
Other translations into English include:
- OCLC 1322141. (pp. 393–399)
- OCLC 463526912. Archived from the original(PDF) on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2011. (pp. 7–8).
- OCLC 463526912. (pp. xxxii-xxxiii).
The Gītā Dhyānam has also been translated into Italian:
- ISBN 88-272-1791-6(pp. 32–33)
References
- ^ OCLC 1322141.
- pratibodhitāṃ bhagavatā nārāyaṇena svayaṃ... tvam anusandadhāmi bhagavad-gite" (See Easwaran, 1975, p. 394, or Chinmayananda, 1998, pp. 1-2).
- ^ About verse 9, Chinmayananda (1998) comments that "The invocation of the Supreme-most is undertaken here through a peculiar literary trick. The extent of the Infinite cannot be comprehended by anyone and therefore, it can only be indicated by suggestive terms. Even the Creator and the Vedik Deities representing the phenomenal powers must be praying to and invoking their own glorious powers only at the altars of the Infinite and so it is said that we invoke Him, whom the deities of the Vedik period invoke by their Divine hymns" (p. 26).
- ISBN 81-7223-087-7.
- ^ a b Guru, Nataraja (1973). The Bhagavad gita: A sublime hymn of dialectics composed by the antique sage-bard vyasa. Asia Publishing House.
- Wikidata Q108731550.
- ^ ISBN 81-7505-213-9.
- ^ Vivekananda (1964). Letters of Swami Vivekananda. Calcutta, India: Advaita Ashrama. (pp. 68-71). Letter to Dewanji Saheb, Chicago, 15 November 1894(3?) [sic]
- ^ Gandhi (18 February 1932), Collected Works, vol. 55, p. 22.
External links
- Audio recitation of Gita Dhyhanam
- Sanskrit text and transliteration: ver. 1 ver. 2 (Chinmaya Mission)