RELI 288 - Devotion and Detachment: Lessons from the Bhagavad Gita

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as ASIA 288) Since its emergence some two thousand years ago, the Bhagavad Gītā (“the song of the blessed one”) has become a cornerstone of Hindu traditions all over the world. The Gita’s life begins as series of chapters in the Sanskrit epic Mahābhārata, when the great warrior Arjuna refuses to fight in a battle that is unfolding before him—a battle that would require him to kill his own relatives, teachers, and loved ones. In response, Krishna—who is Arjuna’s charioteer and closest friend, and who also reveals himself to be God—persuades Arjuna to fight by offering an extraordinary account of divinity, devotion, action, detachment, concentration, ritual, ethics, and social theory. Thus the Gita invites intellectual challenge and philosophical rigor at the same time that it proffers an emotional education; as a response to Arjuna’s grief and desperation, it is deeply humane. In the first half of our course students read closely from the Gita itself, working to place Krishna’s complex discourse in the context of early South Asian religious currents—Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain alike. In the second half of the course students learn how the Gita has come to be the immensely popular text that is is today. We explore early commentaries and devotional retellings; we analyze the Gita’s remarkable deployment in the service of both transculturalism and nationalism (primarily through figures such as Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda); and we interpret the Gita’s outsize role in popular religious movements today. Nell Hawley.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS