(CHAKRA) The Bhagavad Geeta is one of the highly revered and most read scriptures in the Hindu community with great consecration. It is the essence of all the Vedas in concise where the Lord Krishna delivered this hymn in the battle field to Arjuna when he peevishly declined to fight the battle in the Kurukshetra. Lord Krishna very kindly assures us in his most profound verse 4:7:
yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamyaham
Synonyms word by word
yada–whenever; yada–wherever; hi–certainly; dharmasya–of religion; glanih–discrepancies; bhavati–manifested, becomes; bharata–O descendant of Bharata; abhyutthanam–predominance; adharmasya–of irreligion; tada–at that time; atmanam–self; srjami–manifest; aham–I.
Translation
Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and there is a predominant rise of irreligion (wicked) — at that time I manifest and descend Myself.
Lord Krishna doesn’t stop at that only. He further asserts in the next verse 4:8:
paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya cha duskrtam
dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge
Synonyms word by word
paritranaya–for the deliverance; sadhunam–of the devotees; vinasaya–for the annihilation; ca–also; duskrtam–of the miscreants; dharma–principles of religion; samsthapana-arthaya–to reestablish; sambhavami–I do appear; yuge–millennium; yuge–after millennium.
Translation
In order to deliver and rescue the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I reincarnate Myself millennium after millennium.
This is a most abstruse exclamation to assure the righteous to continue their pious work fearlessly.
Arjun and Lord Krishna
In chapter four Lord Krishna actually reveals how the spiritual knowledge is received by disciplic succession and the reason and nature of His descent into the material worlds. Here He also explains the paths of action and knowledge as well as the wisdom regarding the supreme knowledge which results at the culmination of the two paths. Thus this chapter is entitled: Approaching the Ultimate Truth – “Transcendental Knowledge”.
The Bhagavad-gita is universally renowned as the jewel of India’s spiritual wisdom. Spoken by Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead to His intimate disciple Arjuna, the Gita’s seven hundred concise verses provide a definitive guide to the science of self realization. No other philosophical or religious work reveals, in such a lucid and profound way, the nature of consciousness, the self, the universe and the Supreme.
With this sacred prelude to the most consecrated and Holy scripture unparalleled in the whole world, I find it not intriguing to see that the Russian Orthodox Church has dragged it in the Court of Law in controversy in the lovely city of Tomsk, in Siberia in Russia. Problem is with the dwindling followers of the Catholicism world over. Russian Orthodox Church is already in controversy due to breaking its link with the Vatican City more than a millennium ago. They are trying to find a foothold in the stranglehold of the Communist Russia when they were severely persecuted in the regimes of Stalinist Inc chieftains. Now they are doing their bestt to please the current Putin factor who is trying to look somewhere in between and that has emboldened them. They seem to have suddenly discovered their Avatar in him. The current Russian generation are open minded and the Siberians including the Tomskoyeans are secular minded, thus the angst of the Russian Orthodox Church against the Holy scripture Srimad Bhagavad Geeta is obvious. Geeta is becoming quite popular in that region. Hindus have always been very peace loving people unlike the present day Abrahamic religions especially the Jihadi mind set of current radicalised Islamists who have disturbed the peace of the entire world.
Even amidst this controversial and sad affair as it may appear, there is always that good sublimes like the nectar from the churning of the ocean. In Catholic-dominated Poland, an earlier stronghold of the Communist Russia, a Polish Lady viz. by Anna Racinska, a mother of four grown-up children, has directly translated it from Sanskrit. Though there is a translation of the Gita in Polish, it was translated from English in the beginning of the 20th century.
Anna Racinska, who has spent almost a decade in Varanasi to master the nuances of Sanskrit. Anna Racinska, who is in her 60s and completed her doctorate (Ph D) from the Oriental Institute of Warsaw University two years ago, has certainly immortalised herself with this sacred work.
It is heartening to know that Anna was supported by her husband and today all her children, parents and her husband converse in Sanskrit at home perfectly fluently. It sounds incredible and I certainly cannot believe it especially when in its own home in India, there are very few takers for such a sacred knowledge. No wonder that in the above verses, Lord Krishna has said it all.
Her youngest sibling has adopted an Indian name, Yoganand, and he lives in Varanasi. He and his mother were learning Sanskrit together for many years. Another son, Phillip, is doing his doctorate in Sanskrit and has visited India more than 12 times. These children collect their own money to go to India and they give private lessons in Hindi and Sanskrit in Warsaw. Such is their commitment and selfless passion for Sanskrit.
Janusz Krzyzowski, a leading Indologist and president of the Indo-Polish Cultural Committee said, “It is a great achievement for Anna Racinska that she remained unknown for many years, and then all of a sudden she has obliged us in Poland with a great translation of a great book,”
Monika Kapila Mohta, Indian ambassador to Poland said, “We really feel proud of Racinska’s monumental work… But she deserves our praise and we feel proud of her achievement. We sincerely hope she will produce some more outstanding research books for the coming generations.”
The Bhagavad Gita, often called the “perennial philosophy”, is already available in over 50 languages.
Dr. O. P. Sudrania
(Dr. O. P. Sudrania is a senior retired teacher in surgery and a medico-legal counsellor; now also engaged in research of spiritual and socio-political analytical science as a part of service to humanity. He retired as Emeritus Professor in Surgery from Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. )