Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on August 21, 2011.

In this talk, Swami Bhaskarananda outlines the historical and spiritual setting of the Bhagavad Gita and explains why it is regarded as one of the world’s great scriptures. He begins with the ancient Aryan civilization, whose sages gradually discovered supersensuous truths about God, the soul, and the universe. These revelations were preserved in the Vedas and later systematized by Vyasa. The Bhagavad Gita, he explains, is revered as containing the essence of the Vedas and Upanishads in just over seven hundred verses, presented as the “song of God” spoken by Sri Krishna, regarded as a divine incarnation.

Swamiji describes the Gita’s dramatic context on the battlefield of Kurukshetra and its central teachings on the immortality of the soul, the limitations of ritual, and the paths of karma, bhakti, raja, and jnana yoga. He notes scholarly debates about the age of the text and whether it is an original part of the Mahabharata, highlighting linguistic and scriptural evidence that support its antiquity and integral place in the epic. Sri Krishna is presented not only as an incarnation but also as a reformer who redefines true renunciation and yoga as selfless, unattached action and God-centered living, accessible to householders as well as monks. Swamiji closes by encouraging careful study of the Gita as a direct doorway into the depth of the Hindu spiritual tradition.