Gitas in Mahabharata - Introduction - 2

- Ramesh Mukhopadhyaya

Each gita is a kind of samvada, Samvada is often a conversation
between two or more participants. But it might be a pure narrative as
well. For example the tenth chapter of the Anu gita is entitled Parasuram
Arjuna Samvad. It dewlls on how the legendary hero Kartaviryarjuna
tormented the ocean only to learn who could be a match for him in
prowess. Once again there is the Alarka Sambad in the same Anu gita
which dramatises a conversation between Alarka and his senses.
The gitas are also, a kind of sambad. Every Chapter of the Srimad
Bhagavad Gita ends with Iti Srikrisnarjuna sambade...etc. Srimad
Bhagavad Gita has set a convention and the Gita is a unique genre in
its own right. Genre implies a convention that communicates to the
reader what is expected from it. We never go to a post office for
prayer. We never go to a church to post a letter. This is because
genres in architecture are well defined. Similarly genres in literature
are often well defined. The reader can go to a novel or a lyric, according
to what he seeks. Let us now see into the genre called gita & learn
what we could expect from it.
As we have already pointed out, the gita is often a conversation
between two persons, sometimes it is a conversation among six persons
as in Sadja Gita. There Vidura and the five brothers—the Pandavas
participate in a discourse. In other instances it is commonly, a discourse
between two persons. The Vritra gita is a discourse between the demon
Vritra and Sanat Kumar—the child of Brahma, the Creator. The
Parasara Gita has been addressed by Parasara, the saint par-excellence
who happens to be the father of the very narrator of the Mahabharata.
The addressee here is the sage king Janaka. The Hamsa Gita is a
conversation between the Creator in the shape of a Swan and a host
of gods known as Sadhyas.
Thus the two persons participating in the gita need not be men
always. There might be a demon participating in it. There might be a
swan as well. The latter adds to the gita a flavour of the fable.
The two persons could be the personas of someone’s mind &
intellect as well. The Brahman gita a sub-set of the Anu gita is a
conversation between a Brahmin & his wife. The Brahman is the
persona of one’s intellect and the wife is the persona of one’s mind.
Thus even abstract ideas participate in the conversation of the gita
reminding us of the Morality Dramas in vogue during the Middle Age
Europe.
But the gita is not always a conversation between two persons. It
could be a dramatic monologue as in the case of Manky gita. Manky
a poor man fails in his economic pursuits and takes to renunciation.
He speaks to himself about his philosophy of life. A listener could be
present there; or may be there is none.
A gita could be a decree or a sermon as in the case of Vichakhnyu
gita where the king Vichakhnyu at the sight of cows slaughtered decrees
that no animal be slaughtered at the altar of sacrifice.
Most of these gitas have been quoted by the protagonists of the
Mahabharata in response to the queries of another. Thus Bhisma quotes
the Vritra gita in response to the queries of Yudhisthira, when the great
battle at Kurukshetra was over. The same Bhisma quotes the Bodhya
gita, and Vichakhnyu gita or the Hamsa gita on different occasions.
The listener is Yudhisthira. But the Sadja gita dwells on the deliberations
among the Pandavas and Vidura, their uncle, regarding the importance
of the different necessities of life in dharma artha kama & moksha.
Srimad Bhagavad Gita is however, directly addressed to Arjuna.
Krishna is the speaker. The same gita has been however quoted by
Sanjaya to keep Dhritarastra informed of the developments at
Kurukshetra where the belligerent Kauravas & Pandavas assembled
for a fight to the finish. Thus the gita is either a conversation among
people or else it is a speech quoted by one person in course of
conversation with another. Any conversation implies two persons. One
of them is eager to know something on an issue of crucial importance
to him. He puts forward his query before the other, whom he takes in
high esteem. The other, fully satisfied with the former’s devotion to
him and eagerness to know, either answers to the query on his own or
quotes someone’s speech on likely issue, spoken earlier.
For example Arjuna bewildered and at his wits’ end knowing not
what to do at the battleground submits himself at the feet of Krishna &
says—
I am your disciple. Teach me.
Siddha, the teacher, in the Anu gita tells Kasyapa that he is
satisfied with the devotion of his disciple.
The teacher must be satisfied with the disciple.
I am happy with thee, oh you learned
Tell me what I can do for you.
You are quite deserving for what you want.
And the right time is come. (A.G.-I, 42)
Yes, utterance at the right time is one of the important features of
the gita.
Srikrishna had earlier told the gita to Arjuna at the battle ground of
Kurukshetra. The Kurukshetra battle over, Arjuna once again asked
Krishna to repeat the contents of the gita once again.
But Krishna says that he is now helpless. Because, the situation
that impelled Krishna to utter the gita at the battle-field is no longer
present. When he told the gita to Arjuna, he points out that he was
yogayukta or under the spell of ecstasy. He chides Arjuna for not
remembering what Krishna told him earlier at the battle field.
Thus, the gita has always been uttered in a fit of ecstasy. When the
speaker is beyond himself. The utterance takes place as it were for
the first time and it is unique. Since one cannot say the gita. Whenever
one wills, could we argue that speech reveals itself through its speakers
whenever it wills.
The gita like all speech has three components in the encoder/speaker,
the decoder/listener and the speech or the gita itself.
It has been already pointed out, the speakers and the listeners of
the gita are no ordinary men and women. Yudhisthira, in quest of
knowledge tells Bhisma at the outset of the Vritra Gita.
Oh Grandfather ! Though we belong to men we are born of gods, still we
suffer from worldly sorrows. (VG -1, 2)
Yudhisthira is a man born of the seed of Yama, the deity that
controls the world. The addressee, Grandfather Bhisma is also born
of a mortal father & the goddess of the river Ganges. It is the grandfather
who quotes the Vritra Gita where Vritra, a demon puts forward his
queries and Sanat Kumar, the direct descendant of the Creator Brahma,
is the teacher. The frame of these gitas are chiefly conversation between
Yudhisthira and Bhisma or between Arjuna & Krishna. In Srimad
Bhagavad Gita Krishna himself speaks the gita. In the Sadja gita
Yudhisthira and his four brothers and Bidura who is also born of Yama
participate in a discourse. In other gitas, there are more than one
order of addressor & addressee. For example in the Vritra gita, the
first order of addressor and addressee are Yudhisthira and Bhisma. At
the instance of Yudhisthira Bhisma quotes the conversation between
the fallen demon and Sanat Kumar and Sukracharya the teacher of
the demons. That is the second order of addressor & addressee. As
in Anugita, there could be a third order of addressor & addressee &
so on.
As we have already referred to the Siddha’s spech in the Anu gita,
it is evident that any Tom Dick & Harry cannot be the listener of such
gitas. In the Srimad Bhagavad Gita also Krishna observes
I tell you the most secret thing.
You are dear to me.
Hence I tell you for your well-being
Sarvaguhyatamam bhuyah srinu me paramam vacah
Istosi me dridamiti tato vakshyami te hitam. (B.G- XVIII, 64)
Krishna warns Arjuna
Never impart it to a man sans penance
or sans devotion
Don’t tell it to one who does not want to hear
Or to one who despises me. (BH.G-XVIII, 67)
This puts in one’s minds the reader’s aesthetics. To decode the
text, it needs a competent reader. While the modern critics like Riffaterre
demand of the reader certain critical faculties and certain faculties of
imagination necessary to decode a text, the Bhagavad Gita, asks
something more from the reader. (i) He should be adept in penance.
(ii) He should have reverence. (iii) He must not despise the speaker or
author. (iv) He must be willing to read or hear. But, be that as it may,
Krishna spoke to Arjuna at the battleground of Kurukshetra in the
open space so that quite a few of the warriors could hear him besides
Arjuna. Hence the gitas are not necessarily the secret lore to be
imparted to a select few. By Vedavyasa’s own admission it must be
accepted that the Mahabharata & the Puranas, have been composed
only to be imparted among the masses, irrespective of caste or creed
or sex. And yet the Mahabharata itself argues that no one can fully
decode it.
(From A Study of the Gitas in Mahabharata by Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya )