A Western Seer's View of The Bhagavad Gita
In The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners (New World Library, 2001), author Jack Hawley takes us masterfully through the greatest of Hindu scriptures. He ponders and interprets the deepest questions asked and answered about life and death and everything beyond and between in the 700-verse poem originally written in Sanskrit, The Bhagavad Gita, the heart and soul of the epic Mahabharata. Through Hawley's lens it's crucial to read not just his interpretation of the text of Gita itself. We must also read Hawley's preface, introduction, epilogue and afterword to get a better idea of how the Gita has guided Hawley through the most difficult questions we have about our existence in this sphere: What is our purpose here? Is there an infinite source of knowledge and wisdom? Is this source God and how do we come to know God and reach our purpose? What is this painful cycle of birth and death and how do we grow beyond it and find transcendence?
We begin to receive the answers early on in the Gita. "Never lose sight of the overriding goal, which is to free yourself from bondage during this lifetime, to shed attachment to worldly things, detach from ego, and truly release yourself from the wheel of birth and death. When you do this, you actually become one with God." (Hawley, 21-22) Hawley takes us clearly through this path in the story of the Gita as we examine how the protagonist warrior, Arjuna, faces a call to battle to avenge wrongdoing and fight the good fight even against enemies who were once friends. As Arjuna begins to experience doubts about whether good can come from the suffering that he will inflict on his former friends, we see that the Gita is about battle and struggle on a much wider scale. In the answers that Godhead Krishna provides in response to Arjuna, accompanying him on the battlefield, we encounter the theme of the Gita. We see its rendering of the journey that we must follow through our own internal struggles to find our ultimate purpose in the middle of external struggle and chaos as well.
As the tale of Arjuna and Krishna unfolded, I gained a deepening appreciation of how profoundly the original work addresses the most mysterious things in life, and how masterfully Hawley walks us through the tale and highlights what we can readily apply to our own lives. Ultimately the message of the Gita is that our only path away from the cycle of life and death and inevitable pain is through surrender of our ego, our greed, our desire, our anger, our overemphasis on sensual pleasure to become one with the Divinity: "Fix your mind on Me. Give Me your whole heart. Revere Me always and bow before Me only. Make Me your very own. By these acts you shall discover Me and come to Me. I promise you this because we are forever linked by love, this greatest of unifying forces. This Divine love is both the means for reaching Me and the ultimate goal of all human existence; indeed, it is the pinnacle of human spiritual achievement." (Hawley 165) We see this message delivered again and again, and one of my only reservations about this work is that perhaps it isn't necessary to have the point driven home so many times. We see too, that Krishna, emphasizing our purpose as our duty, our dharma, also tells Arjuna to "...renounce all dharmas and take refuge in Me alone." (Hawley 165) However, Krishna qualifies this: "Giving up dharmas does not mean you suddenly become nonvirtuous; it indicates you have simply moved beyond it all. Taking refuge in Me means that you give up the idea that you are the doer; then it is as though all of your acts are performed by Divinity Itself for Its sake alone, with no concern about whether the acts are dharmic or adharmic. When you are acting as God for God it is impossible to do something adharmic." (Hawley 165) In this way once again the theme comes full circle, encompassing what seems to be contradictory into a larger merging whole.
Even so, Hawley's introduction and afterword make it clear that one reading of the Gita is just scratching the surface: "...when we read the Gita again and again, as all scriptures should be read, the words grow in us." (Hawley 171) It's clear that the Gita and Hawley's approach to it are of major value to any of us on a spiritual journey seeking answers to the deepest questions. What's particularly valuable about the Gita as a foundational text and Hawley's interpretation as a significant guide in our spiritual journey is that Hawley clearly consider the Gita a cornerstone of his own spiritual growth. Curious about what other works Hawley might have written about the Gita, I found that he followed this book with another devoted to the Gita: https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Wisdom-Bhagavad-Gita-Ancient-ebook/dp/B004CYFBEA/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=hawley+the+bhagavad+gita&qid=1646201288&s=digital-text&sr=1-4 I have added this to my reading list after being inspired not just by the work itself and Hawley's interpretation but also by interviews with Hawley:
Bhagavata Purana Research Project, 2019
In short, I greatly recommend this book to all who would like to explore the Gita further or just would like another perspective about transcendence and purpose here on Earth.
Works Cited
Hawley, Jack. The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners. New World Library 2001
Hawley, Jack. The Essential Wisdom of The Bhagavad Gita: Ancient Truths for Our Modern World. New World Library 2006
The Historians Hut website, thehistorianshut.com, accessed 1 Mar 2022
Bhagavad Purana Society website, youtube.com, accessed 1 Mar 2022
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