Dichotomy Between Hindu Religiosity 'n Gita's Spirituality

Long before the advent of the Torah, not to speak of the Bible and the Quran that followed it, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad had it that ".. since he (man) created gods who are better than he: and also because, being mortal, he created immortals, it is his higher creation. Whoever knows this, comes to be in this, his higher creation."

However, in the latter-day Nārāyana Upanishad, the 'mortal man' sought to control the 'immortal god' he himself had created thus:

"daiva dēnam jagat sarvam, / mantrā dēnantu daivatam,

tan mantram brāhmanādēnam, / brāhmano mama dēvata."

It's on god that hinges all / Mantras rein in that godhood

Controlled are those by Brahmans / Making them our own angels.

Going by the purānās, not only the Brahman rishis and maharshis maneuvered gods through yagnās 'n yāgās but also were wont to curse them when offended.

In time though, as if god gained an upper hand in his tussle with man, Lord Krishna, in Bhagavad-Gita, popularly known as the Gita, averred that –

Those as meditate 'n worship / Them I take My wings under (Ch9, v22)

Devout be in heart and soul / Me the Supreme thou shall reach (Ch9 v34)

If thou develop faith in Me / Take for granted I take thee (Ch 12 V8 )

If one remains to Me firm / It's My promise I take him (Ch 18 v65)

Set all aside 'n have faith / Thus sans sin, reach Me thou. (Ch18, v66)

It is in this context that we should read Sir Edwin Arnold's postulations in his introduction to the Gita as The Song Celestial in translation (1885) "...indeed, so striking are some of the moralities here inculcated, and so close the parallelism—ofttimes actually verbal— between its teachings and those of the New Testament, that a controversy has arisen between Pandits and Missionaries on the point whether the author borrowed from Christian sources, or the Evangelists and Apostles from him.

This raises the question of its date, which cannot be positively settled. It must have been inlaid into the ancient epic at a period later than that of the original Mahabharata, but Mr. Kasinath Telang has offered some fair arguments to prove it anterior to the Christian era. The weight of evidence, however, tends to place its composition at about the third century after Christ; and perhaps there are really echoes in this Brahmanic poem of the lessons of Galilee, and of the Syrian incarnation."

Indeed the New Testament affirms that –

The Lord shall fight for you, and you should hold your peace. (John 14:14)

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. (John 15:7)

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Mathew 11:28)

That apart, psalm 115:11of the Old Testament has it that, "You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield."

All the same, the purpose of this article is not to ascertain whether it was plagiarism or parallel thought but, as its title suggests, is about the dichotomy between the Hindu religiosity and Gita's spirituality.

Obviously realizing that the Hindu religiosity was steeped, not in man's surrender to god but in invoking his favours through mantras of assorted rituals, Lord Krishna proclaimed in the second chapter of the Gita thus: