The Bhagavad Gita

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2011

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Bhagavad Gita.The Bhagavad Gita, a 700-verse section of the Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata, is one of the most revered texts of Hinduism. Written in around 200 BC, it narrates a conversation between Krishna, an incarnation of the deity, and the Pandava prince Arjuna. It has been described as a concise summary of Hindu theology, a short work which offers advice on how to live one's life.The Gita is also a philosophical work of great richness and influence. First translated into English in the 18th century, it was quickly taken up in the West. Its many admirers have included Mahatma Gandhi, whose passion for the work is one reason that the Bhagavad Gita became a key text for followers of the Indian Independence movement in the first half of the twentieth century.With:Chakravarthi Ram-PrasadProfessor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy at Lancaster UniversityJulius LipnerProfessor of Hinduism and the Comparative Study of Religion and Fellow of Clare Hall at the University of CambridgeJessica FrazierResearch Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Lecturer in Religious Studies at Regent's College, LondonProducer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	Thanks for downloading the In Our Time Podcast.
0:39.0	For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co. UK forward slash radio for. I hope you enjoy
0:46.5	the program. Hello one of the defining moments in the life of Mahatma Gandhi took place in London in the late 1880s
0:55.0	when the future leader of the Indian Independence Movement was a law student at UCL.
1:00.0	Friends introduced him to an ancient Hindu text. Its effect on him was electric.
1:04.7	The Gita is the universal mother, he wrote 30 years later. When disappointment stares me
1:10.1	in the face and all alone I see not one ray of light I go back to the
1:14.0	Bugved Gita. I find a verse here and a verse there and I immediately
1:18.0	begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies. The Bugved Gita is perhaps the most important scripture of Hinduism, but it's also a hugely
1:26.4	influential philosophical and spiritual text which remains widely read today 2,000 years after
1:32.2	it was written. With me to discuss the
1:34.1	Bugwadgita are Chakravati Ram Prasad, professor of comparative religion and
1:39.4	philosophy at Lancaster University, Julius Lipner, Professor of Hinduism and the Comparative
1:45.1	study of Religion and Fellow of Claire Hall at the University of Cambridge and
1:49.1	Jessica Fraser, Jessica Frazier, research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Lecturer
1:55.3	in Religious Studies at Regents College London.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.