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| Michelangelo Buonarroti - The Creation of Adam - 1508-1512 |
The first thing I noticed when picking up the Bhagavad Gita was the extensive forward written to explain the complex concepts behind the untranslatable Hindu terminology. The translator identifies four key words: "samkhya, dharma, yoga, and guna" and then devotes the next several pages to define them, each term needing several other culturally specific words such as "atman", "Brahman", "samsara", "karma", "prakriti" etc. to bolster the definition (ie: “Purusha is animated by prakriti” (Patton xvii)).
The need for this lesson terminology underlines the cultural distance between one of the Hindu “Holy Texts” and the Christian Bible. Western readers require pages of explanation for concepts captured in a single word in the Sanskrit language. Do Indian readers need similar lessons in the concept of an angel, a miracle, or a sacrament? What of the significance of “Mary”, of “Eden”, or the ubiquitous children’s motif of paired animals on a boat? Probably, but my immersion in my Westernised environment rarely considers this viewpoint. Although I have had little interaction with any formal religious teachings, these Western icons are as familiar and identifiable to me as Superman, Wonder Woman and Big Bird.
Further to that, the presenters of Genesis are aware of this Western mindset. There is no explanation for the word firmament, a key noun in the first book (a "firmament" is an ancient understanding of the sky as a solid entity surrounding the earth). Still, even as a Western reader, Genesis is full of stories that I was unfamiliar with. For example, I did not know that a rainbow is a symbol of God's promise not to cleanse the earth of human-kind, as he did in Noah's time. I was aware that the New Testament promised a "kinder, gentler" God, but I was unprepared for the God who walks upon Earth with men, who demands sacrifices, and is as fickle and emotional as a Greek God. Finally, I was prepared for an ongoing condemnation of women due to the introduction of original sin, but I was unprepared for the simple inclusion of so many women, by name, throughout the text.
Genesis is a plot driven collection of stories which clearly have roots in oral tradition. These stories are presented in almost point form - I was shocked to see that the famous story of Babel for example, was only nine lines long (11). The Christian tradition of the West has built these simple tales into robust, complex, character-driven stories appropriate to modern consumers. The historian recording the stories was aware that they were well known.. in fact, key parts of the stories are at times appended to the end of the tales in much the same fashion that an excited child will fill in a blank in a story that he missed (ie."Oh yeah, I forgot that he had to do that 'For the LORD had closed all the wombs of the house of Abim'elech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife' (20.18)).
Surprisingly, Genesis is a text full of acceptable deceit, which serves as both a form of protection and a means to power. Abraham routinely (12,20) pretends that Sarah is his sister when travelling (although later he confusingly clarifies that she is, indeed, his half-sister). Dinah's brothers trick the Hivites into a mass circumcision in order to weaken them before attack (34). Lot's daughters purposefully feed their father wine in order to lie with him to get child (19). Jacob pretends to be Esau in order to get his father's blessing (27), and Joseph uses lies and trickery to teach his brothers a lesson during the famine (44). In a world where "might is right", craftiness is seen to be an advantage rather than a character flaw.
Instead of presented as a interpretable collection of teaching stories like the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita is presented in a much more straight-forward series of lectures between a wise-one and his pupil. Here, the Arjuna asks direction and advice about specific, earthly matters, and the god Vishnu (presented here in his avatar Krishna), answers in larger, philosophical terms.
A large part of the Bhagavad Gita's focus is on yoga, and the methodical practice of spiritual and physical devotion. It also speaks of the soul and what happens after death (concepts I did not even notice were missing in the Genesis section of the Bible we reviewed). Krishna says: "The self is not born nor does it ever die. Once it has been, this self will never cease to be again. Unborn, eternal, continuing from the old, the self is not killed when the body is killed" (2.20). Unlike in the Christian tradition of some form of union with God after death, the eternal Hindu souls are living extensions of God (in this case Krishna (10), and are reborn again in new form: "Just as one throws out old clothes and then takes on other, new ones; so the embodied self casts out old bodies as it gets other, new ones." (2.22)
Both texts treat women as the weaker, more morally vulnerable sex and both texts treat women as subservient to the men - more than that, women are viewed as commodities and a central piece in a man's heritage and legacy. Certainly, in the Bible, God continually promises boons not only to his prophets, but to all future generations (9.12). When Dinah is raped, her brothers are outraged as she is treated as a harlot, shaming their family name. In the Bhagavad Gita, the reason that this reaction is natural is clarified even further as Sanjaya notes that when "the women of the family are defiled, [] cast-confusion is born in the corruption of women" (1.41), indicating that without careful management of women, the mixing of defined classes will cause social confusion.
Social hierarchy is key in both texts - God, or the Gods are the ultimate powers, and their chosen rule over the rest of the human race. In Genesis, the class system is reinforced by the way that the ruling class has full authority over their servants, as demonstrated by Sarah's dominion over Hagar. In the Bhagavad Gita, the caste system is holy and explicitly spelled out over and over again "The four castes were brought forth by me, distributing "gunas" with actions" (4.13). The importance of the caste system is undeniable, tied to one's dharma, or personal path, and the dangers of disrupting it are warned against repeatedly.
Works Cited:
The Bhagavad Gita. Trans. Laurie L. Patton. New York: Penguin Classics, 2008. Print.
The Book of Genesis: (Revised Standard Version). Web.
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