Revelation, Interpretation, and Analysis: M.V. Nadkarni’s Engagement with the Gita

It is a truism of every religion that its history and the texts that launch that history follow a twofold trajectory. What typically begins with revelation moves forward through interpretation. That transition comes first as interpretive disagreement regarding what actually constitute the divinely revealed or inspired texts, and then to interpretive disputes regarding how to understand and activate the agreed-upon revealed words. Nowhere is this truth more evident than for the Bhagavad Gita. Embedded within the larger narrative of the Mahabharata, the Gita offers a shruti (divinely inspired/revealed; lit: “heard”) text within a smrti (human-devised; lit: “remembered”) text, thus raising the interpretive question of whether or how to understand it as a revelation in the first place. Moreover, it is endlessly rich with elements that demand interpretive discussion, from its literal vs allegorical intentions to the nature of God that it presents. Not surprisingly, the Gita has been subject to scores of analyses, historically and recently. No discussion of the Gita and its interpreters is more eloquent or more effective than M.V. Nadkarni’s The Bhagavad Gita for the Modern Reader. Nadkarni manages to offer both concision and depth in presenting a multitude of analyses and transitioning smoothly from that layered discussion to his own overarching and detailed analysis of the text, while also encompassing criticisms and responses to those criticisms and the diverse range of applicability of the narrative to both spiritual aspiration and everyday behavior geared toward helping to improve the world.