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Subrat SaurabhAuthor of Kuch Woh Pal
The preamble of Gita is that when Pandav Prince Arjun refused to fight the war against the Kauravas, his charioteer and counsellor Krishn counselled him, advising him about his duty at that moment. Hence, the narrative of Gita is set in a framework of a dialogue between Arjun and Krishn. In the present form of Gita, which consists of 700 shlokas, the subjects covered are very wide. The talk between Krishn and Arjun could not have been so long and diversified on the battlefield and also in a poetic framework; they must have spoken to each other in simple colloquial Sanskrit or any other prevalent language of that era. That implies that Maharshi Ved Vyas narrated the conversation by applying his poetic ability in Bhishm Parv of the Mahabharat.
A very ancient copy of the Gita was recovered from the island of Bali. That had only 70 shlokas. Those 70 shlokas have been used in 700 shlokas either fragmented or in full. This is understandable as the original Mahabharat, which consisted of only 4400 shlokas, got elongated to more than one lakh shlokas over a long period of time. Naturally, the same kind of changes must have happened in Bhishm Parv, hence the Gita.
This book is a gentle attempt to present the original 70 shlokas with their meanings along with commentary.
Mahendra Arya
Mahendra Arya, 66 years old, is an engineer by education. Writing in Hindi as well as English has been his passion. He is a multi-faceted person, who writes fiction, thrillers, mythology, plays and poetry. The lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic inspired him to take up writing as a regular hobby. His mythological books, Kaikayi – the Misunderstood Queen and Draupadi Demystified have been extremely popular among his readers. His earlier books include thrillers like Facebook Friends and Tangents and a Circle, of which Facebook Friends has won the Best Plot of the Year 2022 award by the renowned publisher Ukiyoto; the book is being considered for making into a film by an established TV channel. His book The First Scam – Story of Haridas Mundhra was published recently, and is about a major scam, which took place after the Independence of India.
