The Truth About the Gita

Taking a rationalist skeptical approach a journalist and humanist advocatecritiques the famous BhagavadGita on many levels. Among other things he points out the improbability of the historical events recounted the logical inconsistencies in the work and above all the retrograde moral perspective represented by the characters. He emphasizes that the long dialogue between the warrior Arjuna and Lord Krishna (an incarnation of the god Vishnu) ends up by condoning violence even wholesale slaughter. Furthermore the work extols the Hindu caste system as noble and reinforces superstitions about reincarnation and karma. All of this was anathema to the author who spent much of his career working for human rights and critical thinking.For students of Indian literature in both the East and West this critical appraisal of a classic Hindu epic will prove enlightening.