The Complete BhagavadGitopanisad

Discover The Bhagavad-Gita before the Mahabharata, an Upanishad revealing the teachings of an awakened master, nicknamed "krishna" (Black) in the Hindu tradition. Dive into an original Bhagavad-Gita, stripped of Arjuna's dialogue and Hindu mythology.

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This book is an Upanishad predating the Mahābhārata. The Sanskrit word Upanishad means: "To come and sit respectfully at the feet of the master to listen to his teachings," which corresponds to satsang.

Upanishad also means: "hearing," "ear," "revealed knowledge," or Veda (in Sanskrit). In this Upanishad, there is frequent mention of Dharma, as understood by Siddhartha, the historical Buddha.

The Upanishads extend the Veda-Samhitas. There are more than one hundred different Upanishads, including ten principal ones. The major Upanishads, the oldest, are believed to have been written between 800 and 500 BCE.

Later, an Arya, known as the Buddha (awakened) Gautama Siddhartha, taught the path of Dharma (Dhamma in Pali). At the same time, a Chinese sage, Lao-Tzu, named this teaching, this spiritual path (mārga): Tao. Tao means "The Way" and refers to both the path (the sadhana or Dharma) and the goal: the All.

The Bhagavadgītopanishad is a collection of words attributed to an awakened being, or buddha, whose name has been forgotten. It is a text of original Vedic tradition, not to be confused with Hindu scriptures. Original Vedic tradition existed long before Hinduism.

This Vedic tradition was brought by the Aryas from Bactria, a historical region of Central Asia located between the Hindu Kush mountains and the Amu Darya river, now divided among Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and the northern plateaus of present-day Iran.

These Aryas, arriving in what became Kashmir, integrated the mysticism of the ancient peoples of the vanished Harappan civilization with their own mysticism. It is possible that the original practices aimed at achieving the state of yoga or inner peace have their roots in this Indus civilization. Original yoga may date back about eight thousand years.

The awakened being who taught the mysticism of the Upanishad discussed here was an indigenous man with dark skin, similar to the Dravidians or the current Munda and Adivasi peoples. The Aryas, on the other hand, were light-skinned.

Due to his dark, Dravidian-like skin, this awakened being was nicknamed Krishna, which means "the dark" or "the black" in Sanskrit. In the original Vedas of the Aryas, many people, men and women, were similarly nicknamed because of their dark complexion.

Krishna is therefore not a proper name designating a specific person, any more than the word buddha, meaning "awakened," was the name of a person. Both terms are descriptive adjectives.

This book conveys the same knowledge as the Tao Te Ching, the Dhammapada, the Yoga-Sūtra, the Gospel, the Bhaktimārga, and other works of the same nature, such as the Guru Granth Sahib, for example.

If a fundamental truth exists, the books that speak of it necessarily describe the same truth. These books, written at different times, in different places, and in different languages, and translated by linguists often unaware of the practices they describe, may seem to present distinct teachings. Yet, by reading them carefully, translating them into a common language, and understanding their mysticism through practice, their similarities become apparent.