Amazing facts of Gita…

Blessed are ones who took birth in the pre-mobile and pre-television era. For then games were always outdoor and books were always indoor.

I grew up listening stories from my mother, my uncles and aunts, my maternal and paternal grandfathers and grandmothers. Rani Mashi, my mothers elder sister was a store house of stories of kings and queens and cowherds and dacoits and rakshasas and bhoot and pishachas and innumerable other entities and non-entities. It was fascinating to listen and read the stories of Ramayana, Mahabharata. My father owned a book stall. He used to sell all kinds of books, academic and non-academics including religious books. There were ample opportunity for me to sneak through a huge volume of books. I was not categorical about them. Any book containing an interesting topic would arrest my attention. The stories from Ramayana, Mahabharata, tales of Jataka were engrossing and used to captivate me for hours. Surprisingly, I can not remember any story from or related to the Gita. There were even no reference of the Gita in any of the stories. Isn’t it surprisingly disappointing that in a country where hardly any sane person available who don’t know about Gita, there is no stories around Gita?

Srimad Bhagwat Gita, or the Gita has always been considered the most sacred book in India and was worshiped as a God. The Gita, the book of all answers which was supposed to be studied and followed in all walks of life, was kept wrapped-up in red cloth and worshiped. It’s the hard work of the saints like AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupad that we are getting a chance to taste the nectar of the Holy book. The Gita has a few very amazing facts which is worth knowing.

  1. Gita starts with a sloka by Dhritarashtra and this is the only sloka by Dhritarashtra.
  2. The holy book contains 700 verses. Five hundred seventy three of them are spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna.
  3. Krishna has not spoken a single word in chapter 1. The first sloka comes from Krishna after 47 sloka. that too only 2 sloka. Krishna comes out with his advises only after Arjuna is completely shuttered, drops his Gandiva and express his complete inability to fight at all. This teaches us a very important lesson. We should not offer advise unsolicited.
  4. ….. to be continued

 

 

Following table contains chapter wise number of sloka spoken by The God himself, Arjuna, Sanjay and Dhritashtra.

Chapter No. Supreme Personality of Godhead Shri Krishna Arjun Sanjay Dhritarashtra Total
1 21 24 1 46
2 63 6 3 72
3 40 3 43
4 41 1 42
5 28 1 29
6 41 6 47
7 30 30
8 26 2 28
9 34 34
10 35 7 42
11 14 32 9 55
12 19 1 20
13 34 1 35
14 26 1 27
15 20 20
16 24 24
17 27 1 28
18 71 2 5 78
573 85 41 1 700