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Lesson Three: The Bhagavad Gita

Objectives:

Expose students to one of the classics of religious literature and one of the most popular texts in Hinduism
Encourage students to explore the relationship between religious belief and social reality
Develop critical reading skills

Procedure:

Ask students to read selections from The Bhagavad Gita. The assignment below makes use of the excellent selection available in "The Human Record: Sources of Global History" (5th edition, Volume 1: to 1700. Alfred J. Andrea and James H. Overfield, ed. Houghton Mifflin: NY, 2005), but a full translation, usefully divided into sections, can also be found online here. Then ask students to answer the reading questions below.

Assignment:

Read the Introduction to The Bhagavad Gita in "The Human Record: Sources of Global History," pages 67-68 and then the selected section from The Bhagavad Gita itself on pages 68-70. Then answer the following questions:

What is the name of the text the Bhagavad Gita is part of and what kind of text (literary genre) is it?
What is the setting for the story?
Why should Arjuna not grieve for those he is about to kill in battle?
What are Arjuna's duties, his dharma, as a member of the Kshatriya caste?
What are Krishna's reasons for coming to earth? What does that say about his relationship with humans?
Does this text offer any hope for the lowest levels of Hindu society?