Bhagavad-Gita & the Epic of Gilgamesh

Brett Bond

February 4, 2013

Bhagavad-Gita

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Power and religion are both supreme entities. In The Epic of Gilgamesh and Bhagavad-Gita they both play significant roles in the lives of the main persons. Power overcomes good sometimes and influences one’s mind to make decisions based upon more than good will or helping others. In Bhagavad-Gita, Arjuna struggles with his duty to fight because he is to fight his family and has difficulty following through and fulfilling the duty since there is a strong link and bondage to whom he is to fight. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh also has difficulty but it has to do with power and believing he is better than others due to the fact that he is 2/3 god and 1/3 mortal.

Bhagavad-Gita focuses more on religion and Arjuna being taught by Krishna, the primary Hindu god. Krishna specifically instructs Arjuna in ethical matters and the nature of God. One of the important lessons Arjuna is to learn is why it is his sacred duty to fight. It is for the warriors who fulfills their duty leads them to the gates of heaven.

Throughout the teachings, Krishna encouraged the path to transcendence as accomplishing feats of discipline for mind and soul while including yogic practices of dharma (devotional service), karma (action), meditation and knowledge. This is demonstrated when Arjuna hesitated to battle against relatives. Krishna warned that his fear and hesitation hindered proper balancing of universal dharmic order; and by taking no action to fight, the cosmos would fall out of order and the truth would be obscured. Krishna further advised Arjuna that by detaching himself from his material ego, he could transcend his illusory mortality and attachment to the material world and enter the realm of supreme.

As Arjuna is still learning from Krishna he is approached with the thought of desire, evil, anger and passion. “Arjuna asks, ‘Krishna, what makes a person commit evil against his own will, as if compelled...