Comparisons & Contrasts of Bhagavad Gita and Tao te Ching

Wisdom is formless, it has no shape.  It is, though, a very dense substance, like water, and like water, wisdom can fill a vessel—the vessels, for the purpose of the subject here, being the mind or the body.  When wisdom enters vessels is when it becomes attainment.  Attainment is equal to understanding.  Understanding allows merciful relations by giving way to right judgement.  All of these manifestations are perceived to be knowledge.  Knowledge is beautiful.  To know the intricacies of the creative process has been the search of mankind since the invention of language. 

A few ancient texts describe wisdom.  Two that will be discussed here are Bhagavad Gita and Tao te Ching.  Bhagavad Gita is the cornerstone of the Hindu faith, was written in India, and is thought to have been penned sometime between the 5th and 2nd century BCE.  Mahatma Gandhi thought of Bhagavad Gita as his spiritual dictionary.  It is comprised of exactly 700 verses.  Tao te Ching was written around the same time but wasn’t transliterated into English until the 19th century AD.  This is most likely because it was written in Classical Chinese, which can be altogether difficult to understand.  According to Holmes Welch, "It is a famous puzzle which everyone would like to feel he had solved” (Welch, 1965).  Even the word Tao is more precisely pronounced as it is more accurately spelled, Dao.  It became the foundation of a widely known, Oriental religion called Taoism, or Daoism.  Both texts are considered very sacred and should be read with an open heart and mind.
          The kinds of wisdom discussed in the Gita are of the government of creation by the three modes of material nature or Gunas, transcendentalism, awareness of impermanence, and also the identity of the Self in respects to the all that is.  The attainment revealed in the Tao te Ching is a sort of awareness of the Way that is called Tao, which is parallel to the truth revealed in the Gita but also is easier for an outsider of the culture to accept, being that it does not evoke a deity.  As is stated, “Just realize where you come from; this is the essence of wisdom” (14).

            The awakening described in both contribute to savvy individual and communal structure and peace.  Bhagavad Gita and Tao te Ching differ however in their revelation about the source of structure and peace.  In Bhagavad Gita, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, called Krishna, teaches that He is the creator of the entire system that governs creation, the giver of sustenance, and the destroyer of what is no longer necessary.  In Tao te Ching, Lao Tzu, the author, suggests that the governing system itself, has always existed, and does not require a name to be exalted or identified.  In fact, the Tao teaches that “The Tao (Way) that can be named is not the eternal Tao (Way)” (1).  Denouncing any dogma and perhaps implying, in the practical sense, that His instructions are all allegorical, Krishna states in chapter 18 of the Gita, “Abandon all varieties of religion, and surrender unto Me.  I will deliver you from all sinful reactions” (18:66).  Practicing surrender to an idea is more proactive that surrendering to an image or character outside of the Self.

            Both the devotion to God implored in the Gita and the embrace of the way explained by the Tao are meant to make a person closer to perfection.  The Tao te Ching says that in striving for perfection, perfection becomes less achievable.  The Gita says that a person should always strive to control the senses for the purpose of attaining the eternal.  Controlling one’s relationship to sense objects and resting in absolution are not so very different really.  In the Gita, Krishna describes it as what the Hindus call Dharma, “By following his qualities of work, every man can become perfect” (18:45).  The following illustration can relay the link that makes them similar: if a person is constantly attached to the concept of being incomplete, they are more likely to chase after sense pleasure in order to fill the void they assume that they have.  If, however, a person refutes the thought that they are not whole, then they can rest in amazement and live with simplicity.

            Krishna, in the Gita, refers to other scriptures He supposedly inspired and the purposes of other parts of the Hindu culture by talking about chants and rituals that He claims are beneficial for whatever reason, truly known only by one learned in Sanskrit, the language with which the Gita was written.  Tao te Ching is not so ritualistic to prescribe particular actions for cleansing but instead inspires deeper contemplation for the attainment of wise stature. 

The way in the Gita is called, as mentioned earlier, transcendentalism, which is defined as an existence beyond the material world.  Materialism is also shunned by the Tao, and the purpose of Taoism is to be at one with the Tao, which the texts says “has no desire for itself,” (7) and having desire for the self is one way to identify the materialistic in nature.  Tao te Ching says “Fill your bowl to the brim, and it will spill” (9).  In the Gita, Krishna says to Arjuna who is lamenting over seeing his friends and relatives on the opposite side of a battlefield, “While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor the dead” (2:11).  Indifference to duality is a piece of wisdom that can be learned by both those who study the Gita and followers of the Tao.

            Another revelation in both texts are that the physical world and everything in it is an illusion.  Both texts use the word “dispel” as the action to apply to those appearances.  In the Gita, Arjuna says to Krishna, “This is my doubt, O Krsna, and I ask You to dispel it completely. But for Yourself, no one is to be found who can destroy this doubt” (6:39).  In Tao te Ching, Lao Tzu writes, “He has no will of his own.  He dwells in reality and lets all illusion go” (38).  The illusions in the Gita is that there is some other way, besides what is being explained by Krishna.  The illusions in Tao te Ching is something extra appearing outside of a person that is added by external forces.

            Both the Gita and the Tao say that to know the way in actuality, in practice, and to attain by it is altogether, hardly possible.  Krishna says in the Gita, “Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth” (7:3).  Likewise, Tao te Ching states, “So unclear, so indistinct, Within it there is image, So indistinct, so unclear, Within it there is substance, So deep, so profound, Within it there is essence” (21).  Arjuna states in the Gita that Krishna is “both the knower of everything and the object of knowledge” (13:11).  The Tao te Ching states, “Its name never departs, To observe the source of all things, How do I know the nature of the source?, With this” (21).  So, paradoxically, both texts seem to offer wisdom that is unreachable and, at the same time, they both inspire the seeker to reach towards what is thereby imperishable.

            Krishna instructs devotees in the Gita, “Perform your prescribed duty, for action is better than inaction. A man cannot even maintain his physical body without work” (3:8).  The Tao te Ching instructs followers to be “Simple in actions and in thoughts” (66).  Simplicity may be the best quality of heart that one can attain, especially since it is required of us modern humans that we “earn a living,” and duty is life’s service.  We should take heart of that as Yeshua, or Jesus as He is well known, is quoted in the Gospel of John saying, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” (16:33) 

            It has been said and taught by many sages that Jesus is an advent of Krishna.  Krishna Himself speaks of His many births into the world.  “In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium” (4:8).  That sounds like the whole purpose of the Messiah in a fallen world, which is who Jesus of Nazereth is said to be.  Also, Krishna states in a chapter of the Gita called ‘The Most Confidential Knowledge,’ “Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be” (9:11).  That pretty much sums up the reason Christians claim Christ was crucified.  As was stated before, there is no deity in the Tao, only what is called the Way.  The Tao in relation to the Biblical narrative, since that is the point that was raised, Jesus says also in the Gospel of John, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (14:6).  John says in chapter one of his Gospel that “His life is the light of men” (1:4).  The life of Jesus was said to be gentle, and to this, Tao te Ching states, “The softest things of the world, Override the hardest things of the world” (43).  It could be that Lao Tzu was also an incarnation of Krishna, only in a different millennium and to different people?  Think about it.

References

    

Bhaktivedanta, A.C. (1972).  Bhagavad Gita: As It Is.  Retrieved from http://www.asitis.com

Gospel of John--KJV (n.d.)  Retrieved from http://biblehub.com

Linn, D. (2006).  Accurate Translation of the Tao te Ching.  Retrieved from http://taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm

Welch, H. (1965)