A comparative study of two translations of bhagavad gita by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and Swami Cinmayananda Saraswati employing the five phases of philosophical discourse

Abstract

The present study is an earnest attempt to provide a comparative study of two translations of Bhagavad Gita in order to understand which translation offers a more practical approach that can be adopted by individuals who seek to evolve spiritually and wish to embrace the Vedic injunctions. The very first chapter of the thesis is an introduction to the study that is undertaken. After a discussion on vedanta, the chapter gives an overview of the main sub-traditions of vedanta. The understanding of advaita and acintya-bheda-abheda philosophies is also discussed. The selected works, The Holy Geeta and Bhagavad Gita As It Is, belong to these two schools of philosophy respectively. Chapter one takes a look at the five phases of philosophy in order to execute the comparative study. The second chapter discusses the ontologies that exist in the selected primary texts. The chapter opens with an introduction of the term ontology and a brief history of the origin of the term. The chapter then delves into an overview of the introduction given to the Bhagavad Gita by both the commentators. This is followed by establishing the ontological positions of important aspects in the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Cinmayananda and Srila Prabhupada. The third chapter is a study of the epistemology of the two schools of vedanta and the similarities and differences in the two schools. The definition of the term epistemology and the different interpretations of the term discussed by great philosophers such as Plato, John Locke, Immanuel Kant and Bertrand Russell are looked at from a modern perspective. The use of the term epistemology for the first time in English literature, objectivist and subjectivist epistemology, empirical and intuitive knowledge, the three forms of knowledge, and priori knowledge and posteriori knowledge constitute the introduction of this chapter. This is followed by an understanding of the term jnana and prama and their differences which are crucial to this study. The concept of pramana is introduced...