WRITTEN BY LONDON SWAMINATHAN

Post No. 13,630

Date uploaded in London – 4 September 2024                 

Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com

Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.

this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.

tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com

https://www.pustaka.co.in/home/author/london-swaminathan

xxxx  

Great men think alike is a popular saying; and so comparing the thoughts and words of scholars is appreciated by one and all. Scholars get doctorates easily in this field. But for general leaders it is a pastime and helps them to remember the points they make.

Many authors used As you Like it and the Hamlet illustrating the same point.

Here are some quotes compared in the Shakespearean works and the Bhagavad Gita.

1.HAMLET AND ARJUNA AN ANALYSIS IN THE LIGHT OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF BHAGAVAD-GITA was written by Dr. Salia Rex, Assistant Professor,  Department of English,St. Paul’s College, Kochi, India

Abstract: The attempt is to make a comparative study of the predicaments of Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. It is an interesting exercise to re-read Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the light of the Gita to trace the homogeneous elements, similar philosophical undertones and the subtle difference in the characters that help them retain the identity and uniqueness.

INTRODUCTION

The two heroes, Hamlet and Arjuna present the predicament of a human being caught in the labyrinth of emotional distress which make them totally unfit for action. The study attempt is to probe into the two

archetypal characters of world literature, Arjuna and Hamlet, two princes of oriental and occidental realms

and cultures who are entrusted with royal and ethical responsibilities of a similar kind and their stark similarities as men of gunas, men if inner action and men of action through the philosophy of the Bhagavad

Gita.

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2.The Evolution of Awareness:

Parallels and Contrasts in the Bhagavad Gita and Macbeth by Michael Larrass (Year 2000)

Outstanding works of art such as the Sphinx, the Mona Lisa, or Shakespeare’s Macbeth are expressions of archetypal truth in their respective eras. The degree to which they succeed in revealing this truth is reflected in their appreciation by the collective consciousness from which they have emerged and even by following generations.

The dialogue of the Bhagavad Gita in the ancient Mahabharata epic from the high culture of Vedic India and Shakespeare’s Macbeth seem to have met the highest standards of archetypal truth as they have never ceased to maintain a dominant role in scholarly and artistic appreciation, commentary, and enactment.

Both the Bhagavad Gita and Macbeth contain the archetype of the loss and restoration of natural law and cosmic order as well as that of the ambiguity of values and the search for moral guidance in a time of change, thus exemplifying Lord Krishna’s statement in the Bhagavad Gita: Whenever the natural order is decaying and disorder prevails, O Bharata, then I create Myself. […] To protect the righteous and destroy the wicked, to firmly establish order, I take birth age after age. IV. Many aspects of the Bhagavad Gita can indeed be found again in Shakespeare’s masterpiece, either in analogous or dialectic form.

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3. Shakespeare’s Sonnets and the Bhagavadgita by Bimal Thakur

Interesting volume

Reviewed in the United States on 19 November 2015

Verified Purchase

It’s good to have the original text of Shakespeare’s sonnets, with all its errors, especially since there are only 13 copies extant. This volume is actually a reproduction of a 1905 facsimile edition with an introduction by Sidney Lee. It is interesting to note that over 100 years ago, Shakespeare could not have been a homosexual according to Lee but displayed a “healthy manly type of friendship”. The rest of the Lee’s review is fairly pointed – for example, he thinks that the “enterprise lacked authority”, that is, Shakespeare was not party to the 1609 publication, and that the extraneous poem The Lovers Complaint, was probably not by Shakespeare.

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4.“Here’s fine revolution”: Hamlet and the Bhagavad-Gita by

William Blackburn, Pages 1-5 | Published online: 08 Dec 2017.

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5.Beatles, MJ, Shakespeare and the Gita

What connects The Beatles, Michael Jackson, William Shakespeare, Rudyard Kipling and J K Rowling? The message that the Bhagavad Gita seeks to send out finds its echo in their works.

Author Roopa Pai embarks on a spirited, one-of-a-kind retelling of the epic conversation between Pandava prince Arjuna and his mentor and friend Krishna and tries to bust several myths about the Bhagavad Gita in “The Gita For Children,” a thought-provoking book for young adults published by Hachette India. She infuses her retelling of, what she calls, India’s blockbuster bestseller “Book With Answers” with wit and humour and even uses analogies of The Beatles, Jackson, Kipling, Shakespeare and Rowling among others.

Even Shakespeare apparently agreed with Krishna that we have little control over the script of our lives, she argues. In “As You Like It”, he said: “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.” Then the author draws an analogy with Rudyard Kipling’s “If” to stress on Gita’s philosophy.

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6.Hinduism in Shakespeare’s King Lear by ROSHAN DOUG

Although some critics have simplified King Lear by focusing on the Biblical significance of suffering and redemption, the play is actually littered with images and allusions that are more akin to Hinduism than Christianity. You can see this in two ways: firstly, in the play’s theological, paganistic setting that, not unlike Hinduism, predates all the Abrahamic religions and secondly, in the feudal social structure that it promotes and reinforces in which obligation and duty play important parts.

So, in this article, I want to argue that the ontological and social basis of King Lear can better be understood through a cultural re-contextualisation of the text by reference to a Hindu framework than through the prism of a Christian doctrine.

Hindu ontology

From a Western perspective, the gods that govern the universe in King Lear are, at the best, indifferent to our suffering and, at the worst, malign and malevolent. Suffering is indiscriminate and disproportionate – affecting innocent and guilty alike. Thus mankind is robbed of justice because the universe is harsh, cruel and amoral. But in the context of Hinduism that would be an over-simplification.

For instance, theologically it is clear that King Lear is set in an ancient polytheist belief system. And this system is unaware or absent of the modern Abrahamic, monotheist doctrine of a personal God – the God who intervenes in peoples’ affairs especially the God personified in the New Testament.  In fact, the disorder, the extremity of violence and the nihilistic landscape of King Lear form the antithesis of Christian morality, clear structure, divine justice and proportionality. The cold brutality and savagery witnessed in the play, make it almost impossible to make sense of it through Christian theology that defines reality and existence in a clear cut out way.

Nature

In contrast, in Hinduism the universe is a complex force and Brahman, the supreme spirit of creation in all its forms has multiple functions and an array of dimensions. Lord Shiva is both an energy of creation and a force of destruction. As such, like the world of King Lear, ancient Indians believed that our reality cannot be understood through a Christian theological perspective – convenient as it may be to apply.

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7.Be a witness, never get involved: Objectivity key to material success, happiness and growth

You enjoy life only to the extent you are objective. Lack of this vital quality is the cause of all suffering. by Jaya Row

William Shakespeare seemed to echo the central theme of the Bhagavad Gita when he said in As You Like It —‘All the world’s a stage, And all men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances…’. The Bhagavad Gita speaks of Sakshi Bhava or ‘witness-like attitude’ as a measure of spiritual growth. Objectivity is the key to material success, happiness as well as growth to one’s potential. It lends joy and happiness in life. You enjoy life only to the extent you are objective.

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8. Lessons on Love From Shakespeare and the Gita by

Eknath Eswaran.

Blue Mountain Center of Meditation

https://www.bmcm.org › inspiration › easwaran › lesso…

Shakespeare was a great sonneteer, and he has given us one of the most practical, elevating definitions of love in a very beautiful sonnet…..

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A Cross-Cultural Comparison of the Issue of Self-Knowledge in

Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus, Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the Bhagavadgita by Lourens Minnema,  VU University

Greek and Shakespearean tragic truth emerges from pollution, moral brokenness, and pain. This also applies to the tragic truth of the Indian epics, except that this karmic kind of truth is not considered decisive. Crucial in the Indian case is cosmic truth, and Hindu cosmic truth is never produced out of pollution or pain. In Arjuna’s case, Krishna’s revelatory knowledge is religiously saving knowledge, whereas in Oedipus’ case, Apollo’s and Teiresias’ revelatory knowledge is religiously dooming knowledge. In Hamlet’s case, religiously saving knowledge is an object of theological speculation and of philosophical doubt. In the Hindu case, self-knowledge means absolute knowledge and ultimate liberation; in the Greek case, self-knowledge means self-discovery and the recognition of human fragility; in the Shakespearean case, self-knowledge means self-exploration and doubting oneself.

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Tolstoy, Master and Man; Bhagavad-Gita; Shakespeare, Henry the Fourth, Part One (Combined Series 7 & 8, Volume 2) Paperback – January 1, 1976

by The Great Books Foundation (editor) (Author)

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Arjuna and Hamlet: Two Moral Dilemmās

Alur Janaki Ram

Philosophy East and West

Vol. 18, No. 1/2 (Jan. – Apr., 1968), pp. 11-28 (18 pages)

Published By: University of Hawai’i Press

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I can’t copy a few introductions to their article, because they were in PDF.

—subham—

Tags- Shakespeare, Bhagavad Gita, Hamlet, As you Like it, World is a stage, Arjuna and Hamlet, Dilemma , Tolstoy, Macbeth, King Lear