The Gita: A Timeless Torchbearer for Existentialist Thought

Abstract

Books inform, and scriptures conform, but the Bhagavad Gita does awaken the ātman from its slumber in māyā, thrusting it—like Kierkegaard’s leap—into the abyss of svarūpa, where the Self must choose, stand naked before truth, and become what it eternally is; with such a vision, this research paper sets forth to inquire: Can the Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Indic scripture, be read as a philosophical precursor to the European tradition of Existentialism? For the mind of man, when cast into the furnace of war and choice—as was Arjuna's—exhibits the same trembling as Sartre's condemned freedom or Camus's absurd defiance. The study employs the method of comparative hermeneutics, placing the existential themes of dread, freedom, authenticity, absurdity, and transcendence in the Gita alongside the works of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, and Camus. In this exploration, the Gita yields unexpected fruits: the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna resonates with existential conundrums, clothed not in despair but in divine detachment. Krishna’s injunction—“कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन” (The Bhagavad Gita, 2.47, pp. 67-68) —is no less radical than Sartre’s cry for action born of choice. The results show that while the West laments meaninglessness, the Gita dances in flames, affirming action without desire, being without clinging, and selfhood without ego. However, this discourse builds not a mirror but a bridge—where metaphysics meets anguish and transcendence stoops to kiss absurdity. It finds the Gita not a distant kin to Existentialism, but its elder: wiser, stiller, and already dwelling where the West yet gropes. It is no mimicry but a rebirth of timeless truth in the modern tongue. Through philosophical excavation, the Gita reveals itself not as a rival but as a hidden sire—a torchbearer for, not of, a thought that seeks not comfort but confrontation. In Arjuna's trembling, we behold the eternal quiver of man cast into freedom.