Overview of the conference «The Bhagavad-Gita in history and in modern society»

The article describes the existential, ontological and anthropological foundations of soteriology of the Bha-gavad-Gita. The author reveals the existential localization of the life's sense of the ancient Aria in the epical period. Also he reveals the character of psychical processes and explains the choice of the salvation in the Bhagavad-Gita. The localization of the sense of life forms perception of the world. According to the ancient Indian tradition the emotional experience of the present time dissolves in the infinity. So the importance of current events loses its sense. It may lead to the full loss of the meaning of life. Therefore the ancient Aryan race needed to find a new ontological basis in the reality, which was not connected with time. Such a reality was the Atman. According to the Vedic tradition the mental effort has the creative power. The source of this force is the absolute inner spiritual reality the Atman. The empirical reality is transsubjective. The human subject is understood as a manifestation of the absolute transcendental subject, which exists in every human mind. According to the Vedic tradition the psychical efforts open the ontological force of the absolute beginning in the ontogenesis. A person realizes his internal self-determination through the actions. Therefore no memory but freedom of action, which accord to the internal self-determination, forms the personality. The Bhagavad-Gita is unique because it gives the complete revelation not about one, but about three ways of salvation. The higher spiritual source opens in different ways in every such way of salvation. The way of the salvation of suffering was much more important than the understanding of the divine for the ancient Aryan. So alternative religious views could be together in the case, if the spiritual practice helped to get salvation from suffering. The Bhagavad-Gita allows us to understand the individuality of the insight of the highest beginning depending on the inner nature of man and his psychological character. According to the Indian tradition this inner nature of man is determined by the actions in past lives. However in the context of modern European culture it can be interpreted quite differently, not as a karmic determination, but as a result of the transcendental self-determination of the free will of a man. Therefore modern people can understand the Bhagavad-Gita as Revelation, which is not given to everyone equally, but opens uniquely. According to such understanding the opening depends on the man's choice of the way in the result of his inner self-determination to God, to the world and to himself. This allows to modern European people communicate with representatives of the Vedic tradition.

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