9-BOOK REVIEW: THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GITA: (part 1)
V.R.NARLA (1988) [229P] NARLA INSTITUTE OF NEW THOUGHT
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GITA – A CLOSER LOOK AT HINDU SCRIPTURE: V.R.NARLA (INTRO BY)
INNAIAH NARISETTI (2010) [230P] ISBN: 161641832 WWW.PROMETHEUSBOOKS.COM [1]
BOOK REVIEW: KAVNEET SINGH
Ventakeswara Rao Narla an essayist, journalist and author who has written over 30 books in Telugu and English on religion, history and current events. He was the editor of the Andhra Prabha daily and the editor of the Andhra Joyti. A rationalist and an humanist who could be called Andhra Pradesh’s greatest ‘critical thinker’ of the 20th century.
V.R.Narla has gone through the section of the Mahabharata epic called Bhagvad Gita with a sharp scalpel and has spared no effort to get to the true interpolation which practically everyone else seems to shy away so as not to upset the status quo or are simply afraid of the consequences.
Chapter 1 – Doubtful War
_From our material it is impossible to say where the_ _great_ _theme-battles of the two epics Ramayana and Mahabharata were fought, let alone when_ _–_ _if indeed they represent any historical events at all……….[Page 46]_
Narla, quoting D.D.Kosambi hits the nail on the head from the get go. The Gita has been handled with kid gloves for so long that there seems to be no one willing to critically examine it and face the wrath of the teeming followers._Out of the forty-one contributors, not even half a dozen show any capacity to think boldly,_ _rationally, originally. And one or two of them have such a fuddled mind as to argue in all_
_seriousness that what millions of people have believed for thousands of years as true_ _cannot be fictitious……….[Page 47]_
It is the educated in India who lead the charge of claiming the Hindu texts as ‘true’ which borders on imbecility. In the sphere of religion, critical thinking has rarely been applied with force so as to get to the ‘truth’. No wonder there is stunted growth in the realm of critical examination of religion which has drastic digressive ramifications nationwide.