Keya Maitra, “Philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita: A Contemporary Introduction” (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018)
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What is the Bhagavad Gita and why is it important for Western audiences?
Thank you.
Hello, and welcome to New Books and Philosophy, a podcast channel with the New Books Network. I'm Carrie Figdor, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa, and I'm co-host of the channel along with Robert Talese, Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. Together, we bring you conversations with philosophers about their new books, drawing from a wide range of areas of contemporary philosophical inquiry. Today's interview is with Kaya Mitra, Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Her new book, Philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita is just out from Bloomsbury Academic. The Bhagavad Gita is one of the foundational texts of Hinduism and probably the one most familiar and popular in the West.
The moral problem that motivates the text, is it right to kill members of one's extended family if they are on the other side in a war, leads to an extended discussion of such themes as rebirth and reincarnation and the personal paths to unity with the universe through the yogas of action, knowledge, and devotion. Maitre's new translation is aimed at those who are interested in themes that cross-fertilize with Western philosophical debates regarding the nature of morality, the relation between body and self or mind, the roots of character, and the goal of a well-lived life. The translation aims at a middle ground of accessibility with recognition of the multiple and context-dependent meanings of Sanskrit terms.
And the philosophical themes are elaborated with the aid of questions that are appropriate for both Western and non-Western approaches. Let's turn to the interview. Hello, Kaya, Mitra. Welcome to New Books and Philosophy.
Hi, Keri. I'm very happy to be here.
And I'm looking forward to our discussion about your new book, The Philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, which is a new translation, annotated, but annotated in a way that is sort of aimed at bridging the gap for Western philosophers mainly about knowing what sort of philosophical themes there are in the Gita. Before we get into the text itself, maybe you could tell us a little bit about yourself, your interest in philosophy and your background and how you came to write the book.
Sure. So I grew up in India, you know, in the Bihar and Bengal, that eastern part of India. And the school I went to, the secondary school, that is until the 10th grade, we had logic as one of the courses that one could take. And I took logic, you know, basic syllogistic Aristotelian logic. Liked it quite a bit. And then when I continued and did my what we would call higher secondary, which is 11th and 12th grade, we had philosophy as an option, philosophy as a subject one could take. And so I took two years of philosophy. We studied, you know, basically mainly Western history of philosophy and some ethics and more logic. So anyway, when I was in college, my parents wanted me to go to a particular college in the area where we lived.
And the college had what we call philosophy honors. You know, it's sort of like the British system, which would be something like what you call a majoring in this country. So yeah. Yeah, and I was very happy to take honors in philosophy. But the interesting part was also that I had done quite well in that higher secondary exam. So I could have, you know, I think sometimes I joke that my being a woman helped me In that regard, because if I were a son, a typical Indian family, I think there would be pressure for me to go into a professional program or at least try to get into a professional program. But here I was a woman and, you know, it didn't really, you know, have that much of a thing about having to earn a living.
Anyway, so that's how I got into philosophy and I stayed in with philosophy.
Good. And then you also went to graduate school there and in the
States. That's right. So that was undergraduate philosophy. Then I got a master's and MPhil and PhD in philosophy of language in India. And then uh yeah it is uh i do i came to america to get another phd um it it does sound uh quite uh you know i mean i guess it's not completely uh not done uh especially you see at so this is 94 when i came to america um there were not that many postdocs you know even today there aren't
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the Bhagavad Gita and why is it important for Western audiences?
0:02–8:20
2
How did Keya Maitra’s personal and academic background lead to her translation of the Gita?
8:20–16:43
3
Why did Maitra create a new translation and what philosophical goals does it pursue?
16:43–25:24
4
What is Arjuna’s moral dilemma at the start of the Gita and how does it frame the text’s themes?
25:24–34:38
5
How does the Gita’s self‑body dualism compare to Western mind‑body dualism?
34:38–44:36
6
What are the three yogas (action, knowledge, devotion) and why is devotion emphasized?
44:36–53:33
7
How do the three gunas (sattva, rajas, tamas) explain character and social structure?
53:33–59:16
8
What are Maitra’s upcoming projects and how do they extend her work on the Gita?
59:16–1:03:25
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