Arjunopākhyāna: An Idealist Non-dualistic Translation of the Bhagavadgītā

Abstract This paper suggests that the narrative retelling of the Bhagavadgītā (BhG) dialogue that occurs in the sixth book of the Mokṣopāya (MU) (ca. 950 CE) known as the Arjunopākhyāna (AU) functions as a polemic style semantic translation that shifts the meaning of the original story with which it shares content, characters, elements and verses, illustrating a different doctrine in the process. Just over thirty quoted verses from the BhG are recontextualized and merged seamlessly with verses that are original to the MU, translating them into the non-dualistic, idealist conceptual language of the MU. The nonduality at the heart of Vasiṣṭha’s teaching in the MU is different from the theistic Sāṃkhya-influenced duality of Kṛṣṇa’s discourse in the BhG. Puruṣa and prakṛti are consistently replaced in the AU by an all-encompassing singular consciousness whose cosmic mind imagines everything, including Kṛṣṇa, all subjective agency, worship and liberation.