Abhinav Agarwal: The Gita Chariot at Kurukshetra

Monday, May 24, 2010

The Gita Chariot at Kurukshetra

The Gita (The Gita (Amar Chitra Katha)) Updesha Chariot at the Brahma Sarovar complex is the latest addition to sites and structures that celebrate the Mahabharata at Kurukshetra. The chariot is a humongous bronze chariot, and is really, really massive. If you look at the chariot, at Arjuna standing, and looking pensively at Krishna, the charioteer, at Hanuman seated on the flag, there is a lot that is symbolic there. As I wrote in an earlier post, Upanishads - Kena and Katha, the chariot is used as an example in the Katha Upanishad to illuminate the relationship between the self, the body, the senses, desires, and intellect.

Gita Updesha Chariot, Kurukshetra

To repeat from that post:

2.3.3 Know the Self as lord of the chariot,
The body as the chariot itself,
The discriminating intellect as charioteer,
And the mind as reins.

2.3.4 The senses, say the wise, are the horses;
Selfish desires are the roads they travel.
When the Self is confused with the body,
Mind, and senses, they point out, he seems
To enjoy pleasure and suffer sorrow.

The chariot is one of the largest bronze chariots in the country, and measures 50 x 25 x 26 feet. It was commissioned by the ITDC and completed in December 2007.