Commentary on 'The Bhagavad Geeta' by Swami Mukundananda

The Bhagavad Gita ("Song of the Lord") is considered the most influential of all the Hindu scriptures and is one of the greatest spiritual classics of the world. Comprised of eighteen chapters taken from the great Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, the Gita presents a conversation that takes place on a battlefield just as two groups of relatives are about to wage war against one another. Facing the forces of greed, anger, and hatred, the warrior-prince Arjuna loses heart and refuses to fight his own kin. His friend and charioteer, Lord Krishna, who represents the Divine within, tells him: "Your very nature will drive you to fight." In the ensuing dialogue, Krishna teaches Arjuna, and all of us, how we can face bravely the unavoidable challenges and conflicts of life--and win the greatest of all battles, against the tumultuous emotions within our own hearts. Eknath Easwaran's eloquent translation and Diana Morrison's chapter introductions, which summarize major religious concepts, make this edition especially accessible for modern readers of any religion.

For years, this edition of the Bhagavad Gītā has allowed all those with a lively interest in this spiritual classic to come into direct contact with the richness and resonance of the original text. Winthrop Sargeant's interlinear edition provides a word-for-word English translation along with the devanagari characters and the transliterated Sanskrit. Detailed grammatical commentary and page-by-page vocabularies are included, and a complete translation of each section is printed at the bottom of each page, allowing readers to turn the pages and appreciate the work in Sargeant's translation as well. Discussions of the language and setting of the Gītā are provided and, in this new edition, editor Christopher Key Chapple offers guidance on how to get the most out of this interlinear edition. Long a favorite of spiritual seekers and scholars, teachers and students, and lovers of world literature, Sargeant's edition endures as a great resource for twenty-first-century readers.

A fresh, strikingly immediate and elegant verse translation of the classic, with an introduction and helpful guides to each section, by the rising American poet. Born in the United States into a secularized Hindu family, Amit Majmudar puzzled over the many religious traditions on offer, and found that the Bhagavad Gita had much to teach him with its "song of multiplicities." Chief among them is that "its own assertions aren't as important as the relationships between its characters . . . The Gita imagined a relationship in which the soul and God are equals"; it is, he believes, "the greatest poem of friendship . . . in any language." His verse translation captures the many tones and strategies Krishna uses with Arjuna--strict and berating, detached and philosophical, tender and personable. "Listening guides" to each section follow the main text, and expand in accessible terms on the text and what is happening between the lines. Godsong is an instant classic in the field, from a poet of skill, fine intellect, and--perhaps most important--devotion.

The Bhagavadgita is one phase of the Tripod of Indian philosophy and culture, the other two phases being the Upanishads and the Brahmasutras. While the Upanishads lay the foundation of the loftiest reach possible for humanity and the Brahmasutras logically elucidate the intricate issues involved in the Upanishads, the Bhagavadgita blends together the Transcendent and the Immanent features of the Ultimate Reality, bringing together into an integrated whole knowledge and action, the inner and the outer, the individual and the society, man and God, all which are portrayed as facets of a universal Operation, presenting entire life and all life as a perfectly complete organic wholeness, leaving nothing unsaid and attempting to solve every problem of life.

This book, first published in 1962, is an analysis of the history of the philosophy of a country that has never distinguished philosophy from religion. Indian philosophy is not merely metaphysical speculation, but has its foundation in immediate perception. This insistence upon immediate perception rather than abstract reasoning is what distinguishes the Indian philosophy of religion from philosophy as Western nations know it.