The Bhagavad Gita (Anonymous)

My daughter is 21, and this is the book she so wanted. She got it Christmas day, and began to read, and write footnotes in the book -- THANKS!!

Juan Mascaro's masterful translation is the most moving and the most fulfilling of them all. The Gita provides the subtle soul medicine to enable you to aspire to the moral heights invoked by the Sermon on the Mount. You read the wonderful, infinitely compassionate words of Christ, and you think, "Yes - but how can I live like that?" The Gita tells you how. The Gita is a song, and a philosophy, and a spiritual tract; it is all of these and far more than these: it is the fundamental substance, the absolute bedrock of all true spirituality which is crystalised in our language at the highest pitch by Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Keats. These poetic geniuses, though indisputably sublime at their heights, were relatively haphazard in their spiritual effects: whereas the steady, quietly relentless focus of the Gita is simply overwhelming. It is the deepest and richest of all mines: and its ore is the most perfect ore. To read the Gita with a will, and to reflect on... Read more

in writing this review, i realise that the Ghita is from the Mahabarata and is seen as a great classic of hinduism. however it does not have detailed advice on how to practice the life transforming yoga of hinduism. you would learn far more from a guru than from reading this. though i am sure there is much merit in reading the Ghita, which no doubt transcends concept and logic. i have not read this book for about six months and so am going from memory. it is a jewel in the sense that it points towards mystical experience... the primary experience aimed for in hinduism would seem to be blissful union. each element has corresponding experiences. bliss is beautiful and highly stable, as is gold. however at heart bliss is cold, or numb. it has its role, it plays its function. water is matched with balance and peace... the water of life, the cleansing water of truth. water soothes and levels, like air it is empty. empty of taste, flavour or colour, it is clear, but has a zing to it... Read more

This religious work from Hindu culture is translated with clarity and grace. It is poetic but simple. the introduction by the translator is a must read. He not only presents the Bhagavad Gita, but places it in context with other spiritual Hindu and Christian literature. The best part is you do not have to be a scholar or a genius to understand the introduction or the book.

full of mistranslations of key concepts.. there is just so much of this that it forms an underlying structural orientation of the translation, starting with the [long] introduction with bible quotes to justify translation choices.. the last words of krishna are changed to "thy will be done" lifted straight from mathew, luke and the lords prayer.. a translation by an academic bible scholar, shows its origins.. and ruins the subtleties of this timeless discourse.. carl namaste