Customer Reviews

Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God

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I'd always wanted to read the Bhagavad Ghita, but had never got around to it, until I happened across this translation at the library.

In short, the Bhagavad Ghita is a battlefield conversation between Arjuna, a warrier and the Lord Krishna. The scripture is an important part of Hindu religious scriptures and in it Krishna essentially lays out for Arjuna the nature of the soul and the various types of Yoga or paths to God.

The conversation originally comes about because Arjuna is extremely distressed at the prospect of having to kill his own relatives in the battle before him. Krishna explains that souls can never die and that Arjuna must play his assigned role in the great scheme of things. Furthermore, Krishna explains to Arjuna how to balance the spiritual journey with worldly obligations, and how the intentions with which we fulfill our worldly duties differentiate the spiritual man.

This book contains an introduction by Aldous Huxley which discusses the Bhagavad Ghita's relationship to Huxley's concept of the Perennial Philosophy (a common meaning of things that all religious ultimately depict). Included at the end of the text are brief discussions on the "Cosmology of the Ghita" and the "Ghita and War".

If I could change anything about this translation, I would have liked to see more annotations throughout the text but that's a minor gripe becaus overall I found this quick and interesting and accessible for me as a first time reader of the Bhagavad Ghita.

This edition of the Bhagavad Gita is my preferred edition, and has been for many years. The reason I prefer this is the uniqueness of the INTRODUCTION, written by none other than ALDOUS HUXLEY, and in which he expounds the PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY, consisting of Four Tenets:

(1) "The phenomenal world of matter and of individual consciousness--the world of things and animals and men and even gods--is the manifestation of a Divine Ground within which all partial realities have their being, and apart from which they would be nonexistent. [ALL IS GOD]

(2) Human beings are capable not merely of knowing 'about' the Divine Ground by inference; they can also realize its existence by a DIRECT INTUITION, superior to discursive reasoning. This immediate knowledge unites the knower with that which is known. [WE CAN FEEL GOD]

(3) Man possesses a double nature, a phenomenal ego and an eternal Self, which is the inner man, the spirit, the spark of divinity within the soul. It is possible for a man, if he so desires, to identify himself with the spirit and therefore with the Divine Ground, which is of the same or like nature with the spirit. [WE CAN KNOW GOD]

(4) Man's life on earth has only one end and purpose: to identify himself with his eternal Self and so to come to unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground." --Aldous Huxley, Introduction to the "Bhagavad Gita" by Swami Prabhavananda.

[GOD IS THE ANSWER]

These four tenets, Huxley tells us, are common to the worlds major religions, and it sure simplifies theology, for which I am deeply grateful.

The Gita consists essentially, of a dialogue, between the warrior Arjuna, and Krishna, the Godhead. The questions and answers focus on Arjuna's reluctance to engage in a great battle between good and evil. Krishna expounds the principle of DUTY. The doing of our duty is the highest good. The dialogue expands to include all the reality of God, and how man should live.

Afterwards, in the dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna, the Lord of Heaven reveals his transcendent, divine form. The Gita describes it thusly: "Suppose a thousand suns should rise together into the sky: such is the glory of the Shape of the Infinite God." When reading of this, I am often reminded of the transfiguration of Jesus. The similarities are revealing. When the transcendant visions are further contrasted with the Revelation of St. John, and the vision of Ezekial, yet more is revealed.

Arjuna himself, upon seeing this vision of the transcendent divinity, cries out:

"You are all we know, supreme, beyond man's measure,

This world's sure-set plinth and refuge never shaken.

Guardian of eternal law, Life's soul undying.

Birthless, deathless; yours the strength titanic,

Million-armed, the sun and moon your eyeballs,

Fiery-faced, you blast the world to ashes, ..." p. 115

It has long been my belief that we can best understand our own religion by constrasting it with all others. I also have long felt that the same truth, the same God, is central to all the major religions. What Huxley tells us is key to our understanding concerning what we ought generally to do.

May God grant you peace.

I found this to be my favorite translation of Bhagavad Gita - I could enjoy reading and reciting this translation together with amazing Sri Aurobindo's Essays on the Gita!

The language is so simple and so beautiful, and in its simplicity it can carry easily the deep and profound Krishna's teaching - that which is of music, that which should be recited and sing - like a song!

I like this translation much better than the Pengion classic version.

Swami Prabhavananda (Translator) seams to cut right to the chase and

avoids over translating or the spinning embellishment of the Pengion version. The introduction provides a full overview of the Gita and some helpful insights into its message without rambling on and on.

The paper in this book could be better but the over all size of the book is a convenient one and the price is great.

The Bhagavad-Gita is a manual or guide book for those looking to advance in their spiritual awareness. In the dialogue between Shi Krishna and Ajuna all of the guidelines and reasons for purifying the soul towards union with its highest potential are spelled out in a clear manner. The book is a poetic discourse on the truths of reality, spirituality and of the relationship and union between man and God.

Om Shanti!!!

This is a first-class attempt to bring the Bhagavad-Gita to Western readers. The introduction and the appendices should be read first because they lay the framework for The Song of God, a framework that makes it possible to understand it. The translation is also excellent, avoiding confusing alternate names for major players for the sake of Westerners, and yet retaining much poetic essence.

Wanted to have an extra copy of this book in addition to a hardcover copy but what a disappointment. The print quality is horrible, the text is hardly readable, fuzzy and smudged, it looks like something coming out of a 10yr old inkjet printer. Get the Gita by all means but avoid this print version.

This is arguably the best translation of the Gita. Most translations are too scholarly (in an attempt to be precise with the original sanskrit) but since there is no modern language to actually translate sanskrit word for word, it typically results in text that is both heavy and inaccessible.

This one is different. A masterful collaboration of both a hindu and a westerner, this Gita is both verse and prose (in an almost mystical balance) and flows like the river. It is in this verse/prose balance that keeps the reading moving forward where the deeper (and most important) messages of the Gita seem to drive it home.

This version of the Bhagavad Gita is an illegal printing of Kessington Press stolen from Vedanta Press. The Vedanta Press edition is available from Amazon at a MUCH lower price.

Please do not buy the Kessington edition.

I have not seen _any_ book in recent years that was as badly printed as this edition of the Bhagavad Gita. It's so badly printed as to make reading unpleasant. The text was clearly scanned or photographed from an earlier printing; you can seen the line screen (the dots that come with a digital reproduction of a low-resolution scan or photo). The text is muddy, blurry, unclear. The paper quality is _worse_ than most newspapers. It's little better than the earth-friendly, recycled toilet paper you may have seen.

If you don't mind the quality of printing, then you'll be fine with this. But the print quality makes reading needlessly tiresome. Reprehensibly bad print.

Update: The reviewer who commented that this copy is an illegal copy of one from the Vedanta Press is absolutely right. Search for "The Song of God Bhagavad Gita". Same translator, same preface. Larger trim size (larger pages), better paper -- better altogether. How Signet got away with its knock-off, I don't know.

The book is undoubtedly good. It gives a good overview of the Gita and discusses the principles of Hinduism in simple language. I was only disappointed on the quality of paper and print. Barnes & Noble has a good hardcover option on this book, which is a good buy.