Bhagavad Gita [Hardcover]

Swami Nikhilananda (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0911206094 | ISBN-13: 978-0911206098 | Publication Date: June 1986

The Bhagavad Gita, an important Hindu scripture, is one of the outstanding religious classics in the world, and this translation by Swami Nikhilananda has been called "the first really readable, authoritative translation".

The Bhagavad Gita is unique among religious texts in its emphasis on the discharge of everyday duties, irrespective of their nature, as an effective discipline for the realization of God. The Gita teaches that if a man performs his duties, surrendering the fruit to God and discarding all selfish motives, he gains purity of heart and achieves ultimate liberation. It is knowledge of God that gives man the strength to face calmly and cheerfully the duties of life. The Gita shows the way to spiritualize life and illumine even its drab and gray phases with the radiance of the Spirit. It lays down practical spiritual disciplines which can be followed by all, irrespective of faith and creed.

Special features of this 404 page edition are an introduction to the philosophy of The Gita and a summary of The Mahabharata. Also, each numbered verse of the text is followed by an explanation of the significant words and a paragraph of commentary based on the interpretation of Sankaracharya, the great philosopher and mystic of eighth century India.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Here is a translation which seems to meet every test of literature and learning. I have been reading it with ease and unflagging delight. At last I seem to have found the Gita and to know why it is so great. Swami Nikhilananda is to be congratulated and thanked for his great achievement. Every student of religion and lover of the spirit stands in his debt. -- John Haynes Holmes, Unity

I have found your introduction and the translation of Sankara's preface extremely interesting and your synopsis of the story of the Mahabharata seems to me very useful in preparing the reader and setting him clear on the scene. I am convinced that this edition of yours will be valuable to all students of that extraordinary book. -- W. Somerset Maugham

I was deeply moved by the noble insistence upon spiritual inwardness that runs through the book. -- Samuel H. Goldenson, Rabbi, Congregation Emanu-El, New York

Never in our time has this important work been made so accessible to the Western reader as in the present admirable translation by Swami Nikhilananda. -- Denver Lindley, Asia and the Americas

The Bhagavad Gita is one of the great documents of the human spirit. Insofar as an outsider can judge, this translation of Swami Nikhilananda and his introduction make it a more communicable and intelligible vehicle of the great Hindu tradition than to a Western reader it generally appears. -- Irwin Edman, Professor of Philosophy in Columbia University

This translation and commentary of the great Indian classic has the same brilliant ease and almost incredible sense of rightness and, as it were, natural clarity that characterized Swami Nikhilananda's volume. -- The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. - Stark Young, The New Republic

From the Publisher

The Bhagavad Gita is published by The Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York which bases it teachings on the principles of Vedanta, or Hinduism. Hinduism teaches that every soul is potentially divine, and that its divinity may be manifested through worship, contemplation, unselfish work, and philosophical discrimination. According to Hinduism, Truth is universal and all humankind and all existence are one. It preaches the unity of the Godhead, or ultimate Reality, and accepts every faith as a valid means for its own followers to realize the Truth. For more information about the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York, visit www.ramakrishna.org.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 403 pages
• Publisher: Ramakrishna Vivekanada Center (June 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0911206094
• ISBN-13: 978-0911206098
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #645,327 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine translation with valuable commentary, August 4, 2001

By 

Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bhagavad Gita (Hardcover)

This is an especially good translation for those with some knowledge of yoga or Hinduism or Vedanta. Rather than employ artificialities like "discipline" or "duty" or "the Supreme God," Nikhilananda retains in his translation many Sanskrit words like yoga, dharma, Brahman, etc. that have no real one-to-one English equivalent. One of the virtues of not attempting to translate every term is a more natural expression that preserves some of the immediacy of the original. This is a boon for those who have some experience with the terms, and a detriment to those who do not. In doing so of course he violates one of the prime dicta of translation, namely that a translation should stand on its own without recourse to augmentation by other works.

Nonetheless the book itself does stand on its own because Nikhilananda has provided along with the text a commentary taken primarily from Sankaracharya's famous and instructive gloss from the ninth century. (In some cases, it is true, the reader might wish that a commentary on Sankara's commentary be included!)

A point well made in the Foreword by William Ernest Hocking is that too many of the newer translations (and this applies today as it did in 1944) tend to avoid "a happy expression...to seek the different solely for the sake of differing." Nikhilananda is not afraid to use the tried and true and readily employs the "happy expression" that has worked so well in previous translations. His is a modest translation. One can see that his purpose is not so much to be the poet himself as it is to make the work accessible to English speakers. In his introduction, Nikhilananda interprets the Gita from the standpoint of Vedanta philosophy, which is to be distinguished from yogic philosophy and to some extent from the Hare Krishna movement. The Gita, as Nikhilananda expresses it in his Introduction, along with the earlier Upanishads and the Brahma sutras, "form the bed-rock of Vedanta philosophy." He follows his Introduction with a chapter entitled, "The Story of the Mahabharata," the grand Indian epic in which the Gita is nestled. Then there is Sankara's brief Introduction followed by a traditional "Meditation." After the text there is a Glossary of Sanskrit words and an Index.

This book, originally published by the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center in New York in 1944, is in keeping with the high quality of Swami Nikhilananda's engaging translation of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna and the books on yoga by Swami Vivekananda also published by the Center. I would recommend that the serious English-speaking student of the Gita have this book, now in its Sixth Printing, alongside a more recent translation of the Gita--perhaps Stephen Mitchell's poetic Gita of 2000 or Kees Boole's Gita of 1979, which includes on left-facing pages a verse by verse transliteration of the Sanskrit--as an aid to study.

I have only one small complaint with Nikhilananda's book: the chapter and verse numbers should be placed at the top of each page for easy reference by the reader!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEST English edition of Gita available, February 9, 2007

By 

K. Saran - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bhagavad Gita (Hardcover)

Bhagavad Gita is the most popular of the scriptures of Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism). However, the message is for the whole mankind and not just for the Hindus. It is one of the three canons of Vedanta (the other two are the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras). The Gita discusses the various paths to Self-Realization, known as yogas, systematically.

There are dozens of English translations of the Gita. How to choose?

The best commentary to Gita is by Adi Sankara, the 7th century saint and non-dual philosopher of India. His commentary takes a non-dual approach, which is the widely accepted vedantic philosophy.

There are a few literal translations of Gita with Adi Sankara's commentary. The more recent ones are by Swami Gambhirananda and by Swami Nikhilananda. Gambhirananda's is a literal translation and at times it is very difficult to comprehend. One feels like some explanation of Sankara's commentary is needed. On the other hand, Swami Nikhilananda's approach is to present notes to each verse based on Adi Sankara's commentary which makes it very easy to read and comprehend. He elaborates where an elaboration is needed and has omitted occasional portions of the commentary which are extremely technical and don't interest majority of the readers. This makes it an excellent read and hence I prefer Nikhilananda's version. Also his English is excellent. No wonder, Time Magazine gave a great review for this edition of Gita.

A brief summary of the Mahabharata is included, which helps one understand the context in which the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna takes place.

Highly recommend this book.

Also recommended (to complete your collection of Prasthana Traya or Triple Canon of Vedanta):
-The Upanishads (4 volumes) by the same author, and
-Brahma Sutras according to Adi Sankara by Swami Vireswarananda.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Translations, August 30, 2000

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"gsibbery" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bhagavad Gita (Hardcover)

This is one of the best translations of the Song of God that I have ever come across. Swami Nikhilananda is the translator -- the actual commentary is taken from Sankaracharya's famous writings. However, as this book was translated as a Ramakrishna monk and uses Adi Sankara's commentary, the emphasis is on radical dualism. The other schools of thought are mentioned in the intorduction (Ramanuja;s qualified non-dualism and Maadhva's dualism), but they are not emphasised. This does give the work a bias, as the Geetaa over and over seems to waver back and forth between the monistic ideals (similar to other Upanishads) and the dualism that is common in much of Hinduism today. Also, a big plus is a summary of the Mahaabhaarata that allows the reader to make a little bit more sense of the battle itself and the goings on in the first chapter. A very good resource for those interested in the advaitic approach.