**Use copy in Blurb1Deep in India's past, Lord Krishna revealed the 700 verse Bhagavad-Gita, a spiritual poem containing universal, nonsectarian truths. In 1995, Steven Pressfield decided to introduce the Bhagavad-Gita to a contemporary audience, so he restructured the Gita in terms of a golf novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance. As he says, "In the Gita the troubled warrior Arjuna receives instruction from Krishna, Supreme Lord of the Universe, who has assumed human form as Arjuna's charioteer. Instead of a troubled warrior, it's a troubled golf champion (Ranulph Junah); instead of his charioteer, it's his caddie Bagger Vance." Now a major motion picture directed by Robert Redford and starring Matt Damon and Will Smith, The Legend of Bagger Vance is loosely based on the ancient Hindu epic. Steven Rosen, in Gita on the Green: The Mystical Tradition Behind Bagger Vance, draws the story out further using some thirty years of Gita scholarship and a writing style that is both eloquent and thorough. Rosen takes us on a colorful journey into the golf world of Bagger Vance, as well as into the spiritual realm of Bhagavan Sri Krishna. By the end of the journey, one realizes that one has just read a commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita while hitting a hole in one.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"There have been hundreds of commentaries on the Bhagavad-Gita; this one manages to cut to the chase….a fresh and fun approach to studying this monumental work of the Hindu faith."-NAPRA ReView
"Rosen's exegesis is delightful for its Gita scholarship, for the fun he has integrating the language of golf with the language of yoga ('"yoga means "to link"'), and especially for his deconstruction of the novel in light of the Gita. Those of us who love this kind of literary-spiritual excavation will find great satisfaction in curling up with the quasi-holy trinity of the Gita, the Pressfield novel, and Rosen's Gita on the Green."-Yoga Journal
"Gita on the Green shows how a long-honored spiritual substance can be…made viable for a modern-day audience….For those of us who have been long in the Ramakrishna Vedanta tradition, Gita on the Green provides a fresh approach."-American Vedantist
"Gita on the Green does for the Bhagavad-Gita what Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance did for Zen Buddhism. It takes a philosophically elaborate Eastern tradition and makes it accessible for a Western audience….Enjoyable enlightenment,"-Tamal Krishna Goswami
"Very readable….Rosen is truly one of those rare writers who is qualified to depict this epic treatise of a man facing his own nature and arising victorious in this battle of life over the 'lower self.'"-Hare Krishna World
"In the Bhagavad-gita, the heroic if spiritually challenged Arjuna asks his charioteer Krishna for good advice. He discovers half-way through their exchange that all the while he had been receiving God-advice. . . . Hmmm . . . Now what if Arjuna were a golfer, and God was his caddie? That would no doubt transform the classic text into something more readable for Westerners. This was accomplished in The Legend of Bagger Vance and taken further by Steven Rosen, who, in Gita on the Green, puts us all on the playing field with Bagger and Bhagavan Sri Krishna. The result is indeed edifying!"-Arvind Sharma, Birks Professor of Comparative Religion, McGill University, and author of The Hindu Gita
"Gita on the Green does for the Bhagavad-gita what Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance did for Zen Buddhism. It takes a philosophically elaborate Eastern tradition and makes it accessible for a Western audience. . . . Enjoyable enlightenment!"-Tamal Krishna Goswami, University of Cambridge
"A fresh and fun approach to studying this monumental work of the Hindu faith [the Bhagavad-gita]."-NAPRA ReView
"A rich supplement to those who have been intrigued by The Legend of Bagger Vance. It shows how a long-honored spiritual substance can be dealt with in a short book of 169 pages and be made viable for a modern-day audience….Gita on the Green provides a f
Reviewed in Yoga Journal, March/April 2001
Highlights: "[A] fascinating treatise. Rosen…knows his Gita….Rosen's exegesis is delightful for its Gita scholarship, for the fun he has integrating the language of golf with the language of yoga…and especially
"Rosen's exegesis is delightful for its Gita scholarship, for the fun he has integrating the language of golf with the language of yoga […] and especially for his deconstruction of the novel in light of the Gita. Those of us who love this kind of literar
"Rosen's exegesis is delightful for its Gita scholarship, for the fun he has integrating the language of golf with the language of yoga ('"yoga means "to link"'), and especially for his deconstruction of the novel in light of the Gita. Those of us who love this kind of literary-spiritual excavation will find great satisfaction in curling up with the quasi-holy trinity of the Gita, the Pressfield novel, and Rosen's Gita on the Green."-Yoga Journal
"Gita on the Green shows how a long-honored spiritual substance can be…made viable for a modern-day audience….For those of us who have been long in the Ramakrishna Vedanta tradition, Gita on the Green provides a fresh approach."-American Vedantist
"Gita on the Green does for the Bhagavad-Gita what Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance did for Zen Buddhism. It takes a philosophically elaborate Eastern tradition and makes it accessible for a Western audience….Enjoyable enlightenment,"-Tamal Krishna Goswami
"Very readable….Rosen is truly one of those rare writers who is qualified to depict this epic treatise of a man facing his own nature and arising victorious in this battle of life over the 'lower self.'"-Hare Krishna World
"In the Bhagavad-gita, the heroic if spiritually challenged Arjuna asks his charioteer Krishna for good advice. He discovers half-way through their exchange that all the while he had been receiving God-advice. . . . Hmmm . . . Now what if Arjuna were a golfer, and God was his caddie? That would no doubt transform the classic text into something more readable for Westerners. This was accomplished in The Legend of Bagger Vance and taken further by Steven Rosen, who, in Gita on the Green, puts us all on the playing field with Bagger and Bhagavan Sri Krishna. The result is indeed edifying!"-Arvind Sharma, Birks Professor of Comparative Religion, McGill University, and author of The Hindu Gita
"Gita on the Green does for the Bhagavad-gita what Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance did for Zen Buddhism. It takes a philosophically elaborate Eastern tradition and makes it accessible for a Western audience. . . . Enjoyable enlightenment!"-Tamal Krishna Goswami, University of Cambridge
"A fresh and fun approach to studying this monumental work of the Hindu faith [the Bhagavad-gita]."-NAPRA ReView
"A rich supplement to those who have been intrigued by The Legend of Bagger Vance. It shows how a long-honored spiritual substance can be dealt with in a short book of 169 pages and be made viable for a modern-day audience….Gita on the Green provides a f
Reviewed in Yoga Journal, March/April 2001
Highlights: "[A] fascinating treatise. Rosen…knows his Gita….Rosen's exegesis is delightful for its Gita scholarship, for the fun he has integrating the language of golf with the language of yoga…and especially
"Rosen's exegesis is delightful for its Gita scholarship, for the fun he has integrating the language of golf with the language of yoga […] and especially for his deconstruction of the novel in light of the Gita. Those of us who love this kind of literar
Titled mentioned in article by author in Yoga Magazine, 2008.
From the Back Cover
Deep in India's past, Lord Krishna revealed the 700 verse Bhagavad-gita, a spiritual poem containing universal, non-sectarian truths. In 1995, Steven Pressfield decided to introduce the Bhagavad-gita to a contemporary audience, so he restructured the Gita in terms of a golf novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance. As he says, "In the Gita the troubled warrior Arjuna receives instruction from Krishna, Supreme Lord of the Universe, who has assumed human form as Arjuna's charioteer. Instead of a troubled warrior, it's a troubled golf champion (Rannulph Junah); instead of his charioteer, it's his caddie Bagger Vance." Now a major motion picture directed by Robert Redford and starring Matt Damon and Will Smith, The Legend of Bagger Vance is loosely based on the ancient Hindu epic. Steven Rosen, in Gita on the Green: The Mystical Tradition Behind Bagger Vance, draws the story out further using some thirty years of Gita scholarship and a writing style that is both eloquent and thorough. Rosen takes us on a colorful journey into the golf world of Bagger Vance, as well as into the spiritual realm of Bhagavan Sri Krishna. By the end of the journey, one realizes that one has just read a commentary on the Bhagavad-gita while hitting a hole in one.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bagger Meets Krishna Review,
By A Customer
This review is from: Gita on the Green: The Mystical Tradition Behind Bagger Vance (Hardcover)
A Review of Gita on the Green: The Mystical Tradition Behind Bagger Vance By Steven J. Rosen Continuum International, 370 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017 (N.Y.-London 2000) pp.176. Index. Select bibliography Reviewed by Madan Mohan It is not often that a book is released that answers so many questions or does so many things at once. First, you have elaborate analyses of Bhagavad-gita, the ancient spiritual classic, and the Legend of Bagger Vance (both the novel and the movie). But more, you have a learned study of the interrelationship of the Gita and Bagger Vance, which is quite an achievement. The greater achievement, also accomplished in this book, is that the reader, without ever having read either the Gita or Bagger Vance, can walk away from this book with a clear understanding of both! Bagger Vance takes the Gita, a spiritual dialog that occurs on a battlefield just before the onset of a massive war, and transposes it onto a golf course. Rosen, in Gita on the Green, takes the golf course and shows how the teachings of the Gita are indeed perennial, to be understood as much on the links as in a monastery. The charm of this book is that it conveys the Gita's teaching almost incidentally, while explaining a contemporary novel (Bagger Vance) and the Robert Redford movie that sprang from this novel. But Rosen's book does so much more. It is also a autobiographical, with a Teachings of Don Juan sort of vibe. The author tells his personal story about meeting a saintly person in India and how he studied under this saintly person, much as Carlos Castaneda studied under Don Juan. This sets the groundwork for just who this author is, and how seriously he takes the subject. This also allows him to express his own initial reservations about the Gita, such as his repugnance for the violence of the battlefield (since, as stated, the Gita takes place in the midst of a great war). Pressfield, who authored the original novel of Bagger Vance, was impressed with Rosen's personal journey-- and his knowledge of the Gita-- and he consequently wrote a foreword for Rosen's book that all but makes one ask, "Hey, are these two in cahoots?" After these initial introductory chapters, Gita on the Green launches into its analysis of the Gita, always mindful of the Bagger Vance parallels and golf as a metaphor for life. Rosen is meticulous in his investigation of the Gita, offering details of its origin, its inclusion in the larger epic (the Mahabharata), and how it was originally meant to be understood (in the guru-disciple relationship). Moreover, he goes through each of the Gita's eighteen chapters and explains them in a user-friendly sort of way. He cites many Gita studies, books on golf, and contemporary works on psychology, such as those of M. Scott Peck, in order to highlight the Gita's central teachings and make them relevant for people of today. This is perhaps the book's strongest aspect: It takes an otherwise difficult Indic scripture and allows it to shine through with the simplicity of a modern-day novel. It offers readers the essence of the Bhagavad-gita in an accessible and approachable way. This, it might be added, is no small task!
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gita on the Green is Gold,
By Belenios Ategnatos (Staten Island, NY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Gita on the Green: The Mystical Tradition Behind Bagger Vance (Hardcover)
I have read and loved many of Steve Rosen's books. GITA ON THE GREEN is a welcome and worthy addition to my collection of his books. I had previously read the Bhagavad Gita, but had little knowledge about golf, and hadn't yet read The Legend of Bagger Vance. The reader will benefit most by reading Bhagavad Gita As It Is, The Legend of Bagger Vance, and Gita on the Green together, or in quick succession. With both simplicity and thoroughness, Rosen ties together and explains this ancient and eternal tradition expressed in the Bhagavad-Gita and how it is explained in the new context of golf for the modern reader in Bagger Vance. Now, for it all to come full circle, I await the Sanskrit translation of Gita on the Green!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not too much about Bagger Vance but great bk on the Gita,
By
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This review is from: Gita on the Green: The Mystical Tradition Behind Bagger Vance (Hardcover)
This book gives a relaxed and informative treatment of the essential doctrine of the Bhagavad Gita. If you're too lazy to read the Penguin Classic translation of the Bhagavad Gita, get this. Knowledge is the first step to enlightenment!
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