PREFACEI was born a Christian, raised a Christian, and I'll die a Christian. Nevertheless, I enjoy learning about many different religions, and one of my favorite courses in college was “World Religions.” I read portions of many sacred texts, and have since wanted to read them more extensively - starting with the Bhagavad Gita.I am not Hindu. I have never been to a Hindu place of worship, and I have had very few conversations with practicing Hindus about their religion. Hence my understanding of the Gita may be very flawed, and very inadequate. But I read it, and this is what I thought. If there are gross misunderstandings on my part, please don’t take offense. My intent is to learn, and to help others understand a small portion of a religion I am attempting to understand.What is the Bhagavad Gita?It is a portion of the Hindu scripture called the Mahabharata. As I understand, it is the most well known and widely read and quoted portion of the scripture. It takes place in the middle of a war. Arjuna is the commander of his army, and feels a moral dilemma about fighting his own cousins. Lord Krishna explains to him his duties, and then expounds the meaning of life, the cycles of reincarnation, and how one can finally escape this life and become one with God. He does this through the Vedantic philosophies, the different Yogis, the Gunas, and other examples and analogies on life.The main lesson is to go through life doing good, but to avoid attachment. We should work hard, serve others, do our best, but never care about the outcome. Whether we are rewarded are punished, should not matter. The goal is to be one with God. We should act and feel the same toward our friends and foes, saints and sinners, family and strangers. We should be moderate in all things, disciplined in all actions. The level to which we do this determines the state of our reincarnation. Hopefully we will eventually attain perfect union with God, forsake all attachment, and escape the reincarnation cycle.Quotes, and some of my thoughts about them.“There was never a time when either I, or you, or these rulers of men did not exist. Nor will there ever be a future when all of us will cease to exist.”The soul of man is eternal. Nothing can change that.“The foolish do not respect me in this human form, failing to know My supremely excellent form, that of the highest Lord of all creation.”It seems this is true of all prophets or Gods in all religions. I can compare it easily to Christ, who was scorned and hated by those of his own religion in his time, and was eventually killed by his own people. They would not recognize him for who he was.“Even those who become devotees of other deities and, with faith, perform sacrifices to them, they too sacrifice to Me…though not in the manner prescribed.”Lord Krishna appreciates all worship of all religions, saying that there is only one God (him), and all are worshiping him, though some in the wrong way. I believe the same thing, there is only one God, some are worshiping him the way he desires, but all who worship a supreme being are worshiping him.“But you cannot view Me with these eyes of yours. I am bestowing supernatural sight upon you – behold My divine Yoga.”“Were the radiance of a thousand suns to blaze forth at one go in the sky, it might approximate the magnificence of this exalted being.”“I am the intelligence of the intelligent.”These descriptions of the glory, brightness, and intelligence of the Supreme being ring very true, and the same descriptions are found in other sacred texts.“Man is composed of his faith – as his faith is, so is he”We are what we believe we are, or at least we become so.“I shall consider whoever studies this conversation on dharma between us as having worshiped Me by performing a Sacrifice of Knowledge.”Lord Krishna says that he will accept the reading of this scripture as worship of him. I appreciate the fact that even an attempt to understand is counted for good.“Just as a man casts off worn-out clothes and puts on others which are new, likewise the embodied soul, casting off old bodies, is united with other, new ones.”“There is nothing in this world as purifying as knowledge.”“Both renunciation of action and its selfless performance lead to salvation, but of the two, the selfless performance of action is superior to its renunciation.”“Since wisdom is veiled by ignorance, all creatures are confused.”“A man should not raise himself, and should not demean himself.”“For the mind, O Krsna, is unsteady, turbulent, powerful and obstinate. Controlling it, I think, is as difficult as enveloping the wind.”“Out of thousands of men, hardly one attempts to reach perfection.”“A man who contemplates the objects of sense develops an attachment to them; attachment gives rise to desire, and desire results in anger. Anger gives rise to confusion, confusion to loss of memory. Loss of memory destroys intelligence and, once a man’s intelligence is destroyed, he perishes.”MUCH MOREWhen I read the text, I highlighted about 160 passages. When I typed up those that interested me the most, I typed up 62. I have included here 16. If anyone would like to see the rest of the passages that I typed up, just ask me and I’ll post them.
Nikhilananda, Swami. Bhagavad Gita, The: Translated from the Sanskrit, with Notes, Comments, and Introduction by Swami Nikhilananda (1944; 6th printing 1979) *****Fine translation with valuable commentaryThis 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! --a review by Dennis Littrell
What do You think about The Bhagavad Gita (2003)?
Friends, why do you love this book? This book is awful. It's very smart, yes, and of course a great classic. But I want you to imagine a dialogue between Jesus and Charlemagne in which Charlemagne says he doesn't want to kill all the Germans because, well, they're his relatives, and it seems a bit silly. And Jesus counters this by saying I AM FREAKING GOD DO WHAT THE F*** I TELL YOU YOU HAVE NO OPTION ANYWAY LOOK I HAVE STARS IN MY BELLY!!!! and follows it up by saying that he, Jesus, determines everything and there is no free will but you *should* do the following things in order to really get to know Jesus. Now, obviously I'm being polemical here. The BG has some very nice individual moments; it's a philosophical masterpiece akin to Boethius or Job; and, most remarkably for me, it essentially says that everything a benighted Westerner like myself thinks of when I think of Hinduism is wrong. The step from polytheism to monotheism is pretty much the greatest intellectual leap ever made, and who the heck am I to say that someone who makes that leap thousands of years before I was even born is only worth three stars? Someone who thinks that determinism makes no sense in a religion, that Krishna is kind of a self-centered lunatic ("I AM THE CLARIFIED BUTTER! I AM THE HERB!"), and that justifying war by saying that if you're a warrior, you're logically compelled to kill your kin and besides, we have no option, is horrific. And yet the hippies love this stuff. Almost as if they were really just repressing their inner Charles Manson.
—Justin Evans
Has a book ever literally called to you by falling off the shelf and into your hands? When the Bhagavad Gita came through the book drop while I was working at the library, I recognized the title instantly without remembering why it was familiar, at least initially. All I knew was that I was going to take it home and read it immediately. What I learned from the introduction is that Bhagavad Gita is Sanskrit for “Song of the Lord” and is India’s best known scripture. If none of that rings a bell, then the name Mahatma Gandhi will. As it says in the publisher’s summary, Gandhi used it as his personal guidebook. I read the Penguin Classics edition translated by Juan Mascaro first and while I found his language rich and beautiful at times, I prefer this edition by Ekneth Easwaran, which is clear and straightforward. My favorite chapter is probably chapter 12 “The Way of Love” because of its parallels to Christianity. Just as Paul does in 1 Corinthians 13:8 (“Charity/Love never faileth”), the Gita places love above knowledge and miracles. The last chapter, “Freedom and Renunciaton,” is also satisfying. I identify strongly with the idea of becoming closer to God by renouncing the rewards of work and self-will. Overall, reading the Gita has inspired me to seek the truth in all religions and spiritual philosophies. Finding the principles in the Gita that are common to my own beliefs was enlightening. Any recommendations of what to read next would be appreciated. I’ll end this review with my favorite verses:“That devotee who looks upon friend and foe with equal regard, who is not buoyed up by praise nor cast down by blame, alike in heat and cold, pleasure and pain, free from selfish attachments, the same in honor and dishonor, quiet, ever full, in harmony everywhere, firm in faith – such a one is dear to me.” (12:18,19)“Be fearless and pure; never waver in your determination or your dedication to the spiritual life.” (16:1)“Make every act an offering to me; regard me as your only protector. Relying on internal discipline, meditate on me always. Remembering me, you shall overcome all difficulties through my grace.” (18: 57, 58)“Be aware of me always, adore me, make every act an offering to me, and you shall come to me; this I promise; for you are dear to me.” (18:65)
—Holly
I enjoyed this teaching in one long, lovely sitting...after having practiced the Ashtanga Yoga Primary series, sitting in a cafe with my jasmine tea while a thunderstorm pounded outside. A powerful read/lesson. I've tried to read other translations before, but Mitchell's really resonated with me."...The undisciplined have no wisdom, no one-pointed concentration;with no concentration, no peace;with no peace, where can joy be?When the mind constantly runsafter the wandering senses,it drives away wisdom, like the windblowing a ship off course..."-Bhagavad Gita (2.66-67)
—Kris
