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    Bhagavadgita
    Bhagavadgita
    Bhagavadgita
    Ebook132 pages1 hour

    Bhagavadgita

    By Dover Publications

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    The Bhagavadgita is part of the great Indian epic the Mahabharata, and it is one of the major religious documents of the world, occupying in Hinduism a position not unlike the Sermon on the Mount in Christianity. One of the most celebrated treasures of world literature as well, it is in the form of a poetic dialogue between the epic's hero, Arjuna, and his friend Krishna, believed to be an incarnation of God.
    The dialogue, which takes place on the eve of an historic battle, probes the nature of God and what man should do to reach him. As the Bhagavadgita unfolds, this majestic poem provides a fascinating synopsis of the religious thought and experience of India through the ages. This edition offers the classic English verse translation by Sir Edwin Arnold (1832–1904), long admired for its evocation of the true feeling of the original poetry.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateMar 2, 2012
    ISBN9780486112671
    Bhagavadgita

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    Reviews for Bhagavadgita

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Read for class at Carleton University in 2016. I had read through lightly a long time ago, but used the ISKCON translation. I liked this one much better. Knowing a bit more of the background really helped me to get more out of it this time too. The descriptions in the final chapter of each term as it relates to the three gunas (material constituents) was particularly neat. I often didn't agree with the points of the philosophy (not believing in an eternal transmigrating self). And (relatedly) at times I felt strange that the doctrine was essentially being used to convince Arjuna that it was okay to kill thousands of his family and friends. Still I can see why this has been so widely read and I greatly enjoyed my reading.
    • 5/5
      The classic Indian examination of duty.
    • 5/5
      The best detailed translation work of the Bhagavad Gita out there. It includes grammatical classification for each word, as well as a word for word translation. Every significant translated text should have the level of detail that this book has. As a student of Sanskrit, I would not agree with some of the verse interpretations of this book, but that will always be the case. I found a few typos and incorrect grammatical classifications, but overall it is amazing. The language is a bit dated, but nothing too archaic. A must have for the student of Sanskrit.
    • 4/5
      Beautiful volume, oversized as Arjuna tries to work up his courage.
    • 3/5
      1885 translation of the Bhagavad Gita by a Victorian poet and journalist, who fashioned the Gita in the language of the King James Bible. One of the earlier English translations, and of value for that reason. Also reported to be the translation that Mohandas Gandhi first read as a law student in London with the Theososphical Society.
    • 3/5
      Couldn't get into this. I know, I feel like shit about it. But do you know how many of the words in this were "wotteth"?? Like 30.
    • 5/5
      The great thing about this translation is that it shows every step: from the original script to roman transliteration and great notes on the grammar.
    • 5/5
      I've read this translation, along with Easwaran's three volume commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, more than once. I don't really understand it, but I can see why this is a classic text of world spirituality. What I don't understand is what I need to understand better.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      The Bhagavad-Gita, subtitled, Krishna’s Counsel in Time of War, if taken literally, is a little difficult to abide with. A young prince, Arjuna, is on a battlefield, but sees “no good in killing my kinsmen in battle”, and thus lays down his arms. This seems like a very good and enlightened thing to do. However, the lord Krishna, in the form of his charioteer, then instructs him through various teachings that it’s his sacred duty to fight, that he must do so, and in the end Arjuna agrees; his “delusion is destroyed”, something we may have difficulty accepting. Along the way Krishna flexes his might, pointing out in one chapter that among other things he is Vishnu, Shiva, the Ganges, “the thunderbolt among weapons”, death, “indestructible time”, “the dice game of gamblers”, “everywhere at once”, “the beginning, middle, and end of creations”, etc etc. This heavy-handed commanding of Arjuna, similar to God in the Old Testament with Abraham and Job, is also off-putting at first glance. One asks, how can this be a spiritual book, versus an alternate story which might have Arjuna remaining a nonviolent pacifist to the very end, accepting whatever punishment from this overbearing God that resulted? One must read the Gita as countless others have throughout history, as a parable. I believe the “time of war” is the war within one’s own heart in times of difficulty, which are inescapable in life; the enemies one must kill are the desires and attachments which lead to suffering. The way to overcome these is through discipline and a sense of detachment from one’s emotions. This includes losing one’s fear even of death, since it is inevitable for all things, and in fulfilling one’s sacred duties (one’s Dhama) without regard for rewards or consequences. It takes discipline and a steadfastness to do this, but it’s through these means that one can have a tranquil mind, and transcend the limitations of worldly existence. I believe the reason Krishna “flexes his muscles” in the text is to remind us that these things we feel, these powerful emotions which seem so important and like the entire world to us when we feel them, are nothing when compared against the eternity of time and the infinity of space. When put in that context, one sees that we shouldn’t concentrate on them, that they (and we ourselves) are meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but we can ironically use this knowledge to become stronger, and to overcome suffering.Doing one’s sacred duty may in fact require one to be nonviolent, and it’s notable that Gandhi and other spiritual men have appreciated the Gita. As Thomas Merton wrote: “Arjuna has an instinctive repugnance for war, and that is the chief reason why war is chosen as the example of the most repellent kind of duty. The Gita is saying that even in what appears to be the most ‘unspiritual’, one can act with pure intentions and thus be guided by Krishna consciousness. This consciousness itself will impose the most strict limitations on one’s own use of violence because that use will not be directed by one’s own selfish interests, still less by cruelty, sadism, and blood-lust.”It’s an impressive text at 2200-2500 years old, and also poetic. I still recall reading the line “I see…the moon and sun in your eyes” while camping in Yosemite National Park long ago, and thinking of it as recently as this past week. Oppenheimer is famous for having quoted the Gita when he saw the first nuclear test: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”. I don’t think it’s necessarily the pinnacle of philosophical or religious works, but it is profound and certainly worth reading.Quotes:On doing one’s duty, without regard for the results; just doing it:“Be intent on action,Not on the fruits of action;Avoid attraction to the fruitsAnd attachment to inaction!”On enlightenment:“Truly free is the sage who controlsHis senses, mind, and understanding,Who focuses on freedomAnd dispels desire, fear, and anger.”On love:“O Arjuna, only by theunswerving love of a human heart,can my supreme state be seen,and known, and attained.”
    • 5/5
      If you are a seeker then you need to read this!
    • 4/5
      Very much like the other "wisdom collections" of the time. I kind of enjoyed the frame concept of it being a conversations between two characters, rather than the author talking at the reader, such as with other collections of wisdom, but at the same time, I kind of just wanted it to get on with it.
    • 4/5
      For me, this is the best Baghavad Gita translation. Van Buitenen does not seem to have as much of a philosophical agenda as many other translations. The Sanskrit is included (for those of you with a sanskrit dictionary) and the English on the facing page.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely wonderful
    • 3/5
      You really need to be interested and devoted to get something out of this text, but even if the material is not for you there are many wondrous scenes that can change the way you look at the world. So if you can stick with it and keep a clear head then this book has so much to offer, but if you can't then chances are it will just be confusing and you will think it is a waste of time. Definitely not for everyone.
    • 3/5
      I picked this up because it is one of the essential texts of Hindu culture and I enjoy learning the history of culture and religions. This particular text is a series of conversations between the Arjuna (a warrior/prince) and the god Krishna. There are some interesting sections on what is the basis of action is and how we should approach it mentally and overcome our physical desires.I don't like to rate books that can be viewed as religious texts, so I give them all 3 stars as a rule.3/5
    • 5/5
      "As a Seeker you must learn a much higher code of conduct then just those taught to you as a child. This requires your willingness to integrate many points of view. What wisdom list would be complete without at least a few perspectives about the divine? Start with your own then try the Bhagavad Gita. From the East. This version of the Bhagavad Gita is translated for easier reading for Westerners."
    • 2/5
      Religious bullshit that sanctions violence because, according to Lord Krsna, men have souls so what does it matter if you kill them?? No thanks. I neither approve of nor recommend it. It claims truths simply on the authority of itself, which doesn't fly with me.
    • 4/5
      a great and necessary read for all. this translation is superb and accessible. I have read it three or four times now
    • 2/5
      I find Mascaro's introduction too syncretistic in trying to reconcile Christianity and Hindium. Both may be good things, but they are very different things.
    • 5/5
      I will always be grateful to Barbara Miller for her translation of the Bhagavad Gita for one overarching reason: her translation of Chapter 15, "The True Spirit of Man" pointed out the non-duality at the heart of the Gita, something that I had missed in other translations. Here's an excerpt:15:16"There is a double spirit of manin the world, transient and eternal-transient in all creatures,eternal at the summit of existence.....15:18Since I transcend what is transientand I am higher than the eternal,I am known as the supreme spirit of manin the world and in sacred lore."This was very useful to me since it pointed out that Krishna - or the Supreme Spirit - is more significant and more fundamental than both the transient and the eternal. In other words, this is a non-dual insight which goes beyond polytheism, monotheism, henotheism and kathenotheism. There is only Spirit - there is only Ati - and Miller beautifully captures the heart of this wisdom teaching in 15:16 and 15:18.
    • 5/5
      An excellent reading of the most read story in the world. Needleman, reads with the authority of someone who has studied the subject matter in depth for a long time.

    Book preview

    Bhagavadgita - Dover Publications

    e9780486112671_cover.jpge9780486112671_i0001.jpg

    DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS

    EDITOR: STANLEY APPELBAUM

    Copyright

    Copyright © 1993 by Dover Publications, Inc.

    All rights reserved.

    Bibliograchical Note

    This Dover edition, first published in 1993, is an unabridged republication of Sir Edwin Arnold’s translation of the Bhagavadgita (late 19th century; a new edition was published in London in 1899), reprinted from a standard text. A new Note and footnotes have been added to the present volume.

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Bhagavadg e9780486112671_img_299.gif t e9780486112671_img_257.gif . English.

    Bhagavadgita / translated by Sir Edwin Arnold.

    p. cm.—(Dover thrift editions)

    Originally published: The song celestial. Boston : Roberts Brothers, 1885.

    9780486112671

    I. Arnold, Edwin, Sir, 1832-1904. II. Title. III. Series.

    BL1138.62.E5 1993

    294.5’924—dc20

    93-1448

    CIP

    Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation

    27782810

    www.doverpublications.com

    Note

    The Bhagavadgita (Lord’s Song) has been called the single most important religious text of Hinduism and a synopsis of the religious thought and experience of India through the ages (both quotations are from the Encyclopaedia Britannica). Written perhaps in the first or second century A. D., it is included in Book VI of the vast epic Mahabharata (Great Tale of the Bharata Family), which was compiled over several centuries, reaching its definitive form perhaps about 400 A.D.

    The main plot of the Mahabharata concerns a war for supremacy waged between two groups of royal cousins—on one side the five Pandava brothers (the Pandus), including Arjuna; on the other, the five Kaurava brothers (the Kurus). The Pandavas are aided by another cousin, Krishna (the dark one), who serves as Arjuna’s charioteer in the crucial battle of Kurukshetra (near modern Delhi). Krishna is already a divine being in the epic, an avatar (embodiment) of the great traditional god Vishnu, but he is not yet the mischievous and amorous cowherd of later Hindu writings. The Bhagavadgita begins shortly before the battle, and takes the form of an eyewitness narration made by the messenger Sanjaya to Dhritarashtra, blind father of the Kauravas. When Arjuna is distressed at the thought of fighting his cousins, Krishna assures him that that is where his duty lies, and goes on to give him numerous philosophical and religious reasons for this viewpoint.

    The principal doctrine of the Bhagavadgita, making it a breakthrough in Hindu thought, is that of bhakti, personal devotion (by yogic meditation or otherwise) to a supreme god who is the sole ultimate reality. Man is to act and perform his rightful tasks without heeding transient contingencies. The old scriptures (the Vedas)—Krishna states—with their particular codes of behavior, their rules for sacrifices and their philosophical distinctions (such as qualities and modes), are less important than the secret teachings he now expounds.

    Among the many merits of the translation reprinted here, by the prominent Victorian specialist in Indian studies Sir Edwin Arnold (1832-1904, author of the long poem about Buddhism, The Light of Asia , 1879), is its recognition that the Sanskrit original is a poem and his use of equivalent English verse forms, avoiding the dryness of many prose versions. His own main title for his translation was The Song Celestial. The footnotes without brackets in the present edition are Arnold’s; those enclosed in square brackets have been added by the Dover editor, and are meant as brief identifications and explanations, not as commentary or exposition. Many of the Sanskrit terms that Arnold retained in his text are immediately glossed right in the translation as they appear; e.g., on page 10: Thy Karmabandh, the bondage of wrought deeds.

    Not footnoted are the numerous variant names given here for Krishna and for Arjuna (this is a universal practice in ancient epic poetry, used for variety and sometimes for the sake of the meter). In Arnolds translation, Krishna is also called (in order of appearance of the names): Keshav (or Ke e9780486112671_img_347.gif ava, having fine hair), Govinda (herdsman or giver of enlightenment), Madhusudan (slayer of [the demon] Madhu), Madhava (descendant of [a different] Madhu), Janârdana (liberator of man), Vâsudev (from the name of his human father) and Hari (a name of Vishnu, indicating that Krishna is a form of that god), in addition to the listing of names on pages 38 and 39, which are immediately glossed in Arnold’s text.

    Arjuna is also referred to as Son of Kunti, Glory of the Kurus, Prithâ’s Son, Bharata, Son of Bharata and Chief of the Bharatas. (Bharata is also used a few times by Sanjaya when directly addressing Dhritarashtra.)

    Also not footnoted are the terms for the four fundamental Hindu castes: Brahman (priests), Kshatriya (kings and warriors), Vaisya (tradesmen) and Sudra (laborers).

    Do not confuse karma (action; accumulation of deeds) with kama (destructive passion)!

    (Except in direct references to the text, Sanskrit diacritical marks have been intentionally omitted in this Note; they are used somewhat inconsistently in the translation, which has not been altered.)

    Table of Contents

    Title Page

    DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS

    Copyright Page

    Note

    CHAPTER 1 - The Distress of Arjuna

    CHAPTER 2 - The Book of Doctrines

    CHAPTER 3 - Virtue in Work

    CHAPTER 4 - The Religion of Knowledge

    CHAPTER 5 - Religion by Renouncing Fruit of Works

    CHAPTER 6 - Religion by Self-Restraint

    CHAPTER 7 - Religion by Discernment

    CHAPTER 8 - Religion by Devotion to the One Supreme God

    CHAPTER 9 - Religion by the Kingly Knowledge and the Kingly Mystery

    CHAPTER 10 - Religion by the Heavenly Perfections

    CHAPTER 11 - The Manifesting of the One and Manifold

    CHAPTER 12 - The Religion of Faith

    CHAPTER 13 - Religion by Separation of Matter and Spirit

    CHAPTER 14 - Religion by Separation from the Qualities

    CHAPTER 15 - Religion by Attaining the Supreme

    CHAPTER 16 - The Separateness of the Divine and Undivine

    CHAPTER 17 - Religion by the Threefold Kinds of Faith

    CHAPTER 18 - Religion by Deliverance and Renunciation

    DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS

    CHAPTER 1

    The Distress of Arjuna

    DHRITARASHTRA. Ranged thus for battle on the sacred plain—

    On Kurukshetra—say Sanjaya! say

    What wrought my people, and the Pandavas?

    SANJAYA. When he beheld the host of Pandavas,

    Raja Duryôdhana to Drona drew,

    And spake these words: "Ah, Guru! see this line,

    How vast it is of Pandu fighting-men,

    Embattled by the son of Drupada,

    Thy scholar in the war! Therein stand ranked

    Chiefs like Arjuna, like to Bhima chiefs,

    Benders of bows; Virâta, Yuyudhân,

    Drupada, eminent upon his car,

    Dhrishtaket, Chekitân, Ka e9780486112671_img_347.gif i’s stout lord,

    Purujit,

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