Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God [Audio Cassette]

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!