The Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation

The Bhagavad Gita, the Song of the Lord, is an ancient Hindu scripture about virtue presented as a dialogue between Krishna, an incarnation of God, and the warrior Arjuna on the eve of a great battle over succession to the throne. Their discourse takes place on a field between two armies of warring cousins. Arjuna, realizing that if he fights, he will be forced to kill his friends, relatives, and teachers, casts down his bow and arrow and refuses to engage in combat. The Gita unfolds as a discussion of Arjuna's moral dilemma, with Krishna as the wise interlocutor explaining to Arjuna that he must overcome his instinctual revulsion and convincing him that he must attend to his duties as a warrior, while Krishna reveals himself as an incarnation of God in human form. This poem, written in Sanskrit is composed of 700 numbered stanzas, divided into 18 chapters. It deals with common human issues such as how we should act, how we should perform virtue, and it's universal themes of life and death, war and peace and sacrifice resonate in a West increasingly interested in Eastern religious experience and the Hindu dispora.