Editorial Review:
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A vivid new translation of the jewel of Hindu spirituality
ONE OF THE GLORIES of Sanskrit poetry, The Bhagavad Gita is the ancient spiritual text that forms a sublime synthesis of the many strands of Hindu belief. Taken from the Mahabharata epic, it details a dialogue between the divine Krishna and the human warrior Arjuna before a mighty battle in which Arjuna must decide whether to wage war against his own family. Krishna imparts spiritual enlightenment to Arjuna, teaching him the paths of knowledge, devotion, action, and meditation, and helping him to see beyond the temporal to the eternal. This new translation captures both the clarity of Hindu philosophy and the beauty of Sanskrit poetry.
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Reader Reviews for The Bhagavad Gita (Penguin Classics):
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: "I am become Death, Shatterer of worlds"
Comment: The reason I read the Bhagavad Gita is, probably like many other people, because Robert Oppenheimer (the director of the Manhattan project at Los Alamos labs during World War 2) recites lines from it after he witnesses the Trinity explosion -- the first nuclear blast.
I was somewhat unsatisfied with the translation of Laurie Patton. I am unable to judge the academic quality of this translation, nor will I be able to put it into context with respect to many other earlier attempts. However, I somehow never got the sense that I was reading a great epic, a work that had shaped the lives of millions in a sense. Nevertheless, several philosophical themes such as "to let go of clinging to the fruits of action (the consequences of action)", "action vs non-action" come through clearly in the translation. Also, the introduction is written very well. In particularly the opening words "The Gita is about a decision. Above all, it is about a decision to go to war." would be the best way to summarize this epic in such a short form.
The Bhagavad Gita (literally meaning "Song of the Blessed One") is about the warrior Arjuna trying to find a reason for why he should be fighting against his relatives and friends. The god Krishna motivates Arjuna by encouraging/urging/forcing him to act because it is his duty to do so, but that he should not worry about the possible consequences of his action (such as him killing his friends) because he has no control over such consequences -- rather fate does. Action, consequences of action and fate ... these are the three major issues.
Going back to the Oppenheimer story, I would like to suggest the article: "The Gita of J. Robert Oppenheimer" by James A. Hijiya (Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol.144, No. 2, June 2000). Hijiya discusses the influence of the Gita on Oppenheimer's life. In doing so, he makes many references to various aspects of the Bhagavad Gita. Here we learn that the excerpt "I am become Death, shatterer of worlds" originally employed by Oppenheimer -- which does not appear at all in Patton's translation -- is translated by many researchers in the field as "I am time that has aged, who makes the world perish", which is the form that one finds it in Patton (11th Discourse, verse 32). Time, it is argued, implies death through aging. However, the duration of the explosion was not long enough to imply death through aging. Therefore the translation as "death" versus "time" of the original Sanskrit word apparently is a better choice (Oppenheimer new Sanskrit, so he could read the Gita in its original language).
The second citation Oppenheimer makes is: "If the radiance of a thousand suns / were to burst into the sky, / that would be like / the splendour of the Mighty One". Patton translates the same lines as "If a thousand suns had risen in the sky all at once, such brilliance would be the brilliance of that great self" (11th discourse, verse 12). I personally like the former translation better (I suppose it is Oppenheimer's own translation).
Overall, I would say that this is a very interesting epic to read. But perhaps you should consider other translations as well in addition to Patton's.
Customer Rating:
Summary: wonderful christmas gift
Comment: My daughter is 21, and this is the book she so wanted. She got it Christmas day, and began to read, and write footnotes in the book -- THANKS!!
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