Books like The Bhagavad Gita (Classics of Indian Spirituality) by Eknath Easwaran

A series of spiritual exercises for leading a meaningful life, 2,000 years old and still relevant today.

Stephen Mitchell's Bhagavad Gita is a definitive translation of the revered Hindu text, bringing the ancient wisdom of the Gita into the modern age.

At last, an edition of the Bhagavad Gita that speaks with unprecedented fidelity and clarity, letting the profound beauty and depth of this classic shine through. It contains an unusually informative introduction, the Sanskrit text of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute’s critical edition, an accurate and accessible English translation, a comprehensive glossary of names and epithets and a thorough index.

The Gita opens, dramatically, on a battlefield, as the warrior Arjuna turns in anguish to his spiritual guide, Sri Krishna, for answers to the fundamental questions of life. Yet the Gita is not what it seems – it’s not a dialogue between two mythical figures at the dawn of Indian history. “The battlefield is a perfect backdrop, but the Gita’s subject is the war within, the struggle for self-mastery that every human being must wage if he or she is to emerge from life victorious.”

Hindu philosophical classic, with English abstracts from classical commentaries presenting Advaita, Dvaita, and Viśiṣṭādvaita viewpoints.

Premnath Bazaz was a humanist and follower of M N Roy`s philosophy. He published this critique in 1975.He wanted to educate Indian Public about its evil impact on society which hinders the progress. He felt Gita did great harm to the people of India throughout and strongly condemned its social philosophy. Bazaz studied thoroughly and exposed Gita in a very scientific manner.

The Manusmriti, the social doctrine of yore, and the Bhagvad-Gita, the spiritual tome in vogue that lay down the discriminatory dharma (duties) of the four social classes (castes) have been the bugbears of the Hindu backward classes. However, to their chagrin, of late, as the latter is being mindlessly promoted even though the former was constitutionally debunked, they began advocating that it too should be dumped in a dustbin. Ironically, the improbability of their progenitor Krishna, the architect of the Gita, relegating his own ilk to the social margins failed to dawn upon these that Gita supposedly slights, even to this day! Thus, their intellectuals, instead of seeking to reclaim their priceless heritage, albeit after ridding its interpolative garbage, tend to rubbish it a la throwing the baby with the bathwater, and needless to say they must ponder. Also, it is high time that the Gita-class stop laying store by the self-aggrandizing verses in this Vyāsa’s classic, evidently inserted by their progenitors that came to bedevil the Hindu spiritual integrity and social harmony. Likewise, the grumblers of the dalit desertions must see the need for setting the Hindu house in order to prevent the fractious poaching by the Church, if not to facilitate the ‘hoped for’ return of the prodigals. So also those who take pride that Hinduism is the only religion that reckons all faith as true, should be concerned about the ‘in vogue’ Gita that belittles some of their caste fellows. Besides, this work beckons the feminists to reckon the second of the two interpolations from it cited in the cover image that degrades them in unspeakable terms. This ‘overdue’ work, may lead the ‘denied’ Hindu castes as well as the favored folks for an objective approach to the in vogue Bhagvad-Gita which could dispel the misgivings of the former and the delusions of the latter, thereby bridging the Hindu emotional gulf with its abridged book that restores its original form. Whether or not one concurs with its propositions, this original work could be of interest to the students of logic and reasoning as well.