Bhagavad Gita

Rating:
Summary: Smooth reading!
Review: The introduction alone is worth the price of the book - a must have for any student of truth.

Rating:
Summary: Fine translation with valuable commentary
Review: This is an especially good translation for those with some knowledge of yoga or Hinduism or Vedanta. Rather than employ artificialities like "discipline" or "duty" or "the Supreme God," Nikhilananda retains in his translation many Sanskrit words like yoga, dharma, Brahman, etc. that have no real one-to-one English equivalent. One of the virtues of not attempting to translate every term is a more natural expression that preserves some of the immediacy of the original. This is a boon for those who have some experience with the terms, and a detriment to those who do not. In doing so of course he violates one of the prime dicta of translation, namely that a translation should stand on its own without recourse to augmentation by other works.

Nonetheless the book itself does stand on its own because Nikhilananda has provided along with the text a commentary taken primarily from Sankaracharya's famous and instructive gloss from the ninth century. (In some cases, it is true, the reader might wish that a commentary on Sankara's commentary be included!)

A point well made in the Foreword by William Ernest Hocking is that too many of the newer translations (and this applies today as it did in 1944) tend to avoid "a happy expression...to seek the different solely for the sake of differing." Nikhilananda is not afraid to use the tried and true and readily employs the "happy expression" that has worked so well in previous translations. His is a modest translation. One can see that his purpose is not so much to be the poet himself as it is to make the work accessible to English speakers. In his introduction, Nikhilananda interprets the Gita from the standpoint of Vedanta philosophy, which is to be distinguished from yogic philosophy and to some extent from the Hare Krishna movement. The Gita, as Nikhilananda expresses it in his Introduction, along with the earlier Upanishads and the Brahma sutras, "form the bed-rock of Vedanta philosophy." He follows his Introduction with a chapter entitled, "The Story of the Mahabharata," the grand Indian epic in which the Gita is nestled. Then there is Sankara's brief Introduction followed by a traditional "Meditation." After the text there is a Glossary of Sanskrit words and an Index.

This book, originally published by the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center in New York in 1944, is in keeping with the high quality of Swami Nikhilananda's engaging translation of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna and the books on yoga by Swami Vivekananda also published by the Center. I would recommend that the serious English-speaking student of the Gita have this book, now in its Sixth Printing, alongside a more recent translation of the Gita--perhaps Stephen Mitchell's poetic Gita of 2000 or Kees Boole's Gita of 1979, which includes on left-facing pages a verse by verse transliteration of the Sanskrit--as an aid to study.

I have only one small complaint with Nikhilananda's book: the chapter and verse numbers should be placed at the top of each page for easy reference by the reader!

Rating:
Summary: Fine translation with valuable commentary
Review: This is an especially good translation for those with some knowledge of yoga or Hinduism or Vedanta. Rather than employ artificialities like "discipline" or "duty" or "the Supreme God," Nikhilananda retains in his translation many Sanskrit words like yoga, dharma, Brahman, etc. that have no real one-to-one English equivalent. One of the virtues of not attempting to translate every term is a more natural expression that preserves some of the immediacy of the original. This is a boon for those who have some experience with the terms, and a detriment to those who do not. In doing so of course he violates one of the prime dicta of translation, namely that a translation should stand on its own without recourse to augmentation by other works.

Nonetheless the book itself does stand on its own because Nikhilananda has provided along with the text a commentary taken primarily from Sankaracharya's famous and instructive gloss from the ninth century. (In some cases, it is true, the reader might wish that a commentary on Sankara's commentary be included!)

A point well made in the Foreword by William Ernest Hocking is that too many of the newer translations (and this applies today as it did in 1944) tend to avoid "a happy expression...to seek the different solely for the sake of differing." Nikhilananda is not afraid to use the tried and true and readily employs the "happy expression" that has worked so well in previous translations. His is a modest translation. One can see that his purpose is not so much to be the poet himself as it is to make the work accessible to English speakers. In his introduction, Nikhilananda interprets the Gita from the standpoint of Vedanta philosophy, which is to be distinguished from yogic philosophy and to some extent from the Hare Krishna movement. The Gita, as Nikhilananda expresses it in his Introduction, along with the earlier Upanishads and the Brahma sutras, "form the bed-rock of Vedanta philosophy." He follows his Introduction with a chapter entitled, "The Story of the Mahabharata," the grand Indian epic in which the Gita is nestled. Then there is Sankara's brief Introduction followed by a traditional "Meditation." After the text there is a Glossary of Sanskrit words and an Index.

This book, originally published by the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center in New York in 1944, is in keeping with the high quality of Swami Nikhilananda's engaging translation of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna and the books on yoga by Swami Vivekananda also published by the Center. I would recommend that the serious English-speaking student of the Gita have this book, now in its Sixth Printing, alongside a more recent translation of the Gita--perhaps Stephen Mitchell's poetic Gita of 2000 or Kees Boole's Gita of 1979, which includes on left-facing pages a verse by verse transliteration of the Sanskrit--as an aid to study.

I have only one small complaint with Nikhilananda's book: the chapter and verse numbers should be placed at the top of each page for easy reference by the reader!

Rating:
Summary: Smooth reading!
Review: This is one of the best translations of the Song of God that I have ever come across. Swami Nikhilananda is the translator -- the actual commentary is taken from Sankaracharya's famous writings. However, as this book was translated as a Ramakrishna monk and uses Adi Sankara's commentary, the emphasis is on radical dualism. The other schools of thought are mentioned in the intorduction (Ramanuja;s qualified non-dualism and Maadhva's dualism), but they are not emphasised. This does give the work a bias, as the Geetaa over and over seems to waver back and forth between the monistic ideals (similar to other Upanishads) and the dualism that is common in much of Hinduism today. Also, a big plus is a summary of the Mahaabhaarata that allows the reader to make a little bit more sense of the battle itself and the goings on in the first chapter. A very good resource for those interested in the advaitic approach.

Rating:
Summary: This is the one!
Review: This is the book that Shaktiananda Yoga Centers uses and recommends for any serious Raja Yoga student. The translation is excellent and the commentary is authentic. Highly recommend!

Rating:
Summary: This is the one!
Review: This is the book that Shaktiananda Yoga Centers uses and recommends for any serious Raja Yoga student. The translation is excellent and the commentary is authentic. Highly recommend!