the Bhagavad-Gita

[Guest guest]

This definitevely is my favourite text on yoga

philosophy. The Bhagavad-Gita is not just a philosophical

work. It is also one of the most beautiful pieces of

Indian literature, and part of Vyasa's "Mahabharata",

the second largest Sanskrit epic besides the

"Ramayana". I own three different editions of it.<br><br>The

first one is the translation from Sanskrit into English

by Swami Prabhavananda & Christopher Isherwood. (Of

Isherwood, I also have his "Goodbye to Berlin", a highly

interesting novel half fiction, half autobiography on Germany

between the world wars on the eve of Nazism.)

Prabhavananda & Isherwood translated the Gita partly into

prose, as well as other parts into verses. Their primary

intention was not to deliver a word-for-word translation,

rather to make the Gita more accessible to the average

western reader. In order to avoid long footnotes, they

incorporated the explanations by some classic Indian

commentators directly into their version. The result is one of

the most readable translations of the Bhagavad-Gita

available. Highly recommended.<br><br>My second edition of

the Gita is a work by Robert Boxberger, who in 1870

ventured to translate the Sanskrit skolas entirely into

German rhymed verses. Rather than a faithful rendition

of the original text, this is more a piece of German

poetry on its own, its main charm being that it presents

the Gita in a very clear and intelligible

version.<br><br>And finally, I own an Italian edition of the

Bhagavad-Gita, which I once bought on a visit in Milan, Italy.

This may be the most faithful, word-for-word

reproduction of the Gita I have, although it's only the

Italian version of an originally French translation from

Sanskrit by Anne-Marie Esnoul. Much erudite commentary

accompanies the text. In Italian, the Gita reads like an

opera libretto, but I never managed to read this one

through to the end.<br><br>BTW, did you know that the

Bhagavad-Gita has also been translated into Esperanto?