New Readible Translation of the Bhagavad Gita

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Introducing a new, authoritative and easily readable translation of the sacred

Bhagavad Gita, revealing the most ancient wisdom on earth for the spiritual

relief of our modern era.

 

" Srimad Bhagavad Gita

The Song of the Lord: An American Translation in Prose "

 

By Sri Sivadasa Bharati Swami

 

Foreword by Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya

 

 

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/bhagavad-gita-the-song-of-the-lord-an\

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" Swami Sivadasa has produced a clear and easily readable prose translation of

the Gita which makes this spiritual classical accessible to everyone, without

losing the essence of its profound meaning. The book is a good place to begin

one's spiritual adventure with the unfathomable wisdom of the glorious Gita. "

 

- Dr. David Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva Shastri), author of over 28 books on Yoga,

Ayurveda, Hinduism and Dharma.

 

 

" Sivadasa Bharati Swami has broken fresh ground with his eminently readable

prose translation of the Bhagavad Gita. This has made the book, a gem of world

literature and masterpiece of mystical knowledge, accessible to a wide

readership. I recommend it wholeheartedly. "

 

- Professor Subhash Kak, author of The Gods Within, The Prajna Sutras, The

Architecture of Knowledge and other books.

 

 

 

From the Forward

 

Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya

(Dr. Frank Morales, Ph.D.)

 

Throughout our history, a wide variety of diverse cultures and authors have

created written works of such notable aesthetic grandeur that they deserve to be

termed " great literature " . Such illustrious names as Homer, Shakespeare and

Kalidasa come to mind when we contemplate some of the authors of this

literature. Within this grand literary corpus of great literature, however, a

further qualitative distinction can be made. There is great literature, to be

sure, but then there is eternal literature. Eternal literature is comprised of

such works that do much more than to merely inspire only a specific group of

people, or to endure for many generations, or even to inspire us to think great

thoughts and to aspire toward lofty heights. Rather, eternal literature serves

the additional vital function of being clear windows upon the Transcendent

reality, revealing that Transcendent to us in the most accessible of ways, and

providing us with a means by which we can, in turn, manifest the Eternal in our

own mortal lives. An encounter with a truly eternal work of literature has more

than the mere potential to convey to us a great idea; it has the potential to

make us into enlightened beings.

 

There are several works that fall under the category of eternal literature, of

which one of the most profoundly illuminating is the ancient Bhagavad Gita, or

The Song of God. The Bhagavad Gita is the historical record of a conversation

that took place in 3102 B.C., just before the commencement of the great

Mahabharata War. This was a philosophical conversation between the great

warrior Arjuna and Bhagavan Sri Krishna, the incarnation (avatara) of God who

appeared at the very beginning of our era, the Kali Yuga, to restore Dharma and

Truth to the world. So important has this profoundly illuminating dialog

between man and God been throughout history, that the Bhagavad Gita has often

been called the " Bible " of the tradition of Sanatana Dharma, the Eternal Natural

Way, which is commonly referred to as " Hinduism " . There has been almost no

important scholar, philosopher or sampradaya Acharya (lineage preceptor) in the

history of Sanatana Dharma who has not written a commentary upon this work. In

a further display of the truly global significance of this Song of God in the

last two hundred years, specifically, the Gita has been translated into the

English language alone over 650 separate times.

 

Of course, having outlined the ubiquitous number of English translations of the

Gita, this begs the natural question: Why have yet another translation? The

answer lays in a proper understanding of the epistemic nature and soteriological

function of the Gita itself. For, again, the Bhagavad Gita is not an ordinary

piece of literature in the normative sense. Rather, it is a work of truly

divine origin, having God as its direct source, and radical existential freedom

(moksha) as its purpose. This being the case, the Gita cannot ever be

understood by a merely academic or theoretical exegetical analysis alone.

Rather, the truths that the Gita reveal can only be fully understood as a result

of a direct, non-mediated experience of Truth. It is only through the practice

of the teachings of the Gita that the mysteries of the Gita can be known. It is

only as a result of intense spiritual practice in the form of Yoga and

meditation, under the tutelage of an authentic and self-realized guru, that the

teachings of Sri Krishna come to life within the heart, the intellect, and the

very soul (atman) of the spiritual seeker. Sadly, the vast majority of the 650

English translations of the Gita tend to take a dry academic approach, at the

very expense of just such a dynamically experiential spiritual understanding.

 

In the following translation and commentary upon the Bhagavad Gita by Sri

Shivadasa Bharati Swami, however, we find one of the brightest and most

refreshing exceptions to the above scenario. Sri Shivadasa Swami represents

one of the very few Gita translators who has possessed both the academically

cultivated methodological ability, coupled with the spiritual insight of a

devoted Hindu practitioner of over forty years, necessary to finally do justice

to the eternal spirit of the Bhagavad Gita. With his highly traditional

religious training, rigorous philosophical background and initiatory credentials

firmly cemented in the orthodox Smarta tradition of the Advaita school of

Vedantic Hinduism, Sri Shivadasa Swami has the ability to speak in this work

with a quietly humble, yet powerfully forceful, authority that few other

contemporary translator-commentators have been able to raise.

 

In an age in which authenticity, honesty, inspired numinous insight and

philosophical acumen seem to have taken a backseat - albeit however so

temporarily - to the latest commercially oriented, new age mystical fads of the

day, the writings of Sri Shivadasa Bharati Swami have courageously echoed the

eternal voices of the great sages, the rishis, reminiscent of an ancient Golden

Age of spiritual attainment. Sri Swamiji has revealed to the world once again

that clear window to Transcendent reality, and allowed that eternal work of

literature known as the Bhagavad Gita to shine forth for the world to marvel at.

I await eagerly to witness what additional jewels of writing are destined to be

unleashed from the pen of Sri Swamiji in the future.

 

Aum Shanti

Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya

(Dr. Frank Morales, Ph.D.)

President-Acharya: International Sanatana Dharma Society: The Center for Dharma Studies

Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A.

December, 2009

 

 

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About Sri Sivadasa Bharati Swami

 

Sri Sivadasa Bharati Swami (Dr. A.R. Guagliardo, D.Div.), was born in 1957 of a

Scottish father and Indian mother. Orphaned as an infant after his parents

untimely death, he was adopted and raised by a Cuban-Italian family in Tampa,

Florida. After completing Bachelors and Masters studies in social psychology,

ancient history and comparative religion at the University of South Florida,

City Colleges of Chicago, University of Maryland, and Fordham University in New

York, and received his Doctorate of Divinity from Mar Tomas Malankar Orthodox

Seminary in 1979. After serving as a priest and an Air Force Chaplain for seven

years, he left the priesthood and traveled to India where he embraced Sanatana

Dharma (Hinduism), the spiritual path of his maternal ancestors, studying Adi

Shankara's Advaita philosophy and taking diksha (initiation) into the Smarta

Sampradaya from his guru, Sri Sharadhananda Bharathi. After returning from

India, he worked as a newspaper and magazine editor, authored several books,

served as Temple Manager, Pujari and Religious Instructor for the Hindu Temple

of Georgia, served as Director of Operations for the Atlanta-based Gandhi

Foundation USA, and worked as a counselor and certified hypnotherapist. After

many years of dharmic studies and experience, Sri Sivadasa Swami established the

Dharmic Arts Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching and

promoting Dharma and dharmic living. He recently relocated from Atlanta to New

Orleans to establish the Chandrashekhara Dharma Center of New Orleans.

 

The Dharmic Arts Foundation

http://dharmicarts.com/

 

 

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