Best English translation of Bhagavad Gita?

July 12, 2007

Hello all, this question is for anyone. The answer may be somewhere in

these pages, but I don't remember if it was. I'm looking for opinions

of the " best " translation of the Gita. I had read several translations

in the past but am open to suggestions as to accessible translations.

I've lived with the Ashtavakra Gita for sometime now but wanted to

start the Bhagavad Gita again...So many quotes and references to it are

here and I want to refer to them...thanks so much! Steve

July 12, 2007

Namaste dear Sri Steve:

Your question in appearance is simple but the opinion of best

translation will likely vary between the persons. Gandhiji who

practiced Gita to the greatest extent in " The Story of My Experiments

with Truth Gandhi " revealed his thoughts on the question regarding the

best translation of Gita as follows:

Towards the end of my second year in England I came across two

Theosophists---brothers and both unmarried. They talked to me about

the Gita. They were reading Sir Edwin Arnold's translation---The Song

Celestial---and they invited me to read the original with them. I

felt ashamed, as I had read the divine poem neither in Sanskrit nor

in Gujarati [Gandhi's mother tongue]. I was constrained to tell them

that I had not read the Gita, but that I would gladly read it with

them, and that though my knowledge of Sanskrit was meagre, still I

hoped to be able to understand the original to the extent of telling

where the translation failed to bring out the meaning. I began

reading the Gita with them. The verses in the second chapter,

" If one

Ponders on objects of the sense, there springs

Attraction: from attraction grows desire,

Desire flames to fierce passion, passion breeds

Recklessness; then the memory--all betrayed--

Lets noble purpose go, and saps the mind,

Till purpose, mind, and man are all undone. "

made a deep impression on my mind, and they still ring in my ears.

The book struck me as one of priceless worth. The impression has ever

since been growing on me with the result that I regard it today as

the book par excellence for the knowledge of Truth. It has afforded

me invaluable help in my moments of gloom. I have read almost all the

English translations of it, and I regard Sir Edwin Arnold's as the

best. He has been faithful to the text, and yet it does not read like

a translation. Though I read the Gita with these friends, I cannot

pretend to have studied it then. It was only after some years that it

became a book of daily reading.

(Mahatma Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth:

(Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1948) Part I, XX:90.

An electronic version of Sir Edwin Arnold's translation of Gita,

Song Celestial is available for interested readers at :

http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/songcelestial.asp

If you are really interested a complete comprehensive translation

with Vedantic interpretation, I suggest that you refer to Swami

Dayananda's " Homestudy Notes for Bhagavad Gita " which contain over

2000 pages. It is available (both in electronic form – CD and printed

form) at Arsha Vidya Gurdukulam and website address is

http://www.arshavidya.org/ .

With my warmest regards,

Ram Chandran

advaitin , " otnac6 " <otnac6 wrote:

>

> Hello all, this question is for anyone. The answer may be somewhere

in

> these pages, but I don't remember if it was. I'm looking for

opinions

> of the " best " translation of the Gita. I had read several

translations

>

July 12, 2007

Thanks much for the info and those sites!

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July 13, 2007

hi steev

i would suggest one by swami chitbhavananda of ramakrishna math.his writing is

simple and motivating and translations are available in all languages.

in fact this was my first reading way back in seventies that lifted me up from

my lowest level.

baskaran