Product Description

Free when packaged with any Damrosch World Literature title.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35907 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-14
• Original language: Hindi
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Book Information
The 18 chapters of the Bhagavad Gita (c. 500 BC), the glory of Sanskrit literature, encompass the whole spiritual struggle of a human soul, and the three central themes of this immortal poem arise from the symphonic vision of God in all things and of all things in God.

About the Book
"The task of truly translating such a work is indeed formidable. To hope for success in it the translator must at least possess three qualities. He must be an artist in words as well as a Sanskrit scholar, and above all, perhaps, he must be deeply sympathetic with the spirit of the original. Mr Mascaró has succeeded so well because he possesses all these qualifications" The Times Literary Supplement

About the Author
Juan Mascaro studied Sanskrit, Pali and English at Cambridge University, and later became Professor of English at the University of Barcelona. After the Spanish Civil War, he returned to settle in England permanently. He also translated some Upanishads and the Dhammapada for Penguin Classics. Simon Brodbeck studied at the universities of Cambridge and London, and completed a Ph.D. thesis on the Bhagavad Gita at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

Customer Reviews

biblified gita with omissions, additions and errors
from the first word of the gita;'dharmakshetra' mistranslated as 'truth'
to the last words spoken by arjuna mistranslated as 'Thy Will Be Done'
for 'i shall act on your words', the last words of krishna tarted up with added 'soul' and 'Light', and plain simple errors such as having duryodhana tell bhishma that the enemies army is unlimited, instead of
our army being unlimited,this gita is replete with additions, omissions,
interpretations [from a judeo-christian view] instead of translation.
real meanings have been omitted. bible-speak, souls, harmony, purity,
have been added thruout, which sounds good, with thou shalts, thy this and that etc, especially if the bible is important to you . .

side by side comparison with the acknowledged excellent translation of lars martin fosse - with sanskrit text, eight pages of translation and
explanations of the names and 'nicknames' and a good intro and index,
shows this translation/interpretation to have not only errors, but changes
of meaning which alter the discourse and understanding of it . .

why have reviewers given it stars? aside from novices and jaded christians
looking for something to [?] this gitaholic cant work it out.. perhaps if
there were no other english translations available, one might understand
some wishing to get 'any' gita onto the market, but since 1962 when this
trnsltn was first published, there have been other, good, translations !

recommendations; if you are 'intelligent' and wishing to discover
what the bhagavad gita is, and what krishnas discourse to arjuna is, including specific instructions and descriptions of meditation and
meditative states, try the good translation of lars martin fosse,
2007 edition available on the net.

if you simply want a more or less gita with lots of bible-speak,souls,
harmony, purity, Light repeated over and over, to make you feel good,
maybe this is the gita for you..

if you are one of the reviewers seeing the good in mascaros translation
including the scholars, have another, closer, read.. and why not also
get the readily available fosse translation, and do a comparo..

for the first six chapters only, with sanskrit text, excellent commentary and info on vedic philosophy and mechanics of meditation, the maharshi mahesh yogi translation, tho hard to get, has it all..

my only concern here is that you, will buy this translation read it and
think 'well thats the ghagavad gita' and not read another translation..
thinking 'i've read it now, i know what it says, very nice'..

for those who have not read the gita, lucky you.. its all ahead of you..
there's masses of material on the net, but for a first book, based on availability, accuracy, readability, i still recommend the 2007 fosse translation, and the mmy 6 chapters only..

prabhupadas hare krishna version has merits altho the repetitious translation of 'krishna consciousness' isnt much help to a beginner..
[unless you want to join the hare krishnas and become a bhakti]

much of individual words are correct or arguable, the two stars is for
the errors, biblification and alteration of the discourse and meanings..

namaste

Lost in Translation
As a speaker of Gujarati, and someone who is able to read and partially understand Sanskrit, I was rather disappointed by this translation.

While the translation itself is good, I couldn't help feeling that the poetic nature of the original Sanskrit version had been lost, along with some of the underlying meaning.

It seems as if there are certain words which do not exist in the English language to allow for a deeper understanding of what is told within the Srimad Bhagavat Gita, and that through translation of it, only a literal understanding can be appreciated.

On the field of truth...
This is a beautiful translation. Juan Mascaro spent over twenty years on this work, and says that at times he translated a verse 20 times before he was satisfied. There is an enormous amount of symbolism in The Bhagavad Gita, and if you want to understand that you may want a version that includes an extensive commentary. Some run to two large volumes! But it wasn't the intention of this work to provide a detailed commentary.

Chapter 1 ends with the verse:
"Thus spoke Arjuna in the field of battle, and letting fall his bow and arrows he sank down in his chariot, his soul overcome by despair and grief."

By the time I'd read that far I was overwhelmed with the same emotions.