BookRix

Bhagavad-Gita is the most beautiful, perhaps the only true philosophical song existing in any known tongue’ – so opined William von Humboldt, who wrote seven-hundred verses in its praise.

Though it is a matter of consensus that Bhagvad-Gita in the present length of seven hundred slokas has many an interpolation to it, but no meaningful attempt has ever been made to delve into the nature and extent, not to speak of the effect of these on the Hindu society at large.

The methodical codification of interpolations carried out here, for the first time ever, puts the true character of Gita in proper perspective. Identified here are hundred and ten slokas of deviant nature and or of partisan character, the source of so much misunderstanding about Bhagvad-Gita, the book extraordinary, in certain sections of the Hindu fold.

In the long run, exposing and expunging these mischievous insertions is bound to bring in new readers from these quarters to this over two millennia old classic besides altering the misconceptions of the existing adherents.

In this modern rendition, the beauty of the Sanskrit slokas is reflected in the rhythmic flow of the English verse of poetic proportions even as the attendant philosophy of the song that is Bhagvad-Gita is captured in contemporary idiom for easy comprehension.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Awe Unfounded
3. All about Interpolations

Chapters

1. Arjuna’s Dilemma
2. All about Life
3. Theory of Action
4. Practical Wisdom
5. Art of Renunciation
6. Practice of Restraint
7. Know the Spirit
8. Cycle of Creation
9. The Sacred Secret
10. Discern the Divine
11. Nature of Omnipresence
12. Doctrine of Faith
13. Field and Farmer
14. Proclivities to Know
15. Art of Liberation
16. Frailty of Thought
17. Science of Devotion
18. Thy Looking-glass