Foreword
The Bhagavad Gita is the best known and the most frequently translated
of Vedic religious texts. Why it should be so appealing to the Western mind
is an interesting question. It has drama, for its setting is a scene of two great
armies, banners flying, drawn up opposite one another on the field, poised
for battle. It has ambiguity, and the fact that Arjuna and his charioteer
Krsna are carrying on their dialogue between the two armies suggests the
indecision of Arjuna about the basic question: should he enter battle
against and kill those who are friends and kinsmen? It has mystery, as
Krsna demonstrates to. Arjuna His. cosmic form. It has a properly com-
plicated view of the ways of the religious life and treats of the paths of
knowledge, works, discipline and faith and their inter-relationships, prob-
lems that have bothered adherents of other religions in other times and
places. The devotion spoken of is a deliberate means of religious satisfaction,
not a mere outpouring of poetic emotion. Next to the Bhiigavata-purana, a
long work from South India, the Gita is the text most frequently quoted
in the philosophical writings of the Gaudiya Vaisnava school, the school
represented by Swami Bhaktivedanta as the latest in a long succession of
teachers. It can be said that this school of Vaisnavism was founded, or
revived, by Sri .Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu (1486-1533) in Bengal, and
that it is currently the strongest single religious force in the eastern part of
the Indian subcontinent. The Gaudiya Vaisnava school, for whom .Krsna
is Himself the Supreme God, and not merely an incarnation of another
deity, sees bhakti as an immediate and powerful religious force, consisting
of love between man and God. Its discipline consists of devoting all one's
actions to the Deity, and one listens to the stories of .Krsna from the sacred
texts, one chants .Krsna 's name, washes, bathes, and dresses the murti of
.Krsna, feeds Him and takes the remains of the food offered to Him, thus
absorbing His grace; one does these things and many more, until one has
been changed: the devotee has become transformed into one close to
Krsna, and sees the Lord face to face.
Swami Bhaktivedanta comments upon the Gita from this point of view,
and that is legitimate. More than that, in this translation the Western
reader has the unique opportunity of seeing how a Krsna devotee interprets
his own texts. It is the Vedic exegetical tradition, justly famous, in action.
This book is then a welcome addition from many points of view. It can
serve as a valuable textbook for the college student. It allows us to listen to
a skilled interpreter explicating a text which has profound religiou,s meaning
It gives us insights into the original and highly convincing ideas of the
Gaudiya Vaisnava school. In providing the Sanskrit in both Devanagari
and transliteration, it offers the Sanskrit specialist the opportunity
to re-interpret, or debate particular Sanskrit meanings-although• I
think there will be little disagreement about the quality of the Swami's
Sanskrit scholarship. And finally, for the nonspecialist, there is readable
English and a devotional attitude which cannot help but move the sensitive
reader. And there are the paintings, which, incredibly as it may seem to
those familiar with contemporary Indian religious art, were done by
American devotees.
The scholar, the student of Gaudiya Vaisnavism, and, the increasing
number of Western readers interested in classical Vedic thought have been
done a service by Swami Bhaktivedanta. By bringing us a new and living
interpretation of a text already known to many, he has increased our
understanding manyfold; and arguments for understanding, in these days
of estrangement, need not be made.
Professor Edward C. Dimock, .Jr.
Department of South Asian Languages and Civilization
Universit_y of Chicago
Note: with due respect to His Divine grance. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,
to respect his holy knowledge, I posted it as it is in his book 'Bhagavat Gita - As It is"
My intention is to spread his grace to the whole world.