I wish I could read Sanskrit, because Krishna has some sick lyrical chops and I'm sure his flow is hot fire in it's original tongue. I recently finished my first reading of the Upanishadic-Vedantic masterpiece, The Bhagavad Gita, the highly-acclaimed Juan Mascaro translation.
Anyone with no previous foray into religious texts, specifically Hindu theology, should find this to be a fascinating read and derive some personal spiritual feeling from it. Those with a theological background will devour it's rich allegory and illustration. It's a fascinating text, short, deep, and poignant. Like most old religious texts, The Bhagavad Gita can seem far removed. Passages can be archaic, unrelatable, and hard to follow. However, there's real meat in between the lines. The dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna can serve as an allegory for meditation on one's soul, or at very least provide a glimpse into an ancient theology founded on moral wholeness.
In today's world, particularly here in the United States, we could all learn something from texts like The Bhagavad Gita. Sri Aurobindo reflected, "The Bhagavad Gita is a true scripture of the human race, a living creation rather than a book, with a new message for every age and a new meaning for every civilization." At very least, we could all derive some peace and harmony from the text. Albert Einstein wrote, "When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous."
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Make an Assessment:
I'm not going to do pros/cons or put scores on The Bhagavad Gita. I'll say simply that I enjoyed reading it, look forward to exploring more Hindu texts, and even look forward to re-reading this one. I recommend this book to anyone with enough patience and mental acuity to think about what they read.
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