The most accurate and readable English translation of the Bhagavad Gita?

[DreamBliss]

I am about to go looking for this book. What is the most accurate, engaging and readable English translation of it in your experience or to the best of your knowledge?

 

As always I am open to freely receiving or paying money for paper or legitimate electronic (meaning you paid for and own them) copies of any of the books I have been asking about.

[phore]

http://www.amazon.com/Abhinavaguptas-Commentary-Bhagavad-%C2%A0Gitartha-Samgraha/dp/8186569448/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456855040&sr=8-1&keywords=abhinavagupta+bhagavad+gita

 

This is my favorite translation that I have read.  Abhinavagupta interprets the book from a free-thinking mystical perspective, instead of a dogmatic perspective.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Bhagavad-Gita-Light-Kashmir-Shaivism/dp/098162281X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1456855040&sr=8-3&keywords=abhinavagupta+bhagavad+gita

 

This is the same book with Abhinavaguptas commentary.  It is probably a better translation.  Swami Lakshmanjoo was the last direct lineage heir/ saint of Kashmir Shaivism.

 

Love and Light

[DreamBliss]

Awesome! Thank you for your suggestion!

 

The library does not have the ones you suggested, so I saved the links for later. I can get any of these (hopefully the link will work):

http://fvrl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/catalog/search/results?qu=%22Bhagavad+Gita%22&te=

Edited March 2, 2016 by DreamBliss

[BlackTigerWhiteDragon]

You may want to check the videos of Geoff Fuerensitien on the Gita.. probably the best way to enter into the world of the Bhagwad Gita in english.

[thelerner]

For those who are lazy (like me) you might want to see what youtubes are available (quite a few), then  download them into mp3 and listen to them later. 

[Prasanna]

Namaste, DreamBliss,

 

I have tried studying Shrimad Bhagavad Gita by a few Authors who were considered to be very sophisticated authors. To be frank, I couldn't progress with those books because they were going round and round about, far from the context of the verses and finally didn't make the point that they were supposed to make with respect to the verses. I have done a course on Vedanta Philosophy under a spiritual master by the name Swami. Parthasarathy. This book Srimad Bhagavad Gita is an ancient literary work on the philosophy of Vedanta. Three of the major spiritual stalwarts of Vedanta have written commentaries in three different perspectives that each of the three were personally convinced about. Their names are well known in the Indian philosophical context of Vedanta and those three great personalities are the Shri. Adhi Shankaracharya of the Advaitha (Non Dualism) faith of Vedanta philosophy, Shri. Ramanujacharya of the Vishishtadvaitha (Special Non Dualism) faith of the Vedanta philosophy and Shri. Madhvacharya of the Dwaitha (Dualism) faith of the Vedanta philosophy. Now, I have been trained under a spiritual master who follows the Advaitha or Non Dualism faith. Non dualism refers to Brahman (The Sanskrit term signifying the supreme God) that is undivided and without the second. It means that Brahman or Supreme God alone exists and the world we live in is ephemeral and non existent. Swami. Parthsarathy come from this Non dualism tradition and has written a commentary in English onthe Srimad Bhagavad Gita. If you are interested, you may buy the book from Amazon or if you want more details before making the purchase, please visit the following website, which has a lot of basic introductory books and advanced books on Vedanta philosophy apart from Srimad  Bhagavad Gita:

 

www.vedantaworld.org  

 

All the books are written in English language, and some of the other books will be a delight to study since they talk about the very basis of human life. Pure philosophy. All the Best. May God bless you.

Edited September 3, 2016 by Prasanna

[tao stillness]

No translation of the Bhagavad Gita can be understood unless one has the intellectual understanding and also the direct experience from meditation of Pure Consciousness, Being, Pure Awareness, Quantum physics vacuum state of consciousness, Sat Chit Ananda, Transcendental Consciousness. Even a beginner meditator of Transcendental Meditation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has experienced Transcendental Consciousness. Plus, any chapter after chapter 6 requires the reader to already be in a state of enlightenment to be able to understand the those chapters since they describe higher states of consciousness that the intellect alone without direct experience cannot understand.