Bhagavad Gita (The Scripture of Mankind)

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O Partha! Yield not to unmanliness! It befits thee not. Abandoning this base faint-heartedness, rise up, O dreaded hero!- Sri Krishna

Introduction

This pocket edition of the Bhagavad Gita is specially meant for those who do not know the Devanagari script and would like to have the Text in Roman script with a plain English translation. It will be useful also for those who want to carry a great scripture even to their work spot in order to seek holy company in the midst of work.

Though put in the context of a battle scene, the object of the Gita is not war- mongering but exhorting man to do his duty, whatever it is, in a spirit of detachment and dedication. Such an attitude can be sustained only if a man has unreserved faith in God and in His supremacy over the destiny of man individually and of the cosmos as a whole. So beginning with an exhortation to action, the Gita gives in substantiation of that teaching a universal theology without any sectarian or dogmatic stance, which would be found congenial by all who are not in the grip of those narrow loyalties. For this reason we have designated it as the scripture of mankind.

Speaking about the universality and profundity of the teachings of the Gita, Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of India (1773-1784), in his Introduction to the first-ever English translation of the Text by Charles Wilkins (1784) declares that 'Works as the Gita could live long after the British domination in India has ceased to exist and that it contains passages elevated to a track of sublimity into which our habits of judgment will find it difficult to penetrate.

A study of this small Text of seven hundred verses will convince any one that such an encomium of the wisdom contained in it is not a misplaced over-estimate.