You Gotta Get the Gita!December 22, 2007 3 out of 13 found this review helpful
Okay, I realize that my title for this review is a little flip. But I really do love this book. That said, is it the best translation of the Gita ever written? I don't know. But what I do know is this: This book turns an ancient poetic text into a practical guide for living life today in a more effective way. The Gita taught me what it truly means to let go of my attachment to results . . . and that single lesson alone has brought me immeasurable peace. I highly recommend that you include this book in your collection of helpful spiritual texts.
Steven Lane Taylor, author of Row, Row, Row Your Boat: A Guide For Living Life In The Divine Flow
Not a very good translation.October 19, 2007 6 out of 8 found this review helpful
Mitchell's translation is not very good, more like a paraphrase than a literal translation. To cite the most jarring example, in 2:36 he has: "he slunk from the field like a dog". The original does not mention any dog. For example Sargeant translates this "deriding your capacity". Or Schweig translates it "deriding your ability". For those knowing Sanskrit, the original says "nindantas tava samarthyam". Nothing about dogs. The Bhagavad Gita is not anti-dog. The only mention of dogs is in 5:18. There is also too much sexism in his translation. Mitchell defends this by saying that for the author of the Gita, "rebirth as a woman is a stroke of rotten karma, which can indeed be overcome, but only with wholehearted devotion". This is based only on 9:32, which is translated literally on page 35 (his poetic translation of the same verse on page 119 is absurd). That is not enough to conclude that for the author of the Gita only men can be wise etc. There are no explanatory notes to any verses, unlike other translations. There is no index either, unlike the excellent Schweig's translation or the Easwaran's translation. But a good feature of Mitchell's book is the essay by Mohandas Gandhi on the Gita, from his pacifist view. The Gita is not pacifist, but it is interesting how it can be reinterpreted by this famous pacifist.
Illuminating PoetrySeptember 14, 2007 I have tried to read the Bhagavad Gita several from two or three respected translations but this is the first time that I was able to read it completely and understand it fully. Stephen Mitchell has translated this reknowned text is a succinct and poetic form. The book itself is beautifully bound and printed. What lies inside is heart-opening and and insightful.
This book is sublimeJuly 16, 2007 This book is sublime, and Stephen Mitchell's translation is beautiful. I came to this through my love - and daily reading - of T S Eliot's Four Quartets, whose beauty and meaning I can contemplate endlessly with enormous pleasure. The Gita was a huge influence on Eliot (he even refers to Krishna directly in the Quartets), and along with Dante's Divine Comedy, was one of the two books he considered to be the most spiritual and beautiful ever written. This passage alone from the Gita would be enough to satisfy me:
"The man whom desires enter as rivers flow into the sea, filled yet always unmoving - that man finds perfect peace."
I see that this is categorized as Hinduism, but it goes beyond any classification - and as someone who reads the Dhammapada (Buddha's Teachings) daily also, and finds Buddhism to be the closest of any form of spirituality to my own sense of the cosmos - the Bhagavad Gita simply expands that vision of being.
As Mitchell says in his introduction, regarding the place we may reach through meditation at which "dualities such as sacred and profane, spiritual and unspiritual, fall away":
"In that place, God is the ground we walk on, the food we eat, and the gratitude we express, to no one in particular, as naturally as breathing."
Wonderful Introduction to Indic ThoughtJune 24, 2006 5 out of 5 found this review helpful
After having read this three times I can say that Stephen Mitchell provides the reader with a wonderful introduction to Indic thought. Some poetic license is taken in the translation, and some verses seem to be more fabrication than translation, but overall this is a great place to start. The book might be rather simplistic for the more well versed reader, but the beginner will find it rather useful. Well done.
