Yajnavalkya, said Sakalya, what Brahman do you know, that you have thus
flouted these Vedic scholars of Kuru and Panchala? Yajnavalkya replied:
I know the quarters, with their deities and supports. Sakalya said:
If you know the quarters, with their deities and supports, what deity
are you identified with in the east? With the deity sun. In what does
the sun find its support?
Yajur Veda, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad III, IX-Yajnavalkya and Vidaghdha,
19-20
The eye. In what does the eye find its support? Colours, for one sees
colours with the eye. In what do colours find their support? The
heart (mind), said Yajnavalkya, for one knows colours through the
heart. Therefore it is in the heart that colours find their support. Just
so, Yajnavalkya.
Yajur Veda, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad III, IX-Yajnavalkya and Vidaghdha,
19-20
Yajnavalkya, said Sakalya, what deity are you identified with in the
south? With the deity Yama (the god of justice). In what does Yama
find his Support? The sacrifice. In what does the sacrifice find its
support? The remuneration of the priests. In what does the remuneration
find its support? Faith, for when a man has faith he remunerates
the priest. Therefore it is in faith that the remuneration finds its
support. In what does faith find its support? The heart (mind), said
Yajnavalkya, for one knows faith through the heart. Therefore it is in
the heart that faith finds its support. Just so, Yajnavalkya.
Yajur Veda, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad III, IX-Yajnavalkya and Vidaghdha, 21
Yajnavalkya, said Sakalya, what deity are you identified with in the
west? With the deity Varuna (the god of rain). In what does Varuna find
his support? Water. In what does water find its support? Semen. In what
does semen find its support? The heart, said Yajnavalkya. Therefore
they say of a new-born child who resembles his father that it seems as
if he has sprung from his father's heart-that he has been created of
his father's heart, as it were. Therefore it is in the heart that semen
finds its support. Just so, yajnavalkya.
Yajur Veda, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad III, IX-Yajnavalkya and Vidaghdha, 22
Yajnavalkya, said Sakalya, what deity are you identified with in the
north? With the deity Soma (the moon and the creeper of that name). In
what does Soma find its support? The initiatory rite. In what does
initiation find its support? Truth. Therefore they say to the one who
is initiated: 'Speak the truth'; for it is in the truth that initiation
finds its support. In what does the truth find its support? The heart,
said Yajnavalkya, for through the heart one knows the truth; therefore
it is in the heart that the truth finds its support. Just so, Yajnavalkya.
Yajur Veda, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad III, IX-Yajnavalkya and Vidaghdha, 23
"No work in all Indian literature is more quoted, because none is better loved, in the West, than the Bhagavad-gita. Translation of such a work demands not only knowledge of Sanskrit, but an inward sympathy with the theme and a verbal artistry. For the poem is a symphony in which God is seen in all things....The Swami does a real service for students by investing the beloved Indian epic with fresh meaning. Whatever our outlook may be, we should all be grateful for the labor that has lead to this illuminating work."
Dr. Geddes MacGregor, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Philosophy
University of Southern California
"The Gita can be seen as the main literary support for the great religious civilization of India, the oldest surviving culture in the world. The present translation and commentary is another manifestation of the permanent living importance of the Gita."
Thomas Merton,
Theologian
"I am most impressed with A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's scholarly and authoritative edition of Bhagavad-gita. It is a most valuable work for the scholar as well as the layman and is of great utility as a reference book as well as a textbook. I promptly recommend this edition to my students. It is a beautifully done book."
Dr. Samuel D. Atkins
Professor of Sanskrit, Princeton University
"...As a successor in direct line from Caitanya, the author of Bhagavad-gita As It Is is entitled, according to Indian custom, to the majestic title of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The great interest that his reading of the Bhagavad-gita holds for us is that it offers us an authorized interpretation according to the principles of the Caitanya tradition."
Olivier Lacombe
Professor of Sanskrit and Indology, Sorbonne University, Paris
"I have had the opportunity of examining several volumes published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust and have found them to be of excellent quality and of great value for use in college classes on Indian religions. This is particularly true of the BBT edition and translation of the Bhagavad-gita."
Dr. Frederick B. Underwood
Professor of Religion, Columbia University
"...If truth is what works, as Pierce and the pragmatists insist, there must be a kind of truth in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, since those who follow its teachings display a joyous serenity usually missing in the bleak and strident lives of contemporary people."
Dr. Elwin H. Powell
Professor of Sociology
State University of New York, Buffalo
"There is little question that this edition is one of the best books available on the Gita and devotion. Prabhupada's translation is an ideal blend of literal accuracy and religious insight."
Dr. Thomas J. Hopkins
Professor of Religion, Franklin and Marshall College
"The Bhagavad-gita, one of the great spiritual texts, is not as yet a common part of our cultural milieu. This is probably less because it is alien per se than because we have lacked just the kind of close interpretative commentary upon it that Swami Bhaktivedanta has here provided, a commentary written from not only a scholar's but a practitioner's, a dedicated lifelong devotee's point of view."
Denise Levertov,
Poet
"The increasing numbers 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."
Dr. Edward C Dimock, Jr.
Department of South Asian Languages and Civilization
University of Chicago
"The scholarly world is again indebted to A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Although Bhagavad-gita has been translated many times, Prabhupada adds a translation of singular importance with his commentary...."
Dr. J. Stillson Judah,
Professor of the History of Religions and Director of Libraries
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California
"Srila Prabhupada's edition thus fills a sensitive gap in France, where many hope to become familiar with traditional Indian thought, beyond the commercial East-West hodgepodge that has arisen since the time Europeans first penetrated India.
"Whether the reader be an adept of Indian spiritualism or not, a reading of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is will be extremely profitable. For many this will be the first contact with the true India, the ancient India, the eternal India."
Francois Chenique, Professor of Religious Sciences
Institute of Political Studies, Paris, France
"As a native of India now living in the West, it has given me much grief to see so many of my fellow countrymen coming to the West in the role of gurus and spiritual leaders. For this reason, I am very excited to see the publication of Bhagavad-gita As It Is by Sri A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. It will help to stop the terrible cheating of false and unauthorized 'gurus' and 'yogis' and will give an opportunity to all people to understand the actual meaning of Oriental culture."
Dr. Kailash Vajpeye, Director of Indian Studies
Center for Oriental Studies, The University of Mexico
"...It is a deeply felt, powerfully conceived and beautifully explained work. I don't know whether to praise more this translation of the Bhagavad-gita, its daring method of explanation, or the endless fertility of its ideas. I have never seen any other work on the Gita with such an important voice and style....It will occupy a significant place in the intellectual and ethical life of modern man for a long time to come."
Dr. Shaligram Shukla
Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University
"I can say that in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is I have found explanations and answers to questions I had always posed regarding the interpretations of this sacred work, whose spiritual discipline I greatly admire. If the aesceticism and ideal of the apostles which form the message of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is were more widespread and more respected, the world in which we live would be transformed into a better, more fraternal place."
Dr. Paul Lesourd, Author
Professeur Honoraire, Catholic University of Paris
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