>Have you read the Bhagavad Gita?
No
>Why not?
I've many other books to read

spiritual monk gave me a copy in detroit. made me promise thatd id read the entire thing. still sitting on my desk, barely read twenty pages. ill get to it one day

The main reason is because I've got other things to read

The secondary reason is that I'm never sure which is the best version/translation to read

>>7454341
I always assumed that when dealing with ancient literature one should read as many translations as possible and corroborate them all to get an idea of the story. All the while reading the annotations and notes that tend to be present in translations of ancient literature, of course.

Can somebody confirm whether or not this is a good approach if you want as whole of an understanding as possible of something without reading it in its native language?

>>7454350
Be careful with that approach 'The as it is' translation is very bias to Hare Krisna views.

>>7454330

I've read it. It was about the same as any religious text. You have to do X irrational thing and everything will be all better, and if not you're a stupid poopoo head. On the whole I'd say the values are better than Biblical values, but the literary value is much lower.

>>7454406
What does this mean? Does that mean this free book I got from a monk on campus is... BIASED somehow?
But for reals, all I know of Hare Krisna is that the beatles chanted about it that one time.

>>7454336
Was it the Gita As It Is? At my school, one guy claiming to be a monk tried to give me that version and like 3 other books. Dude didn't look like a monk though. I gave him 3 bucks and I declined because I didn't want to carry them all day and I already had a copy of the the Gita.

>>7454330
I just ordered it, has it transformed anyone's way of thinking? I'm trying to stop being a whiny,petty fuccboi.

It's the Easwaran translation btw.

>>7454330
Yeah I read it. It's excellent, explained the big picture completely. I had read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius that's why it made a but more sense to me so I suggest reading that too.
Anyway something you gotta know before you read it-
There was a king and he had two sons. The elder one was blind so the younger one- Pandoo- inherited the kingdom. After he died, the kingdom was divide into two amongst the blind's sons and Pandoo's sons. The blind guy named dhritirashtra had 100 sons called Kauravas and Pandoo had 5 sons called Pandavas. The eldest Kaurav wanted the whole kingdom for himself so a war was waged. The eldest was given a choice to choose between Krishna and his huge army- he chose the army. Just before the beginning of the war, Arjuna(one of the 5 sons) says he can't fight against his cousins and elders and uncles etc and he is confused. He feels his resolve weaken and disoriented. Krishna then explains to him everything and that's where Bhagwad Gita starts.
Google reluctant messenger Bhagwad Gita- I was just looking for a summary and started reading and halfway through I realised it was the book itself so I finished it. Would recommend.

>>7454466
The Hare Krishna version is perfectly fine as long as you don't touch the page long commentaries. Their book usually provides the Sanskrit texts along with English translation, so that in case you're not sure about the English you can read it in the original language.

>>7454466
Imagine reading a Mormon commentary of Dante's Inferno

>>7454336
haha same thing happened to me. He asked me if I would read it and I said probably not so he made me give it back

>>7454519
stop meming

>>7454496
yeah. literally the exact same thing. he asked for cash but i was only carrying a twenty at the time so i just told him i didn have anything.

>>7454630
I'm not. The commentary is by a offshoot Hindu cult member, it's going to be bias towards their views.

I ordered it and the rest of Eknath Easwaran's translations of "The Classics of Indian Spirituality" a few years ago.

I preferred The Dhammapada but it was still enjoyable. Certainly better then The Upanishads.

>>7454840
as is every commentary, genius.