The Bhagavad Gita: A Sublime Hymn of Dialectics - Hardcover

I only stumbled on this version after reading a book by one of the Guru's disciples, Swami Muni Narayana Prasad (Karma and Reincarnation), and was so impressed by it, I ordered this Bhagavad Gita. I guess I took a gamble on the high price, but happily, this high quality hardback is worth every penny if you want a scholars Gita without a artwork and magic. It appears that I'm the first to review this version on the Bhagavad Gita and, very. bizarrely, I can find little information on the Nararaja Guru online. When we type 'Bhagavad Gita' on Amazon, all the pop-gita's are listed. This is unfortunate and says much about the world today. This commentary is big, very rich is learning, dense and complicated. Unfortunately, this commentary is infected with a Hegelian dialectic and the reader is expected to bounce from one sloka to another sloka, to land on the real meaning. Once upon a time, Karl Marx replaced God, and he influenced India. That time is over and no serious thinker takes dialectics seriously anymore. Nataraja Guru's wordview is also unique for Westerners. These days, the words 'Aryan' and 'Varna' are forever translated as noble and caste. All experts agree on those two meanings. However, during the 19 Century, all experts translated those words to mean 'race' and 'colour'. Nataraja Guru even argues that Arjuna is black (I have lost the page reference). And on page 98, he even writes, "Arjuna and the women concerned here were non-Aryans". And he means non race Aryans rather than none-nobles. An other well know teacher of vedanta, Swami Chinmayananda, says somewhere that German scholars didn't understand the sanskrit and many forums I have visited also blame the West. But here we have a genius Indian in Nataraja Guru arguing a different reason. --By Halifax Student Account on August 21, 2014

Nearing its fiftieth year of being continuously in print, Nataraja Guru's monumental analysis of one of the greatest philosophical classics of Planet Earth is now available in a new edition. Generations have benefited from its unique angle of vision, which introduces a universal framework that does not depend on faith to impart its message of infinite potential for every human being. The Guru's wry humor, fresh insights, and fearless challenges to prevailing orthodoxies, are clear marks of his style. His analysis is radical by any measure, yet it must be noted that much of the scientific and philosophic community has evolved over the same half century toward a similar global, broad-minded outlook to the one which the Guru brings to bear in these pages, and which not coincidentally is advocated by the Bhagavad Gita itself.