Bhagavad-Gita [Englisch] [CD-ROM]

For example, one of my most pressing questions was: "Is nonviolence an absolute value, an absolute quality? Are there situations, where the use of violence is justified or even ethically required?"

I have tried to find answers to this and other questions as a university student of philosophy. But only since I have read this book all these questions have found their definite answers.

We all have the inherent feeling that there is something like right and wrong. I think that everbody would it consider wrong to murder innocent children or rape helpless women. Usually we try to distinguish between right or wrong on the superficial platform of fleeting material phenomena. This creates a lot of problems. On the external level what may be right today, what may be right for one person, may be totally wrong tommorow, in another situation or for any other person. All this distinctions are based on our ever changing personal tastes and on the often hollow zeitgeist.

Reading this book has opened my eyes in an instant. I felt like a blind man, who has regained his eyesight after decades of blindness. This brilliant book states that it is the INTENTION, the MOTIVATION, that really counts. It is not the external appearance. It is the personal essence.

Cutting and piercing the body with a sharp instrument obviously seems to be a violent act. Imagine, if some crook attacks you with a knife. Of course that is criminal, against human law. But what, if a surgeon uses a knife to cut your belly to remove a tumor, which puts your life at risk? Indeed, he is cutting, he is hurting, but is he a criminal? Usually not.

Intention or motivation is essential. And motivation is connected with knowledge about reality. The first requirement for any good intention is knowledge about reality. Imagine, if a pilot is crashing his plane and it is detected that he was not qualified to fly a big machine like this one? Can he defend himself by saying: "O, I had good intentions." No, he is a criminal.

Motivation is deeply connected with our innermost identity as loving and responsible persons. It is totally YOUR own decision, beyond all the programs of socialisation, education and genetic codes, beyond all material calculations and phenomena.

This book will open your eyes. All that is required is some humility, because humility breeds intelligence. It is definitely not suitable for arrogant and puffed up guys who think themselves to be more intelligent than nature and her personal divine source. Such fools may in all eternity try to lift themselves up by pulling on their shoestrings.

It is a must read for everyone, who wants to understand the open secrets of reality, which at the same time are so hard to grasp. For anyone, who seeks total fulfillment in his life by cultivating higher awareness, this book will prove to be of inestimable value.

First of all, this is not a book about Bhagavad Gita; this is a book against all those ignorant mayavadis (followers of Shankaracharya) and all the others who think differently than the author. You cannot read a few pages without finding his attacks on others views, which is the primary reason I do not like this book.

Then, it is highly unreliable, as you could expect from sectarian literature. I wouldn't mind it so much if the author had restrained his comments only to purports. But you cannot ignore purport and read only translation because it is also biased. Even word-for-word translation is unreliable and biased.

Ignoring purports, verse translation, and word-for-word translation, there remain only Sanskrit text, Roman transcription and pictures which are not enough to justify buying this book.

Instead, if you are interested in Sanskrit, as I am, try The Bhagavad Gita by Winthrop Sargeant to hear what Krishna really said. If you are not interested in Sanskrit, there are many, many other translations better than this one.