The Bhagavad-Gita has been an essential text of Hindu culture in India since the time of its composition in the first century A.D. One of the great classics of world literature, it has inspired such diverse thinkers as Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, and T.S. Eliot; most recently, it formed the core of Peter Brook's celebrated production of the Mahabharata.

Dating from about the third century A.D., the Yoga Sutra distills the essence of the physical and spiritual discipline of yoga into fewer than two hundred brief aphorisms. It is the core text for any study of meditative practice, revered for centuries for its brilliant analysis of mental states and of the process by which inner liberation is achieved. Yet its difficulties are legendary, and until now, no translation has made it fully accessible.

This new translation, hailed by Yoga Journal for its unsurpassed readability, is by one of the leading Sanskrit scholars of our time, whose Bhagavad Gita has become a recognized classic. It includes an introduction to the philosophy and psychology underlying the Yoga Sutra, the full text with explanatory commentary, and a glossary of key terms in Sanskrit and English.

The dramatic moral crisis that is central to the 'Bhagavad-Gita' has inspired centuries of Indian philosophers as well as Western thinkers. Renowned translator Barbara Stoler Miller presents here an English language version of this exemplary text of Hindu culture.

This volume offers comprehensive analyses and new translations of Kalidasa's three extant plays: Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection, Urvasi Won by Valor, and Malavika and Agnimitra.

Jayadeva's dramatic lyrical poem Gitagovinda is one of the most important works in Indian literature and a source of religious inspiration in both medieval and contemporary Vaishnavism. Revealing an intense earthly passion to express the complexities of divine and human love, its songs are an important part of Indian devotional music and literature.

The twentith anniversary edition of the renowned translation by noted scholar Barbara Stoler MIller brings this classic to a new generation of readers and offers fresh insights for those familiar with the text.

The Yoga Sutra, dating from about the third century A.D., distills the essentials of a complex system of physical and spiritual discipline into 200 brief aphorisms. Yoga is at the heart of all meditative practice in Asia, yet until now there has been no first-rate English version of this primary text. Barbara Stoler Miller's translation admirably fills that gap--her clear, strong style and sensitive phrasing convey every nuance of Patanjali's words, and her commentary offers invaluable guidance to anyone seeking to understand Indian philosophy or the practice of yoga.

The Yoga Sutra does not propose to offer new knowledge but rather a new perspective on the nature of knowing. As a method of achieving insight, the discipline of yoga is far from mystical ecstasy or ritual trance. Its goal is a contemplative intensity that can unbind the constraints of everyday experience, and that goal helps explain Americans' growing interest in yoga in recent years.

This interest has been most widely expressed in the physical dimension of yoga--the postures known as hatha-yoga--but attention is increasingly being directed at the philosophy and psychology that define the discipline. Here the Yoga Sutra shines most brightly; in a world of bewildering complexity and seductive material culture, this centuries-old text offers powerful techniques for countering private mental chaos and moral confusion. The Yoga Sutra has great relevance today, and thanks to Barbara Stoler Miller it is now truly accessible.