The Bhagavad Gita is the best known of all the Indian scriptures, and Eknath Easwaran's best-selling translation is reliable, readable, and profound.

Easwaran's 55-page introduction places the Bhagavad Gita in its historical setting, and brings out the universality and timelessness of its teachings. Chapter introductions clarify key concepts, and notes and a glossary explain Sanskrit terms.

Easwaran grew up in the Hindu tradition in India, and learned Sanskrit from a young age. He was a professor of English literature before coming to the West on a Fulbright scholarship. A gifted teacher, he is recognized as an authority on the Indian classics and world mysticism.

The Bhagavad Gita opens, dramatically, on a battlefield, as the warrior Arjuna turns in anguish to his spiritual guide, Sri Krishna, for answers to the fundamental questions of life. Yet, as Easwaran points out, the Gita is not what it seems - it's not a dialogue between two mythical figures at the dawn of Indian history. The battlefield is a perfect backdrop, but the Gita's subject is the war within, the struggle for self-mastery that every human being must wage if he or she is to emerge from life victorious.

Arjuna's struggle in the Bhagavad Gita is acutely modern. He has lost his way on the battlefield of life and turns to find the path again by asking direct, uncompromising questions of his spiritual guide, Sri Krishna, the Lord himself. Krishna replies in 700 verses of sublime instruction on living and dying, loving and working, and the nature of the soul.

Easwaran shows the Gita's relevance to us today as we strive, like Arjuna, to do what is right.

No one in modern times is more qualified - no, make that 'as qualified' - to translate the epochal Classics of Indian Spirituality than Eknath Easwaran. And the reason is clear. It is impossible to get to the heart of those classics unless you live them, and he did live them. My admiration of the man and his works is boundless. - Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions

Stephen Mitchell is widely known for his ability to make ancient masterpieces thrillingly new, to step in where many have tried before and create versions that are definitive for our time. His celebrated version of the Tao Te Ching is the most popular edition in print, and his translations of Jesus, Rilke, Genesis, and Job have won the hearts of readers and critics alike. Stephen Mitchell now brings to the Bhagavad Gita his gift for breathing new life into sacred texts.

The Bhagavad Gita is universally acknowledged as one of the world's literary and spiritual masterpieces. It is the core text of the Hindu tradition and has been treasured by American writers from Emerson and Thoreau to T. S. Eliot, who called it the greatest philosophical poem after the Divine Comedy. There have been more than two hundred English translations of the Gita, including many competent literal versions, but not one of them is a superlative literary text in its own right.

Now all that has changed. Stephen Mitchell's Bhagavad Gita sings with the clarity, the vigor, and the intensity of the original Sanskrit. It will, as William Arrowsmith said of Mitchell's translation of The Sonnets to Orpheus, instantly make every other rendering obsolete.

Easwaran's best-selling translation of the ancient wisdom texts called the Upanishads is reliable, readable, and profound.

In the Upanishads, illumined sages share flashes of insight, the results of their investigation into consciousness itself.

In extraordinary visions, they experience directly a transcendent Reality which is the essence, or Self, of each created being. They teach that each of us, each Self, is eternal, deathless, one with the power that created the universe.

Easwaran's best-selling translation of selections taken from the principal Upanishads and five others is reliable and accessible. It includes an overview of the cultural and historical setting, with chapter introductions, notes, and a Sanskrit glossary. But it is Easwaran's understanding of the wisdom of the Upanishads, and their relevance to the modern reader, that makes this edition truly outstanding.

Each sage, each Upanishad, appeals in different ways to the reader's head and heart. As Easwaran writes, The Upanishads belong not just to Hinduism. They are India's most precious legacy to humanity, and in that spirit they are offered here.

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.

World-renowned philosopher and spiritual teacher Ram Dass--author of the groundbreaking classic Be Here Now--presents the contemporary Western audience with a lively, accessible guide to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, the classic Hindu text that has been called the ultimate instruction manual for living a spiritual life.

The Bhagavad Gita is the best known of all the Indian scriptures, and Eknath Easwaran's best-selling translation is reliable, readable, and profound.

Easwaran's 55-page introduction places the Bhagavad Gita in its historical setting, and brings out the universality and timelessness of its teachings. Chapter introductions clarify key concepts, and notes and a glossary explain Sanskrit terms.

Easwaran grew up in the Hindu tradition in India, and learned Sanskrit from a young age. He was a professor of English literature before coming to the West on a Fulbright scholarship. A gifted teacher, he is recognized as an authority on the Indian classics and world mysticism.

The Bhagavad Gita opens, dramatically, on a battlefield, as the warrior Arjuna turns in anguish to his spiritual guide, Sri Krishna, for answers to the fundamental questions of life. Yet, as Easwaran points out, the Gita is not what it seems - it's not a dialogue between two mythical figures at the dawn of Indian history. The battlefield is a perfect backdrop, but the Gita's subject is the war within, the struggle for self-mastery that every human being must wage if he or she is to emerge from life victorious.

Arjuna's struggle in the Bhagavad Gita is acutely modern. He has lost his way on the battlefield of life and turns to find the path again by asking direct, uncompromising questions of his spiritual guide, Sri Krishna, the Lord himself. Krishna replies in 700 verses of sublime instruction on living and dying, loving and working, and the nature of the soul.

Easwaran shows the Gita's relevance to us today as we strive, like Arjuna, to do what is right.

No one in modern times is more qualified - no, make that 'as qualified' - to translate the epochal Classics of Indian Spirituality than Eknath Easwaran. And the reason is clear. It is impossible to get to the heart of those classics unless you live them, and he did live them. My admiration of the man and his works is boundless. Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions.

An interlinear edition of the spiritual classic that provides devanagari, transliterated Sanskrit, and English versions of the Gītā.

For years, this edition of the Bhagavad Gītā has allowed all those with a lively interest in this spiritual classic to come into direct contact with the richness and resonance of the original text. Winthrop Sargeant's interlinear edition provides a word-for-word English translation along with the devanagari characters and the transliterated Sanskrit. Detailed grammatical commentary and page-by-page vocabularies are included, and a complete translation of each section is printed at the bottom of each page, allowing readers to turn the pages and appreciate the work in Sargeant's translation as well. Discussions of the language and setting of the Gītā are provided and, in this new edition, editor Christopher Key Chapple offers guidance on how to get the most out of this interlinear edition. Long a favorite of spiritual seekers and scholars, teachers and students, and lovers of world literature, Sargeant's edition endures as a great resource for twenty-first-century readers.

The timeless epic of the Hindu faith, now available from Signet Classics in this edition translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood--with an Introduction by Aldous Huxley.

The Bhagavad-Gita is the Gospel of Hinduism, and one of the great religious classics of the world. Its simple, vivid message is a daily inspiration in the lives of millions throughout the world and has been so for countless generations.

Here is a distinguished translation that can be read by every person, not as an archaic monument to an ancient culture, but as a living contemporary message that touches the most urgent personal and social problems.

The great Indian epic rendered in modern prose

India's most beloved and enduring legend, the Ramayana is widely acknowledged to be one of the world's great literary masterpieces. Still an integral part of India's cultural and religious expression, the Ramayana was originally composed by the Sanskrit poet Valmiki around 300 b.c. The epic of Prince Rama's betrayal, exile, and struggle to rescue his faithful wife, Sita, from the clutches of a demon and to reclaim his throne has profoundly affected the literature, art, and culture of South and Southeast Asia-an influence most likely unparalleled in the history of world literature, except, possibly, for the Bible.

Throughout the centuries, countless versions of the epic have been produced in numerous formats and languages. But previous English versions have been either too short to capture the magnitude of the original; too secular in presenting what is, in effect, scripture; or dry, line-by-line translations. Now novelist Ramesh Menon has rendered the tale in lyrical prose that conveys all the beauty and excitement of the original, while making this spiritual and literary classic accessible to a new generation of readers.

The present volume is an unabridged compilation of all four Vedas (Rig, White and Black Yajur, Sama and Atharva). Four of the translations are from Ralph Griffith, with the remaining (black yajur) from Arthur Keith. The texts have been proofed and all Sanskrit terms updated and synced between versions. An Index-Dictionary of Sanskrit terms has been published as a second volume: ISBN: 978-1541304079.From the foreword: The Vedas (from the root vid, to know, or divine knowledge) are the most ancient of all the Hindu scriptures. There were originally three Vedas-the Laws of Manu always speaks of the three, as do the oldest (Mukhya) Upanishads-but a later work called the Atharvaveda has been added to these, to now constitute the fourth. The name Rigveda signifies Veda of verses, from rig, a spoken stanza; Samaveda, the Veda of chants, from saman, a song or chant; Yajurveda, the Veda of sacrificial formulas, from yajus, a sacrificial text. The Atharvaveda derives its name from the sage Atharvan, who is represented as a Prajapati, the edlest son of Brahma, and who is said to have been the first to institute the fire-sacrifices. The complex nature of the Vedas and the array of texts associated with them may be briefly outlined as follows: The Rig-Veda is the original work, the Yajur-Veda and Sama-Veda in their mantric portions are different arrangements of its hymns for special purposes. The Vedas are divided into two parts, the Mantra and Brahmana. The Mantra part is composed of suktas (hymns in verse); the Brahmana part consists of liturgical, ritualistic, exegetical, and mystic treatises in prose. The Mantra or verse portion is considered more ancient than the prose works; and the books in which the hymns are collected are called samhitas (collections). More or less closely connected with the Brahmanans (and in a few exceptional cases with the Mantra part) are two classes of treatises in prose and verse called Aranyaka and Upanishad. The Vedic writings are again divided into two great divisions, exoteric and esoteric, the former called the karma-kanda (the section of works) and the latter the jnana-kanda (section of wisdom). (Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary) The great antiquity of the Vedas is sufficiently proven by the fact that they are written in such an ancient form of Sanskrit, so different from the Sanskrit now used, that there is no other work like them in the literature of this eldest sister of all the known languages, as Prof. Max Muller calls it. Only the most learned of the Brahman Pundits can read the Vedas in their original. Furthermore, the Vedas cannot be viewed as singular works by singular authors, but rather as compilations, assembled over a great and unknown period of time. Almost every hymn or division of a Veda is ascribed to various authors. It is generally believed that these subdivisions were revealed orally to the rishis or sages whose respective names they bear; hence the body of the Veda is known as sruti (what was heard) or divine revelation. The very names of these Vedic sages, such as Vasishtha, Visvamitra, and Narada, all of which belong to men born in far distant ages, shows that millennia must have elapsed between the different dates of their composition. (Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary) It is generally agreed that the Vedas were finally arranged and compiled around fourteen centuries before our era; but this interferes in no way with their great antiquity, as they are acknowledged to have been long taught and passed down orally, perhaps for thousands of years, perhaps for far longer, before being finally compiled and recorded (the latter is traditionally said to have occurred on the shores of Lake Manasarovara, beyond the Himalayas).

Ramakrishna was a Bengali mystic who had a huge impact on the development of modern Hinduism. His chief disciple, Swami Vivekananda, not only helped revive Hinduism in India, but also introduced Hinduism to the West. Ramakrishna was a non-dualist worshippper of the Goddess Kali. However, he also experimented with Christianity and Islam, and repeatedly preached the diversity of paths to God. This is the story of Ramakrishna told first-hand as a series of days and nights spent with his disciples and lay followers. --Sacred Texts

Originally composed approximately two thousand years ago, the Mahabharata tells the story of a royal dynasty, descended from gods, whose feud over their kingdom results in a devastating war. But it contains much more than conflict. An epic masterpiece of huge sweep and magisterial power, a hundred times more interesting than the Iliad and the Odyssey, writes Wendy Doniger in the introduction, the Mahabharata is a timeless work that evokes a world of myth, passion, and warfare while exploring eternal questions of duty, love, and spiritual freedom. A seminal Hindu text, which includes the Bhagavad Gita, it is also one of the most important and influential works in the history of world civilization.

Innovatively composed in blank verse rather than prose, Carole Satyamurti's English retelling covers all eighteen books of the Mahabharata. This new version masterfully captures the beauty, excitement, and profundity of the original Sanskrit poem as well as its magnificent architecture and extraordinary scope.

The Bhagavad Gita has been called India's greatest contribution to the world. For more than five thousand years, this great scripture has shown millions in the East how to fill their lives with serenity and love. In these pages, Jack Hawley brings these ancient secrets to Western seekers in a beautiful prose version that makes the story of the Gita clear and exciting, and makes its truths understandable and easy to apply to our busy lives.

The Gita is a universal love song sung by God to His friend man. It can't be confined by any creed. It is a statement of the truths at the core of what we all already believe, only it makes those truths clearer, so they become immediately useful in our daily lives. These truths are for our hearts, not just our heads.

The Gita is more than just a book, more than mere words or concepts. There is an accumulated potency in it. To read the Gita is to be inspired in the true sense of the term: to be in-spirited, to inhale the ancient and ever-new breath of spiritual energy.

The Bhagavad Gita is the most widely read Hindu religious text in the Western world and a key work for understanding Indian religions and the way Hinduism has been represented in modern India and the West. The poem considers social and religious duty, the nature of sacrifice, and the relationship of human beings to God, and continues to inspire a wide variety of interpretations, both within India and beyond.

This new translation captures all the force and beauty of the original language of this awe-inspiring poem. Ideal for readers encountering the Bhagavad Gita for the first time, this edition provides a full cultural and historical context in its introduction and notes.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

The 112 Meditations from the Book of Divine Wisdom is a translation of the meditations from the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, a revered 8th century text from the Shaivite Tantric tradition of Kashmir, India. It has been rendered into English with commentary and guided practices by Lee Lyon, a teacher of meditation to more than ten thousand people worldwide, who has studied and taught this text for over forty years.

Although written over a thousand years ago, the ideas and practices in this much loved text are timeless in nature, and reflect strikingly modern sensibilities. The meditations are well known for their wholehearted engagement of all aspects of life, even the traditionally 'non-spiritual', including yogic practices, emotions, the delight of the senses, sexuality, natural states of wonder, beauty, bliss and the experience of Oneness.

The text, however, is more than just a collection of extraordinary and powerful meditation instructions. It embodies an ecstatic and life affirming world view that evolved into the philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism in the centuries that followed its writing. Rather than conceptualizing spirituality, in these meditations it is approached more like music or art. We can feel the tradition's direct contact with life--intimate, kind, amused, amazed, delighted--always trying to get us to relate to our experience, to life, to actually engage it rather than just observe or be mindful of it.

Although traditionally considered a text for advanced meditators, many people with no formal experience in meditation have extraordinary shifts in consciousness using these practices. Even people who think themselves incapable of meditating find themselves easily entering new and altered states.

Each original Sanskrit verse has been translated as literally as possible to help convey the actual meditation instruction embedded in the rich, multidimensional original. A short commentary and an example of how each meditation might be practiced, have been added after each verse to help explain the instruction.

There are many different types of meditation in the text, recognizing always the incredible richness and uniqueness of our individual consciousness. As the text progresses, contemplative practices are woven in, culminating in some of the world's most sublime meditations on Oneness. By repeatedly encouraging us to see the spontaneous unity behind the surface appearance of life, and to step into our true Self, the text holds its place as one of the crown jewels of human thought.

The Wisdom of the Hindu Mystics

The principal texts selected and translated from the original Sanskrit, Upanishad means sitting near devotedly, which conjures images of the contemplating student listening with rapt attention to the teachings of a spiritual master. These are widely considered to be philosophical and spiritual meditations of the highest order.

In this insightful rendition of the Bhagavad Gita, Swami Nikhilananda provides a profound interpretation of the sacred text. Exploring the timeless wisdom and teachings of Lord Krishna, he illuminates the path to self-realization and offers practical guidance for navigating life's challenges.

Gain profound wisdom from the timeless teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. Discover practical guidance for finding purpose and fulfilment in life. Explore the profound insights of Lord Krishna on duty and righteousness. Learn to overcome challenges and attain inner peace and harmony. Experience the transformative power of the Bhagavad Gita's teachings.

The Hidden Story of the Mahabharata reveals a treasure trove of practical spiritual wisdom that most people miss. Woven subtly into this compelling tale of dharma, righteous action, is a profound inner teaching, and Paramhansa Yogananda's insights bring it to life, pointing the way to true happiness and inner freedom.

Nayaswami Gyandev's riveting storytelling takes you deep into this beloved saga, from its celestial origin to its surprising ending. Occasional explanations from Yogananda never break the story's magical spell. Instead, they make it highly personal by addressing such down-to-earth topics as:

The battle within each spiritual seeker

What our ultimate victory really depends on

How to know whether an action will lead to true happiness

Essential qualities to develop for growth

How to avoid the countless traps of desire and attachment

Navigating the subtleties of right and wrong action

The crucial role of will power and how to increase it

Countering the ego's clever ways of holding us back

Why and how we must overcome even good habits

How personal effort fits with divine grace

The Hidden Story of the Mahabharata has everything you love about this timeless scripture-and more.

According to the legend, Sage Vasugupta received a divine revelation in a dream where Lord Shiva instructed him to seek out a specific stone near a serene stream. To his amazement, the stone turned over at his touch, revealing the sacred Shiva Sutras etched upon its surface. These profound sutras, reserved for those deemed worthy of divine grace, unravel the mysteries of our true nature and the illusory existence we inhabit. Ranjit Chaudhri has translated some important texts of Kashmir Shaivism from Sanskrit into English. These include 112 Meditations for Self Realization: The Vigyan Bhairava Tantra, The Shiva Sutras: Eternal Wisdom for Life, and Sounds of Liberation: The Spanda Karikas.

Explore the divinity of Lord Shiva!

• The Shiva Sutras serve as a guiding light towards liberation from the illusion we perceive, leading us to ultimate reality.
• These sutras possess a transformative message that has the power to alleviate our suffering.
• By following the path illuminated by the Shiva Sutras, we can unveil a wondrous new realm of possibilities.
• The sutras offer profound insights that help us transcend the limitations of our current existence.
• Through the wisdom contained in the Shiva Sutras, we can embark on a journey of self-discovery and spiritual growth

A beautiful silk fabric hardbound pocked sized edition. The Upanishads, originally written during 5th century BC and first translated into English in early 19th century, are early philosophical texts of the Hindu religion and contain within them the tenets upon which the central philosophical concepts of the religion are based.
A doctrine on Hindu thought and culture and perhaps the most important literature from ancient India, The Upanishads expound on principles like samsara, brahman, atman, karma, dharma and moksha and form the core of Indian philosophy. Along with the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahmasutra, the Upanishads provide a foundation for the several later schools of Vedanta.
This version is an English translation by Swami Paramananda as part of his mission to spread the eastern teachings of Hinduism to the Western world. Paramananda was a swami and one of the early Indian teachers who went to the United States to spread the Vedanta philosophy and religion. He was a mystic, a poet and an innovator in spiritual community living. Using his experience as a religious scholar, Paramananda sensitively and successfully translated the wisdom into the foremost of Western languages. Easy to understand and simply written, the thought behind this text is to know your SELF and follow the wisdom within the text to lead a wholesome and spiritually centered life.