Bhagavad Gita Comes Alive

The Bhagavad Gita is India’s most celebrated and enlightening spiritual text. Set over 7,500 years ago on the verge of an epic battle, the Gita is a unique and enthralling philosophical conversation between the Supreme Being Shri Krishna and his dear friend, the mighty warrior Arjuna. Although there have been hundreds of English translations of the Bhagavad Gita since 1785, poet and scholar Jeffrey Armstrong’s The Bhagavad Gita Comes Alive: A Radical Translation is the first version to decolonize the language and bring this monumental text back to its Sanskrit roots and its deep spiritual intent. The difference is transformative. It has not come easily. For over a decade, Armstrong (Kavindra Rishi) has striven to free the Bhagavad Gita from the misuse and limitation of hundreds of English words that do not explain, let alone reveal, the text’s original breadth and meaning. A few of the translated words on trial are old standbys like God, Lord, heaven, hell, sin, religion, angel, demi-god, sacrifice, idol, faith, and charity, and on and on.