THE BHAGAVAD GITA COMES ALIVE: A Radical Translation

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.

By exploring this ancient text in a new way, Armstrong’s goal with his
radical translation of the Gita is to allow the reader—whether a devotee,
scholar, or layperson—to come away with a deeper, nuanced, and celebratory
understanding of what Shri Krishna was softly, beautifully, and clearly
explaining to his great and devoted friend, Arjuna.

The conversation they share reveals in its original meaning an entirely
different experience of the possible relationship between the Supreme Being
and a devotee and offers powerful ideas on what it means to be human. In this
way, The Bhagavad Gita Comes Alive: A Radical Translation is essential reading
for all who want to understand the deeper truths of Vedic wisdom, the
potential of eternal love and the mysteries of existence.