The Bhagavad-Gita
with Notes on the Gita
and Gita Yoga
ISBN 978-0-9916182-8-6
by William Q Judge, Robert Crosbie, Raghavan Iyer, and HP Blavatsky
Available at Amazon.com
in both print version and eBook editions.
"A mighty spirit moves through the pages of the Bhagavad-Gita.
It has the seductive influence of beauty; yet, like strength, it fills one as with the sound of armies assembling or the roar of great waters. Appealing
alike to the warrior and the philosopher, it shows to the one the righteousness of lawful action, and to the other the calmness which results to him who
has reached inaction through action." So wrote William Q. Judge in the opening remarks to his Notes on the Bhagavad-Gita, the second book included in this
volume. These words of Mr. Judge remind us of the fundamental importance of learning one of the most basic lessons of human life: how to perform our actions
so that we are not further bound by the bonds of karma, and therefore become capable - over time - of acting for the sake of all beings.
This teaching goes to the heart of the human predicament; what is the most basic lesson for human beings to learn is also the most difficult.
Addressing as it does this issue, it is no wonder that the Gita should be one of the most widely studied and published works ever written.
Today, there are dozens of renditions of the Gita - ranging from superb to useful - available to the student of the Wisdom Religion; Amazon.com shows 20
pages at least of various translations, renditions, and interpretations, among them a Bhagavad-Gita For Beginners, a Bhagavad-Gita For Children, even a
Bhagavad-Gita for Dummies and a Bhagavad-Gita board game (the Mahabharatan War game). Given this saturation of Gita books in the marketplace, why yet
another entry into a crowded field?
The answer is simply because the three works incorporated into this Theosophy Trust volume - Mr. Judge's The Bhagavad-Gita, his Notes on the
Bhagavad-Gita, and a superb essay on the Gita entitled Gita Yoga by Sri Raghavan Iyer - form a unique and powerful guide both for Beginners,
Children, Dummies, and for all students of the spiritual life whose deepest concern in life is walking the Path to wisdom.
This book, in short, meets a real need among all these aspirants to spiritual knowledge. The notion that there is such a Path to wisdom -
that it is real, that it is ancient and constant and somewhat esoteric, but that it may be found by anyone who exercises their heart-light and their
rational faculties - has gained much currency in this 21st Century. This was not always so. Such an idea would have been widely ridiculed 150 years ago
by the bourgeoisie in Victorian England and in late 19th Century America, and would no doubt still be such an object of ridicule but for the heroic work
of HP Blavatsky, Mr. Judge and Crosbie, and many other workers and writers in the fields of Theosophy. The reality and sacredness of the Path has now become
an object of contemplation and aspiration for millions of people in the West as well as in the modern East, where the idea originated but also, alas, where
it had been largely forgotten by the modern educated.
There are perhaps six or so other instances of Mr. Judge's rendition of the Bhagavad-Gita extant, but in none of them will you find Prof. Iyer's
superb work, Gita Yoga, one of the finest essays ever written on the Gita. This essay in buddhiyoga points to the ever-maturing bonds in the sacred
relationship between the teaching of the Gita, the aspirant, and the guru, both within and without, and will be an invaluable treasure to which
the student will frequently return over a lifetime of devotion to the quest for spiritual knowledge.
"Any person who seeks the supernal radiance of the Invisible Sun, the ceaseless vibration of the Logos ensouling the unbroken lineage of the Fraternity
of Enlightened Seers, must abide at all times with heart fixed upon the object of his devotion. He must be worthy of that total devotion, continually
practising meditation, returning his mind whenever possible to its favourite subject of contemplation, the Logos that is the noumenal force behind the
whole of life. Only then can he truly say that he has found the Krishna-Christos within himself."
Go to The Origins of Self-Consciousness
in The Secret Doctrine by HP Blavatsky
Go to Wisdom in Action
Go to The Dawning of Wisdom
Go to The Key to Theosophy
Go to Teachers of the Eternal Doctrine