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The Bhagavad Gītā
A translation from the Sanskṛt by Gottfried de Purucker
Foreword
This translation of the Bhagavad-Gītā, which, as everyone knows, is an episode in the great Indian epic, the Mahābhārata, was made partly for pleasure, many years ago. The text used was A.H. Schlegel’s edition as revised by Lassen.
It is published at the present time at the request of a number of friends who have desired to obtain a more or less verbal translation of the actual meaning of the Sanskrit original. No attempt whatsoever has been made to embellish it, or to make a readable and fluently literary English version. Had the translator had more time at his disposal, he would have added to this present translation a series of notes, comments and commentaries on this interesting work, but to do this would have delayed its publication and such delay would have displeased the kind friends who have insisted that the translation be printed as it stands.
The Devanāgarī of Schlegel’s edition is not as clear as it might be, and the translator had within his reach at the time no other Sanskrit manuscript or European printed text to use for purposes of comparison; but there is small probability that the occasional misprints in the Devanāgarī, or indistinctness of outline, have caused any misrendering.
There have been a number of translations of the Bhagavad-Gītā in European countries within the last fifty years or so, but most of them have been spoiled, in the translator’s opinion, by an attempt to render into flowery and accepted literary forms the terse and often difficult sense of Sanskrit original. In the translation here given, the sense of original writing has been faithfully followed throughout.
G. de Purucker.
A. Original version – Table of Contents
Retyped from a handwritten copy
B. Modernized version by Daily Theosophy – Table of Contents
In this version diacritics were adapted to modern standards and at some places old-fashioned English words were replaced by modern synonyms.
