Songs Divine (A Translation of Shrimad Bhagavadgita in English Poetic Form)

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Srimad Bhagvad Gita is the essence of the very basis of the way of life called Hinduism. I use the word way of life rather than religion describing Hinduism, as there is no single ritual, system of belief, colour, creed or caste that is representative of Hinduism. Extending this logic a bit further, that's why Srimad Bhagvad Gita is not unique to Hindus and Hinduism, but its relevance cuts across religions and nationalities. In fact, it's a divine guide for the mankind to understand Dharma, Artha, Karma and Moksha in its proper perspective and the scripture is, therefore, an essence of what the human life is all about!

Many of us treat The Mahabharata and The Gita as one and the same! The Mahabharata is an epic on the life and times of Kuru Clan, composed by Maharishi Vyasadeva with special reference to Pandavas (sons of Panduraj) and Kauravas (sons of Dhritrashtra) running in more than 1,00,000 shlokas. Srimad Bhagvad Gita is a part of Mahabharata, extracted from the Bhisma Parva consisting of 700 verses. It's a compendium of dialogue from the holy battlefield of Kurukshetra between the supreme personality of Godhead Lord Krishna to his favourite and intimate disciple Arjuna. In the battle, Lord Krishna representing the virtue of righteousness is charioteer to the great warrior Arjuna in this battle of dharma (Pandavas) and adharma (Kauravas). When Arjun gets caught in a web of emotion to use arms against his relatives, acharayas and other respected elders (incidentally all on the side of Kauravas), Lord Krishna exhorts him to forget everything and follow the path of Dharma, which was to obliterate adharma!

The entire Bhagvad Gita is in the form of commentary by Sanjaya (Charioteer / Minister of King Dhritrashtra) narrating the entire episode from battlefield to his blind king. In fact, even blindness of Dhritrashtra is also seen by some as symbolic of his inability to see adharma caused by his beloved son Duryodhana!

So much work has happened on this sacred scripture that one may wonder the need for another translation (or transliteration as has been attempted in this work!). I deeply appreciate the lifetime of effort put in by my dear colleague Pandit Ranjan Kumar Dash in understanding the essence of Srimad Bhagvad Gita and then attempting to translate this great epic in Sanskrit first in his mother language of Oriya and now in universal language called English for understanding of the wider audience. His work should not be compared to works by other scholars, but seen as work of passion by a commoner driven by zeal to share the learning of this great epic with other commoners like you and me.

To introduce myself, I am again a very common man getting this great privilege solely by the virtue of my acquaintance with Pt. Dash. I have known him for sometime and given encouragement to pursue his passion and he, in turn, gave me this great honour of writing these forewords of his epic work, an honour usually reserved for people of great eminence!