The Bhagavad Gita, perhaps the most famous of all Indian scriptures,
is universally regarded as one of the world's spiritual and literary
masterpieces. Richard Davis tells the story of this venerable and
enduring book, from its origins in ancient India to its reception today
as a spiritual classic that has been translated into more than 75
languages. The Gita opens on the eve of a mighty battle, when the
warrior Arjuna is overwhelmed by despair and refuses to fight. He turns
to his charioteer, Krishna, who counsels him on why he must. In the
dialogue that follows, Arjuna comes to realize that the true battle is
for his own soul.
Davis highlights the place of this legendary dialogue in classical
Indian culture, and then examines how it has lived on in diverse
settings and contexts. He looks at the medieval devotional traditions
surrounding the divine character of Krishna and traces how the Gita
traveled from India to the West, where it found admirers in such figures
as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and
Aldous Huxley. Davis explores how Indian nationalists like Mahatma
Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda used the Gita in their fight against
colonial rule, and how contemporary interpreters reanimate and perform
this classical work for audiences today.
An essential biography of a timeless masterpiece, this audiobook is an
ideal introduction to the Gita and its insights into the struggle for
self-mastery that we all must wage.
