[Advaita-l] Bhagavad Gita translation

[jaldhar at braincells.com]

On Fri, 23 May 2025, Michael Chandra Cohen via Advaita-l wrote:

> Namaste Subbuji, Are you familiar with the different English translations
> of the GIta, i.e., Warrier, Gambhirananda and Sastri? Other than Warrier's
> value for bhasya Sanskrit, can you discern the better translation among the
> three?
>

Personally, I don't think any of them are that great to be honest. I would 
recommend Mahadeva Sastri's as it more literally follows the bhashya but 
it, like Warrier's, suffers from ponderous "Victorian" English which makes 
it a bit hard to read. Swami Gambhirananda paraphrases or omits parts 
which is a non-starter for me.

As far as I know, the definitive, accurate and readable English 
translation of the Gitabhashya has yet to be written.  Perhaps for now the 
best course of action would be to keep all the translations side by side 
as you read to compare and contrast.  That is if you absolutely must use a 
translation (and actually you don't really need to.)


-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>