Author Description

The commentary of Adi Sankara is the earliest extant commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. The text of the Gita as cited by him has come down to the centuries as the authentic text, and this commentary of his proved to be of seminal value ever since. Later commentators may differ from him on textual and even metaphysical interpretation, but the spiritual well being flowing into us on reading the Gita-Bhashya of Sankaracharya is universally acknowledged. One has only to read it to feel it. This book contains the original Sanskrit text of the Gita in Devanagari followed by its translation as also the translation of Sankara's Gita Bhashya by Alladi Mahadeva Sastri. The translation has stood the test of the time since its first publication in 1897, being the best available English translation of Sankaracharya's commentary. The learned translator has added in the form of foot-notes explanations mostly extracted from Anandagiri's Tika, which always is the clearest and most to the point and is almost indispensable for a proper understanding of some important portions of the Bhashya.