"It is impossible to get to the heart of those classics unless you live them, and [Easwaran] did live them. My admiration of the man and his works is boundless." - Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions, reviewing Easwaran's translation, The Bhagavad Gita

In this verse-by-verse commentary on India's most famous scripture, Eknath Easwaran, author of the best-selling translation of the Bhagavad Gita, interprets the Gita's wisdom for modern readers. With everyday stories and touches of humor he shows how this ancient text sheds light on every aspect of our lives. In later chapters he explains how the Gita's insights can be applied to address the social, economic, and environmental problems threatening our world today.

The Bhagavad Gita is set on the battlefield of an apocalyptic war between good and evil. Faced with a dire moral dilemma, the warrior prince Arjuna turns in anguish to his spiritual guide, Sri Krishna, for answers to the fundamental questions of life.

Easwaran presents Arjuna's crisis as acutely modern. The Gita's battlefield is the struggle for self-mastery that every human being must wage. Arjuna represents each of us, and Sri Krishna is the Lord, showing us the path to peace and meaning.

The first volume in this three-part series covers chapters 1-6 of the Gita, which explore the concept of the innermost Self and source of wisdom in each of us. Easwaran explains how we can begin to transform ourselves, even as householders engaged in busy lives. The introduction includes instructions in his universal eight-point program of passage meditation.