Best commentaries on Bhagwadgita

There are multiple commentaries on Bhagwadgita ,out of which AdiShankara’s Bhashya is the most ancient one and most reliable .Every author has written the commentaries as per his own ideology .Therefore the readers get a different understanding on reading them .

Some of the writings are by scholars and some by enlightened sages like Sankracharya . Those written by scholars are influenced by their personal ideology which is very much limited to the material world and does not give a clear understanding of the statements of krishna. It can however ,never be possible to understand his words by merely reading the translations , but those can be understood and self realised by our life experiences.

Some of the commentaries are heavily focussed on the devotional path ,and some are focussed on the advaita vedanta ,depending upon the ideology of the author.

COMMENTARIES ON BHAGWADGITA

Four major commentaries are listed below along with there way of presentation and basic ideology:

1.BHAGWADGITA BY ADI SHANKARACHARYA

This is one of the most famous work of Adi Shankara .During the time when the knowledge of Dharma was nearly lost and people forgot the religious practice ,Shankara wrote the translation of Gita in a simple language and made it available for the common masses again .

Shankara was an enlightened being and his commentary can be considered as the most reliable and authentic . His translations are focused on relating everyone as the part of the supreme soul and not considering Krishna as the supreme Lord and everyone else as inferior to him. According to Shankara ,Krishna is one of the divine being or Ishwara who is born in every Yuga to raise the Dharma and annihilate adharma. He is one of the manifestation of supreme energy ,but not to be considered as the supreme itself.

As a matter of fact ,Adi Shankara was a great devotee of Krishna as most of his writings are in the praise of Govinda.

2.GOD TALKS WITH ARJUNA BY PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA

It is said that after understanding the first chapter from his guru ,Yogananda meditated for so long on the other chapters and on each verse until he got the clear understanding of that verse .This is the way in which the book was written .The main feature of his commentary is that he related the characters of Mahabharat with the psychological and physical features of the human body and mind. And this gives a whole new dimension to this enlightening conversation.

3. BHAGWADGITA BY SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

The interesting fact about this one is that it is not written directly by Swamiji .In his life he never wrote a book ,his teachings and speeches are preserved in the written form by his disciples .

Bhagavad Gita as viewed by Swami Vivekananda is the collection of his talks on Gita given on various occasions and are compiled by his disciple Swami Madhurananda.

In this book he has explained the verses combining them with the principles of Yoga.

4.BHAGWADGITA AS IT IS BY SRILA PRABHUPADA

Srila Prabhupada is most popular as the founder of the religious organisation of ISCKON ,which has followers throughout the world .

First the original version was published in 1966 which was of 400 pages .This was done under the guidance of Srila Prabhupada.Later, Bhakti Vedanta Trust published an edited and revised edition of the book which brought a lot of criticism from Swami Prabhupada’s devotees. Now both original and revised editions are available.

PERSONAL OPINION :The revised version is criticised because it is heavily focused on forcing the readers into a blind followers of the teachings of Krishna ,without actually understanding the significance of his words .It is also said that some of the verses are wrongly translated and every verse is wrongly propogated towards Bhakti Ras. Therefore reading the original version is advised .

OTHER THAN THESE FOUR THERE ARE MANY COMMENTARIES AVAILABLE WHICH ARE EQUALLY GOOD AND AUTHENTIC AND THESE ARE JUST RECOMMENDATION BASED ON PERSONAL OPINIONS.