From the Flap: “This highly readable introduction to India’s classic yoga text—scholar-practitioner Joshua Greene has created a bridge between the Gita’s millennial wisdom and the world we know.”
This is a very simple (but not dumbed down) rendition of the Gita. Each chapter opens with a very short summary of the chapter – just a few sentences.
Then we have each verse of the chapter translated in straightforward English in a modern colloquial style that makes entry into this ancient conversation feel like a current conversation. This is a very welcome aspect of this edition. For the most part Sanskrit terms have been dropped, which also makes reading this edition very easy.
Where he felt it necessary, the author has added footnotes with explanations of terms and concepts. In some he draws out the meaning of the text where it may be misunderstood. Some footnotes are long, therefore a page may be filled with one or two verses and the rest with footnotes. That said the book is very legible.
Breaking up the text like this allows the reader to choose to just read the texts or also the footnotes. Perhaps on a first reading one would read the footnotes and on subsequent reads, with more familiarity with the book, just the texts.
This is a short, friendly book with a beautiful cover and design.