/lit/ - Literature

>>15315591
no, prabhupadas poetic merits are strong, but he inserts his own religious biases into the timeless classic. there really should be a revised edition since he died a while back.

shouldn't the penguin translation suffice?

>>15315623
suffice in mediocrity? sure

>>15315633
really? isn't the events and messages all the same? are you saying the Gita itself is mediocre?

>>15315591
Try the version by Eknath Easwaran.

>>15315646
There are certain sentences that completely change meaning depending on the translation you read. I've seen people quote many paragraphs that support the hypothesis that a group of Aryans that were closely related to today's whites came in and took over large parts of the Indian subcontinent and brought higher culture. And most of the paragraphs I checked had a different meaning depending on the translation

>>15315701
yeah, I dont believe in the aryan theory, you seem like a native speaker, what translation do you recommend?

>>15315591
>cultist translation is the best
lol

>>15315716
I'm OP, so I haven't read any complete works yet. I've just looked a little bit at the differences between translations

>>15315716
>>15315701
it's not a "theory" you fucking idiots

>>15315781
>we wuz enlightened n shieet
>posts one depiction that supports his claim
do you also believe that mohammed was a red haired white man?

>>15315792
why would this be hard to believe? are you not aware of lebanese arabs and such?

>>15315781
>He doesn't know that theory is a strong word when used in a discussion among smart people

>>15315797
never seen a red head Lebanese guy, also most Lebanese have beige/olive skin, not white

Anyone knows if I can just read the Abhinavagupta’s bhasya on BG directly without having read anything before?

>>15315797
>>15315808
They exist. They don't call themselves white though.

>>15315727
People assume it's the best because it was heavily marketed and because they don't know how Prabhupada hijacked every single translation he did to make it sound like the entire Vedic literature supports his shit cult.

>>15315781
You're ignoring some nuances of the second post you're replying to. The question is not whether or not significant amounts of Indo-Aryan-speaking people migrated into the Indian Subcontinent, but rather how advanced they were and how related they are to today's whites. Wikipedia:
>The theory changed from a migration of advanced Aryans towards a primitive aboriginal population, to a migration of nomadic people into an advanced urban civilization, comparable to the Germanic migrations during the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, or the Kassite invasion of Babylonia.

>>15315591
The Norton edition of the Gita is excellent

Eknath Easwaran was the best I could find according to my research years ago (comparing translations). I haven’t read it yet, but I always do as much research as I can to determine the best to add to my list.

Anyone have any opinions on this one?

Never thought I would see an India related thread. This is great

>>15315591
Never read most hindu texts in English or any languge other than Sanskrit, especially not th Vedas

>>15316066
how did you learn sanskrit? in uni?

>>15316066
What powers do I get from reading the Gita and the Vedas in the original language?

>>15316066
You can work hard for 7 years learning Sanskrit and you still won't be fluent. It doesn't sound cool enough for me to justify dedicating 10 years of my life to learning it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18g5ebVCm94

>>15316493
sanskrit is best and most logic language. it is father of all languages. best language for programming

>>15315591
>The Mahapuranas will never be available in my language
it's not fair bros

>>15315591
>Which three Hindu texts should I read as someone who hasn't read any of them?
The Bhagavad-Gita, The Upanishads and the Yoga Vasistha

>>15315591

>Shankara's Gita commentary (8th century)
https://archive.org/details/Bhagavad-Gita.with.the.Commentary.of.Sri.Shankaracharya

>Abhinavagupta's Gita commentary (10th century)
http://www.mediafire.com/file/5ydfuxohdtms7um/Bhagavad_Gita_Abhinavagupta_Bhashya_%2528B_Marjanovic%2529.pdf/file

>Jnanadeva's Gita commentary (13th century)
https://estudantedavedanta.net/Sri-Jnandevas-Bhvartha-Dipika-Jnaneswari_smaller.pdf

>>15315591
First tip: don't listen to people who recommend gigantic medieval commentaries for your first read. You will get lost and give up, guaranteed.

Second tip: like any translation of a religious text, it depends what perspective on the text you are happy with. There are multiple translations by western sanskritists who generally don't have theological skin in the game. For a non-Hindu one of those is probably a good bet. I would recommend the Norton Critical Edition which has the translation of Gavin Flood and Charles Martin, along with extracts of Hindu commentaries and essays by scholars. Gavin Flood is a professor of Hindu studies at Oxford. Charles Martin is a poet and translator of Latin poetry. Flood first wrote a literal, academic, translation which he then revised with Martin to make it more poetic in English. The result is a very nice middle ground that is pleasant to read while being pretty accurate.

Prabhupada's translation is very interpretive, he intrusively inserts his theological views into the text and has a heavy verse-by-verse commentary. For example, the word 'deva' literally means 'god' but Prabhupada translates it as 'demi-god' due to his belief in exclusive Krishna worship. This is a misleading translation because it implies some half-divine hybrid like Herakles, but the Hindu devas are much more analagous to western pantheons of gods.

>>15315910
Easwaran was an autodidact without credentials and wasn't even part of a major school's lineage. You are just getting some 20th century guy's interpretation by reading his translation. It's nothing special.

>>15315591
https://mega.nz/folder/KhMFDKbY#5k6xwI9odtAtPl8tlBbCWw

>>15317237
>appealing to authority this much to suck the dick of a bunch of mediocre white sanskritists
lol

>>15316792
can i just read these directly or is it interesting to read the bare text before?

>>15317297
They all include the entirety of the bare text in their commentaries so you'll end up reading it anyway. I think it's better to begin reading with commentary because they explain everything in way more detail and also because the commentaries of classical/medieval Hindu thinkers often contain valuable insights as well as insipiring aesthetics when dealing with the sublime

>>15317237
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Which translations of 2 other texts would you recommend?

>>15316665
Upanishad is such a funny word that I trust your recommendation. But which translations do you recommend?

>>15317237
>don't listen to people who recommend gigantic medieval commentaries for your first read
>>15317554
>I think it's better to begin reading with commentary

>>15315819
I think that's one of his more accessible works, if you want to do some reading first as preparation, on lib-gen there is a book called 'The Advaita Tradition in Indian Philosophy' book by Sharma, that has a short chapter explaining the metaphysics of Kashmir Shaivism. There is also this brief guide to KS that you can check out

https://www.ikashmir.net/publications/doc/shaivism.pdf

>>15317614
>But which translations do you recommend?
Radhakrishnan's or Olivelle's if you want a modern scholarly translation without much in the way of commentary. If you want to read the commentaries of Hindu philosophers on them then I'd recommend Adi Shankara's Upanishad commentaries translated by Gambhirananda

>advaitafag and shaivafag getting worked up again
lol

>>15315781
those are greek buddhist missionaries on their contact with the chinks
those greeks who were the students of indian teachers

Easwaran is relatively modern and poetic insofar as I can tell although he seems to be a perennialist and somewhat buddhist influenced. Not a big deal IMO though. He also did Upanishads and Dhammapada.

>>15315591
I have been told that the "as it is" translations are pushed by a nonprofit supporting a specific interpretation and leav out certain books or vedas or whatever.
I am not an expert on this, it is just what I have been told by people more educated on this than myself so take it as you will.

>>15318352
As it is - translations are made by ISKON, a Kirshna-centric cult with a dubious history created by Prabhupada, that made it relatively big in the west because plebs didn't know shit about Vedanta and assumed as truth everything an indian in robes would tell them.
Their translations are beautiful, but they intentionally modify the text to fit their specific beliefs, and so it renders them not only useless, but actually harmful to people trying to study Hindu philosophy.

>>15318883
Agreed. The actual verses of the Gita read nicely, but Prabhupada's commentary is frequently less than helpful. Sometimes, when he references a comparison or a point of cultural interest from elsewhere in the Vedas, it works great. Most of the time its him arguing for some kind of Krishna-based monotheism whether or not the text supports it.

>>15316792
Careful about Shankara, he's known as a crypto-buddhist by scholars and by almost all Hindus as well. He's just reading his Buddhism into the Vedas when it's not really there. There is a resident Shankara fanboy who denies this but he's not Indian, he discovered Hinduism through Theosophy. Stay away.

Case in point.
>>15317664
>'The Advaita Tradition in Indian Philosophy' book by Sharma
This is a very poorly regarded, obscure, mid-century Hindu nationalist book that presumes the medieval tradition of Advaita (crypto-buddhism) is the only correct interpretation of the Upanishads. He always recommends this one. See pic related for a review of it and similar books.

>>15317685
Here he is correct about Olivelle being a good translator, but again he recommends Shankara, a very late, medieval crypto-buddhist according to ALL scholars and the vast majority of Hindus.

Some American who fancies himself a Hindu after discovering it through Wikipedia is trying to swindle you into following his Hare Krishna LARP.

>>15318933
This thread also fits his usual style of asking leading questions as an "anon" and then answering them himself, with his highly specific propaganda books. Beware shills. Make up your own mind.

>>15316413
None, because the Gita only achieved its current form around 500AD under extensive editing by brahmans who distorted all its original Vedic content into a hymn about how cool the brahmans are.