The Song Celestial Or Bhagavad-Gîtâ

The Song Celestial: A Poetic Version of the Bhagavad Gita is a translation of the Bhagavad Gita (a part of the Mahabharata) from Sanskrit into English by Sir Edwin Arnold, first published in 1885. The translation following The Light of Asia, his narrative-poem of the Lalitavistara Sūtra. It is dedicated to India with the following preface: So have I read this wonderful and spirit-thrilling speech, By Krishna and Prince Arjuna held, discoursing each with each; So have I writ its wisdom here, - its hidden mystery, For England; O our India! as dear to me as She! The book summarizes itself as the following: Krishna, who is regarded as an incarnation of the Divine, then instructs Arjuna on the way of duty and liberation through right action. The message he enunciates is applicable to people of all Faiths and all ages, for the battle to be fought, not only by mankind as a whole but for each individual, is the eternal one between right and wrong, between wisdom and ignorance, between the Self and not-Self.