Summary
FROM THE PUBLISHER
The Bhagavad Gita, or "Song of God", is one of the world's great scriptures. The story of the warrior Arjuna's battlefield conversation with the divine Krishna, it holds the universal essence of Hindu philosophy and wisdom." "Mahatma Gandhi's translation and commentary on the Gita, presented to his followers at prayer meetings over a nine-month period in 1926, is regarded in India as one of the most important of the twentieth century. In clear and simple terms, Gandhi addresses the concerns that most directly affect the spiritual lives of common people. He draws on his life experiences and inner searching to illuminate what he describes as "the gospel of selfless action." His Gita is a call to detached service to others and devotion to God, for readers of every faith.

Summary
From the Publisher
Stephen Mitchell is widely known for his ability to make ancient masterpieces thrillingly new, to step in where many have tried before and create versions that are definitive for our time. His celebrated version of the Tao Te Ching is the most popular edition in print, and his translations of Jesus, Rilke, Genesis, and Job have won the hearts of readers and critics alike. Stephen Mitchell now brings to the Bhagavad Gita his gift for breathing new life into sacred texts.
The Bhagavad Gita is universally acknowledged as one of the world's literary and spiritual masterpieces. It is the core text of the Hindu tradition and has been treasured by American writers from Emerson and Thoreau to T. S. Eliot, who called it the greatest philosophical poem after the Divine Comedy. There have been more than two hundred English translations of the Gita, including many competent literal versions, but not one of them is a superlative literary text in its own right.
Now all that has changed. Stephen Mitchell's Bhagavad Gita sings with the clarity, the vigor, and the intensity of the original Sanskrit. It will, as William Arrowsmith said of Mitchell's translation of The Sonnets to Orpheus, "instantly make every other rendering obsolete."

Summary
clear as a bell, January 6, 2005
Reviewer: Martin (Nashville)

If you're getting tired of superstitious people telling you what to believe, you'll love reading the words of the very clear-headed Swami Vivekananda. With a few parting jabs, Vivekananda gets rid of dogma and superstition and presents pure religion. And he has a great sense of humor besides! The eight volume Complete Works is sold at a bargain price with the Advaita Ashrama, which prints it, absorbing a loss in order to distribute the teachings more widely. The set includes eight trade-book size volumes for about the price of two volumes. There is a card asking you to help with the printing costs -- otherwise no mention that it's basically subsidized. Don't hesitate to get the set while it's so affordable. That's why they're doing this -- so you'll get it and use it.

Summary
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
The four Vedas contain the divine, infallible knowledge revealed to those primal men whose soul was specially illuminated to by the grace of god to receive and impart humanity the words of almighty god. The Vedas are the sacred heritage not only of India but of all mankind. In this book an attempt has been made to bring together representative hymns which encompass all the aspects enshrined in the Vedas. The author has tried to retain the spirit of the original Sanskrit mantras in English renderings and to impart some of the holy ambience of these sacred texts which are the fountainhead of Hindu philosophy and culture.

Summary
The only complete Translation of the Mahabharata, January 27, 2001
Reviewer: Walter O. Koenig (San Diego, California USA)
This translation, first published (1883-1896) by the Bharata Press in Calcutta has been much maligned by 20th-century scholarship, but it will always remain a classic. Anyone who has used it extensively will realize its enormous value....
First of all, it is still the only complete translation of the Mahabharata. (The one by M.N. Dutt published a few years later, and currently unavailable, seems to copy Ganguli.) Nonetheless, the stilted Victorian English prose may be difficult to get used to at first. For example, words such as "welkin" instead of sky, or "kine" instead of cows, or "celerity" instead of speed are used, and the sentences are sometimes quite convoluted. Once the reader is used to Ganguli's style it is relatively easy to read this translation. I have compared this translation to other partial transaltions, and it holds its own. The Bhagavad Gita is rendered better than some recent translations.

April 5, 2001. Reviewer: tepi "tepi"
"Despite his literalness and archaisms, however, and despite his occasional inaccuracies (some of which seem to be the product of misprints), Ganguli is always lively and never wooden; as an Indian, he seems really to have caught the spirit of the Mahabharata. His version, though it requires stamina to read, has great energy and succeeds marvelously in capturing the many interesting and colorful characters of the poem, and in vividly portraying the weird and wonderful things they get up to. Ganguli's is a lively edition I would certainly recommend."

Summary
The Mountain Top, October 1, 2004
Reviewer: Neal J. Pollock (VA USA)

I own a hard copy of what I believe is the same book--it includes the principal Upanishads by this author. It's one of my favorite books of all time--a keeper: I usually give away books after I've read them. It's not for everyone though. It is very high philosophy--the top of the mountain, not partway up (though there is some variation among the various Upanishads--they are not entirely consistent in level of abstraction). This is great for Myers-Briggs iNtuitives; not so hot for Sensates. And, of course, one needs to step out of his/her own religious upbringing if not a Hindu. It may seem very different from other religious views, but in point of fact, the Brahman (not to be confused with the Hindu Brahma, creator god) is pretty much the same as the Tibetan (both Buddhist and Bon) Dharmakaya or Ground of Being (a la Dzogchen and Mahamudra) or the Jewish Kabbalah's Ein Sof. It's amazing how the highest, esoteric views (Truth's if you will) are consistent across humanity. This is a book of vision, not dogma.

Summary
A quote from an authority and a summary, April 15, 1998
Reviewer: J. Huie (Athens,, GA USA)
The Upanishads are the principal Hindu scripture dealing with the struggle for liberation from continued rebirths. Klostermeier in A Survey of Hinduism calls this edition "a good English translation".

Rhadakrishna's work a good east/west philosophical bridge, September 1, 1997
Reviewer: Arthur Gregory (Redlands, CA USA)
The actual text is completely in understandable English and lacks a lot of the more technical terms of sanskrit that put off new comers to Hindu philosophy. There are abundant allusions to classical philosophy including Plato, that make the work of interest to students of philosophy

Summary
Magical rendering of the Indian epic, August 25, 2001
Reviewer: Rekha Janaki (Sheffield, UK.)

This is the best modern English version of the Indian epic. The legend comes alive in fine contemporary style, never compromising the spiritual essence of the original. A must for lovers of classics, fantasy, the Indian literary tradition and plain great writing. The Ramayana retold, in full, for the international reader by a gifted Indian author. Reads like the magnificent story it is: a book for everyone.

Summary
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Sri Aurobindo breaks new ground in interpreting the ancient Vedas. His deeper insight into this came from his own spiritual practices for which he found vivid allegorical descriptions in the Vedas. The hidden meaning of the rig Veda is revealed with numerous translations and commentary. Many have been perplexed by the reverence accorded to the Vedas when they read past commentaries or translations. Sri Aurobindo was able to uncover the mystery of the double meanings, the inner psychological and yogic significance and practices and the consistent, clear sense brought by this psychological view of the Vedic hymns. Finally, the true inner meaning of the Veda and its relevance to the seeking after self-realization and enlightenment is revealed.

Summary
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The poetic backbone of Hinduism, the millennia-old Upanishads transcend time. The selections offered here illuminate a path that is as "narrow as the edge of a razor" but pregnant with freedom and bliss. Through vivid metaphors and timeless prose, learn how the path of yoga leads beyond the treacherous web of karma to the final, blissful union of the personal soul, atman, with the universal soul, Brahman.

Book Description
An "Upanisad" is a teaching session with a guru, and the thirteen texts of the "Principal Upanisads"— which comprise this volume—form a series of philosophical discourses between teacher and student that question the inner meaning of the world. Composed beginning around the eighth century bce, the Upanisads have been central to the development of Hinduism, exploring its central doctrines: rebirth, karma, overcoming death, and achieving detachment, equilibrium, and spiritual bliss. Speaking to the reader in direct, unadorned prose or lucid verse, the Upanisads collected here embody humanity’s perennial search for truth and knowledge. Valerie Roebuck’s powerful new translation blends accuracy with readability and retains the oral style of these stirring and profound philosophical explorations.