Jñâna is the spiritual knowledge of self-realization, the gnosis that not only connects all Hindus, but also all others who have faith in the spirit of the Absolute. In this faith also being devoted to the original or ideal person inside one’s heart, as figured by Lord Kṛṣṇa (Krishna) in this book, this constitutes a basic duality, in fact a conundrum, of the science of yoga therewhith assuming the basic forms of bhakti and jñāna. Therefore is, concerning this true mystery, in this classical version of the Bhagavad Gītā wherein this duality is resolved, the knowledge of finding liberation in the spirit called âtmatattva. The term refers to the principle and reality of the true self, the original person or supreme soul, standing for the knowledge of self-realization, of being connected, of finding stability and being happy in one’s spirituality. It is simply so that we without this ātmatattva are not human, because we essentially are homo sapiens, or more precisely stated: man by the personal love of our spiritual wisdom and connectedness. Even though this book contains some words and names found in the dictionary of Sanskrit, this will to those readers, who are interested in the classical sphere and culture of ancient India, not be an obstacle. In the notes in the back the essential concepts used are one by one explained, and thus is this translation, faithfully following the original text and purport, comprehensible to the lay. The rather liberal phrasing is of a modern style though and is thus, also because of this, easy to follow. The result is a ‘Song of Fortune’ accessible to any traditionally oriented person contending with the modern burden of the illusion and loneliness of philosophical impersonalism.


For the more experienced student of the Gîtâ at each page a link has been added to the Vedabase which offers the Sanskrit, word-for-word translations and the commentary of the disciplic succession which is responsible for bringing the devotional culture of respecting the Gîtâ to the West.

Also available are the previous as-it-is version: the Bhagavad Gîtâ of Order and the modern version: it is the same Gîtâ as this one, but with all names translated into western ones and with the situation of the battlefield transposed to the one of a modern political debate.


The translator Anand Aadhar Prabhu, meaning ‘master of the foundation of happiness’, is the spiritual name of René P.B.A. Meijer, originally a clinical psychologist, born in the Netherlands in 1954, who, having turned to the philosophy of yoga after he became independent in 1982, was initiated in India in 1989.