Medicine For the Soul and How to Take it
By Derek Carroll
Bhagavad Gita is the essence of Vedic knowledge. There are many commentaries available in English, but the only one that has been presented with the spirit intact (as described in the Gita itself) is that of A.C. BhaktiVedanta Swami Prabhupada. The other versions lack authority due to the fact that the author has given his own opinions mostly rather than following the spirit of the original Gita itself. The spirit of the Gita is expressed in the Gita itself and is like this: if you want to take a medicine to cure an illness, then you must take it according to the advice of a qualified doctor or according to the instructions on the bottle and not on the advice of a friend, or on your own whim.
Bhagavad Gita is a conversation between Arjuna and Krishna on the battlefield of Kuruksetra in India five thousand years ago. Krishna is the speaker of the main body of the text and He is taken as the focal personality of the work. Bhagavad Gita should be taken as prescribed by the speaker Himself to get full benefit from this wonderful work. In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna is referred to on every page as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Another word for that is Bhagavan, which refers to that person who is full in all the six opulences; wealth, fame, beauty, knowledge, renunciation and strength.
All the great spiritual leaders in eastern Vedic philosophy have accepted Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Bhagavan. Among them are the distinguished Acaryas (those who lead by example) like Sankaracarya, Ramanujacarya, Madhavacarya, Nimbarka Swami and Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Also, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna also puts Himself forward as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In fact, there has been no other personality present on earth in history who has claimed himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, the conclusion is that the Bhagavad Gita should be taken as directed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, Krishna.
.More...