Setting the Scene

Although widely published and read by itself, Bhagavad-gītā originally appears as an episode
in the Mahābhārata, the epic Sanskrit history of the ancient world. The Mahābhārata tells of
events leading up to the present Age of Kali. It was at the beginning of this age, some fifty
centuries ago, that Lord Kṛṣṇa spoke Bhagavad-gītā to His friend and devotee Arjuna.

Their discourse – one of the greatest philosophical and religious dialogues known to man –
took place just before the onset of war, a great fratricidal conflict between the hundred sons
of Dhṛtarāṣṭra and on the opposing side their cousins the Pāṇḍavas, or sons of Pāṇḍu.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra and Pāṇḍu were brothers born in the Kuru dynasty, descending from King
Bharata, a former ruler of the earth, from whom the name Mahābhārata derives. Because
Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the elder brother, was born blind, the throne that otherwise would have been his
was passed down to the younger brother, Pāṇḍu.

When Pāṇḍu died at an early age, his five children – Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula and
Sahadeva – came under the care of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, who in effect became, for the time being, the
king. Thus the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra and those of Pāṇḍu grew up in the same royal household.
Both were trained in the military arts by the expert Droṇa and counseled by the revered
“grandfather” of the clan, Bhīṣma.

Yet the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, especially the eldest, Duryodhana, hated and envied the
Pāṇḍavas. And the blind and weak-minded Dhṛtarāṣṭra wanted his own sons, not those of
Pāṇḍu, to inherit the kingdom.

Thus Duryodhana, with Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s consent, plotted to kill the young sons of Pāṇḍu, and it
was only by the careful protection of their uncle Vidura and their cousin Lord Kṛṣṇa that the
Pāṇḍavas escaped the many attempts against their lives.

Now, Lord Kṛṣṇa was not an ordinary man but the Supreme Godhead Himself, who had
descended to earth and was playing the role of a prince in a contemporary dynasty. In this
role He was also the nephew of Pāṇḍu’s wife Kuntī, or Pṛthā, the mother of the Pāṇḍavas. So
both as a relative and as the eternal upholder of religion, Kṛṣṇa favored the righteous sons of
Pāṇḍu and protected them.

Ultimately, however, the clever Duryodhana challenged the Pāṇḍavas to a gambling match.
In the course of that fateful tournament, Duryodhana and his brothers took possession of
Draupadī, the chaste and devoted wife of the Pāṇḍavas, and insultingly tried to strip her
naked before the entire assembly of princes and kings. Kṛṣṇa’s divine intervention saved her,
but the gambling, which was rigged, cheated the Pāṇḍavas of their kingdom and forced them
into thirteen years of exile.

Upon returning from exile, the Pāṇḍavas rightfully requested their kingdom from
Duryodhana, who bluntly refused to yield it. Duty-bound as princes to serve in public
administration, the five Pāṇḍavas reduced their request to a mere five villages. But
Duryodhana arrogantly replied that he wouldn’t spare them enough land into which to drive a
pin.
Throughout all this, the Pāṇḍavas had been consistently tolerant and forbearing. But now war
seemed inevitable.

Nonetheless, as the princes of the world divided, some siding with the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra,
others with the Pāṇḍavas, Kṛṣṇa Himself took the role of messenger for the sons of Pāṇḍu
and went to the court of Dhṛtarāṣṭra to plead for peace. When His pleas were refused, war
was now certain.

The Pāṇḍavas, men of the highest moral stature, recognized Kṛṣṇa to be the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, whereas the impious sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra did not. Yet Kṛṣṇa offered
to enter the war according to the desire of the antagonists. As God, He would not personally
fight; but whoever so desired might avail himself of Kṛṣṇa’s army – and the other side could
have Kṛṣṇa Himself, as an advisor and helper. Duryodhana, the political genius, snatched at
Kṛṣṇa’s armed forces, while the Pāṇḍavas were equally eager to have Kṛṣṇa Himself.

In this way, Kṛṣṇa became the charioteer of Arjuna, taking it upon Himself to drive the fabled
bowman’s chariot. This brings us to the point at which Bhagavad-gītā begins, with the two
armies arrayed, ready for combat, and Dhṛtarāṣṭra anxiously inquiring of his secretary
Sañjaya, “What did they do?”

The scene is set, with only the need for a brief note regarding this translation and
commentary.

The general pattern translators have followed in rendering Bhagavad-gītā into English has
been to brush aside the person Kṛṣṇa to make room for their own concepts and philosophies.
The history of the Mahābhārata is taken as quaint mythology, and Kṛṣṇa becomes a poetic
device for presenting the ideas of some anonymous genius, or at best He becomes a minor
historical personage.

But the person Kṛṣṇa is both the goal and the substance of Bhagavad-gītā, so far as the Gītā
speaks of itself.

This translation, then, and the commentary that accompanies it propose to direct the reader to
Kṛṣṇa rather than away from Him. The Bhagavad-gītā thus becomes wholly consistent and
comprehensible. Since Kṛṣṇa is the speaker of the Gītā, and its ultimate goal as well, the
Bhagavad-gītā As It Is presents this great scripture in its true terms.

The Publishers

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