A Rich Mosaic
N.S. JAGANNATHAN
THE GITA FOR THE MODERN MAN by Krishna Chaitanya Clarion Books, New Delhi, 1987, 256 pp., 255
Jan-Feb 1987, volume 11, No 1

Krishna Chaitanya’s extenuation for adding yet another to the two thousand odd editions of the Gita in seventy- five languages that he has himself counted is indicated in the title of the book itself. His is the Gita for the modern man. It is of some importance to note that the visualized reader is modern not in the condescending sense of someone who has little or no Sanskrit, which, alas, is only too true of most potential readers of this book—and to whom the arcane ideas of an ancient scripture have to be explained. On the contrary, Chaitanya sees his reader not as a handicapped one but as one infinitely better placed than readers of earlier generations to respond to the profound resonances of the Gita as the vision of a great poet.

Continue reading this review