Lord Krishna Forum - Krishna Talk

rajivksaxena · Joined: 13 Jan 2006 Posts: 4 Location: North Carolina

Dear Friends

I am delighted to be a new member of this forum. I am a professor of Biology with great love for Srimad Bhagwat Geeta. Geeta as you know comprises 700 shlokas in Sanskrit. Direct reading of Geeta is therefore problematic for people who do not know Sanskrit well. We have to depend upon some one to explain what has been said in different shlokas. Though I belong to New Delhi, I often spend long stretches of time doing research in USA. In one of these stays, in an inspired phase, I did a complete translation of Geeta in to metered Hindi verses. The main feature of this work is that all 700 verses are metered and highly amenable to singing. Moreover, since I have been very careful to convey what the Sanskrit Shlokas say per se, a Hindi knowing reader can read my work and derive his / her own meanings. The work has been presented on my website:

www.geeta-kavita.com

Please visit the site and let me know your kind comments. The site also carries Hindi poems of well known Hindi writers.

With regards

Prof. Rajiv K. Saxena

cherry · Joined: 19 Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Location: australia

Srila Prabhupada translated the Gita, and he was a pure devotee.
Unless you are a pure devotee, free from all desires, then, well .... sorry, i don't want to offend you, but, your Gita won't be pure.
All glories to you anyway, please forgive me if i have offended.

rajivksaxena · Joined: 13 Jan 2006 Posts: 4 Location: North Carolina

Thanks for your kind comments. I assure you that I am not at all offended.

I wish we as Indians were still using Sanskrit as a language of communication. Then, one can directly read and understand Geeta. Unfortunately we now converse in a different language and still wish to understand Lord's message. One option is to read commentaries. All I have done is to translate the verse into Hindi and re-fitted the words so each Sanskrit verse becomes a metered Hindi verse that can be sung. I have not tried to explain any verse or comment on its meaning. I just rearranged words. To my mind, a verse / piece of poetry need not be explained as the meaning arises from the inner self of the reader himself. That is indeed if you know the language and its nuances well.

Srila Prabhupada translated version of Geeta is invaluable for English speaking readers. Mine serves an entirely different purpose.

Rajiv Saxena

cherry · Joined: 19 Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Location: australia

that sounds very good, Krsna will bless you for bringing the message of the Gita to the people. now i feel ill for what i said, anyway, thank you and i hope all goes well with everything that you do.

rajivksaxena · Joined: 13 Jan 2006 Posts: 4 Location: North Carolina

Thanks. Interestingly, your saying that Krishna will bless for spreading his message, reflects verses 68 and 69 in chapter 18 of Geeta. I am tempted to give the translation in Hindi. I hope readers can see the Hindi script in Unicode. Otherwise picture files are there on www.geeta-kavita.com\

परम भक्ति रख मुझमें जो मेरे भक्तों को बतलायेगा
गुप्त मेरे इन उपदेशों को प्राप्त मुझे वह कर पाएगा

इससे बढ़ प्रियकर्म नहीं कोई भी मानाव कर पाता है
और धरा पर उससे बढ़ कर नहीं कोई मुझ को भाता है

Bless all lovers of Geeta.

Rajiv Saxena