NOTE: Some of the scholars quoted here may now hold different posts or be affiliated with different institutions than the ones this file mentions. Our apologies for any outdated information. (Corrections are welcome.)
"No work in all Indian literature is more quoted, because none is better loved, in the West, than the Bhagavad-gita. Translation of such a work demands not only knowledge of Sanskrit, but an inward sympathy with the theme and a verbal artistry. For the poem is a symphony in which God is seen in all things. . . . The Swami does a real service for students by investing the beloved Indian epic with fresh meaning. Whatever our outlook may be, we should all be grateful for the labor that has led to this illuminating work."
--Dr. Geddes MacGregor
Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Philosophy
University of Southern California
"The Gita can be seen as the main literary support for the great religious civilization of India, the oldest surviving culture in the world. The present translation and commentary is another manifestation of the permanent living importance of the Gita."
--Thomas Merton, Theologian
"I am most impressed with A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's scholarly and authoritative edition of Bhagavad-gita. It is a most valuable work for the scholar as well as the layman and is of great utility as a reference book as well as a textbook. I promptly recommend this edition to my students. It is a beautifully done book."
--Dr. Samuel D. Atkins, Professor of Sanskrit,
Princeton University
"As a successor in direct line from Caitanya, the author of Bhagavad-gita s It Is is entitled, according to Indian custom, to the majestic title His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The great interest that his reading of the Bhagavad-gita holds for us is that it offers us an authorized interpretation according to the principles of the Caitanya tradition."
--Olivier Lacombe, Professor of Sanskrit and Indology,
Sorbonne University, Paris
"I have had the opportunity of examining several volumes published by the Bhaktivedanta Book TRust and have found them to be of excellent quality and of great value for use in college classes on Indian religions. This is particularly true of the BBT edition and translation of the Bhagavad-gita."
--Dr. Frederick B. Underwood, Professor of Religion
Columbia University
"If truth is what works, as Pierce and the pragmatists insist, there must be a kind of truth in the Bhagavad- gita As It Is, since those who follow its teachings display a joyous serenity usually missing in the bleak and strident lives of contemporary people."
--Dr. Elwin H. Powell, Professor of Sociology
State University of New York, Buffalo
"There is little question that this edition is one of the best books available on the Gita and devotion. Prabhupada's translation is an ideal blend of literal accuracy and religious insight."
--Dr. Thomas J. Hopkins
Professor of Religion
Franklin and Marshall College
"The Bhagavad-gita, one of the great spiritual texts, is not as yet a common part of our cultural milieu. This is probably less because it is alien per se than because we have lacked just the kind of close interpretive commentary upon it that Swami Bhaktivedanta has here provided, a commentary written from not only a scholar's but a practitioner's, a lifelong devotee's point of view."
--Denise Levertov, Poet
"The increasing numbers of Western readers interested in classical Vedic thought have been done a service by Swami Bhaktivedanta. By bringing us a new and living interpretation of a text already known to many, he has increased our understanding manyfold."
--Dr. Edward C. Dimock, Jr.
Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations,
University of Chicago
"As a native of Indian now living in the West, it has given me much grief to see so many of my fellow countrymen coming to the West in the role of gurus and spiritual leaders. For this reason, I am very excited to see the publication of Bhagavad-gita As It Is by Sri A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. It will help to stop the terrible cheating of false and unauthorized 'gurus' and 'yogis' and will give an opportunity to al people to understand the actual meaning of Oriental culture."
--Dr. Kailash Vajpeye
Director of Indian Studies
Center for Oriental Studies
The University of Mexico
"The scholarly world is again indebted to A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Although Bhagavad-gita has been translated many times, Prabhupada adds a translation of singular importance with his commentary."
--Dr. J. Stillson Judah
Emeritus Professor of the History of Religions
and Director of Libraries
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California
"Srila Prabhupada's edition thus fills a sensitive gap in France, where many hope to become familiar with traditional Indian thought, beyond the commercial East-West hodgepode that has arisen since the time Europeans first penetrated India.
"Whether the reader be an adept of Indian spiritualism or not, a reading of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is will be extremely profitable. For many this will be the first contact with the true India, the ancient India, the eternal India."
--Francois Chenique
Professor of Religious Sciences
Institute of Political Studies, Paris
"It is a deeply felt, powerfully conceived and beautifully explained work. I don't know whether to praise more this translation of the Bhagavad-gita, its daring method of explanation, or the endless fertility of its ideas. I have never seen any other work on the Gita with such an important voice and style. . . . It will occupy a significant place in the intellectual life of modern man for a long time to come."
--Dr. Shaligram Shukla
Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown Univerity