The Gita according to Gandhi 173

The Gita according to Gandhi -Mahadev Desai

NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION I have tried to adhere as closely as possible to Gandhiji's translation of the text, but he is in no way responsible for the translation of numerous many-faceted and protean words like/ for instance, buddhi, which in any Indian vernacular may be used in the original form in any context and yet may not be misunderstood whereas in English an equivalent word as near as possible to the sense intended in each contest would be absolutely essential. The Western reader will perhaps forgive my insistence on retaining in their original some of the strictly technical words. I have discussed them all in their several bearings in 'My Submission' and attempted to make them fairly familiar by suggesting various synonyms. These are: Atman, Brahman, prakriti, guna, sattva, rajas, tamas, (and their adjectives sattvika, rajasa, tamas a), yoga, yogin. Then there are words like jnana, yajna, bhakta, bhakti, tap as which indeed have English equivalents but which mean very much more than their usual English equivalents.