Extolling the virtue of studying the Bhagawad Gita, the great philosopher, Adi Shankaracharya said “For him, who has studied the Bhagavatgita, even a little …. there is no tiff with Yama”. From the times of the early philosophers, many have studied and presented their interpretation of this body of work that is supposed to have been given to the world by God himself.

Considering that there are so many interpretations, which one should one read? The answer given by gurus is that one must read many, for each will present a window to this work through the spiritual eye of the writer. Amongst the many we may find one that is written by one, who understands our world well and thus have the power to bring the Gita a little closer to you.

Dr. Krishna Bhatta, a practicing Urologist from Skowhagen, Maine, has undertaken the major task studying the Gita and connecting the times of the Mahabharata to the preseent. He does this by  trying to understand its relevance to his personal life. “Gita is a search for me” says Bhatta, and the book is a result of the search". Using examples from the daily life of  twenty first century human beings, Bhatta succeeds in providing an interesting interpretation of this wonderful treasure in very simple terms. 

So what is his approach? “I would like to see and understand Gita from the base line. I want to approach Gita from a seeker’s point of view, from the view point of Arjuna”.  He looks at the teachings of Bhagawad Gita from Arjuna's point of view. He questions everything and presents his answers to these questions. Bhatta clearly describes the changes taking place in Arjuna as the Gita progresses. From a reluctant warrior, Arjuna emerges as a transformed stitapragya who can be decisive, fearless, invincible and less emotional.

Bhatta does a wonderful job of taking the complex ideas that are in the Gita and connectinge them to situations that occur in modern everyday life. Examples from the lives of physicians, a modern day parent, children and even cricket enthusiasts are used to clearly establish the relevance of the grand ideas of the Gita to modern times. There are references to the Kargil war, to filmstars like Raj Kapoor, to Mahavir and Buddha, to Osho and Rajneesh, to make the book more understandable and interesting to the lay person.

Bhatta goes on to address other issues that are not directly related to the Geeta but often come up in the context of Krishna and the Mahabharat. Bhatta asks and provides interesting answers to questions like did Krishna love to flirt ? Could Draupadi be a role model for the modern woman?  Does the Gita provide answers to issues like terrorism?

For those of us living in the 21st century in America this book would certainly strike a cord. 

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