His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda wrote the Bhagavad Gita As It Is, there were plenty of editions of the Gita out there in the Western world. But, until Srila Prabhupada wrote the Bhagavad Gita As It Is, no one was becoming a devotee of Lord Krishna. However, when Srila Prabhupada wrote the Bhagavad Gita As It Is, thousands of people in the Western world transformed their lives and have become devotees of Lord Krishna. Why is Srila Prabhupada’s Gita the only Gita that has had this effect? Because only Srila Prabhupada presented the message of the Gita without adding or subtracting anything.Srila Prabhupada's purports leave no room for speculation. He has painstakingly shed light on all the verses, in accordance with the previous acharyas and his own personalby realizations.
Srila Prabhupada states emphatically what needs to be done to benefit from the sublime texts of the Bhagavad Gita. He emphasizes what Krishna emphasizes, he stresses what Krishna stresses, he downplays what Krishna downplays, and he ignores anything that Krishna ignores.
If you want a detailed, consistent and scholarly presentation of ofBhagavad Gita that will give you practical and pragmatic solutions to the problems of birth, old age, disease and death; that will give you a clear understanding on the hierarchy, position and functions of the many different 'Hindu gods'; if you want to know how the material world works under the three modes of nature; if you want to know what should be done and what should be avoided; if you want to know what is the goal of life and how to achieve it; if you want to develop true devotion for the Supreme Lord; if you want to know what is beyond Brahman and what is its source, there is no better book on the planet than Bhagavad Gita As It Is, nor will there be for the next 427,000 years.
If you want to hang on to any misconceptions you may have that are not consistent with Krishna's declaration of Himself being the absolute truth, then don't go anywhere near it; you will find it tiring and not to your liking. the The purports are written without adulterating the original meaning of Bhagavad-gita.
There is no personal agenda or propaganda behind the purports of Srila Prabhupada or the translation of the verses for making it more authentic, word-to-word translation is given for every verse. The knowledge given in the book is how it has travdoeledtravelled in the guru-parampara right from Lord Krishna Himself.
There is a standard process for receiving the knowledge of the Gita from a lineage of self-realized spiritual teachers. Srila Prabhupada was himself a spiritual teacher, and he received the same knowledge he is presenting from his guru. His guru got that knowledge from his guru, and so on. The lineage of gurus and teachers can be traced back to Krishna himself, and because Krishna is perfect, whatever knowledge is faithfully repeated from him is also perfect. This is what a lineage of gurus does: gurus present the knowledge of the Gita faithfully to their students as they heard from their gurus. The students then become gurus and teach their students. In this way, the knowledge is passed down from Krishna himself to the current generation without adulteration. Unfortunately, people want to reject this authorized method of receiving knowledge and instead concoct their own interpretations of the Gita, which will be imperfect because the conditioned soul has the four defects of:
- Imperfect senses
- The tendency to fall into illusion
- The tendency to commit mistakes
- The tendency to cheat others
As Srila Prabhupada is one of the only gurus to present the Gita according to the authorized process, I would say his edition of the Gita is the best (though myself and other ISKCON devotees also respect the Gitas of other genuine teachers such as Ramanuja, Madhva, Vishnu Swami, Nimbarka, etc.).
All Glories To Srila Prabhupada.