Essays on the Gita

Note on the Text

ESSAYS ON THE GITA was first published in the monthly review Arya in two series. The first series, covering the first six chapters of the Gita, ran from August 1916 to July 1918. The second series, covering the last twelve chapters, ran from August 1918 to July 1920.

The first series, slightly revised and with some new chapter titles, was brought out as a book in 1922 by V. Ramaswamy Sastrulu and Sons, Madras. New editions of the first series were published by Arya Publishing House, Calcutta, in 1926, 1937, 1944 and 1949. The same publisher issued an extensively revised edition of the second series in 1928, and new editions of this series in 1942, 1945 and 1949.

The 1922 edition of the first series may be considered an incomplete first edition of Essays on the Gita. The first and second series pairs of 1926 and 1928, 1937 and 1942, 1944 and 1945, and 1949 (both series) may be considered the second, third, fourth and fifth editions of the book.

Since 1949 the two series of Essays on the Gita have appeared in one volume. An American edition was published by The Sri Aurobindo Library, New York, in 1950. The sixth and seventh Indian editions were published by the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in 1959 and 1966. In 1970 Essays on the Gita formed volume 13 of the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library. This, the eighth Indian edition, was reprinted many times.

The text of the present, ninth, edition has been carefully checked against Sri Aurobindo's extant manuscripts and all editions published before 1950.

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