Dr Isaac Bentwitch — Author of The Gita a modern translation of the Bhagavad Gita

And joining me now on the line, fingers crossed we managed to get it right, it's Dr. Isaac Bentwitsch. Hello Isaac. Hello David. Oh there you are, I'm so happy that we managed to get all of you, there's been all sorts of technical challenges along the line. But the reason that I have you on the line and it's amazing to me and I've got to tell you when I first heard that you'd written the book that we're going to be talking about I was like I'm not sure that the world needs another translation and then I got to see it and start reading it and well I got to tell you I think it's absolutely amazing. It's taken you many years, we're going to get into that. The book is called Gita, a timeless guide for our time, Dr. Isaac Bentwitsch is the author. What he's done essentially is rewritten the Baghvad Gita. So before we get onto that though, the title obviously at the front of your name is Doctor. So Isaac, tell us a little bit about yourself. Thank you. I'm a medical doctor by training. I was born and live now in Israel and this is where I studied the medicine and they have been involved in the practice and teaching of yoga and meditation for many years. In my day job, I'm an entrepreneur, I've founded and led over these past 29 years three life science technology companies that I was fortunate to see become leaders or leading revolutions in medicine, genomics and environmental conservation.

It sounds like you've been a very busy person and you mentioned that you teach yoga as well. How does one start teaching yoga, you're doing yoga which is essentially an Indian practice, an Eastern practice and then come across a book like the Baghvad Gita and forgive me for saying this but you are Israeli so the Jewish faith and how did you reconcile that? Well let me tell you briefly about how I first met the Gita and this cast it in even a bit more of a dramatic or comic light than what I met, I first met the Gita 34 or so years ago when I did a summer, I was a medical student then in the second year and went on to do a month long yoga teacher's training course, very intensive from dawn to dusk to late at night and I loved almost everything about the course, the asana, the yoga postures and some physiology and some philosophy and meditation were fine, there was one thing I really hated and that was the hour a day which was devoted to studying the Baghvad Gita, that I could not stand and so I didn't connect because of what you're indicating when I have always had and was brought up or raised to have a great respect and then the reverence that really to other religions and the close connection of course to my Jewish roots but the deep reverence to Christianity and Hinduism, Buddhism but you know the whole mythology will talk more about the book itself, wasn't something that really clicked and so it was rather surprising that later gradually the Gita as it is fondly called became a big love in my life and the source definitely of a lot of light and direction in my life and so translating it wasn't really a conscious decision, hey there's 200 translations into English which they are, I'm going to do the translation 201, rather it was an infatuation as a negative connotation, being enchanted by this little book and beginning by writing these verses to myself in my Hebrew mother tongue so that I can understand them and then peeling off layers of mythology and terminology etc and so I actually worked for seven years on a first draft which was in Hebrew and then another five years on recreating it in English.

So this is truly a labor of love, I mean you've taken 12 years to write or to rewrite this book and listen aside from the fact of what you've accomplished and just the rewriting of it which is astounding, what I have found and when we come back I'd like you to speak a little bit to this as well but I've picked up an English translation a couple of times now of the Bhagavad Gita and I looked at it and I mean no, no, no, no, it doesn't resonate, it doesn't work, it's just strange and I keep hearing how in the original language it is such a beautiful poetic book but I never ever got that so when I first saw that you were releasing this one I was like okay is it going to be different and it is and when we come back I'd like you to just talk through that a little bit and we'll go on about what the Bhagavad Gita is because there might be many people who do not know what it is so when we come back we'll chat about that, don't go anywhere my special guest on the line with me this evening all the way from Israel it is Dr. Isaac Bentwoith and he's rewritten that wonderful book the new release is called Gita a timeless guide for our time when we come back we'll be chatting a little bit more to him it is what's involved this Monday night my special guest I have on the line with me from Israel tonight Dr. Isaac Bentwoith and we'll be talking about his rewriting and his release of the book Gita a timeless guide for our time Isaac if I could just ask one thing please if you could just talk up a little the line is not the best so if you could just speak a little louder for us that would be brilliant the question that I was going to ask before we went to break there is tell us about the Bhagavad Gita what is it all about?

yeah so the Bhagavad Gita first the name literally means Bhagavad Gita means divine song so Gita which is sort of a nickname is really song it's the song of the divine it is an ancient text 2500 years old which is considered by many to be the quintessence of the ancient Indian wisdom and and in fact it has been called the perennial wisdom meaning the truth that underlies all religions and spiritual teachings as a common denominator the text is a dialogue between two figures an Indian prince called Arjuna who is about to be forced into battle by vicious family members who are out to kill him and being a pacifist and a man of the ideals he is reluctant to fight and reluctant to avoid fighting and he turns to him and with these questions to his friend who is his charioteer and no less than God incarnate Krishna is his name in the translation I refer to them simply as the prince and the master in order to help us get over the cultural and mythological layers because at the end of the day it's really a dialogue between each and every one of us and God within it is a our opportunity as it were if somebody came and offered you a how about a nice afternoon chat with God asking the questions we all want to know hey God what's the meaning of life what is the cause for suffering what are the path to overcoming it suffering to living a meaningful life and having life be an experience of growth and erosion so that is the essence of this scripture the Gita. Now the amazing thing is and I didn't know this until I did a little bit of research but I mean people like Beethoven, Leonard Cohen, Carl Jung, who else Mahatma Gandhi, Deepak Chopra there's a whole range of people including a theoretical physicist by the name of Robert Oppenheimer which a lot of people say that he could be considered the father of the modern atomic bomb but all of them say that the Gita is the most beautiful philosophical song existing in any known tongue and I mean that is high praise indeed from such great thinkers as these what is it what is it about the Gita that transports people and transforms them because I have to tell you when I got it and I was very fortunate and thank you very much I got an advanced copy of the book which has only just recently been released and I thought I would do my usual and sit down and just read it through so I could I could speak knowledgeably about the book I'd read it through in a week or two this has not happened I just I can't I cannot do it I manage I manage maybe a chapter at a time and then it just it makes me think is that what it's all about is that what it's designed to do I think of it as a sort of a magical little book the whole book is 700 verses long it has this unique a property it's called the Bhagavan Gita the song of the divine which is sort of speaking of making you think makes you think why was it and I admit that after many years of being very much affected by the book this aspect of it I was not aware of that it is really the song of God not the lecture of God or the text of God why the song of God and so this is really a you know when when you go deeper into it it is the text like other special text that allows us to reach the deepest the wisdom that that sort of come from the depths of our own soul or heart if you will and so it transcends the intellect and the emotions and this is the what what you felt or what you're reporting in reading this say this book it's not a not some external formulas but rather something that really prompt you to think and I would even say as you meditate on it as you let these prayers of wisdom do their thing it really extracts a truth that are beyond words speaking of scientists you know Einstein used to say that he does not think in words and I used to not be able to identify with that what do you mean not thinking words well the deep truths are in silence that that is beyond the objectivization in the intellectualization if this is what the Gita does one of the great commentators speaks of the defense says that it's like it's 700 verses to 700 pearls of wisdom each one an independent pearl of wisdom and all but also relating to the verse to the pearl before and after it and I find this an accurate metaphor because it really like you've experienced when you read this book and that was the purpose of this translation you can almost let them roll around in your mind and do their thing which is what they were meant to do of course doing so in conjunction with meditation accelerate this process.

So it is the refreshing thing Isaac is that it's not just me that that kind of because it is I mean your translation is truly breathtaking because as I understood it the original and you say it is the song of God it's written in a very musical lyrical way and the translations I've read before were dry and dull and boring and I just didn't get it maybe maybe it's one of those texts where you have to be ready for it and ready to embrace it but I mean I can understand why it's taken you 12 years to do that when I come back I'd like to have a chat to you a little bit Isaac about because you said it works well with meditation so when we come back let's have a bit of a chat about that and about meditation and what kind of things you would recommend we do whilst reading and studying the Gita my special guest on the line this evening is Dr. Isaac Bentewich and we are talking about his latest book that he's just released called Gita a timeless guide for our times Isaac before we went to the break we were chatting about and I said you know you mentioned to use this whilst meditating how would you recommend we go about reading this book because I know you've you've actually put it together in a very interesting way yes so like you say first you know it's a free world you can you can enjoy and savor it in different ways but more than binge reading the whole thing it really works even better if it's very condensed text so where first I've added before each of the 18 chapters of the book a short vein-shaped introduction that gives you the gist of each each chapter so even if some verses are more difficult or as you sort of an opener for each chapter is a very brief introduction that puts it in layman's terms what what's the message of the chapter so you may want to read a one chapter a week or a day if you are so inclined I would recommend reading the same chapter every day for a week and then selecting a verse from the chapter possibly a different verse every day possibly the same verse every day for a week and then in your meditation for those who meditate different techniques of meditation are there and they're all fine meditation is basically the collection of the techniques that allow us to quiet the mind by focusing on the sound or a focal point or by joking and walking or swimming and letting and focusing on the breath so as you're meditating taking one verse reading it before you start your meditation and then as you all close your eyes and do your meditation and do whatever you're doing to quiet the mind then reflect on this verse or what it what it means first by thinking about it reciting it if you if you remember the verse more or less or just thinking about it and then letting it go and letting the thought sort of dissolve or go deep into your mind shall I give an example please yes that would be lovely if you could so let's take it just a verse from the the towards the end of chapter five of the of the you know each of these verses it is like a dear child to me and so it's like asking a mother who's your favorite child what can I say but he is a he is another one of my topmost favorites and it says desire is a sign all actions and offering the wise rests on action by action untainted like a pure lotus leaf in muggy waters resting on water remaining not wetted so such beautiful metaphor here in the introduction to this chapter I elaborate a little bit on it and I say that we all are life in sort of a journey between the roots of the lotus in us which are firmly based in the mud in our material nature to the spiritual part of us like into the white leaves of the of the lotus and it's such a beautiful analogy that of course many most religions they use of a lotus is something that symbolizes spirituality because of this duality and so I say that we all journey from mud to lotus from our material animal parts to the spirit within us and as this verse guides us with this imagery as we meditate we close our eyes and we think of this lotus that we are from the roots in the mud to this to the white petals and as this beautiful imagery the canal says resting on water remaining not wetted visualize this see this white pure white lotus resting in muddy waters and not solid by the muddy waters this is the idea which we're encouraged to to follow and to enact in our lives you see we tend to live our lives such that every day makes us more worn out remember how we were all once beautiful innocent babies you look at babies so soft so with symptoms so pure and then you look at the middle aged men and women of the world how life has worn us down the Gita is showing us a different way how can we live every day such that we're not tarnished by it but as these words of wisdom may again say desire the side all actions and offering wise rests on action by action unpainted like a pure lotus leaf in muddy waters resting on water remaining not wetted if we learn how to act egolessly not I am acting but action is enacting itself through me then we rest on action the same way that a lotus rests on on water and remains unsullied by it you see that's this is what I'm saying I mean that is that is absolutely beautiful and what I also noticed and maybe you can speak to this as well Isaac if you don't mind so it's the story about the prince and his charioteer who is a god but you've managed to translate it in such a way and I think at such a time as well because this now speaks to both men and women I know that was one of the criticisms in days gone by of the original book was that it was very male centric you've managed to to make this come across as as much more you know appealing to both male and female yes this was something that as I was working on it at some point became very important to me I after I so much fell in love with the text and it has such wisdom and much of the text gives us these examples which encourage us to to empower us to to enact in our own life and they speak of the yogi the ideal discipline evolved spiritual seeker with such statements and sentences saying she has a home is everywhere and nowhere he equally accepts pleasure pleasure and pain and criticism and and praise and so forth but always he he he and you know that did not sound right to me and exactly like you said especially in our generation where women are playing such an important role in leadership of yoga and spirituality of course the messages of the the key messages of the Gita are beyond the emotions and thoughts and certainly beyond gender and so making a translation that will be gender neutral and hence speak directly to men and women in life became very important to me at first I did not think that it is possible and I actually even toyed around with the the it was so important to me that I even toyed with the possibility of having two versions one written for in for women so that you do not get distracted and read it as as you should it is really a spiritual autobiography of you the reader you David me Isaac it is our story we are the prince or princess if I was delighted that with with time it was possible to to write it such that it is gender neutral and it speaks equally to men and women alike now Isaac just before I let you go and we found out where we can get hold of the book often and you see it so many times and and it's my personal feeling um you know the world seems to be speeding up everything is happening it's it's all foster bigger better foster more it's instant gratification and yet there is the sense of of a spiritual awakening in the world and and and it's almost as though we're standing on the edge and something big is going to happen do you agree with that and do you think that the timing of this book and the release of this book is is also part of the greater plan well I I'm very moved by by what you're saying David and I very much identify I think our generation our time is is really a dramatic in that for better and worse on the one hand like never before I think like never before the the we just spoke of you know lotus and mud these two elements in our lives the material nature of the of the life we were living in and the the spiritual thirst and quest and awakening are there in the intention that never that I think is unprecedented when you think about it on the one hand this amazing material focus we've mapped the human genome we've that may flow to the states and the the knowledge and information accumulated the pace which we can can not grasp so everything is very very much materialistic not to mention the

ethical breakdown of the governments and then the systems and so so big crisis and yet and yet at the same time this spiritual thirst and the readiness think about it in generations past if you wanted to to study the Gita you'd have to live there or some other scripture you'd have to go to literally to the end of the end of the earth and be a hermit and you know now you click a button and out it comes from the the courtesy of the amazon and barnes ennobling and whatnot so um so the time is right and I actually felt this pressure to not delay this book a day beyond what it it must so that it can bring light into lives of others as it has in mind i think you are absolutely correct i think it is an amazing book certainly not one that i personally will be able to read very quickly but you know i look forward to it it's something that you know is now over the last couple of weeks it's become part of my morning ritual to to to sort of look through it and read this and that and it it it is it's it's an amazing amazing book i think you've done an incredible job on the rewrite where are people able to get the book i know it's probably not going to be available in stores in south africa but certainly online are we able to get it there well yes it's actually both online in amazon barnes ennoble books and me and but because it is through ingram sparks so so basically big store outlets everywhere including in south africa should be able to order it so so it should be in all of the major bookstores but certainly amazon and barnes ennoble you can easily get it you're also invited to go to book website at www.nugita.com again this is www.nugita.com and there's a link to where the book can be purchased and additional information and a nice trailer of the book and so you're welcome yeah the trailer the trailer is absolutely fantastic um the book is called geeta a timeless guide for our time so that's geeta g-i-t-a a timeless guide for our time um and it has been translated by isaac ventwich uh m-d so you can look for it online uh if you're not going to one of our big bookstores and ask them they can most probably order it for you if you'd like a hardcover version but isaac you've been kind enough as well um that you've you've set together a raffle and you're going to be giving away some copies of the book yes i'm happy to support the great work you're doing david and so we're giving away five copies uh in a raffle um i think you will be posting the link and for that so just go in and enter your information you're actually invited to invite friends to participate and the more friends you invite the greater the likelihood of winning so so happy to share a few gift copies of the book as well wonderful stuff isaac thank you so much for taking the time out having a chat to us uh i'm so glad we got a chance to chat with you and we got all the technical issues sorted out i wish you all the best for the future and may the book go on to be a raging success it certainly deserves to be that thank you so much for the kind words i enjoyed the conversation and then for the listeners those wanting to comment and available and would love to hear from you so and may the book bring light into the the lights of the others it has really in mind it's really a magical book fantastic stuff so if you want to do any comments or anything like that go to newgeater that's got all the things there i'll give you a link as well where you can enter that raffle isaac once again thank Thank you so much for joining us.

- My pleasure. - Thank you. Good night.