You are about to have the profound pleasure of reading one of the tuly great books in the history of world. Not only is it a spiritual monument - an essential scripture of Hinduism, recited daily for two millennia and to this very day, whose teaching have spread throughout Asia and around the globe - it is also a literary masterpiece, the linchpin of a great epic of war and peace, honor and disgrace, loyalty and betrayal. it is a book people evryehere in the world return to again and again throughout their lives for insight into the nature of reality.