While the Bhagavad Gita is an acknowledged treasure of world spiritual literature, few people know a parallel text, the isvara Gita. This lesser-known work is also dedicated to a god, but in this case it is siva, rather than Krsna, who is depicted as the omniscient creator of the world. Andrew J. Nicholson's Lord siva's Song makes this text available in English in an accessible new translation. A work of both poetry and philosophy, the isvara Gita builds on the insights of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra and foreshadows later developments in tantric yoga. It deals with the pluralistic religious environment of early medieval India through an exploration of the relationship between the gods siva and Visnu. The work condemns sectarianism and violence and provides a strategy for accommodating conflicting religious claims in its own day and in our own. |
