The Song Celestial or Bhagavad-Gita (From the Mahabharata)

Sir Edwin Arnold KCIE CSI (10 June 1832 – 24 March 1904) was an English poet and journalist, who is most known for his work The Light of Asia. The Bhagavad Gita is a book within the great epic called the Mahabharata, or sometimes referred to as the Story of the Bharat (India). The Bhagavad Gita is the sixth book of the Mahabharata. People often refer to it as just the Gita. The Mahabharata is made up of eighteen books that all contain poems which tell a story. The main plot of the Mahabharata is to do with the conflict between two sets of paternal cousins that vie for the throne of Hastinapura. This was a kingdom in the northern region of modern day Delhi. Each group of cousins, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, both felt they were entitled to power over Hastinapura. The Kauravas had first taken over the land and the Pandavas pleaded with the eldest of the Kauravas, Duryodhana, to give them back their kingdom or at least a share of the land. Duryodhana did not agree to their demands and refused to give them any share of the land. This was what set off the beginning of the war between the two groups of cousins.