Young officers arriving for the first time at their new home among the rice fields of India during the British occupation, or in the heat and dust of a desert cantonment, would commonly be told by some well-meaning old India hand, that if they wished to grasp the essence of the eastern tradition, they should read one book, the Mahabharata, by far the world’s oldest and largest epic poem, and with 100000 verses, exceeding the Bible and all Shakespeare’s plays bundled together. The Mahabharata was called “The Fifth Veda”. As a jewel within the heart, lies the Bhagavad Gita, in itself a chapter of this epic poem.
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