You are about to have the profound pleasure of reading one of the truly great books in the history of the world. Not only is it a spiritual monument--an essential scripture of Hinduism, recited daily for two millennia and to this very day, whose teachings 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 everywhere in the world return to again and again throughout their lives for insight into the nature of reality.