Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Bhagavad Gita  By  cover art

The Bhagavad Gita

By: Phoenix Books, Barbara Stoler-Miller - translator
Narrated by: Jacob Needleman
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $11.86

Buy for $11.86

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

The search for higher truth must be conducted in the midst of the forces of life, with all its demands and seductions. So teaches The Bhagavad Gita, an ancient text that has been called the quintessence of the spirituality of India. In it, the great warrior Arjuna contemplates the meaning of life, just moments before entering the battlefield. "Why do I exist? Why should I fight against my loved ones? And where shall I go after I die?" he asks himself in search for knowledge of the Absolute.

©1986 Barbara Stoler-Miller (P)1987 Audio Literature

Critic reviews

"Hearing The Bhagavad Gita, rather than reading it, helps one understand why many cultures to this very day refuse to commit their sacred texts to writing, believing that script would profane them." (Huston Smith, author of The Religions of Man)

What listeners say about The Bhagavad Gita

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    204
  • 4 Stars
    93
  • 3 Stars
    74
  • 2 Stars
    18
  • 1 Stars
    16
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    113
  • 4 Stars
    58
  • 3 Stars
    35
  • 2 Stars
    11
  • 1 Stars
    13
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    165
  • 4 Stars
    36
  • 3 Stars
    22
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    6

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Boring narrator!!!

Such a wonderful book given such a horrendously uninterested and uninteresting narrator! I will download this one again if you promise to indulge us with a storyteller who is ONE with this epic...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Great Audio.

This is a great format to listen to the Bhagavad Gita. I sincerely enjoyed it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Oh, the humanity!

I bought this book and The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners by Jack Hawley at the same time. FIrst, I can't downlaod both to the same device because Audible gave them the same filename. After dividing them between devices, I listened to both. I loved, loved LOVED the walkthrough by Jack Hawley - but this one (The Bhagavad Gita, read by Jacob Needleman)...not so much.

The Bhagavad Gita is an incredible story with so many layers....none of which are discernable here. The translation itself sounds all right, and the quality of the recording is fine, but the reader...yikes. If his mission is to put me to sleep, he can consider this a triumph. LIsten to the whole sample before you buy - but, until Audible makes another version with a better reader available, I recommend you get the Walkthrough by Jack Hawley instead and give this version a miss.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

The reading wears me out

The reader lacks to enter energy in his reading. The dark full voice dies away in every sentence and after an hour or so its just to much. Arjuna!... Is there no light in this book? I very much think so, but for me it needs another reader.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Hot stuff!!

Audio quality could be better, but it was listenable even while driving on the freeway.

The book itself is a classic. Speaking as a non-Hindu, I'd say, if you like this kind of thing, you'll REALLY like this.

Nice and short, hardly a word wasted, quick 'read.'

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Not for the car

This is not something that will keep you awake during your commute. Save this for a time when you can lay back on the couch and think a lot. The pace is slow and the narrator sonorous - I suspect that you could play this while you sleep and wake up a well-rested and better person.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

What dull, lifeless reading.

I often don't agree with others who say a reader is hard to listen to so you might not find this recording as bad as I did. The reading is monotone and lifeless. It makes me think of a 4th grade student reading their book report in front of the class. I quit listening after 4-5 minutes. Be sure you listen to the sample before you buy. I should have. The Bhagavad Gita is magnificent and deserves better treatment.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Life changing

I listen to this repeatedly. its a life's journey to follow. Each listen brings new knowledge.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

The one I go back to!

I have enjoyed listening to this many times. I've got hundreds of Audible books that I've listened to once, but this one I like to go back to. I can just start listening at any spot and it takes me to another place right away. Perhaps, it's because I read this material many years ago and so it is already quite familiar to me, so I enjoy the uncomplicated translation which doesn't require hundreds of footnotes and asides to follow.
Although narration is more subjective, I like the calm droning quality, with powerful undertones of Jacob Needleman's voice, which seems to fit the material quite well.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • D
  • 12-26-09

How do you review the word of God?

Jacob Needleman is horrible with this! But the Gita is life giving, honest, pure, it reaches the soul and speaks to every one of us.

Hindus are nurtured by the Gita, it gives us strength and guidance. It gives us patience and hope.

For seekers, look no further. For the curious, listen over and over to hear and learn. For the skeptic and scoffer of faith- the Gita will explain.

Jacob Needleman- slow, monotone, little feeling in what he is reading. However, he has a lovely pure "manly" voice, deep, resonant.

Buy the Bhagavad Gita read by Jacob Needleman, you won't be sorry.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful