Title: Gita on the green
Subtitle: the mystical tradition behind Bagger Vance
First published: 2000
Description: "Deep in India's past, Bhagavan Sri Krishna (God) revealed the 700-verse Bhagavad-gita, a spiritual poem containing universal, non-sectarian truths. In 1995, author Steven Pressfield composed a work that restructured the Gita in terms of a golf novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance. As he says, "The idea behind Bagger Vance was to do the Bhagavad-gita contemporarily.

In the Gita the troubled warrior Arjuna receives instruction from Krishna, Supreme Lord of the Universe, who has assumed human form as Arjuna's charioteer. Instead of a troubled warrior, it's a troubled golf champion (Rannulph Junah); instead of his charioteer, it's his caddie, Bagger Vance."".

"Now made into a major motion picture, Bagger Vance is loosely based on the ancient spiritual classic. But the connections between the two books are elusive, almost abstract. The Gita is concealed in Pressfield's work. If one is unfamiliar with Krishna's words, one can read The Legend of Bagger Vance and not recognize the Gita in its pages.".

"Steven Rosen, in Gita on the Green: The Mystical Tradition Behind Bagger Vance, makes explicit that which is only implicit in Pressfield's work. Whether or not one has read the Gita or Bagger Vance, Rosen's Gita on the Green serves as an introduction to both, illuminating their overlapping themes and points of departure.

Using some thirty years of Gita scholarship and a writing style that is both eloquent and thorough, Rosen takes us on a colorful journey into the golf world of Bagger Vance and no less into the spiritual realm of Bhagavan Sri Krishna. By the end of the sojourn, one realizes that one has just read a commentary on Bhagavad-gita while hitting a hole in one."--BOOK JACKET.
Subjects: Indic influences, Supernatural in literature, Mysticism in literature, American Golf stories, African American men in literature, History and criticism, American fiction, American fiction, history and criticism, 20th century, African americans in literature, Bhagavadgita
People: Steven Pressfield
LC classification: PS3566.R3944 Z86 2000