Welcome back to Hardcore Literature, your favourite book club.

Deep dives into the greatest books ever written.

Provocative poems, evocative epics, and life-changing literary analyses.

We don't just read the great books. We live them.

Together we'll suck the marrow out of Shakespeare, Homer, Tolstoy and many more.

We'll relish the most moving art ever committed to the page and stage from every age.

Join us and me, your host, Benjamin McAvoy, on the reading adventure of a lifetime with

hardcore literature.

Hello and welcome back to hardcore literature.

I'm your host, Benjamin McAvoy. I hope you're doing well.

But however I find you today, whether we meet in times of peace or times of war, times of solitude, quiet and stability, or times of turmoil, conflict and trauma, internal or external,

today's show is sure to provide you with some insights, because we're reading the Bhagavad Gita

together. Now, before we get into the deep dive exegetical analysis that I so love that has become

the bedrock of this show, let's ask ourselves firstly, what is the Bhagavad Gita? Is the Bhagavad Gita

high literature? Is it a religious text? Is it both? Well, the first thing you should know is that the Bhagavad Gita actually comes

from a much longer text, a much longer piece of Hindu scripture called the Mahabharata. The Bhagavad Gita

can be read in isolation and indeed one might wish to read the Bhagavad Gita first before breaching the Mahabharata.

Indeed, if you speak to Indians or practitioners of Hinduism and tell them that you're interested in the Bhagavad Gita

or you're going to read this song of God, though, that might be the literal translation.

It's really a philosophical poem, a philosophical poem ostensibly in praise of war,

until you read a little bit deeper and you realize it's a philosophical poem about how best to

govern yourself. You'll be told to read the Mahabharata, if you're interested in the Bhagavagita,

...