Page:Bhagavad Gita - Annie Besant 4th edition.djvu/9

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PREFACE
vii

never uses the one for the other, and never blurs the unity of the Supreme by the multiplicity of ministering Intelligences.

My wish, in adding this translation to those already before the public, was to preserve the spirit of the original, especially in its deeply devotional tone, while at the same time giving an accurate translation, reflecting the strength and the terseness of the Sanskrit. In order that mistakes, due to my imperfect knowledge, might be corrected, all of this translation has passed through the hands of one or other of the following gentlemen—friends of mine at Benares—to whom I here tender my grateful acknowledgments: Bâbus Pramada Das Mitra, Gangânath Jhâ, Kâli Charan Mitra, and Upendranath Basu. A few of the notes are also due to them. In the third and fourth editions I have also been much helped by Bâbu Bhagavân Dâs, to whom I add my cordial thanks.

ANNIE BESANT.