[1] This translation is unusual in that it is a collaboration between a world-renowned English language author and an adept in Vedanta Philosophy and Hindu scripture.

Aldous Huxley wrote the introduction and gave advice during the translation process, "Forget that Krishna is speaking to the Hindus in Sanskrit.

However, "To preserve the everlasting simplicity of the Gita's words… Isherwood…and his teacher [Swami Prabhavananda] have collaborated on this latest translation… the result is a distinguished literary work… simpler and freer than other English translations… It may help U.S. readers to understand not only the Gita itself, but also its influence on American letters through one of its greatest U.S. admirers, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

In 1930, he founded the Vedanta Society of Southern California, and within the decade he had attracted many notable literary disciples, including English authors, Gerald Heard, Aldous Huxley, and Christopher Isherwood.

While the Swami was on vacation in Palm Springs, he was reading an English translation of the Gita and felt the meaning was lost.

[10] Prabhavananda and Isherwood explain how the Gita is actually just a small part of the epic poem, the Mahabharata (chapters 23–40 of book 6).

Here is one of the greatest religious documents of the world: let us not approach it too pedantically as an archaic text which must be jealously preserved by university professors.

"[11] In Huxley's introduction, he takes a sweeping view of the Perennial Philosophy and touches on the history of the concept that there is an underlying reality that all the traditional religions acknowledge - the Godhead, Clear Light of the Void, and Brahman.

[14] Prabhavananda and Isherwood felt it was more important to incorporate the commentaries into the text itself, rather than have the story of the Gita interrupted by explanations.

Christopher Isherwood was a pacifist and Conscientiousness Objector in WWII, having suffered his father's death in WWI and seeing no effort by the allies to avoid plunging head-long into the next war.

In England he was a member of the Peace Pledge Union, and during the war while in the US, he did alternative service with the Quakers.

"[19] And Swami Saradananda says in his book The Essence of the Gita, "It is not necessary for you to study all those commentaries… It is enough to understand the meaning as it reveals itself to you spontaneously.