PRAYING TO SRI GURU, the Vaisnavas and Bhagavan and begging for their merciful blessings, I proceed to write the foreword to this present edition of Srimad Bhagavad-gita. In undertaking such an endeavour, the causeless mercy and auspicious blessings of the disciplic succession of spiritual masters in the line of Sri Rupa Gosvami and Srila Prabhupada Sarasvati Thakura are our sole aid and shelter.
 
Sri Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti published its first edition of Srimad Bhagavad-gita on 6 September 1977, by the auspicious desire and blessings of my Sri Gurupada-padma, nitya-lila-pravista om visnupada astottara-sata Sri Srimad Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Gosvami Maharaja.
 
That edition included the Gita-bhusna commentary of the brilliant sun among vedanta-acaryas, Sri Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusanapada, as well as an elucidating translation entitled Vidvad-ranjana by nitya-lila- pravista om visnupada Sri Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. Following that, on 3 October 1990, Sri Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti published an abridged pocket edition, consisting of only the Sanskrit verses and their Bengali translations.
 
Several editions of 5rimad Bhagavad-gita were published under the editorship of jagad-guru nitya-lila-pravista om visnupada astottara- sata Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada. Some included Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusanapada's Gita-bhusana commentary, some Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura's Sarartha-varsini commentary, and some Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura's translations entitled Vidvad-ranjana and Rasika-ranjana. Later, various editions were published in Bengali by different mathas, temples and missions in the line of Srila Prabhupada Sarasvati Thakura. An Assamese edition was published in Tejapura, Assam, and some English editions were published in Calcutta and Tamil Nadu.
 
A Hindi edition of Srimad Bhagavad-gita with the commentaries of Srila Cakravarti Thakura or Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusanapada had not yet been made available. Consequently, the Hindi-speaking populace both in India and the whole world was therefore bereft of such an edition of this jewel-like book.
 
It is for this reason that my Godbrother pujyapada Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja, the vice-president and general editor of Sri Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti, is publishing this present edition of Srimad Bhagavad-gita with its Sanskrit verses, an anvaya (word-for-word), verse translations and the Sarartha-varsini commentary of the great preceptor, sri-gaudiya-vaisnava-acarya Sri Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura.
 
He is also presenting a simple, comprehensible commentary known as Sarartha-varsini Prakasika-vrtti. Sri Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti will remain eternally grateful and indebted to him for this. By deeply studying this book, the virtuous, intelligent readers certainly receive supreme benefit and bliss.
 
At the end of his preface to the Gita, jagad-guru om visnupada Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura comments,