Excerpt from The Bhagavad Gita: With an English Translation, Explanatory Notes, and an Examination of Its Doctrines; Compiled From Various Writers The author, although in some respects in advance of his age, was a Vaishnava Brahman, who held the usual polytheistic and pantheistic ideas. To gain authority, his Opinions were attributed to Krishna, and the poem was foisted in as part of the Mahabharata.