After leav­ing the pres­i­den­cy, Oba­ma and Michelle embarked on a well-deserved rest, reflect­ing on the eight tur­bu­lent but ful­fill­ing years in office. Oba­ma start­ed writ­ing this book with the intent to pro­vide an hon­est account of his pres­i­den­cy, not mere­ly to doc­u­ment events but to delve into the polit­i­cal, eco­nom­ic, and cul­tur­al dynam­ics that defined his tenure. He aspired to grant read­ers a glimpse behind the pres­i­den­tial veil, pre­sent­ing the office as a job filled with both tri­umphs and chal­lenges, aim­ing to demys­ti­fy the role and the gov­ern­men­tal appa­ra­tus. Through this nar­ra­tive, Oba­ma also sought to inspire future gen­er­a­tions by shar­ing the per­son­al jour­ney that led him to a life of pub­lic ser­vice, one that began with a quest for iden­ti­ty and belong­ing and cul­mi­nat­ed in find­ing a pur­pose larg­er than him­self.

Ini­tial­ly planned as a sin­gle vol­ume, the com­plex­i­ty of his expe­ri­ences and the depth of expla­na­tion required for the con­text of his deci­sions led to a much longer man­u­script, even­tu­al­ly neces­si­tat­ing a divi­sion into two vol­umes. This expan­sion was part­ly due to Oba­ma’s refusal to reduce the rich­ness of his pres­i­den­cy to foot­notes or to sim­pli­fy the nar­ra­tive at the expense of nuance. Instead, he want­ed to con­vey the tex­ture of pres­i­den­tial life, from con­se­quen­tial pol­i­cy dis­cus­sions to inti­mate moments and the impact of his­tor­i­cal events and per­son­al encoun­ters on his deci­sions.

As Oba­ma worked on the book, the unfold­ing of sig­nif­i­cant nation­al crises such as a glob­al pan­dem­ic, eco­nom­ic tur­moil, and social unrest over racial injus­tice under­scored the con­tin­ued rel­e­vance of the themes he explored, par­tic­u­lar­ly the endur­ing con­test over America’s iden­ti­ty and demo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues. This con­text of divi­sion and cri­sis fur­ther height­ened the impor­tance of his nar­ra­tive, aim­ing to con­tribute to the nation­al dis­course on democ­ra­cy, gov­er­nance, and the col­lec­tive jour­ney towards a more inclu­sive and equi­table soci­ety.

“The Bha­gavad-Gita,” an emi­nent part of the epic Mahab­hara­ta, sit­u­at­ed with­in the “Bhish­ma” Par­va, stands as an epit­o­me of Indi­an Devana­giri lit­er­a­ture’s grandeur, being one of its “Five Jew­els.” This San­skrit poem encom­pass­es a philo­soph­i­cal frame­work inte­gral to Brah­man­ic beliefs, amal­ga­mat­ing con­cepts from Kapi­la, Patan­jali, and the Vedas. Its pro­found dec­la­ra­tions, noble aspi­ra­tions, and devout piety invoke admi­ra­tion, as not­ed by schol­ars like Schlegel, who reveres the anony­mous author’s pro­found spir­i­tu­al insights, liken­ing the poem’s impact to expe­ri­enc­ing the divine. The poem’s moral teach­ings have sparked debates among schol­ars regard­ing its influ­ences, ques­tion­ing whether there exists an inter­change of spir­i­tu­al ideas between it and Chris­t­ian doc­trines due to par­al­lel moral­i­ties observed.

The pre­cise dat­ing of “The Bha­gavad-Gita” remains unset­tled; though it is clear it was inter­wo­ven into the Mahab­hara­ta lat­er, sub­stan­tial argu­ments sug­gest its ori­gin might pre­date the Chris­t­ian era, with spec­u­la­tion plac­ing its com­po­si­tion around the 3rd cen­tu­ry A.D. This tim­ing rais­es intrigu­ing pos­si­bil­i­ties of cross-cul­tur­al spir­i­tu­al dia­logue or coin­ci­den­tal sim­i­lar­i­ties in the eth­i­cal teach­ings between this Hin­du scrip­ture and ear­ly Chris­t­ian texts.

Set in the ancient plains between the Jum­na and the Sar­sooti rivers, now known as Kur­nul and Jheend, the nar­ra­tive unfolds through a dia­logue between Prince Arju­na and Lord Krish­na, who con­ceals his divine nature by mas­querad­ing as a char­i­o­teer. This set­ting pro­vides the back­drop for an epic con­ver­sa­tion that delves into philo­soph­i­cal and moral issues, prepar­ing for an immi­nent bat­tle that encap­su­lates the core of the human strug­gle and divine guid­ance. The Bha­gavad-Gita’s endur­ing appeal and author­i­ty with­in Indi­an lit­er­a­ture under­score its pro­found impact on cul­tur­al and spir­i­tu­al thought, bridg­ing the ancient and the con­tem­po­rary in its uni­ver­sal themes.