posted July 07, 2007 08:20 PM         

Review
“Blessed brilliance and luminous heart wisdom—Ram Dass at his best. These lectures were joyous to attend and exquisite to read.” —Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart

“With wisdom, humor, and great compassion, Paths to God illuminates the liberating power of the Gita—a rare gift in these unsettled times.” —Joseph Goldstein, author of One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism

“Through offering a wide variety of approaches to spiritual happiness, Paths to God is one of the most inclusive and inviting books available to us.” —Sharon Salzberg, author of Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Book Description
For centuries, readers have turned to the Bhagavad Gita for inspiration and guidance as they chart their own spiritual paths. As profound and powerful as this classic text has been for generations of seekers, integrating its lessons into the ordinary patterns of our lives can ultimately seem beyond our reach. Now, in a fascinating series of reflections, anecdotes, stories, and exercises, Ram Dass gives us a unique and accessible road map for experiencing divinity in everyday life. In the engaging, conversational style that has made his teachings so popular for decades, Ram Dass traces our journey of consciousness as it is reflected in one of Hinduism’s most sacred texts. The Gita teaches a system of yogas, or “paths for coming to union with God.”

In Paths to God, Ram Dass brings the heart of that system to light for a Western audience and translates the Gita’s principles into the manual for living the yoga of contemporary life.

posted July 08, 2007 11:05 AM         

Here are some links which might be useful:

Srimad Bhagavad Gita online --> Here is an excellent online resource

Listen to Bhagavad Gita!

posted July 08, 2007 08:59 PM         

Here's another one i recommend.
I could not put it down.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Commentary on the Raja Yoga Sutras

by Sri Swami Satchidananda

and

LIVING WITH THE HIMALAYAN MASTERS: Spiritual Experiences of Swami Rama

Ive got a couple of copies (different translations) of the Upanishads, that i'll be delving into more eventually too. Have you read them? So many Great scriptures, so little time!

This material resonates somewhere deeply within.
Cant get enough.

posted July 09, 2007 04:03 AM         

Ive been wanting to pick up this set for some time now. It's expensive but i know it will be well worth it.

God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita [BOX SET] (Hardcover)

The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You

(2 Volume Set)

by Paramahansa Yogananda

read alot of this one in the bookstore ahwile back. would like to pick it up and finish it one day.

The Holy Science (Hardcover)
by Swami Yukteswar

posted July 09, 2007 04:25 AM         

The Tejobindu Upanishad

Let us meditate on the shining Self,
Changeless, underlying the world of change,
And realized in the heart in samadhi.

Hard to reach is the supreme goal of life,
Hard to describe and hard to abide in.
They alone attain samadhi who have
Mastered their senses and are free from anger
Free from self-will and from likes and dislikes,
Without selfish bonds to people and things.

They alone attain samadhi who are
Prepared to face challenge after challenge
In the three stages of meditation.
Under an illuminated teacher's guidance.
They become united with the Lord of Love,
Called Vishnu, who is present everywhere.
Though the three gunas emanate from him,
He is infinite and invisible.
Though all the galaxies emerge from him,
He is without form and unconditioned.

To be united with the Lord of Love
is to be freed from all conditioning.
This is the state of Self-realization,
Far beyond the reach of words and thoughts.

To be united with the Lord of Love,
Imperishable, changeless, beyond cause
And effect is to find infinite joy.
Brahman is beyond all duality,
Beyond the reach of thinker and of thought.

Let us meditate on the shining Self,
The ultimate reality, who is
Realized by the sages in samadhi.

Brahman cannot be realized by those
Who are subject to greed, fear, and anger.
Brahman cannot be realized by those
Who are subject to the pride of name and fame
Or to the vanity of scholarship.
Brahman cannot be realized by those
Who are enmeshed in life's duality.

But to those who pierce this duality,
Whose hearts are given to the Lord of Love,
He gives himself through his infinite grace;
He gives himself through his infinite grace.

from The Upanishads Translated For the Modern Reader
by Eknath Easwaran

posted July 09, 2007 04:35 AM         

“There is neither this world nor the world beyond nor happiness for the one who doubts.”

“One gradually attains tranquillity of mind by keeping the mind fully absorbed in the Self by means of a well-trained intellect, and thinking of nothing else.”

“The power of God is with you at all times; through the activities of mind, senses, breathing, and emotions; and is constantly doing all the work using you as a mere instrument.”

“Delusion arises from anger. The mind is bewildered by delusion. Reasoning is destroyed when the mind is bewildered. One falls down when reasoning is destroyed.”

“A gift is pure when it is given from the heart to the right person at the right time and at the right place, and when we expect nothing in return”

“Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.”

“Hell has three gates: lust, anger, and greed”

“There is nothing lost or wasted in this life.”

“Fix your mind on Me, be devoted to Me, offer service to Me, bow down to Me, and you shall certainly reach Me. I promise you because you are very dear to Me.”

“To the illumined man or woman, a clod of dirt, a stone, and gold are the same.”

“There has never been a time when you and I have not existed, nor will there be a time when we will cease to exist. As the same person inhabits the body through childhood, youth, and old age, so too at the time of death he attains another body. The wise are not deluded by these changes.”

“Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace.”

“Fear not what is not real, never was and never will be. What is real, always was and cannot be destroyed.”

posted July 09, 2007 05:42 AM         

All in good & due time.....

Thanks.

posted July 09, 2007 07:00 AM         

quote:

---

This is a book that is based on a course about an ancient Hindu text, which was taught at a Buddhist university, by a Jew who has a great love for Christ and Muhammad - so you can imagine what you're in for?!

When I say this is "about an ancient Hindu text", I dont want to mislead you. This isnt really a book "about" the Bhagavad Gita. It isnt an analysis of the Gita, or a commentary on the Gita, or anything like that. Rather, it's a series of reflections about the major themes of the Gita - themes that touch on the various yogas, or paths for coming to union with God, that the Gita investigates. It's an attempt to look aat how those yogas might be relevant to our own lives, in this day and age.

...
....

(later on)

In what I am going to be saying now, I'll have to assume that you are familiar with the Bhagavad Gita, at least in a general way. If you havent read it yet, I encourage you to do so; it will only take you about three or four hours. I would suggest that you read it through that first time just as a very interesting story: Who is Krishna? Who is Arjuna? And how do they find themselves in this peculiar predicament, sitting in a chariot, out on a battlefield?

I would further suggest that you plan to read the Gita twice more. I would suggest that you read it again after we have finished our discussion in chapter 1 about the basic conflict in which Arjuna finds himself, and after you have personalized that conflict sufficently so as to understand what his predicament is. I suggest you read it that time identifying with Arjuna; that is, once you have figured out what your own conflict is, you own spiritual struggle, then use that as the framework, and listen to Krishna telling you how it all is regarding your own battleground.

Then when you are ready, may I suggest a third reading of the Gita, in which you read it identifying with Krishna. Because that, in fact, is also who you truly are.

Now the last reading may raise some interesting problems for you. If you are Krishna, then you are the Gita. Maybe you'll be reading along, and you'll come to a line and you'll think to yourself, "I would never say that!" But the fact is, the Gita does say that, and we're supposed to be taking Krishna's perspective. What to do?

This is where your spiritual exercises come in, like the ones we'll be talking about or the ones in the syllbus.

(i'll stop here)

---

(the above might be good to know for anyone interested in reading this book)

sooo..... i read those suggestions and continued on reading the book anyway, b4 reading the Gita.
i tend to do alot of things backwards.

perhaps i read the Gita once upon a past life-time.

i'm sure it sinks in even more deeply each time around.

having read a lot of books on this system over the years i guess familiarized me enough.. because i understood the book and enjoyed it highly.

posted August 01, 2007 07:30 PM         

The Bhagavad-Gita
God Talks With Arjuna
Paramahansa Yogananda

This two volume set is HUGE and will take some time to finish.

and:

by Eknath Easwaran

I'd like to read this one first and then delve into Yogananda's translation.

...anyone else feel like they're enjoying one hundred Christmases all at once when reading this material? lol

maybe it's just me.

posted August 02, 2007 11:05 PM         

Yes, it is! I will treasure and learn from it for a long time to come.

posted August 03, 2007 05:04 PM         

quote:

---

The Bhagavad Gita is the most beloved scripture of India, a scripture of all scriptures. It is the Hindu's Holy Testament, or Bible, the one book that all masters depend upon as a supreme source of scriptural authority. Bhagavad Gita means "Song of the Spirit," the divine communion of truth-realization between man and his Creator, the teachings of Spirit through the soul, that should be sung unceasingly.

The pantheistic doctrine of the Gita is that God is everything. It's verses celebrate the discovery of the Absolute, Spirit beyond creation, as being also the hidden Essence of all manifestation. Nature, with her infinite variety and inexorable laws, is an evolute of the Singular Reality through a cosmic delusion: maya, the "Magical Measurer" that makes the One appear as many embracing their own individuality - forms and intelligences existing in apparent separation from their Creator. Just as a dreamer differentiates his one consciousness into many dream beings in a dream world, so God, the Cosmic Dreamer, has separated His consciousness into all the cosmic manifestations, with souls individualized from His own One Being endowed with the egoity to dream their personalized existences within the Nature-ordained drama of the Universal Dream. ....................

This God-realization cannot be attained merely by reading a book, but only by dwelling every day on the above truth that life is a variety of dream movies full of the hazards of duality - villains of evil and heroic adventures with goodness; and by deep yoga meditation, uniting human consciousness with God's cosmic consciousness. Thus does the Gita exhort the seeker to right action - physical, mental, and spiritual - toward his goal. We came from God and our ultimite destiny is to return to Him. The end and the means to the end is yoga, the timeless science of God-union. .................

In interpreting scripture, one must not, therefore, ignore the factual and historical elements in which the truth was couched. One must distinguish between an ordinary illustration of a moral doctrine or recounting of a spiritual phenomenon and that of a deeper esoteric intent. One has to know how to recognize the signs of the convergence of material illustrations with spiritual doctrines without trying to drag a hidden meaning out of everything. One must know how to intuit the cues and express declarations of the author and never fetch out meanings not intended, misled by enthusiasm and the imaginative habit of trying to squeeze spiritual sgnificance from every word or statement.

The true way to understand scripture is through intuition, attuning oneself to the inner realization of truth.

In a language of simile, metaphor, and allegory, the Bhagavad Gita was cleverly written by Sage Vyasa by interweaving historical facts with psychological and spiritual truths, presenting a word-painting of the tumultuous inner battles that must be waged by both the material and the spiritual man. Divine profundities would not otherwise be conceivable by the ordinary man unless defined in common terms. When as they often did, scriptural prophets wrote in more recondite metaphors and allegories, it was to conceal from ignorant, spiritually unprepared minds the deepest revelations of Spirit.

---

posted August 13, 2007 01:39 PM         

What do you think, Sattvic?

Maybe this will help answer you question, NosiS.
______________________________________________

Traditionally the commentators belong to spiritual traditions or schools (sampradaya) and Guru lineages (parampara), which claim to preserve teaching stemming either directly from Krishna himself or from other sources, each claiming to be most faithful to the original message.[citation needed]

Different translators and commentators have widely differing views on what multi-layered Sanskrit words and passages signify, and their presentation in English depending on the sampradaya they are affiliated to. Especially in Western philology, interpretations of particular passages often do not agree with traditional views.

The oldest and most influential medieval commentary was that of the founder of the Vedanta school[54] of extreme 'non-dualism", Shankara (788-820 A. D.),[55] also known as Shankaracharya (Sanskrit: Úaṅkarâcârya).[56] Shankara's commentary was based on a recension of the Gita containing 700 verses, and that recension has been widely adopted by others.[57] There is not universal agreement that he was the actual author of the commentary on the Bhagavad Gita that is attributed to him.[58] A key commentary for the "modified non-dualist" school of Vedanta[59] was written by Ramanuja (Sanskrit: Râmânuja), who lived in the eleventh century A.D.[60][61] Ramanuja's commentary chiefly seeks to show that the discipline of devotion to God (Bhakti yoga) is the way of salvation.[62] The commentary by Madhva, whose dates are given either as (b. 1199 - d. 1276)[63] or as (b. 1238 - d. 1317),[64] also known as Madhvacharya (Sanskrit: Madhvâcârya), exemplifies thinking of the "dualist" school.[65] Madhva's school of dualism asserts that there is, in a quotation provided by Winthrop Sargeant, "an eternal and complete distinction between the Supreme, the many souls, and matter and its divisions."[66] Madhva is also considered to be one of the great commentators reflecting the viewpoint of the Vedanta school.[67]

In the Shaiva tradition,[68] the renowned philosopher Abhinavagupta (10-11th century CE) has written a commentary on a slightly variant recension called Gitartha-Samgraha.

Other classical commentators include Anandagiri, Shridhara Swami, Nimbarka, Vallabha and Dnyaneshwar.[citation needed]

In modern times notable commentaries were written by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi, who used the text to help inspire the Indian independence movement.[69][70] Tilak wrote his commentary while in jail during the period 1910-1911, while he was serving a six-year sentence imposed by the British colonial government in India for sedition.[71] While noting that the Gita teaches several possible paths to liberation, his commentary places most emphasis on Karma yoga.[72] No book was more central to Gandhi's life and thought than the Bhagavadgita, which he referred to as his "spiritual dictionary".[73] During his stay in Yeravda jail in 1929,[74] Gandhi wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita in Gujarati. The Gujarati manuscript was translated into English by Mahadev Desai, who provided an additional introduction and commentary. It was published with a Foreword by Gandhi in 1946.[75][76] Mahatma Gandhi expressed his love for the Gita in these words:

I find a solace in the Bhagavagîtâ that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount. When disappointment stares me in the face and all alone I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagavagîtâ. I find a verse here and a verse there and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies - and my life has been full of external tragedies - and if they have left no visible, no indelible scar on me, I owe it all to the teaching of Bhagavagîtâ.[77]

Other notable modern commentators include Sri Aurobindo, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and Swami Vivekananda, who took a syncretistic approach to the text.[78][79]

Swami Vivekananda, the follower of Sri Ramakrishna, was known for his commentaries on the four Yogas - Bhakti, Jnana, Karma and Raja Yoga. He drew from his knowledge of the Gita to expound on these Yogas. Swami Sivananda advises the aspiring Yogi to read verses from the Bhagavad Gita every day. Paramahamsa Yogananda, writer of the famous Autobiography of a Yogi, viewed the Bhagavad Gita as one of the world's most divine scriptures. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, wrote a commentary on the Gita from the perspective of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

Translations:

Numerous readings and adaptations of the Bhagavad Gita have been published in many languages.