Paramhansa Yogananda's revelation of India's best-loved scripture brought an entirely fresh perspective. This present pocket edition high-lights the verses themselves, being limited to them almost entirely. They appear in fluent, correct, and contemporary English, making this book a "must-have for the modern spiritual aspirant.
Paramhansa Yogananda is recognized as one of the most outstanding spiritual teachers of our times. He was the first yoga master of India to reside permanently in the West. In addition to his best-selling classic, Autobiography of a Yogi, his spiritual legacy includes music, poetry, and extensive commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and the Christian Bible. Through all his writings he showed that Selfrealisation is the highest goal of every true religion.
Swami Kriyananda, author, composer, playwright. artist, and world-renowned spiritual teacher, editor of Yogananda's translation in this volume, refers to himself simply as "a humble disciple." A direct disciple of his great master Paramhansa Yogananda for 60 years, Swamiji's life has been dedicated to sharing his guru's teachings.
Most of the verses in this edition of the Bhagavad Gita were taken from my much larger book, The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita Explained by Paramhansa Yogananda. That volume contained also deeply insightful commentaries on one of the great scriptures of the world, containing, as the "Gita" does, the essence of the Upanishads, which in their turn offer the essence of the timeless Vedas, the scriptural lore of ancient India.
Included in this edition are a few verses that were omit-ted from that larger book. They include most of the first chapter (which that book only summarized), and the first ten verses (slokas) of Chapter Two.
I found it expedient to the flow, when writing the larger volume, to omit these slokas. As the reader studies them in this compendium of the entire Gita, I hope he will understand why I only summarized this material at first. These omitted verses form, in themselves, an almost complete dissertation.
The Mahabharata, and the Bhagavad Gita of which it is a part, is not literal history. Rather it is a deep spiritual allegory, woven upon a framework of history. The main characters in the story did actually live, but they became essential reference points around which the story was developed. Most of the characters are inventions. They trace their names to Sanskrit roots, which supply their psychological meanings.
Arjuna was, in fact, a very high soul; Krishna, later in the Bhagavad Gita, calls him "Prince of Devotees."
Yet in this short, but very profound, scripture, and especially so in this first chapter, he plays the role of mere spiritual beginner starting out on his spiritual search. The device can prove confusing for readers, sometimes, especially for those who are already fully aware of Arjuna's greatness.
Vedas (1294)
Upanishads (481)
Puranas (610)
Ramayana (836)
Mahabharata (331)
Dharmasastras (163)
Goddess (473)
Bhakti (240)
Saints (1295)
Gods (1272)
Shiva (341)
Journal (144)
Fiction (49)
Vedanta (329)
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